This just in:

Gov. Bev Perdue today appointed retired Superior Court Judge A. Leon Stanback to serve as interim District Attorney for Durham County.

“Judge Stanback has served North Carolina and the Durham community with distinction as a prosecutor, parole commissioner and Superior Court judge,” Gov. Perdue said. “He is the ideal person to bring strong leadership to the district attorney’s office at this challenging time.”

Judge Stanback served as a Superior Court judge for the 14^th judicial district beginning in 1989 until his retirement in 2009. His distinguished legal career includes his private law practice and his service both as a member of the North Carolina Parole Commission and as an assistant district attorney in Guilford County.

Look for a full story on newsobserver.com today on the latest in the Tracey Cline situation.

The timing could have been better, but Wake County school board member John Tedesco officially announced today that he's running for state superintendent of public instruction.

In his press release, Tedesco cited issues such as the state’s high suspension rate and poor test scores for minority students in his announcement.

“Our children can no longer wait as a failed education system robs them of the promise of tomorrow with each passing day,” Tedesco said in his announcement.

Rob Schofield is wondering why Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is tweeting about Gov. Bev Perdue's poll numbers during a time when "Wake County schools are going through a momentous and controversial reassignment process."

In a blog post today for the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Schofield writes that Goldman's tweet draws a "huh." He writes that "usually" tweets from politicians "have some plausible connection" to "their realm of responsibility.

"Is there something Goldman hasn’t told us?" Schofield writes. "Does she share (school board member John) Tedesco’s ambitions for higher office? is she gonna’ join us pontificating pundits as a regular blogosphere inhabitant?

But what the heck? Whatever the case, bring ‘em on Debra. We look forward to hearing what you have to say — at least with respect to the Wake County schools."

A Japanese magnet maker will expand its operations in China Grove.

Hitachi Metals North Carolina, which makes ferrite magnets, plans to add 65 full-time jobs and invest around $60 million in the plant over the next four years. It currently employs 65 people at the plant, which is about 140 miles southwest of Raleigh.

Yet another food company has announced plans to add jobs in North Carolina.
PreGel America, which makes the ingredients for  desserts, announced this morning that it will expand its existing facility in Concord.

The expansion will create 48 jobs. The company expects to invest $11.4 million in the facility. PreGel America currently employs 80 people at the facility.

Salaries will vary by job function, but the minimum average annual wage for the new jobs is estimated to be $40,500, plus benefits, according to an announcement from Gov. Bev Perdue's office. The Cabarrus County average annual wage is $32,448.

Gov. Bev Perdue said today that she has asked the state Division of Motor Vehicles for an assessment of North Carolina's mandatory car safety and emissions inspections because we "need to know if we need this kind of system," the Charlotte Observer reported. [11/3 update: see today's Perdue story.]

Perdue was responding to stories by The News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer raising questions about whether the inspections are reliable, effective and necessary. Inspection garages report finding safety flaws in one out of every 10 safety inspections, failing 3 percent of the cars and making repairs necessary to pass another 7 percent.

Legislators said this week they will push to eliminate the safety inspection requirement for all cars or at least for cars only a few years old.

Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant is attributing last week's school board election results to "President Obama’s national organization" while also trying to rally people around Heather Losurdo's runoff efforts.

In the first post-election issue of the Elephant Express, Bryant writes today that "President Obama, Governor Perdue, and Reverend Barber won last week." She charges that the various Democratic-leaning groups that sent out mailers attacking Losurdo and school board chairman Ron Margiotta are linked to Obama.

"Make no mistake!" Bryant writes. "President Obama’s national organization was very much involved in the recent elections, with particular emphasis on Ron Margiotta’s and Heather Losurdo’s campaigns. They hired 'volunteers' and spent tens of thousands on mailers cleverly disguised as coming from non-related groups.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, a critic of the Republican majority on the Wake County school board, is hoping the recent election results will send a message to other North Carolina school districts.

In an exclusive interview with Cash Michaels following her Friday keynote speech at the state NAACP convention, Perdue said she's "very hopefully that this (election results) will mean a time out for any school system in North Carolina that wants to go backward on kids who are at risk."

"It's the wrong thing for this state," Perdue added. "We're better than that, Cash."

John Hood is warning North Carolina Republicans they should learn from their mistakes in the Wake County school board elections or risk the consequences during next year's presidential fight.

In a column today in The Carolina Journal, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "Wake County Democrats staged the shocking defeat of the one conservative, Ron Margiotta, who wasn't a newcomer to the school board." Hood criticizes how Republicans presented their message to voters.

"For the most part, their (Democratic) candidates chose clear, persuasive messages that presented themselves as reasonable-sounding alternatives to opponents they portrayed as extreme," Hood writes. "The Republican messages were muddled and unappealing."

Gov. Bev Perdue said Monday that Facebook is expanding its data center in Forest City. The governor will be touring the site this afternoon.

Facebook announced the $450 million data center last winter and said at the time that it might expand depending on business needs.

The first data center is expected to open in 2012 at the site, southeast of Asheville.
More there 30 people work at the site full-time and the company plans to add 10 more as part of its expansion, according to the governor's office.

Data centers typically are not large employers — though the construction of the buildings have created several hundred jobs.

In announcing the expansion, Perdue's office said that more than 1,500 people have worked on the site so far.

“We believe the expanding operations and continued construction activities will have a positive impact on Rutherford County’s economy,” George Henry, Facebook Data Center Manager, said in a statement.

Western North Carolina is also home to Google's $600 million data center and Apple's $1 billion data center.