Last week, Pat McCrory argued that Beverly Perdue should return campaign donations raised by a Board of Transportation member who steered public money to road improvements near properties he or a son co-owned.

He ended the week by attending a fundraiser on Emerald Isle that pulled in more than $100,000 — half from Tommy Pollard, a former transportation board member from Jacksonville who did the same thing 20 years ago.

McCrory's campaign said they will not return the $50,000.

"It's a bogus story to compare someone who is -- as a volunteer citizen of the state of North Carolina with no power — out raising money, compared to someone who is sitting on the Board of Transportation and is using that position to raise money," Jack Hawke, McCrory's campaign strategist, said Wednesday.

He added, "What happened 25 years ago has nothing to do with what's happening today."

In 1989, the State Bureau of Investigation probed whether Pollard violated state law by pushing for the installation of 10 traffic lights at an intersection where he owned property. It found no violation, but the then attorney general said the law needed to be changed. (N&O)

Two months after DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton asked the SBI to review the purchase of a portrait by former hospital director Patsy Christian, there is no word about when agents might wrap up their investigation.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that Benton has not yet received any response from investigators, Michael Biesecker reports.

Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, did not respond to inquiries last week about the status of the investigation.

Benton requested the SBI probe May 29, following a report in the N&O about the oil painting Christian commissioned of herself to hang at the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

The portrait, which cost a combined $571.98 once installed in a gilded frame, was painted on contract by a state employee who was subordinate to Christian and provided to the state at a steep discount of its proclaimed value.

The SBI was asked to examine the events surrounding the commission and purchase of the portrait to assure that no state laws were violated.

Benton said the state money spent on the portrait, which came from vending machine receipts meant to pay for field trips and other recreation for mental patients, would be recovered and that the painting would never hang in the new hospital.

Lawrence said the painting has been returned to the artist, who is a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital. A check equal to the portrait's cost was deposited into the hospital's account, though Lawrence said he did not know who the check was from.

Christian resigned as the director of Central Regional June 11. She is still on the state payroll in a new administrative position Benton created for her, earning $114,056 annually.

Update: Lawrence said Tuesday that a check reimbursing the state for the cost of the portrait was sent by J. Lee Harris, the artist who painted it. She is also a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital and a former subordinate of Christian's. 

Although North Carolina's overall violent crime rate decreased last year, state Attorney General Roy Cooper sounded the alarm this morning about a nearly nine percent jump in the state's murder rate.

Cooper, during a press conference this morning, attributed the rise in murders to increased gang activity across the state, with a 52 percent increase from last year for juveniles arrested for the offense, Thomasi McDonald reports.

The attorney general said he supported current state legislation that seeks tougher penalties for gang activity and a bolstering of prevention efforts that will help steer young people away from gangs.

"We are in a battle with gangs for the hearts and minds of our children and we must win," Cooper said.

Cooper also noted that while the murder rate is up, rates for other violent crimes has decreased; rape ois down 5.2 percent, robberies are down 0.4 percent and aggravated assaults fell 0.6 percent.
The state also saw a rise in the property crime rate — burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft increased by 0.2 percent across the state.

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First, Richard Moore released a new ad attacking Beverly Perdue for a vote she cast in the legislature in 1987 against a bill to give the State Bureau of Investigation more authority to investigate hate crimes.

Perdue responded by saying she did not recall the vote, that it must be a "misvote," and accusing Moore of "race-baiting." She compared his tactics to those of Jesse Helms.

Now, Moore's campaign is accusing Perdue of breaking her pledge to run a positive campaign "by comparing Moore to Jesse Helms." The Moore campaign also cited a letter by Perdue supporters posted on her campaign's Web site that defends Perdue and criticizes Moore.

A defense attorney for former Rep. Thomas Wright said he was unfairly targeted.

At a trial for the Wilmington Democrat on pocketing corporate contributions, defense attorney Doug Harris said that "somehow, somebody had ganged up on Mr. Wright unfairly."

"You don't know who in the state is driving this thing, do you?" he asked a lobbyist who testified.

