It's Day 1 of the 2012 legislative session, and already we have action on ferries, car inspections, toll roads and other transportation stuff.

* Inspections will still be required for all cars. The House-Senate Joint Transportation Oversight Committee today had no interest in discussing, evaluating or modifying a proposal to end the required safety and emissions inspections for vehicles from the three newest model years. It simply killed the bill in a 7-5 vote (see today's story with reader comments).

Meanwhile, without dissent or discussion, the oversight committee approved other legislative proposals:

* Updating top DOT job titles. This measure would retire the venerable title of state highway admnistrator, and give a new title to the person holding that job (currently, Terry Gibson): chief engineer.  DOT explains: We're way more than highways now. We're also bikes, trains, ferries, etc., etc.

DOT used to have somebody else called chief engineer as the top honcho for  something else called operations. After a department reorganization intended to reduce layers of management, the old chief engineer was moved under the wing of the old highway adminstrator.  Jon Nance, formerly chief engineer, now is addressed as ... deputy chief engineer. ... [MORE]

Charles Sanders, the former U.S. Senate candidate, civic leader and veteran pharmaceutical industry executive, is recovering from a serious stroke, Rob Christensen reports on Under the Dome.

“He is recovering and his recovery is progressing well," said Robert Ingram, a long-time friend and business associate. "His family would like to express appreciation for all the support he is receiving from friends.”

Ingram said he was not authorized by the family to release further details.

Sanders, 78, a resident of Durham, is known for his unsuccessful 1996 run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.

But he has had a long and successful career as a business and civic leader, most notably as CEO of Glaxo. He retired from the pharmaceutical company in 1995.

He still serves on the boards of several companies, including Icagen of Durham and LipoScience of Raleigh.

State lawmakers moved another step closer to approving tax breaks to lure five companies considering expansion in North Carolina.

The Senate gave preliminary approval today to a set of tax incentives meant to lure two data centers, a turbine maker and a paper plant, Ben Niolet reports on our Under the Dome blog.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, told a Senate committee Wednesday that the state would have to give up $9 million in taxes next year and $14 million in the following year.

The lost tax revenue is worth the investment and jobs created by the new business, Clodfelter said.

State Treasurer Janet Cowell and eight states' investment leaders are trying to oust directors of the company that owns a West Virginia mine where 29 miners were killed in an explosion last month.

Mark Johnson reports on our Under the Dome blog that Cowell, who oversees the state pension fund, and the other investors released a letter today highlighting Massey Energy's "repeated and serious" safety violations.

They asked shareholders to withhold support for three directors for failing to carry out their duties. The three are up for reelection at the company's May 18 shareholder's meeting.

"Massey Energy has an extensive history of persistent and serious safety violations," Cowell said in a prepared statement. "Ultimately, that has consequences for long-term shareholder value."

Massey Energy shares have fallen about 31 percent since the April 5 mine explosion but are still up nearly 75 percent in the past year.

The investor coalition collectively owns 1.4 million shares of Massey Energy. The other states include California, New York and Illinois.

Read the full Under the Dome report, which includes a copy of the letter, online here.

She hasn’t come up with a lot of new money to fix local transportation problems, but Gov. Bev Perdue is winning points from city and county leaders for simply meeting with them, asking for their ideas, and working to reform the state Department of Transportation.

“We’ve got a governor that’s reaching out, that values local input and wants to be in a partnership,” Joe Bryan of Knightdale, a Republican Wake County commissioner, said Wednesday after an hour-long session between the Democratic governor and a group of mayors and county officials.

Bryan is president-elect of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners and a member of Perdue’s Local Government Advisory Council, a group of elected officials who have met three times with her in the past year.

“I don’t recall this happening in my 22 years of public service, that type of relationship with a governor. That’s historic,” Bryan said. “And the changes she dictated at NCDOT, in terms of being transparent and open and accountable versus it being politically driven, that seems to be working.” ... [MORE]

Several North Carolina lawmakers are pushing for the National Sept. 11 memorial and museum to be built with Mount Airy granite.

In a letter to New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the memorial commission's chairman, they urge him to considering a contract with the Mount Airy Granite Corp. The letter is signed by U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan and U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, Ben Niolet reports at the Under the Dome blog.

"The North Carolina Granite Corporation has a proven track record and is no stranger to sites of national significance," the NC members wrote to Bloomberg. "For example, Mount Airy granite was selected in the construction of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., in addition to other historically significant projects."

The choice would also create work in Mount Airy, where the company's granite quarry has operated for more than a century.

Read the full Under the Dome report, and the lawmakers' letter, here.

Gov. Bev Perdue wants the state's members of Congress to support measures she said would ease the credit crisis facing small business, reports Ben Niolet on our brother blog Under the Dome.

"Small businesses are the backbone of North Carolina’s economy,” Perdue said in a news release. "It is critical that we get credit flowing back to small businesses to work our way out of this economic and financial crisis."

In a letter to the state's congressional delegation, Perdue said the federal government should support the state's efforts to increase lending, including by increasing tax incentives for small businesses that create jobs.

Read the full Under the Dome report here.

Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco played a bigger-than-usual role in recruiting a Louisiana company to this region because the son of Gov. Bev Perdue also was involved with efforts to lure the corporate headquarters.

Perdue recused herself from the recruitment of IEM, our sister blog Under the Dome reports. That meant that Crisco made more decisions in attracting the risk-management firm, including the promise of as much as $9 million in tax breaks and grants.

Perdue's son, Garrett Perdue, worked on the deal as part of his job with the law firm of Womble Carlyle.

IEM and state officials announced Monday morning in Research Triangle Park that the risk-management firm would move its headquarters to RTP and create 430 jobs over the next six year. Perdue, who usually attends such announcements, stayed away.

Read the full Under the Dome report here.

North Carolina's Democrat in the U.S. Senate gave Cary software maker SAS a plug in a speech to lawmakers Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan said SAS software could save billions in wasted and fraudulent health-care expenses, our sister blog Under the Dome reports. SAS makes software that government agencies and corporations use to mine vast amounts of data to spot trends and make predictions.

Campaign finance records show that Hagan received $4,000 from SAS CEO Jim Goodnight or his wife, Ann Goodnight, for her Senate campaign.

Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican, was the only Triangle senator who did not sign on to co-sponsor local-option transit sales tax legislation that will come to the Senate floor today. But when the votes are taken, Hunt will join other Wake, Durham and Orange senators to vote Yes.

The Triangle needs the money to build good bus and rail transit service, he says.

“We have major congestion on certain corridors right now,” Hunt said this morning. “I’m no expert, but I think the rail would do a great deal to relieve that congestion.

But he adds: Before local voters and commissioners actually consider hiking the local sales tax by a half penny, we need to make sure the money would be spent on a good transit plan. ...