A portrait of the late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, done by an African-American artist, will be unveiled Wednesday in Washington's Capitol Hill Club.

The unveiling of the painting by Rene Dickerson is expected to bring together Helms friends and admirers, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, U.S. Reps. Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry and Sue Myrick. Former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns will act as master of ceremonies. Dot Helms, the senator's widow, will be on hand.

The choice of artist could generate a buzz at the event, reports Rob Christensen.

Helms opposed every piece of civil rights legislation while serving in Congress and he was a major critic of the civil rights movement while he was a Raleigh television commentator.

Not only is Dickerson an African-American, but his work is not traditional portraituture. The California native cites as his inspiration such artists as Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden.

Dickerson's work is featured in the private collections of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby and former Motown president Berry Gordy.

The portrait is being sponsored by the Jesse Helms Center in Monroe and by Brian Summers, a former Helms staffer, who has ties to Motown and Gordy.

The portrait will remain in the Capitol Hill Club, which has served as a social club for Republicans since 1951. It is located next door to the Republican National Committee and two blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

A federal judge has ordered the author of a book about the Council on American-Islamic Relations to "unpublish" documents that the group claims were stolen.

The book, "Muslim Mafia," includes a forward by Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican.

Now, in a rarely taken step, a federal judge has ordered lead author and self-described anti-terrorism investigator Paul David Gaubatz to remove from his Web site certain documents allegedly stolen by his son, Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers reports.

"The record ... supports a finding that defendants have unlawfully obtained access to, and have already caused repeated public disclosure of, material containing CAIR's proprietary, confidential and privileged information," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly concluded last week.

The Internet publication ban lasts until Nov. 18, by which time the judge will have held another hearing. Even if temporary, though, the restraining order issued last Tuesday marks one of the rare occasions that a judge orders an author to erase already published material.

Gaubatz said he expected the lawsuit and said it was typical of tactics employed by the organization.

"Intimidations, threats and lawsuits are CAIR's basic tactics," Gaubatz said via e-mail.

Here's a summary of what members of Congress had in their campaign accounts through September 2009. The remaining members of the state's delegation will be added to the list.

G.K. Butterfield: $231,000.

Howard Coble: $525,000.

Bob Etheridge: $1 million.

Virginia Foxx: $1.1 million.

Walter Jones: $127,766.

Larry Kissell: $244,000. Businessman Lou Huddleston has raised $57,641 from individuals and loaned himself $45,125. Tim D'Annunzio, who owns a skydiving business, has loaned himself $303,000 and raised $8,400. Hamlet resident Darrell Day has raised $30 and loaned himself $3,000. Republican Thomas Sweeney has not reported raising any money.

Patrick McHenry: $158,000. Iredell County Commissioner Scott Keadle has loaned himself $250,000 to challenge McHenry for the Republican nomination.

Mike McIntyre: $824,917. Republican Will Breazeale has received $3,800 in individual contributions and has $400 in his campaign account.

Brad Miller: $148,000. Challenger William Randall II has not reported raising any money.

David Price: $218,000. Republican challenger Frank Roche has raised $10,879, mostly through individual contributions. Republican George Hutchins has loaned himself $5,000.

Heath Shuler: $1.1 million.

Mel Watt: $140,000.

Four U.S. House members from North Carolina signed a letter calling for the firing of an education official charged with advocating school safety.

The letter to President Barack Obama was signed by 53 Republicans who say that Kevin Jennings is unfit because he has been "promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools," according to a copy of the Oct. 15 letter published by The Hill.

Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

The signers from the state delegation are Sue Myrick (R-Charlotte), Walter Jones (R-Farmville), Patrick McHenry (R-Cherryville) and Virginia Foxx (R-Banner Elk).

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U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, has penned the foreword for a new book, "Muslim Mafia," warning of a Muslim conspiracy to support Islamic terrorism in the United States.

The authors, former Air Force investigator P. David Gaubatz and journalist Paul Sperry, lay out their investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Mark Johnson reports. They charge that the group portrays itself as a civil rights advocate for Muslims but in reality has planted spies inside law enforcement agencies, placed staffers on Capitol Hill, arranged for its executives to meet with presidents, conspired with terrorists and placed jihadists in American mosques to preach hate.

Myrick, who has consulted with Sperry before on terrorism issues, writes that the authors provide proof through documents they uncovered and others recently declassified that radical Muslim agents of terror live among us and are "carrying out their subversive plan."