State Burea of Investigation agent K. Perry testified that Wright told him he thought he was being singled out because of his work on the 1898 Wilmington race riots.

"He thought this investigation was race-related," Perry testified.

Later, Harris suggested that the state Senate or campaign finance activist Joe Sinsheimer had targeted Wright for political reasons. (AP)

Gov. Mike Easley today issued a proclamation offering at $10,000 reward for information in the death of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson. Carson was found shot to death Wednesday, March 5, in a neighborhood near the campus.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the shooting. But according to Easley's proclamation, others may have been accessories after the fact, and the reward is designed to help investigators find those people.

The reward is conditional upon the information being given as a direct response to the proclamation. Law enforcement officials are not eligible.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Chapel Hill Police Department at (919) 968-2760 or the State Bureau of Investigation.

State Rep. Thomas Wright told two agents with the State Bureau of Investigation that he pocketed $8,900 intended for a charitable foundation he was starting, according to testimony Wednesday.

SBI Special Agent-in-Charge Johnnie Umphlet testified before a House panel about two interviews that he and another agent conducted with Wright in September and October, David Ingram reports.

During those interviews, they asked Wright what he did with three corporate checks made out to the Community's Health Foundation.

"He advised that he deposited those checks into his personal bank account," Umphlet testified, "as a payment for his services in trying to get the foundation started, that he had done a lot of work and put
in a lot of hours trying to get the foundation started, and had put in a lot of sweat equity."

Wright told the agents he did not have a log of his work, but that he had made phone calls, traveled and incurred other expenses, Umphlet said. 

One of Wright's attorneys, Irving Joyner, questioned the authenticity of the checks and of the letters bearing Wright's name that requested the donations. He also asked Umphlet about his process for taking and transcribing notes.

Joyner attempted to ask Umphlet about a "$50,000 slush fund" that he said Wright might have had access to. Senior Deputy Attorney General William Hart, a lawyer for the House panel, objected to the question, and Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat and the panel's chairman, ruled that the question was not relevant.

Rep. Thomas Wright pocketed $8,900 in corporate checks intended for a nonprofit, calling the money "sweat equity," according to papers filed Tuesday at the legislature.

On Oct. 5, the Wilmington Democrat was interviewed by SBI Special Agent Johnnie Umphlet about checks totaling $8,900 from Anheuser-Busch, AstraZeneca and AT&T to the Community's Health Foundation, which Wright ran.

Wright admitted that he received, signed and deposited the checks into his personal bank account, according to Umphlet.

"He called his reimbursement 'sweat equity,' " according to a witness list.

Other potential witnesses include an IRS employee and a Wilmington doctor. (Char-O)

The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into Jon Black. 

Investigators have opened an inquiry into how the son of former House Speaker Jim Black received contracts to provide pest control at three state prisons, Dan Kane reports.

The inquiry comes after The News & Observer reported last month that Black Pest Control, a Charlotte-based company, had won the work despite charging roughly three times more for the work than the low bidder.

George Zaborowski, a former project manager for a subcontractor at two of the prisons told The N&O that he was ordered to hire Black Pest Control at its price to satisfy a state lawmaker whose vote was critical for the prisons' construction.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby initially saw no reason to look into the contracts. But on Thursday, he confirmed that he wanted the SBI to conduct a "preliminary inquiry."

"Some of the matters that were publicly reported were things that called into question the bidding process," Willoughby said. "I felt like I needed a better understanding of what had gone on in order to make an informed decision about the necessity of a criminal investigation."

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A fire at Senate leader Marc Basnight's restaurant is under wraps.

Several months after Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe burned to the ground, state and local investigators are still refusing to release any details, The Virginian-Pilot reports.

In September, the State Bureau of Investigation ruled that it was "a set fire of an incendiary origin."

Under state law, investigators are required to file a report with the state Attorney General.

But the state and Manteo are each pointing fingers to each other about which one should supply the report. The town also argues the file is not a public record—a claim disputed by the N.C. Press Association.

Hat Tip: Hunter's Tavern