Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Jennifer Mansfield lag far behind Heather Losurdo in the amount of cash raised so far in District.

The new report filed today by Hill shows he had raised $15,245 as of Aug. 30 with $12,123.69 at hand. Mansfield's new report has her with $3,582.19 raised as of Aug. 30 with $1,826.86 on hand.

Well out in front financially is Losurdo, who's raised $30,529.55 as of Aug. 30 with $11,801.85 on hand.

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.

The District 6 race for the Wake County school board is looking like it could be the most expensive of all the races this fall.

The new campaign report filed today by Christine Kushner shows she has raised $41,565.83 as of Aug. 30 with $33,256.54. The new report filed today by Donna Williams shows she has raised $27,806.83 as of Aug. 30 with $22,634.43 on hand.

The biggest donor in Kushners' new report is the Democratic Women of Wake County, which gave $1,100. She also received small donations from former school board members John Gilbert, Lori Millberg, Tom Oxholm and Susan Parry.

Wake County school board candidate Jim Martin has a more than 4-to-1 fundraising edge over Cynthia Matson in the District 5 race.

According to Martin's latest campaign report posted today, he's raised $26,688.18 as of Aug. 30 and has $23,623.61 on hand. Matson''s latest report showed she had raised $6,027.10 as of Aug. 30 with $3,112.20 on hand.

The biggest donor in Martin's new report is Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who has contributed $1,100. Meeker's wife, Wake school board member Anne McLaurin, has donated $600. He also got $500 from Ron McFarlane, the husband of Raleigh mayoral candidate Nancy McFarlane.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

North Carolina State University has hired an Atlanta-based consultant to help the university's search for a new athletics director.

The firm is Parker Executive Search. It will be paid $75,000, a NCSU spokesman said.

A 13-member committee begins work today looking for a successor for Lee Fowler, who the university eased out recently. The committee meets today.

The search is being chaired by Smedes York, the former chairman of the NCSU Board of Trustees.

The use of search consultants for high-profile administration positions at universities is not unusual. The UNC system is shelling out $100,000 to a headhunter helping in the search for the next university system president.

Wake County school board candidates Deborah Prickett and Horace Tart are the first ones to file their year-end campaign finance reports.

Tart's final report shows he spent $12,306.98 during his unsuccessful bid for a second term on the board. Toward the end of the campaign, he got $150 from school board member Anne McLaurin and $150 from former Raleigh Mayor Smedes York.

The report shows Tart paid $700 to the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association's political action committee to be his poll workers on Election Day.

A former Raleigh mayor, a Raleigh restaurant entrepreneur and a Winston-Salem banker turned university professor will all be inducted in to the N.C. Business Hall of Fame next month in Charlotte.

Smedes York (at left), a developer who served as Raleigh mayor from 1979 to 1983, is being honored for his long career as a businessman, philanthropist and community booster.
York is chairman of three companies--McDonald York, York Properties and Prudential York Simpson Underwood--that today employ 600 people.

York will be joined by James Maynard, who along with his partner Bill Carl built Raleigh-based Golden Corral into a chain of 490 restaurants in 42 states that had annual revenue of $1.6 billion in 2008.

The third inductee is John Allison, who led BB&T Bank from $275 million in assets when he joined the firm in 1971 to more than $136 billion today. Allison is today a distinguished professor of practice at Wake Forest's business school.

Allison has also well known for being an enthusiastic advocate of the theories of the philosopher Ayn Rand.

The Hall of Fame's induction ceremony will take place Nov. 5 at The Weston in Charlotte.