Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina has planned a Tuesday afternoon rally and march to push for a program that would use corporate tax breaks to get more low-income students in to private schools.

Parents for Educational Freedom paid for a trip for 11 legislators, including House Speaker Thom Tillis, to learn about the tax credit program, N.C. Policy Watch reported last week.

Tillis general counsel Jason Kay and Educational Freedom lobbyists also went on the Florida trip with the bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Under the program, corporations receive tax credits equal to 100 percent of their donations to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations. Those organizations give scholarships to low-income students to attend private schools.

Policy Watch, an arm of the N.C. Justice Center,  raised the question whether the trip violated the state's lobbying laws.

Parents for Educational Freedom's president Darrell Allison said it was an educational trip.

Bob Phillips of Common Cause told Policy Watch that the trip met the definition of lobbying and violated state statutes.
 

A Rowan County high school teacher can be heard on video shouting at a student and suggesting he could be arrested for criticizing President Obama.

“Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?” the teacher says of former President Bush. “Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?”

The student didn't back down.

“They cannot take away your right to have your opinion," he said. "They can’t take that away unless you threaten the president.”

The Salisbury Post first reported the argument that takes place in a social studies class at North Rowan High School. The paper is not reporting the name of the teacher or student.

UPDATED: A federal judge struck down part of North Carolina's public campaign financing system, following in the footsteps of other cases that link political money to free speech.

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan issued her ruling Friday after the N.C. Right to Life Committee challenged a state's law that gives judicial candidates "rescue funds" when outside political groups spend a certain amount against them.

"The North Carolina matching funds statutes imposes a substantial burden on the speech of privately financed candidates and independent expenditure groups," the ruling states.

The anti-abortion group challenged the constitutionality of the law in 2005 but the federal courts determined it was allowed under the First Amendment. But it filed a lawsuit again in September to invalidate the North Carolina law after a similar financing system in Arizona was overturned.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission about an ad that the Democrats that are  running raising ethical questions about his ties to a Charlotte-based lending company.

The McCrory campaign said the ad is both false, and fails to identify the true sponsor of the ad.

“North Carolina Citizens for Progress is a front group for Governor Perdue and the Democratic Governor's Association on behalf of Walter Dalton and North Carolinians deserve to know who is paying to defame Pat McCrory's good name,” said Brian Nick, McCrory's campaign spokesman.

The McCrory campaign has also written to TV stations threatening legal action against them if they didn't pull the ad. On Monday, WXII in Winston-Salem said it would stop running the ad, according to t he McCrory campaign.

But an attorney for the Democratic group said the ad was true and most TV stations would not pull the ad “despite attempts by Pat McCrory's campaign to bully and mislead TV stations.''

N.C. Rep. Fred Steen, a former congressional candidate for the 8th District, has endorsed Richard Hudson. Steen, who won 15 percent of the vote in the May 8 primary, cited Hudson’s experience and knowledge of the 8th District when making his endorsement.

Hudson, a former congressional chief of staff and one-time aide to former Rep. Robin Hayes, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination after finishing first in the primary election. Hudson, however, failed to get the 40 percent needed to secure the nomination. He will face Scott Keadle, an Iredell dentist, in a July 17 runoff for the chance to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell in the general election.

Keadle, who received 22 percent of the vote in the primary, has also received key endorsements from former competitors. The day after the primary, Winston-Salem City Council member Vernon Robinson, who received 18 percent of the vote, and neurosurgeon John Whitley, 13 percent, announced their support for Keadle.

President Obama's chief environmental advisor will be in Durham Tuesday to tour a successful start-up company that received federal stimulus money.

Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council of Environmental Quality, will join Rep. David Price in touring Semprius, Inc. of Durham.

Earlier this month, Semprius was named one of MIT Technology Review's 2012 top 10 most important emerging technologies. The firm says it has developed one of the world's most efficient solar panels that is expected to significantly lower the cost of solar energy.

The firm is expected to open a manufacturing plant in Henderson later this  year.

Semprius received a $3 million federal stimulus grant to help develop its solar technology.
Semprius has raised $44 million from venture capitalists and Siemens, the European energy conglomerate, recently bought a 16 percent share in the start up.

Semprius has qualified for $18 million in state and local incentives to build the Henderson plant which is expected to add 256 jobs over five years.

The old Jim Hunt crowd got together Friday to celebrate the 75th birthday of the four-term governor and to present a check for his personal office at the new Hunt Library on the Centennial Campus.

A check for $146,000 was presented to Hunt to help pay for his personal office at the library which will open next year at N.C. State University.

