Eight short years ago Sam Currin was on top as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. Today, he's just another everyday Republican who's been indicted and arrested for a tax fraud conspiracy.

Much more below the fold...

Despite our best efforts (both here and what other Democrats are doing), the Charlotte Observer is reporting that Jim Black claims that he is staying on as Speaker of the house:

House Speaker Jim Black said 55 of the 63 Democrats in the House want him to stay, and he expects little discussion of his job when the group meets Tuesday night in Raleigh.

The details from The Washington Post are inside and it is a must-read.

"If I do not like it, you cannot read it" seems to be the new motto of the radical christian right group Called2Action today. WakeEd informs us that they are lobbying the Wake County Public School System to ban four books from the schools.

As the group proclaims, there was a:

discovery of terribly offensive and inappropriate books that are currently on required reading lists in Wake County middle and high schools.

One of the groups that "Democrat" Chris Mintz has a history with is Wake County's Called2Action. Here's what they do.

EDIT: this is on a different topic than TarGator's C2A post; coincidence.

A few weeks ago, John Hood assured us that the authors on the John Locke Foundation's Locker Room Blog don't need to allow user comments to keep them honest. That is, there are internal disagreements that will do the same thing. He may be right: the past couple of days have seen a heated back and forth on some of the age's most difficult political and social
questions. Along the way, dear readers, we learn that there are perhaps as many as one Locker Roomers who are not painfully naff.

One of two death row inhabitants convicted by Mike Easley when he was a DA, Elton McLaughlin, is going to instead serve a life sentence. The man was declared mentally retarded because he scored a 70 on an IQ test when he was ten. State law requires IQ tests to be administered by a licensed professional in order to be considered when determining mental retardation for these purposes. The state contended that McLaughlin could not use his test because it was administered by a teacher rather than a mental health professional. The problem for the state was:

AP Wire | 04/17/2006 | Wildlife officials consider lifting Sunday hunting ban

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - State wildlife officials are in the midst of a study to determine if a ban on Sunday hunting should be lifted. Dain Palmer, human dimension biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, says the agency doesn't have the authority to regulate hunting on Sundays, and that the commission was instructed to conduct the study. The wildlife agency contracted with Virginia-based Responsive Management, a firm that specializes in the human aspects of wildlife management, in conjunction with Virginia Tech.

Apparently Jesus is the sixth Chatham County Commissioner. He wasn't democratically elected, but if you have a problem with that, you can just stop participating in your local political process, no biggie. Here's a simple form you can use if you should care to communicate with Chatham County's Commissioners.

Hey, y'all. As President Bush and the Republican Party continue to nose dive in the polls, the prospects for retaking the U.S. House keep looking better and better. Here in North Carolina, we're doing our part. I want to tell you about two races where we think we'll be able to help usher in a new congressional majority for Democrats.

Check it out, and be sure to recommend it!