Hillside's Jamal Marcus, East Chapel Hill's Alex Moore, South Granville's Matthew Fuhr and Millbrook's Keith Marshall have been named to the North Carolina all-state high school football team by The Associated Press.

See the full team below:

Should this year's Wake County school board election battle, with all the influx of outside money and political party activity, be considered a test run for next year's electoral contests?

That's a point raised in an Associated Press article today that's appearing  across the state. David McLennan, a political science professor at Peace University, speculates on how the fundraising and organizing that has accompanied the campaign in Wake County could be a kind of dry run for next year.

"This is a nice test case of what's going to happen next May with the constitutional amendment on gay marriage," McLennan said. "Depending on how the election goes in Wake County on the school board, I think that will be indicative of what we'll see next spring, and also for the general election in November."

Kristen Gaffney of Green was named to the Associated Press all-state girls basketball team as selected by sports writers throughout the state. South Central Pitt's Danielle Butts and Janesha Ebron also were selected.

Terry Whisnant of Cherryville and Tyler Lewis of Forsyth Country Day lead the boys team.

No teams from the Tri-Nine, Cap Eight or Greater Neuse 4-A conferences are in The Associated Press' final regular-season rankings.

Durham Hillside is the only Triangle area team to crack the rankings in any classification. The undefeated Hornets are No. 4 behind Matthews Butler, Mallard Creek and Richmond County.

Fayetteville Seventy-First, which plays Durham Jordan in the first round of the playoffs on Friday night, is ranked No. 9.

The Associated Press Stylebook helps create standards for publication writing. It tells writers and editors how to spell words and how to render numbers, among other things. It also offers rules on grammar and usage. It is the stylebook we rely on at The N&O, supplemented by an internal stylebook. The AP stylebook can be a valuable tool; it can also be a path to confusion.

The Associated Press weighs in on the Wake County school controversy with a story noting the historical context between current battle.

In an article being distributed today, AP contrast the relatively quiet integration of Raleigh's schools in 1960 with the recent acrimony. The article recaps the last 50 years, including the escalation over the past few months, for the national audience that will be reading the story.

"We're not going to sit idly by while they turn the clock back on the blood, sweat and tears and wipe their feet on the sacrifices of so many that have enabled us to get to the place we are today," says the Rev. Barber, president of the state NAACP, in the article.