The House and Senate dug in and heard scores of bills Wednesday.

Notable votes included bills on beer, reptiles and coastal insurance.

* HB 1595: Allows grocery stores to offer beer tastings similar to wine tastings that are already allowed. Beer can be served in portions no greater than 2 oz. The bill heads back to the House for a final vote.

* SB 307: Regulates possession and keeping of certain dangerous reptiles such as venomous snakes. Bill now goes to the governor.

* HB 1305: Would place the burden of paying for the damage caused by a catastrophic hurricane on homeowners across the state. Bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

President Barack Obama presented Italian President Giorgio Napolitano this morning with a gift from North Carolina.

Obama, meeting with Napolitano prior to the G-8 Summit, presented the Italian president with a variety of American wines. Included in the package was a 2008 Raffaldini Vineyards Vermentino.

Raffaldini Vineyards is in Ronda, between Winston-Salem and Wilkesboro, and the vinyard's owners were thrilled to have their wine included in the gift.

“Raffaldini Vineyards is honored to have been selected to represent the U.S. and is proud that our preservation and promotion of our Italian heritage and culture have been recognized,” co-owner Barbara Raffaldini said in a release.

A release from the vineyard notes that the Vermentino grape is "most famously cultivated in Sardinia," and that Raffaldini Vineyards was among the first to plant the grape in the U.S.

The vineyard says the 2008 vintage "is characterized by its lively green apple and lime flavors and refreshing acidity."

North Carolina residents are ready to raise the taxes on sin.

So say the latest results from the Elon University Poll, which asked whether people would support a hike in the so-called "sin taxes" on cigarettes and alcohol.

The poll surveyed 758 North Carolina residents from Feb. 22-26. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Here's what they had to say:

Liquor tax: 78 percent support tax increase, 18 percent oppose

Wine tax: 76 percent support increase, 20 percent oppose

Cigarette tax: 73 percent support increase, 23 percent oppose

Beer tax: 72 percent support increase, 23 percent oppose

State Sen. Kay Hagan was not as bipartisan in the previous session.

With the Democratic Senate nominee touting her bipartisanship in the legislature, Dome decided to take a closer look at the number of Republicans who signed on to her bills.

In the 2005-06 session, the Greensboro Democrat was the primary sponsor of 37 bills. Of them, 16 had no cosponsors, eight had only Democratic cosponsors and 13 had Republican cosponsors.

A few of the Republican-cosponsored bills had more than one GOP senator on board. Overall, her 76 cosponsors included 56 Democrats and 26 Republicans, or about a three-to-one ratio.

The most frequent Republican cosponsor was Sen. Stan Bingham of neighboring Davidson County, who signed on to seven Hagan bills on funding for the ACC Hall of Champions, the Natural Science Center and the N.C. Science Competitions center; phasing out video poker; amending wine-making laws; building an addition at Guilford Community College; and boosting grants to public libraries.

Hagan also had Republican cosponsors on a pilot program on teaching new foreign languages in school, special licenses plates for the N.C. Wildlife Habitat Foundation and the Guilford Battleground, more library grants, training for 911 call centers, and making technical corrections on state laws on nonprofits.

Previously: Hagan's 2007-08 track record.