Comedy Central confirmed today that it has temporarily suspended taping of "The Colbert Report," the popular news satire program starring Stephen Colbert.

They gave no reason in their statement: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the show will air repeat episodes on Wednesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 16.”

Last night's episode, which followed a new episode of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," was a repeat and was apparently canceled at the last moment.

Brian Stetler, a New York Times media reporter, tweeted earlier this morning that there doesn't seem to be any professional drama going on: "There's no indication of any corporate drama re: Colbert's unforeseen absence. Comedy Central expects to be back to new episodes soon."

Update: The Wall Street Journal reports that Colbert canceled the tapings due to a family emergency.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is turning Stephen Colbert's mocking criticism of him into a tool to help him get elected as state schools superintendent.

On his campaign website, Tedesco uses a cropped screenshot of his picture on Colbert's "Disintegration" segment from January 2011. Last year, critics of the Republican board majority repeatedly pointed to the segment on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

"Opposition, obstructionists, and status quo bureaucrats are met head-on by John Tedesco's pledge to his constituents," says Tedesco's website. "This has caused fans and critics alike in the media to chronicle his every move; some just waiting to see what he will do next. The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, LA Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, Education Weekly, and more have joined North Carolina's news outlets WRAL, ABC 11, NBC 17, News 14, and The News & Observer in their coverage of Mr. Tedesco."

Tedesco includes a line from a not terribly flattering New York Times story in February 2011 that says "since he was elected, his ups and downs have been chronicled practically daily in the media." (The website incorrectly says it was a 2010 article.)

Democrats are now using Wake County school board vice chairman John Tedesco as a campaign issue to help boost Kevin Hill's re-election bid over Heather Losurdo.

In an e-mail message today to Democrats, Wake County Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul writes that "if Heather Losurdo wins, it means John Tedesco ascends to the chairmanship of the Wake County School Board."

In writing about what Tedesco's elevation to chair would mean, Paul rips into Tedesco for his Tea Party remarks about "bringing conservative values to education.” Paul also brings up Stephen Colbert's satirical attack on Tedesco on Comedy Central.

The Wake County Democratic Party is going after school board chairman Ron Margiotta's recent campaign mailer, saying it doesn't reflect the incumbent's "real record."

In a press release Tuesday, Wake Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul said Margiotta's "real record of achievement is far different." Paul accused Margiotta of putting high school accreditation and federal funding at risk, insulting parents, violating the Open Meetings Law and making Wake a "national punch line" on the Colbert Report.
 
"Ron Margiotta left off some key parts of his record, including the poor leadership that threatened accreditation for our high schools," Paul said in the press release. "He also left off his 'success' at putting our federal funding at risk in his single minded pursuit of creating high poverty schools.

Any success we have had has been as a result of hard working teachers and our students. Many of the results that he trumpets came as a result of policies and work that happened prior to him taking a leadership role on the Board."

Stephen Colbert lost a fundraising challenge with Jimmy Fallon and the punishment is that he has to sing "Friday" on Fallon's show tonight.

Colbert explains how it all happened and rehearses a bit in the video below.

'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' airs on NBC at 12:30am.

Is an Enloe High School student facing repercussions for having questioned the lack of diversity within the classes on campus?

As noted in today's article, Wake County school officials say they're investigating allegations that Enloe social studies teacher Joseph Hoffman told his classes on Thursday that he was considering rescinding the college recommendation letters for senior Jay Zhang.

The reason Hoffman was allegedly upset was over this letter to the editor in Thursday's N&O in which Zhang talked about "the glaring academic and cultural divide between the magnet and non-magnet students."

Gov. Bev Perdue has weighed in again on the Wake County school diversity fight, saying she is worried about the negative impact "The Colbert Report" segment may have on North Carolina's image.

In a meeting Thursday with the Greensboro News & Record editorial board, Perdue said she's concerned all the national publicity may cause businesses not to come to the state. She also complained that schools shouldn't "stuff all the poor kids in one school and all the rich kids in another school."

“Now, I’ll tell you, on the other question about the school system, I was unhappy we were on Colbert, watching what was YouTubed around the world," Perdue said. "I was unhappy about that and this morning I read the comments from the executive director of the Raleigh-Wake Chamber of Commerce and I read that Harvey [Schmitt] said this is not good because if this stuff keeps getting said about Raleigh and not so much Charlotte but Wake County, if you’re a business leader, you don’t want to come in to an area that schools are in disarray.”

Perdue on AmEx, Wake County from Mark Binker on Vimeo.

Supporters of Wake County's old school diversity policy took over Wednesday night's reassignment public hearing at Southeast Raleigh.

As noted in today's article by Ray Martin, most of the speakers focused on criticizing the board for eliminating the diversity policy instead of on the specifics of the 2011-12 student reassignment plan.

Speakers included some familiar names from school board meetings and a group of people organized by the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, one of the major backers of the Wake Education Advocates and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

How much are Raleigh's and Wake County's reputations being hurt by this latest round of national media attention over the school diversity fight?

As noted in today's article, the Wake County school system had, by and large, a good reputation nationally before the diversity policy was eliminated. How deserved, or not, that reputation was is another question.

Now area leaders are confronting the latest batch of national attention since "The Colbert Report" segment on Wake went viral.

Stephen Colbert's "disintegration" report segment on the Wake County school system has spawned another parody in the form of a fake Twitter account.

The Wake Bored of Ed 5 twitter account quips that "We, the Wake Co. Bored of Education majrty, wont be intimidated by S. Colbert. We r committed to disintegration now, disintegration forever!"

This satirical Twitter account has already got 15 followers and 134 people following it since it went up today.