A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx requiring the Census to try to count illegal immigrants would only affect the Congressional districts of a few states.

In an e-mail message to Dome, Foxx spokesman Aaron Groen said Foxx is concerned with the rule of law and fairness.

"Our immigration laws should be respected and enforced and every vote should be of equal value," Groen said.

States with a high per capita number of illegal immigrants are over-represented in Congress. North Carolina has a high number of illegal immigrants, but it doesn't compare to the per capita numbers of states such as California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada and could have an unfair representation in Congress, Groen said.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Census Bureau to count illegal immigrants.

Foxx's Fairness in Representation Act would require census takers to try to determine how many of the people living in the nation are illegal immigrants. Currently, the census does not distinguish between citizens or illegal immigrants, according to Foxx's office.

"Accurately counting the number of illegal immigrants in our country is a matter of equity and justice for American citizens and those legally present in the U.S.," Foxx said. "This bill is a commonsense proposal to require the Census Bureau to ask about citizenship status on the same census form that already asks recipients’ race, age, and sex."

The census is required by the U.S. Constitution to determine the apportionment of members of Congress.

A spokesman for Foxx said her legislation seeks to prevent unfair distortions in the distribution of House of Representative seats among the 50 states caused by large populations of illegal immigrants in certain areas.

Tobacco farming, production and sales have dropped in North Carolina in recent years.

That's according to data collected by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which is lobbying for the Food and Drug Administration to be given regulatory control over tobacco.

From 1992 to 2007, the number of tobacco farms in North Carolina has dropped from 17,625 to 2,622, a 79 percent drop. Total farm acreage dedicated to tobacco went from 283,900 to 170,083, a 47 percent drop. 

Tobacco manufacturing has gone down as well, from 12,268 jobs in 1997 to 8,760 in 2006, a 29 percent drop.

And even the sale of cigarettes has gone down, from 922.5 million packs in 1998 to 669.9 million packs in 2008, a 27 percent drop.

Data comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a U.S. Census Bureau survey of manufacturers and industry-funded research. 

Previously: North Carolina senators oppose FDA regulation. 

North Carolina may have a 13-member delegation for the near future.

Although the state is growing rapidly, a recent report by Election Data Services said that it may not add another Congressional seat after the 2010 Census.

"Change for the State of North Carolina is more tentative; it would pick up a seat in two of the mid-term projection models, but would fail to increase in both the long-term and short-term population models," the service wrote.

After the 2000 Census, North Carolina added its 13th seat, which U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, was then elected to fill in 2002.

Along with Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Washington, it is considered to be in the running for an additional seat, while states such as California, Illinois and New York may lose a seat.

Aside from the additional representation, an extra Congressional seat would also boost North Carolina's role in the presidential election process by giving the state an additional elector.

Hat Tip: Tom Jensen

How does property crime in Charlotte compare to New York and Los Angeles?

According to uniform crime statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Charlotte had more property crime per capita than New York and Los Angeles in 2007.

Property crime includes burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft. Population estimates were based on U.S. Census Bureau data and yearly growth rates in each city.

According to the FBI:

Charlotte had 51,279 property crimes and a population of 733,291.

Los Angeles had 101,457 property crimes and a population of 3.9 million.

New York had 149,488 property crimes and a population of 8.2 million.

Based on those figures, Charlotte had 6,992 property crimes per 100,000 residents — a higher rate than New York's 1,819 or Los Angeles' 2,621.

We've arrived at something of a definition of the "Southeast."

Lew Powell argued the term was a Yankee invention, which John Shelton Reed backed up. The Census Bureau was no help, giving us "East South Central" and "South Atlantic" regions that might be useful if they didn't stupidly include Delaware and Maryland.

College football pushed for the inclusion of Louisiana and Arkansas, as did the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Neither liked oddball West Virginia but Kentucky didn't fit anywhere else either and it was generally accepted.

Even Wikipedia found 15 different lists. 

One reader suggested "The Confederate states minus Texas" which agrees with most of the other lists, but does not include either Kentucky or West Virginia. 

Dome sees basically two definitions: 

Lesser Southeast: The former Confederate states east of the Mississippi: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Add Kentucky because aside from the Cincinnati suburbs it wouldn't fit in the North.

Greater Southeast: All those states plus the three borderline cases of West Virginia, Arkansas and Louisiana. 

Here's the rub. The states that have high tax burdens along with North Carolina are West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky.

So the "highest taxes in the Southeast" claim is going to depend entirely on whether you accept the broader or narrower definition of the region.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeast.

Still, it does define the "East South Central" and "South Atlantic" regions.

The "East South Central" region includes Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. The "South Atlantic" includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

That means that the Census Bureau roughly endorses the division of Southeast and Southwest using the Mississippi River, but it uses the older, outmoded definition of the South using the Mason-Dixon line below Pennsylvania.

Other than Johnny Cash, few people consider Maryland, Delaware and D.C. to be Southern.

Retired UNC-Chapel Hill professor John Shelton Reed said the Census Bureau periodically considers cutting Maryland and Delaware out of its Southern classification, but it has so far ended up sticking with it simply because that's how it's always been done.

The Tax Foundation measures tax burden by its own formula.

Although the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federation of Tax Administrators both compare taxation rates in states, the foundation's rankings are slightly different.

Unlike the Census Bureau, it measures the actual tax collections and not just the state rates. That allows it to account for the differing levels of local property and sales taxes:

For example, New York's state sales tax rate is 4 percent, and its counties have local sales tax rates that range from 3 percent to 5.75 percent. Connecticut, on the other had, has a 6 percent state-level sales tax with no local add-ons. In a ranking that includes only state-level taxes, New York appears less taxed than it actually is, and Connecticut appears more taxed.

The Tax Foundation also calculates how much in taxes were paid in other states, such as a candy bar you bought at a 7-Eleven across the border.

The total local and state tax burden is the total taxes collected divided by the total income.

Who needs the federal government? We've got football.

Though the U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeastern region in its reports, another major — more important? — agency does: The Southeastern Conference.

The college athletic conference headquartered in Alabama has its own roster of states it considers to be in the Southeast:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.

It does not include North Carolina or Virginia, which are part of the Atlantic Coast Conference but are undoubtedly in the Southeast. It also skips West Virginia, a borderline case.

The definition is important because a recent political ad compares tax rates in the Southeast, which obviously differ depending on which states you include.

How do you define the Southeast?

We here at Dome headquarters have been poring over some tax data this morning as part of a fact-check, and we came across this interesting epistemological problem.

The general consensus of our group of reporters was that it includes the following states:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

We did not include West Virginia, but the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis does in its regional breakdowns. That means a number of other groups, such as the Tax Foundation, also use it.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeast.