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Nine people are running for former Sen. Vernon Malone's seat.

N&O education reporter Keung Hui forwarded this list of candidates who will speak at the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association meeting this weekend:

Rosa Gill, 64, chairwoman of Wake County School Board

Marlowe Foster, 38, lobbyist for Pfizer Corporation, ran unsuccessfully for Winston-Salem City Council in 2002.

Alexander Killens, 54, former director of N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles

Bernard Allen Jr., 44, son of former North Carolina representative

Dan Blue, 59, state representative, former speaker

Jay Holloway, Jr., 47, director of Learning Ventures, UNC Public Television

Kim Luckes, 52, executive vice president of St. Augustine's College

Carol Dalenko Bennett, 66, real estate broker, ran against Malone in 2008

Bruce Lightner, 61, president of Lightner Funeral Home

Candidates for Sen. Vern Malone's seat will speak at a forum May 2.

The Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, a local civil rights organization, is sponsoring the forum with the Wake County Democratic Caucus.

Among the people who have been mentioned as replacements: State Rep. Dan Blue, a former House speaker; Bernard Allen Jr., the son of a former representative; and former DMV commissioner Alexander Killens, according to local activist Bruce Lightner.

The forum will be held at 10 a.m. at the Seby Jones Fine Arts Building at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh.

The Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association will make a recommendation to the Wake County Democratic Party after the meeting.

"In the past such recommendations have been given great weight as to the will of the people," Lightner wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

Robert "Bob" Lewis has been named the state's new prisons director, the Correction Department announced this morning.

Lewis, 58, has been deputy director for prison support services for the past eight years.

As prisons director, Lewis will be in charge of 79 prisons that confine 40,000 inmates. The division has more than 17,000 employees, and an annual budget of $1.1 billion.

Correction Secretary Al Keller appointed Lewis to the post effective March 1, when he will succeed the retiring Boyd Bennett.

Lewis started his career as a correctional officer in 1973 at Triangle Correctional Center in Raleigh and rose through the ranks in custody, programs, security and management. He lives in Raleigh and is a graduate of St. Augustine's College.

The state budget includes $500,000 for athletes at black colleges.

The scholarship fund was tucked into the budget a few hours before the final vote and did not come up for debate in a committee.

Under the fund, two athletes at each of the state's 10 historically black colleges and universities will receive a $1,250-a-year scholarship, paid from the fund's interest.

Five of the colleges are private institutions, including Shaw University and St. Augustine's in Raleigh.

Athletic scholarships at public colleges are typically funded by private donations.

State Sen. Charlie Dannelly, a Charlotte Democrat, said he requested the money. (N&O)