About 150 people who served in the Hunt administrations attended the event including Cabinet secretaries, staffers, members of the security detail, campaign workers and others. Among those in attendance were Congressman David Price, former Cultural Resources Secretary Betty McCain, former state party chair Barbara Allen, and former press secretary Rachel Perry.

There were also a number of family members present including former First Lady Carolyn Hunt, son Baxter, daughter Elizabeth and some of his grandchildren.   

North Carolina’s flirtation with fracking is increasingly looking like the real thing, with Republican lawmakers poised to pass sweeping legislation this summer that would lead to drilling for natural gas.The state may have just a fraction of the enormous natural gas reserves found in Texas and Pennsylvania. But fracking here will likely entail greater risks to drinking water supplies and may require special measures not used in other states. Full story here.

More political headlines from the weekend:

--Columnist Rob Christensen: If you turned on your TV last week, you could have seen political ads touting Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, or tearing down Walter Dalton or Pat McCory. In recent days, Romney toured a Charlotte factory floor, and first lady Michelle Obama gave a commencement speech at a Greensboro college campus. The South Carolina GOP pledged to send in 1,000 volunteers into the state. All sides were hiring political operatives and opening offices. In a battleground state, politics is a growth business.

James Carville, the Rajun Cajun, expresses some doubts about whether President Barack Obama can carry North Carolina in the fall.

At district Democratic conventions across North Carolina on Saturday, a letter from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Walter Dalton was read to party activists,

“Pat McCrory and the Republicans in the legislature are trying to erase over 100 years of North Carolina's progress led by our party,” Dalton wrote in the letter. “We created the first public university, the nation's best community college system, a commitment to our children through Smart Start, and cutting edge research like RTP.'

“If they remain in power,” Dalton wrote, “they will continue to kill jobs, destroy public education, attack women, limit voting rights, and destroy natural resources.''

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard, will kick off a North Carolina veterans for Obama event Monday in Fayetteville.

Biden, of  course, is the son of Vice President Joe Biden. The event will also include former U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, Rob Diamond, Obama's veterans outreach director and Councilwoman Val Applewhite, a retired Air Force veteran.

The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. at The Metropolitan Room, 109 Green Street in Fayetteville.

The Democrats have begun running their first attack against against Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory. The ad is being run by a group called N.C. Citizens for Progress, but it is being financed by the Democratic Governor's Association. The group has made a $217,000 ad buy. Earlier in the week, the Republican Governor's Association began running TV ads linking Democrat Walter Dalton to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.

UPDATE: An attorney for McCrory's campaign has sent a letter to TV stations asking that they stop airing a commercial which it says is "deliberately false and misleading." "If you station dos not stop airing this advertisement after gaining knowledge that it contains false and misleading statements, you are subjecting your station to potential liability," writes Cleta Mitchell, the McCrory campaign lawyer.

State Rep. Alma Adams of Greensboro has apologized for a remark she has made regarding Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's religious faith.

“I want to apologize in no uncertain terms for my comments on Mitt Romney and the Mormon faith,'' said Adams, who is chair of the legislative black caucus.

“I recognize there is no place in our public or political discourse for such comments. I regret making them and am sorry for any hurt or misunderstanding they may have caused.''

Adams was quoted in an article in CNN that the former Massachusetts governor's Mormon faith might be a drag among social conservatives who voted in large numbers last week for the constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage.

“If they look at that awful ballot amendment, and they compare that with his faith,” Adams said, “I don't think people will be OK with it. From what I understand about the Mormon faith you can have multiple wives. That's sort of a contradiction. There are questions about who Romney is and what he believes in terms of of that particular issue.''

The South Carolina Republican Party has pledged at least 1,000 volunteers to help Mitt Romney carry North Carolina in the general election.

“South Carolina is not a battleground state, but our close proximity to North Carolina provides our volunteers the unique opportunity to make a big difference in what will be a crucial battleground state and the home of the Democratic National Convention,'' South Carolina GOP Chairman Chad Connelly announce.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said “North Carolina is a mess for President Obama and today's announcement will help ensure Republicans turn North Carolina red once again this upcoming election day.''

The campaign of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has begun its first TV ad in North Carolina, a key battleground state. The campaign of Democratic president Barack Obama is already on the air. So is a pro Romney Super PAC called Crossroads GPS.

UPDATE: Lis Smith, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign: "Mitt Romney’s empty promises are nothing new- the people of Massachusetts heard them when he ran for governor in 2002. Romney said he would use his business experience to cut spending and debt- but both increased under his watch and he left Massachusetts with the largest per-capita debt in the nation.''