If you've been paying attention to commercials running lately on WRAL, you already know that the Capitol Broadcasting Company, which owns the local CBS affiliate WRAL and the local Fox affiliate WRAZ, is negotiating with DIRECTV to keep Capitol stations available to DIRECTV customers.

The company's contract with DIRECTV is set to expire on Dec. 31.

The commercial running right now features a woman explaining WRAL's position in the negotiation process, a tactic often used by both sides in these types of negotiating battles to win the hearts and minds of viewers. The actress says she "found out" about the negotiations and then explains Capitol Broadcasting's requested fee increase, saying she thinks it's fair since WRAL is "the most watched channel" on DIRECTV's lineup.

Neither DIRECTV nor WRAL would comment on the details of the negotiation, but a WRAL website says that the figure they seek is "the cost of a cup of coffee per month per subscriber."

Wake County school board candidate Jim Martin has maintained his commanding fundraising lead over Cynthia Matson in the District 5 race.

A new campaign finance report filed this week shows Martin had raised $31,534.46 as of Sept. 26 with $19,787.51 on hand. In contrast, Matson had only raised $8,517.10 as of Sept. 26 with $2,132.38 on hand.

The largest donors for Martin in the new report are the $2,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $500 from Wake Citizens for Good Government.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton has raised nearly $24,000 in his bid to retain the District 4 seat.

A new campaign report filed this week shows Sutton had raised $23,872 as of Sept. 26 with $15,386.04 on hand. Venita Peyton's new report isn't up yet but she was at under $1,000 raised at the end of August.

The largest donors for Sutton in the new report are the $2,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $500 from Wake Citizens for Good Government.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo holds the clear fundraising lead for the District 3 seat.

New campaign reports filed this week show that Losurdo had raised $40,244.55 as of Sept. 26 with $9,522.60 on hand. School board member Kevin Hill reported raising $24,055 with $12,570.69 on hand. Jennifer Mansfield is well behind with $5,802.19 raised and $2,513.18 on hand.

Some of the disparity between Losurdo and Hill is mitigated by the spending that outside groups have put into the race attacking her.

Wake County school board candidate Susan Evans has reported raising $37,524.69 as of Sept. 26 with $21,770.23 on hand.

Evans' newest campaign report filed Friday shows she's still trailing school board chairman Ron Margiotta, who had already raised more than $40,000 by the end of August. But the gap might not be that big a deal considering how outside groups like Common Sense Matters and the N.C. Futures Action Fund are sending out mailers aiding her cause.

The biggest donors in Evans' latest report are the $3,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $2,000 from Lettice Rhodes.

Christine Kushner has become only the second person to have raised more than $50,000 in a Wake County school board race.

Kushner's latest finance report filed Friday shows she had raised $50,406.93 as of Sept. 26. She has $31,383.11 on hand in the District 6 race.

School board candidates are required to file a "pre-election" report, postmarked no later than this upcoming Monday, showing their finances as of Sept. 26. Aside from reporting any new contributions of greater than $1,000 between Sept. 26 and Election Day, they don't have to file any additional reports until the end of the year or unless they're in a run-off.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton has raised nearly $20,000 in his bid to keep the District 4 seat.

The new campaign report filed today shows Sutton having raised $19,892 as of Aug. 30 with $12,272.86 on hand. No report has been filed yet by opponent Venita Peyton.

Sutton's biggest individual donor in the new report is Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon, who gave $1,000. It's Goodmon's first recorded school board contribution this season, but he is one of the hosts for a Wake County Democratic Party fundraiser being held next week.

Capitol Broadcasting Co., owner of WRAL-TV and the Durham Bulls, could soon add a solar energy farm to its portfolio.

The local media company's filing for a Wake County zoning permit states: "The proposed solar development is in the shadow of a 2,000-ft. communication tower" (italics added).

Thus, this may be the world's first solar farm to be deliberately located in a shadow. However, this being a figurative shadow, it is not expected to darken the prospects for solar energy.

Bronto Software is getting a bigger pad.

The email marketing company is adding another 8,000 square feet to its 13,000-square-foot headquarters in Durham's American Tobacco Campus by expanding into three adjacent offices.

Bronto employs about 90 people, but wants more room as its business increases. The company has about 20 open positions, said CEO and co-founder Joe Colopy.

"Things are going in the right direction," said Colopy, who co-founded the company in 2002 out of his Durham house. "We're having a good time."

Bronto sells marketing services to retailers and other businesses, including Party City, Timex, BatteriesPlus, Dean & Deluca, Samsonite and more. They hire Bronto to help connect with customers through email, social media and, increasingly, various mobile devices.

DURHAM Capitol Broadcasting is backing a campaign for a "proactive rental inspection program" to force owners and managers of rental housing to keep their properties up to code.

"I don't know a better way to make sure we dont have people renting out crawl space, that we don’t have babies crawling on dirt floors,” said Michael Goodmon, a Capitol vice president and head of the company's American Tobacco campus.

Speaking at Tuesday's annual meeting of the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition, Goodmon said Capitol has involved itself with the nonprofit Self-Help and the city's neighborhood improvement department to design an  inspection program with teeth and promote its adoption by the city council.

"Our goal is to make it, if you are renting property in this community, you have to live up to the minimum housing code," Goodmon said.

The idea is to give city inspectors greater authority to enforce housing codes and for residents to get something done about dilapidated and otherwise problematic properties.

"How do you take pride in your house when there's a  boarded-up dump next to you?" Goodmon said.

As of the 2000 census, 51 percent of Durham's 81,000 occupied "housing units" were occupied by renters. In Raleigh and Greensboro, the figures were 48 and 47 percent, respectively; in North Carolina, less than 31 percent; nationwide, 34 percent.

Substandard housing has been a recognized social ill in Durham since at least 1940, when a federal survey found more than 60 percent of the city's residential units were "substandard" in one or more ways -- overcrowded, without plumbing, structurally unsound and otherwise.

With the problem enduring decade after decade, a mandatory rental inspection has been suggested and researched by citizens' organization and city agencies for several years.

Goodmon said a draft regulation is nearly ready to be released for comment.

"That's starting to get legs now," he said, "and it’s going to get in front of  the people it’s going to get in front of soon enough. It’s going to be something to talk about."