We've gotten a lot of letters about columnist Rick Martinez's Feb. 8 column (read it here) about the controversery over the Obama administration's decision that Catholic institutions universities, hospitals and soup kitchens provide insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs.

Which followed William Powers' Feb. 4 Point of View "Catholics, conscience and health insurance" (read it here). 

If you missed today's Sunday Forum on the same topic, find the letters here.

A friend of mine, an ER doctor in South Carolina, offers his assessment of the Obama directive on his blog here.

And here is a sample of other letters we've received.

The question of whether the Wake County school board should return to the county around $15 million in excess fund balance is likely to be a big issue during the budget process next year.

In a nutshell, the school system's undesignated fund balance, colloquially called its rainy day fund, has grown so much in the past few years that board policy dictates that about $15 million be returned to county commissioners.

But with next year's budget being tight, is that the right call? Also, it would take a two-thirds majority to waive policy to keep the $15 million so would a bi-partisan coalition agree to that decision?

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, WHICH NOW INCLUDES LINK TO TUESDAY DISCUSSION ON RICK & DONNA MARTINEZ SHOW ON WPTF

Rick Martinez and Donna Martinez are calling the Wake County school board election results a rejection of education reform and another reason for minority parents to pull their children from the school system.

On their show this morning on WPTF, both conservative talk show hosts said giving back Democrats control of the Wake school board means a return to policies that resulted in low graduation rates for black, Hispanic and low-income students.

"That is what Wake County has voted for, and I think you get what you vote for," said Donna Martinez.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill said today he has no intention of instituting forced busing if he's re-elected, a charge leveled by opponent Heather Losurdo.

In an interview this morning on The Rick & Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Hill said the student assignment plan is "workable," but he voted no because of the "few missing components in the model." He pointed to the lack of seat set asides at high-performing schools and the lack of permanent outreach efforts to explain the model to parents.

"I think there will have to be some changes made, but I totally disagree with what I'm continually bombarded with daily that should I be re-elected that we're going to throw this plan out and go back to the old assignment plan," Hill said. "Nothing could be further from the truth. This will be our plan. We have to work on some of the rough edges."

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo is responding to the attacks by liberal groups on her and charging that a win by incumbent Kevin Hill could mean the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

In a radio ad that Losurdo will be running, she says she's "being subjected to the full mud-slinging treatment by the left" because "the people are on my side with regard to the important questions facing the school board."

Losurdo says a victory by Hill means he'll "have the votes to overturn it (student assignment plan), go back to forced busing and fire Superintendent Tata to boot."

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo is making the local conservative radio talk show rounds to defend herself against the charges by Progress NC Action that she puffed up her resume.

In an interview Tuesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, LuMaye repeatedly complained about Progress NC Action's charges and the N&O article that appeared in the paper. He asked Losurdo to respond to the charges.

"That's a lie," Losurdo said about the Progress NC charges she overstated her resume when she said she oversaw $2 billion in small business loans in the Carolinas for First Union. "They're lying. I'm telling the truth. I did exactly what I said I did."

Rick Martinez, the news director at WPTF-AM who writes a weekly column for The N&O's op-ed page, is pushing for an arena in downtown Raleigh. Click here to read today's column on the issue. I'll let Martinez and downtown-arena opponents duke it out (the play on words is intentional, as Martinez is a loyal Duke football fan).

But I did want to comment on a letter to the editor in Tuesday's paper. The writer states, "While there are some arguments for a downtown arena, has Martinez considered that it's impossible to tailgate in a downtown parking garage?" 

It's not. Go to any Panthers football game in uptown Charlotte on a Sunday afternoon. The tailgating is great. Same in Chapel Hill, where UNC fans go to the top of parking decks near Kenan Stadium to tailgate and admire the view.

Again, I'm not advocating for a new arena in Raleigh. The RBC Center works for most people and is only about a decade old. But one of the strengths of downtown arenas is that you don't have to build new decks because the downtown already accommodates tens of thousands of weekday workers. When the football stadium was built in uptown Charlotte in the 1990s, there was almost no new parking built. That's because the downtown already had enough parking to handle the 50,000 people who worked there Monday through Friday.

--John Drescher

Wake County school board candidate Mary Ann Weathers is warning about the risks of becoming "an apartheid school system" and accusing the school board majority of lying to the public.

In an interview Monday on The Rick & Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Weathers accused the Republican board majority of listening to special interests while saying education wasn't harmed when the Democrats were in the majority. She also used the harsh imagery of apartheid, the former system of legal racial segregation used in South Africa.

"We are 51 percent minority student population so the minority students have become the majority and we are at risk of becoming an apartheid school system if we don't take action now because there are groups that would neglect those students," Weathers said. "The bottom line is that if we don't take care of educating those students now we may wind up with an increasing prison population or an increasing welfare population."

The magnet school program could become even more of a wedge issue between Wake County school board candidates Cynthia Matson and Jim Martin in the District 5 race.

In an interview last week on the Rick & Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Matson said the biggest difference between her and Martin is their views on "equity from district to district in terms of program offerings." She said "we need to focus on equity across the board, from district to district, so students don't have be to bused to the other side of the county to get something they can not get in their own district."

"Right now If you look at the map and you look at where magnet schools are, and you look at outlying areas, you'll see that certain individuals have to travel a very, very far distance in order too benefit from some of the magnet programs," Matson said.

New appointees to UNC-TV’s Board of Trustees include Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and former associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Robert F. Orr.

Also named were news director for Curtis Media Group and newspaper columnist Rick D. Martinez, and travel and tourism executive Sabrina Bengel of New Bern.

Martinez’s column runs on the op-ed pages of The News & Observer.

Martinez and Orr have been appointed to two-year terms that will run through June 30, 2013. Goodmon and Bengal are filling vacant positions that were four-year appointments. Bengel’s term ends June 30, 2014 and Goodmon’s term ends May 31, 2014.

Bengel was appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, Martinez was appointed by president pro tempore Sen. Phil Berger, and Justice Orr was appointed by NC House Speaker Rep. Thom Tillis. Goodmon, who has previously served on UNC-TV boards, was appointed by Gov. Beverly Perdue.