Like Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, Gov. Bev. Perdue used today's Capitol Broadcasting MLK Interfaith Prayer Breakfast to take some shots at the Wake County school board.

Perdue's criticism of the school board and the elimination of the diversity policy was a bit more veiled than the remarks made by Meeker. But she clearly conveyed to the audience that she wasn't happy with what was happening in the Wake school system.

"I have never heard a tribute to Martin Luther King on any day anywhere in North Carolina or America where somebody didn't say during their talk, 'His work is not done,'" Perdue said. "And if you live in Wake County, his work is not done."

Invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker issued a call to arms today for the public to get involved in this fall's Wake County school board elections "to get the board back on track."

Speaking this morning at Capitol Broadcasting's MLK Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, Meeker said "we have four members of the school board who are way off track." Presumably, he's excluding Debra Goldman from this group because of her splits with the other GOP members on some student assignment votes.

Here are Meeker's complete remarks, which were repeatedly interrupted with applause: 

The voice of public radio's political coverage in North Carolina is going commercial.

Laura Leslie, who has covered state politics and government at WUNC for more than six years, is joining WRAL as a multimedia reporter. Her last day at WUNC is today, and she'll start at WRAL on Friday.

In her new role, Leslie will continue coverage of the legislature and state politics. Leslie said she'll focus mostly on expanding WRAL's online coverage, including webcasts and podcasts, as the General Assembly prepares to return to Raleigh.

"I'll be telling the same stories, but I'll have new ways to tell them," she said. "The news business is changing and legislative coverage needs to change with it. I see it as an immense opportunity."

Recruiting Leslie signals that WRAL, owned by Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting, is seeking to beef up its legislative coverage as Republicans control the General Assembly for the first time since 1898.

Among those on the losing end of Monday's announcement that Red Hat would be staying in Wake County was Durham's American Tobacco Campus.

American Tobacco made an aggressive pitch to try and win over Red Hat, and at the annual Downtown Durham Inc. luncheon in November Jim Goodmon (left), CEO of Capitol Broadcasting, the owner of American Tobacco, told the crowd that he intended to win Red Hat.

Luring Red Hat to Durham would have been a major coup, particularly since ATC just recently landed the cellphone maker HTC.
 

The Wake Education Partnership is praising its "Cornerstone Investors," those who've pledged to give $10,000 or more to support the group's work.

In an e-mail message today, the WEP says they're renaming this group from "Major Donors" to "Cornerstone Investors" to have a more fitting title to honor this "distinguished group of supporters."

Many of the area's largest businesses are on the list of 22 cornerstone investors, including The News & Observer, Capitol Broadcasting Co., the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, SAS and GlaxoSmithKline.

Republican members of the Wake County school board are calling the GOP sweep of the commissioners races a referendum showing support for pushing ahead with community schools.

As noted in today's article, GOP school board members say that people did respond to the calls from Democrats to turn it into a referendum on the school board's student assignment policy changes. The result, board members say, is a message that they've got the community's support for their actions.

“The people are saying, ‘Leave the school board alone; let them do what they were elected to do on student assignment,’” said school board member Chris Malone. “People want the school board to succeed and do their business.”

Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon decided to financially back all four Democratic candidates for Wake County commissioner after all.

A last-minute report for Commissioner Lindy Brown shows that she got $1,000 from Goodmon. It's one of the 48-hour campaign reporting notices that candidates submit if they get at least $1,000 from a donor between the period of the last pre-election report and Election Day.

Previously, Brown had been the only Democrat who hadn't gotten money from Goodmon.

Do you want to be a "Ghoulish Gold" financial supporter for a Halloween fundraiser being organized by N.C. HEAT and Second-Round Boxing?

The groups are looking for sponsors for a joint Halloween Teen Dance Party & Costume Fashion Show on Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Garner Road YMCA in Raleigh. In an urgent e-mail plea Monday night, N.C. HEAT wrote that "support is essential toward allowing these incredible organizations to continue fighting for better schools for all."

The e-mail message says "our schools are in crisis." The message also says that "the downturn in the economy coupled with recent controversial decisions by ideologically driven elected officials has left our community in turmoil."

SEE END OF POST FOR TEXT OF E-MAIL MESSAGE AND FOR CORRECTION

Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon lambasted the Wake County school board majority in his 16-minute speech at Saturday's Great Schools in Wake Coalition forum.

As noted in today's article, Goodmon accused the board of engaging in poor governing practices and being ideologically focused. He chastised the board for several of the decision that have been made, including eliminating the diversity policy.

Along the way, Goodmon got repeated applause and laughter from the crowd of  around 200 people. He also found time to repeatedly plug WRAL, which his company owns.

Capitol Broadcasting pulled out all the stops on Tuesday when it unveiled its plan to convert the basements in two American Tobacco buildings into an office complex for startups.

The announcement, held at Bay 7 on the American Tobacco Campus, included an elevated stage made to look like the set of a talk show. Acting as host during the event was Michael Goodmon, Capitol's vice president of real estate and the son of CEO Jim Goodmon.

Michael Goodmon interviewed his father about the new space, which has been dubbed American Underground, as well as a panel of guests that included Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Rick Weddle, CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation.

He also gave introductions to a number of prepared videos that were shown on a large video screen.

One of those videos included a cartoon version of Jim Goodmon from the future. Asked in the video what the future was like, Goodmon said there were Plensa installments in every home.

The Plensa line could be viewed as a not so subtle dig at Raleigh officials.