Price just released this statement:

“North Carolinians deserve members of Congress who fight for what is right, and Brad Miller has been fighting for what is right for the last decade. From addressing water contamination issues at Camp Lejeune to pushing for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and insisting that the home mortgage crisis be addressed, it has been a privilege to fight alongside him for working people and for President Obama's agenda. I know Brad will continue to shape these issues, whatever he chooses to do next, and I wish him well.”

“His decision today will avoid a divisive primary in the Fourth District if the unfair and illegal maps drawn by General Assembly Republicans are allowed to govern this election. I will continue to fight—with Congressional and General Assembly colleagues—to overturn them in court.
 

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.

A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.

Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.

Here's a look at today's local headlines:

HOUSING FOR VETERANS: A Raleigh nonprofit wants to build 23 low-cost apartments, including 10 for disabled veterans. Find out where in Jim Wise's story.

SCHOOL HOUSE SUCCESS: Rachel Weeks, CEO of School House, a collegiate apparel company in downtown Durham, wished there could be "Made in Durham" labels for her company's products.Find out what she did next in new correspondent Monica Chen's story.  (Welcome, Monica!)

COUNTY STAFF, COMMISSIONERS' RAISES: It's a 10 percent bump for County Manager Mike Ruffin. Find out how much elected leaders and other local officials' pay went up in correspondent Virginia Bridges story here.  

And ... Rep. David Price speaks out on the balanced budget amendment, Nicole Barillari says hats off to the Middle College High School Honor Society, and Abigail Howard tells how you can help needy students on today's Opinion page. 

Have a happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading.

Mark

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 candidate Heather Losurdo is reaching out to Tea Partiers in her bid to knock off incumbent Kevin Hill.

During a speech at Friday's Tax Day Tea Party rally in downtown Raleigh, Losurdo praised the actions of the school board majority while jokingly saying she'd ask Gov. Bev Perdue for her endorsement. She also argued that the current system isn't helping students reach their true potential.

"Eighteen months ago, you achieved a monumental goal when you elected a majority, a conservative majority on the Wake County school board," Losurdo said to applause. "You worked hard. You gave of your time. You gave of your money and you went out and you voted."

Gov. Bev Perdue and several other Democratic Party leaders are scheduled to attend a Thursday fundraiser in Raleigh for a group that's hoping to wrest control of the Wake County school board away from the Republican majority.

The stated goal of the fundraiser for the Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC is to benefit Wake school board candidates "who support high quality public schools for all children." The PAC was formed in 2009 and unsuccessfully ran a television attack ad against Republican-backed school board candidates.

The PAC was formed by Dean Debnam, president of the Democratic-leaning polling firm of Public Policy Polling. PPP has recently conducted surveys on Wake school issues for what the firm says is a private client.

The House of Representatives voted today to pass stand-alone legislation repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, according to a press release from local Rep. David Price's office.  Price was an original cosponsor of the legislation, which was previously passed by the House as a part of its Defense Authorization bill. This afternoon he released the following statement:
 
“This discriminatory policy has kept dedicated and patriotic young people from serving their country for too long, and I am proud that the House has once again sent a clear signal of its intent to repeal it.
 
“Time and again, we have seen Congressional Republicans move the goalpost when it comes to repeal.  First Republicans wanted to hear from military leadership; Chairman Mullen and Secretary Gates have testified in favor of repeal.  Then they wanted to hear from the troops; the Pentagon’s own report found that the vast majority do not object.  We also know from the Pentagon report that repeal does not pose a significant risk to readiness and could be implemented without disrupting ongoing training and operations.  In fact, Secretary Gates has warned that those blocking repeal are ‘rolling the dice’ on a far more disruptive outcome: the immediate implementation of repeal by court dictate.”

Candidates for North Carolina's Fourth Distrct seat in the U.S. Congress are making appearances at the Durham Center for Senior Life this week.

On Thursday, incumbent Democrat David Price is coming for a 2 p.m. ice cream social. He will be making a presentation, then hearing comments and taking questions on "issues relevant to seniors," said Juanita Nelson, the center's social-services director.

On Friday at 2 p.m., Republican challenger B.J. Lawson is coming for cake and coffee in a similar format, Nelson said.

The meetings are open to Durham residents age 55 and older. The Senior Life Center is at 406 Rigsbee Ave. downtown. For information, contact Nelson 688-8247 ext. 105 or jnelson@dcslnc.org.

Across North Carolina, doctors, veterinarians and other health care providers routinely collect reams of data.

The problem is getting the data to the right people, and fast.

That's the idea behind the new North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative, or, the cleverly-named NCB-Prepared, for short. Unveiled Monday, the project is a joint venture between scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, various state and federal agencies, and SAS, the software giant.

The idea is to use computers to link all these disparate forms of data to quickly root out indicators of new disease, or food-borne illness, or, in a worst-case scenario, an attack of bio-terrorism.

The project is funded for now through a one-year, $5 million congressional grant snared thanks to U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill. Project leaders hope to make enough progress over the next year to warrant further funding, with the audacious eventual goal of creating a national model for detection of bioterror and public health threats.

"Because this is being designed to be scale-able and adaptable to different environments, I truly believe...this may lead to advances in our security nationwide," Price said Monday.

The key obstacle, officials at a kickoff event Monday, has long been mixing information collection from different sources. The new project hopes to collect and analyze information gleaned from sources as varied as emergency rooms, veterinary exams and county health clinics.

Read Tuesday's News & Observer for more.

Earlier this week, I wrote about U.S. Rep. Don Young, an Alaskan who lodged the sole vote against a recent House resolution honoring N.C. Central University in its centennial year.

When I asked the congressman's office about that vote, I was told it had nothing to do with NCCU in particular. It's just that Young tends to vote no on principle when it comes to resolutions, which he thinks are a waste of time.

"Rep. Young voted against the resolution (as he has done on many previous resolutions) to make the point that Members’ time is better spent voting on legislation not resolutions," Young's spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, told me in an email. "He agrees that such anniversaries and similar occasions should be honored, but they should be discussed, debated, and done by voice vote, and not take up time better spent on legislation affecting all Americans."

Fair enough. But then, this.

About a week after voting against the NCCU resolution, Young sponsored - and voted for - one of his own, lauding the winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which in fairness, is a big deal in Young's home state of Alaska.

(That's the winner, Lance Mackey, in the Los Angeles Times photo above.)

As you can see here, nobody voted against that resolution.