NAACP President William J. Barber led a delegation to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's Washington office today.

Barber was part of a lobbying effort by the NAACP, which says that 880,000 African-Americans have died over the last 10 years because of a lack of health insurance, Rob Christensen reports.

"This cause is one of the most important moral and civil rights issues of our day," Barber said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a coalition of groups supporting health care legislation is holding phone bank training sessions tonight in Asheville, Charlotte, the Triangle, and Wilimington to train people to call Hagan.

Planned Parenthood is planning to run phone banks every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from their offices.

On Wednesday, the Health Care Action Now Coalition will hold a news conference outside of Hagan's Greensboro office on Wednesday to highlight the need for a public option in the health care legislation.

With the Senate expected to take up a health care bill soon, Hagan has been the subject of a major lobbying effort. She supports in general Democratic proposals for health care, but has given herself wiggle room on some of the details.

* WUNC reporter Laura Leslie defends N&O ombudsman taking job at state agency, arguing that he's an "excellent communicator" in a tough industry.

* Schools Superintendent June Atkinson tells Fayetteville Observer she has no plans to sue the state over her job description.

* Conservative activist Francis De Luca argues that Rev. William Barber of the state chapter of the NAACP should have to register as a lobbyist.

* The president of the state Bankers Association is pushing to rename Raleigh-Durham International Airport after the Wright Brothers.

The NAACP is 100 years old and the North Carolina chapter celebrated the day by calling on lawmakers to spare the poor when they eviscerate next year's budget.

The civil rights organization was founded on Feb. 12, 1909. 

"While we celebrate our birthday today, we cannot take a break," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter. "Don't balance this budget on the backs of the poor."

Barber was, of course, referring to next year's budget deficit, which is expected to be at least $2 billion, nearly 10 percent of last year's $21.5 billion budget.

Lawmakers have demonstrated little appetite to raise taxes to fill the budget hole. The state is required to have a balanced budget and lawmakers are likely to adopt deep spending cuts to get there.

The state's largest expenditures are for education and health and human services. Barber and members of the Black Caucus advocated Thursday for leaving those categories out of the cuts.

"Simply talking about cutting across the board is a good sound byte, but it's bad public policy," Barber said.

The state NAACP will hold a rally on Christmas Eve.

Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of the civil rights group, and advocates from the Adelante Education Coalition willrally to express their support for illegal immigrants to attend state community colleges.

In August, the board of directors for the N.C. Community College System voted to keep a ban on admission for undocumented students made earlier this year.

Barber will share the Christmas message from Luke 2:7 in the Bible, in which the baby Jesus is laid in a manger because there is no room at the inn.

A press release for the event says there will be "excellent visuals" for TV and photojournalists, but it does not explain exactly what.  

The state NAACP says a casket with an anti-Barack Obama sticker was found at an early voting place in Craven County.

In a statement, NAACP head Rev. William J. Barber said that casket was in place "for at least several hours, if not days" at a fire station.

"There is no telling how many voters it rightened away," he said. "It appeared to be an obvious threat to Sen. Obama — a warning to him to stay away from North Carolina."

A bumper sticker on the casket showed a picture of Obama next to the phrase "O' No!"

Barber called on state and national political leaders to condemn the threat as an "attempt at voter intimidation using images of death" and is asking state and federal law enforcement officials to investigate.

Update: "All decent, law-abiding citizens of North Carolina are outraged by this incident," said N.C. Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox.  

Tim Boyum spotted a few more state pols in the crowd.

On his Political Connections blog, the News 14 Carolina reporter notes that he spotted state Sen. Vern Malone, Reps. Verla Insko and Susan Fisher and NAACP president William Barber in the audience for a Barack Obama speech at the N.C. State Fairgrounds.

Update: James Romoser spied state Sen. Linda Garrou too. 

The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP wants an aggressive investigation into recent automated calls it suspects are meant to confuse voters and suppress the black vote.

Rev. William Barber II, president of the state’s NAACP chapter, sent a complaint Saturday to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper that outlines information the group has gathered about Women's Voices Women Vote — the group behind the robo calls, reports Titan Barksdale.

The calls tell voters to expect a voter-registration packet in the mail, but the calls were made after the deadline for registration in North Carolina. A man who identifies himself as Lamont Williams provides the misinformation.

“We want this taken very seriously,” Barber said. “[The calls] are a danger to our democracy and a danger to what’s best about this country.”

Cooper has said the calls are illegal because they did not disclose who sponsored the call or give contact information about their source.

“Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop,” Cooper said in a statement Wednesday.

Jennifer Canada, a spokeswoman for Cooper’s office, has said the calls continue to be investigated.

Rev. William Barber II stressed the NAACP will not choose a candidate.

In introducing the three Democratic and one Republican candidate at the Historic Union Baptist Church this afternoon, the head of the state organization said that the goal was to promote their agenda.

"We don't endorse candidates as an organization, we endorse ideas," he said.

He added that the debate will be televised so that candidates don't tell the NAACP one thing and then say another before other audiences. He said they chose the governor's race because it sets the tone for the down-ballot races.

Democrats Beverly Perdue, Richard Moore and Dennis Nielsen and Republican Bob Orr will appear at the debate. Large blue cards with the names of Pat McCrory, Fred Smith and Bill Graham have been placed in their empty seats.

The debate will air Monday and will be available online at WRAL.

The Sunlight Foundation has a checklist for online sunshine.

The goals were developed as part of its Open House Project, which aims to make the U.S. House of Representatives more available online. But they would be a good starting point for any such effort.

"These kinds of principles could work at a state legislature as well," said spokeswoman Gabriela Schneider.

The checklist is a little jargon-heavy, so here's a rough translation of a few goals: Do not use proprietary computer formats, broadcast committee meetings, require disclosure reports be filed electronically and create a verification system for archived records.

While Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham and the head of the state NAACP have called for legislative webcams, the Sunlight Foundation also calls for the video to be archived as well.

Currently, the state legislature offers streaming audio, but it does not provide archives. (Savvier computer users can use programs like Audio Hijack to record proceedings, however.)

Rev. William Barber II called for legislative committees to be televised.

The head of the state's NAACP said that too much of his group's agenda died in committee meetings that were not readily available to the public.

"We need to know what's happening in the committee meetings," he said. "If they can do it for the federal government on C-SPAN, we ought to be doing it in North Carolina. Bottom line: Open up this government."

The call comes two weeks after Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham called for webcams to broadcast the legislature online.

North Carolina already provides live audio for sessions in both houses, press conferences and all meetings in the Appropriations and Finance Committee rooms, but no video footage is available.

Barber said that he would also like to see streaming audio of all of the committees.