"America is asleep to the danger that confronts us," writes Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, "Since the 1960s there has been a concerted effort on the part of radical Islamists to infiltrate our major institutions. Front groups of terror now operate openly in our country, comprising a network of support for jihadists."

She concludes: "We Americans must wake up before it is too late!"

LOW KEY BIRTHDAY: The Highway Patrol turns 80 this year and it may be a good year for a quiet celebration. Another misconduct allegation involving sex has been exposed and the patrol is not having a lot of success reversing a culture in which some troopers expected on-duty escapades as an unofficial fringe benefit. Patrol leaders asked employees to try to knock it off in honor of the patrol's anniversary.

CONS BEATING PROS: Republicans dug in on their opposition to Democratic health care reforms with U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick saying that a Democrat health care system might not have caught her breast cancer in time. Sen. Richard Burr said the plan would just shift the cost of the health care system to taxpayers. On the other side, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan isn't ready to pick a reform plan, although she's sure one is needed.

WE'RE SAVED: A television advertisement funded by a conservative group catalogues corruption scandals involving Democrats. The group proclaims that it's here to rescue America from "radical socialism." A 30-second spot will probably just about do it.

IN OTHER NEWS: President Bill Clinton wasn't rattled by Sen. Jesse Helms inflammatory statements. Sen. Joe Lieberman is watering down an energy bill in an effort to get Republicans, including Burr, on board. State Rep. Ty Harrell has resigned his seat over questions about his campaign finance reports.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick says a government run health system may not have saved her life from breast cancer.

Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, said in the GOP's weekly address that her diagnosis took several doctors and tests, which were all done within a week. In government run health care systems in Canada and the United Kingdom, such speed is unlikely, she said.

"When it comes to life-threatening diseases like cancer, delay can mean death," Myrick said. "Replacing your current health care with a government-run system is not the answer."

Myrick said the proposals pushed by Democrats would all put the nation on the road to a government-run health care system.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has weighed in on a decision by the State Board of Community Colleges to admit illegal immigrants.

"Someone needs to look up the meaning of the word 'illegal,'" the Charlotte Republican said in a news release. 

A board's ruling means that undocumented students would have to pay out-of-state tuition, be denied financial aid, and be enrolled in classes only after legal students are given slots.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has launched both a YouTube channel and a Twitter account to chronicle her work in the U.S. Senate.

For now, her last Tweet is from "the office of Sen. Kay Hagan," with updates posted by staff. Example: "welcoming a great group of North Carolinians for this week's Carolina Coffee," Barb Barrett reports.

Hagan had a campaign Twitter account last year, posting about her platform, her daily travels and occasional jabs at the competition ("This is what a Republican-run, special interest-based economy looks like," she tweeted a year ago.)

Her YouTube channel has a pair of videos so far. One welcomes viewers; the other features her biography.

"Tools like YouTube and Twitter will allow me and my office to share information about the most pressing issues facing North Carolina and our country and keep constituents updated about the latest news in the Senate," Hagan said in a statement. "North Carolinians can use these tools to keep up with me while I am in Washington and traveling across the state."

Also on Twitter:

Sen. Richard Burr's campaign

Rep. Virginia Foxx

Rep. Sue Myrick

Rep. Patrick McHenry

Rep. Walter Jones 

Update: Post includees Rep. Walter Jones' Twitter feed, which was inadvertently left off the list.  

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick said she was encouraged to hear President Barack Obama say he wanted to work with Republicans on a health care reform bill.

"I was encouraged by the fact that the president talked about bipartisanship," Myrick, a Charlotte Republican told Charlotte's Morning News with Al Gardner and Stacey Sims in an interview broadcast Thursday morning. "He's done that before an nothing happens, but I think the American people helped to push him a little bit in their direction."

Myrick said she was also happy to hear Obama talk about including tort reform and a bar on insurance companies excluding people from coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Myrick reiterated that she doesn't support the government-run insurance option and has serious concerns about how to pay for what Democrats are supporting.

Gardner asked Myrick about an outburst by South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who shouted "You lie!" when Obama said his proposals would bar illegal immigrants from receiving benefits.

"It was a very emotional evening," Myrick said. "If you had been there you would understand there was a lot of tension in the room. And Joe was out of line and he admitted that, but there is nothing in the bill that says illegals have to show ID to get any coverage. There's nothing that says you have to identify yourself. I'm sure that's where Joe was coming."

Factcheck.org reports that Sec 246 of the House bill specifically prevents illegal immigrants from receiving "affordability credits." The section does not specifically address an ID requirement.