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.
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Christmas in June
I feel like I should be wearing pajamas with feet and drinking egg nog, but it's 85 outside.
No matter what though, the NC Democrat party will continue to slick off this bit of rain like water from a goose's back, and will try to turn the blame-train toward Burr and Foxx and whoever the scapegoat of the week is.