NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning after days of shifting explanations about a deal he cut for former provost Larry Nielsen when Nielsen stepped down last month.

Both men are at the heart over a controversy about how former state first lady Mary Easley gained a job at the university in 2005, then an 88-percent pay hike last year to a $170,000 salary, Andy Curliss and Jay Price report.

Last month McQueen Campbell, a friend of the Easleys who Gov. Mike Easley had appointed to the NCSU board of trustees, admitted to UNC system President Erskine Bowles that he had told Oblinger that Easley was looking for work.

Nielsen, then interim provost, then hired Easley.

After Erskine called for him to resign, Campbell did. Nielsen quickly followed, citing the stress of media scrutiny of the deal.

Then came the changing stories about Nielsen's benefit package, as reported over the weekend in the N&O.

Update: Bowles says that former UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Jim Woodward will serve as interim chancellor. 

A bill would expand ballot access in North Carolina.

State Sen. Jim Jacumin, a Burke County Republican, said he filed the Electoral Freedom Act after intensive lobbying by a constituent.

The bill would reduce the number of signatures required for a political party or unaffiliated candidate to be recognized by the state.

It is being pushed by North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections, a political action committee formed by UNC-Charlotte political science major Jordon Greene.

The group, which had an annual budget of $81 last year, is nonpartisan.

Its Web site includes links to the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties, which are recognized, as well as the Constitution Party, the Green Party and the Modern Whigs, which are not.

"We want everyone to be able to come to us for information and work together toward the goal of alleviating the problem of ballot access," Greene said.

Sen. Eddie Goodall will trade his seat in the legislature for basketball tickets.

The Matthews Republican has put his Senate seat up for trade on the popular auction site eBay, in return for tickets to next week's Carolina-Duke game.

"I'm not sure how it works, but I'm just going by what Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich as a guideline," he said, tongue planted in cheek. "He made me aware that these seats are valuable. I don't know whatever happened with that, but it got me thinking maybe my state seat is valuable too."

Goodall went to UNC-Chapel Hill for a year in 1965, transferring to UNC-Charlotte when he didn't make the basketball team. He said he hasn't been to a game against Duke since he slept on the sidewalk overnight that year for tickets.

There are still 2 days and five hours left on the eBay auction, but Goodall was getting worried. He answered a call by immediately asking a reporter if he had tickets to the game.

If he can't trade his Senate seat, the actual chair, two part-time staffers and a volunteer treasurer for tickets, risking fines and prison time, Goodall said he'd have to watch the game from his hotel room in Raleigh after session.

He added that he hoped people understood he was kidding about the whole thing.

"If politicians could laugh at themselves more, people would laugh at them less," he said.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will hold an economic roundtable in Charlotte Tuesday.

The event will be chaired by Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant and UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Dr. Phil Dubois. It will be moderated by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Ferrell Guillory.

It is the first in a series of roundtables Perdue has planned.

After an overview of current local, state and national economic conditions, the group will have a roundtable discussion with Perdue.

The roundtable will take place at 10 a.m. at UNC-Charlotte's Harris Alumni Center. 

Ted Arrington says Barack Obama could win even by losing North Carolina.

The UNC-Charlotte politics professor said that the Democratic presidential candidate forced Republican John McCain to spend valuable time, money and energy defending the Tar Heel state.

"He succeeded when he forced McCain and Palin to spend money here, put in staff here and campaign here, which they didn't have the time or money to do," he told Dome. "That came straight ouf out of what they needed in Pennsylvania, Ohio and so forth. ... It was a brilliant strategy."

Arrington said no matter who wins the state, it will be close.

He said that Obama had an aggressive ground campaign backed by millions of dollars' worth of advertising and thousands of volunteers, while McCain came late to the state. He called Obama's ground-level efforts the best he'd seen in 50 years.

"If Obama carries the state, you can look back and say the ground campaign did it," he said.

Several surrogates for Barack Obama will promote one-stop voting.

Former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus will hold a rally at 3:30 p.m. today in Asheville, while former UNC basketballer Sam Perkins will host a rally at 1 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

The campaign will also host one-stop rallies at Western Carolina University, Sandhills Community College and UNC-Charlotte today and tomorrow.