Wednesday at the General Assembly

The House agreed overwhelmingly to phase out the video gambling machines by July 1, 2007. The measure would slowly reduce the number of machines any retailer could operate or distributor set up at one location from three to none. Repeat offenders or those caught with five or machines would be guilty of a felony.

The bill now heads to the Senate today for what could be final legislative approval. The Senate has approved a ban five times since 2000 and Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, expects his colleagues to accept the House proposal.

The 114-1 House vote comes after Speaker Jim Black, the General Assembly’s most staunch supporter of the games, was tied in recent months to investigations of the gambling industry, including video poker and the state lottery. But Black said that had nothing to do with his reversal on the issue. He said he agreed to the bill only after a compromise was found that would give industry workers time to find new employment or sell machines.

The practice of third parties collecting incomplete checks from campaign contributors would be barred under a bill that the state House approved unanimously.

The measure would outlaw intermediaries from accepting checks unless they are completely filled out. An intermediary also would have to forward checks to the intended recipient within 20 days of receiving them and tell potential donors who will use their contributions.

The bill stems from a State Board of Elections investigation that found that optometrists gave signed checks, with a blank payee, to a leader in their industry’s political action committee, who then gave some of those checks to House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg. Black told the board in February that he made out three of those checks totalling $4,200 to a close ally.

The board ruled in March that Black or his campaign had unlawfully accepted a total of $6,800 in incomplete checks from optometrists. Black has appealed the ruling, but also asked the special ethics committee to recommend outlawing the practice. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

House Speaker Black wasn’t presiding over the video poker debate in the House chamber. Speaker Pro Tempore Richard Morgan, R-Moore, stood on the dais Wednesday and led Wednesday’s entire session while Black sat at his desk on the House floor.

Black said Morgan presides from time to time but that it had nothing to do with the fact that the chamber considered two bills involving the speaker: a video poker machine phase-out and a measure barring donors from giving incomplete campaign contribution checks to intermediaries.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/ / June 1, 2006

A panel that examined the 1898 racial violence in Wilmington concluded that North Carolina should provide economic and social compensation to the victims. The report, released at the Legislative Building, also found the attack was not a riot, but a planned effort by white supremacists to overthrow government officials in New Hanover County at gunpoint – making it the only recorded government overthrow in U.S. history.

The report urged lawmakers to consider economic reparations in Wilmington, including incentives for minority small businesses, compensation to heirs of victims through court action and help for minority home ownership. Recommendations also include that the parties responsible for the violence atone for their own involvement and that the true story of the incident be taught in North Carolina schools.

Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover, who helped establish and chair the panel, said the next step is to file a bill in the legislature with the recommendations. Wright said that won’t happen before 2007.

A former Raleigh city councilman has organized a coalition dedicated to restraining government acquisition of private land, beginning with an effort to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Kieran Shanahan, with the North Carolina Property Rights Coalition, hopes to act as an umbrella organization for businesses, individuals and other groups concerned about eminent domain and forced annexation issues.
Shanahan said recommendations by a House committee to tinker with current eminent domain laws to prevent local governments from acquiring private land for private economic development projects aren’t enough to protect citizens.

A House committee will meet today to consider electronic monitoring for sex offenders while a Senate panel discusses Jessica’s Law to crack down on sex offenders.

A Senate judicial panel will consider a bill today that would ban teenage drivers from using cell phones.

The House Finance Committee has several bills on today’s agenda dealing with efforts to cap or reduce the gasoline tax.