Some familiar names are backing Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley in his bid to win Tuesday's Republican Party primary runoff election for lieutenant governor.

Gurley announced today a list of "North Carolina conservatives" endorsing him. The list includes Wake County school board member Deborah Prickett, former school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Wake CARES.

Gurley will compete Tuesday against Dan Forest. The winner will compete in November against Democratic candidate Linda Coleman, a former Wake County Commissioner and former state legislator.

Ever thought of Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta as a "street-wise Hercules," a "Superman" and "larger than life?"

The family of Patrice Lee, a co-founder of Wake CARES, adapted the words from Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero" to come up with a re-election song for Margiotta. After all, as sung by Lee's daughter, Bailey, "Wake County tosses and turns and we dream of what we need."

"We've found our hero. We're holding on to our hero with all of our might. He's gonna win big and it's gonna be soon 'cause Ron is larger than life, larger than life."

Do 2007 donations from the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity to Wake CARES during the mandatory year-round lawsuit constitute grounds for linking the conservative Koch brothers to the 2009 Wake County school board elections?

That's how the left-wing cable news network MSNBC is trying to tie the Koch brothers to the new school board majority that ended the diversity policy. It was part of a segment on Wake County schools titled "Repealing the 20th Century" that aired Thursday night on MSNBC's "The Last Word" show.

"Now there are multiple reports directly or indirectly linking the Koch brothers — those mysterious right-wing billionaires behind the Astroturf-group Americans for Prosperity — to the Republican school board members who are actively pushing to resegregate Wake County schools," said Melissa Harris-Perry, the show's guest host. "To be fair, it's not entirely clear just how much money the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity put behind the candidates in 2009."

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Americans for Prosperity is seeing some partial success in its efforts to get retractions of claims that the group financially backed the winning Wake County school board candidates in 2009.

The Huffington Post posted a correction today to the statement it made in an online Monday article about the school board candidates having been "bankrolled" by AFP. To try to beef up the story, it posts additional info today on AFP, such as the group's support of the Wake CARES lawsuit and a story earlier this year in Newsweek.

But Robert Greenwald, the director of the new film that came out Monday, isn't issuing a retraction. Neither is Sue Sturgis of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies.

UPDATE

Sue Sturgis has added a clarification to a blog post she wrote Monday about the video.

Wake CARES is touting its support of Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta's re-election bid in District 8.

In a press release today, Margiotta's campaign points to how the three co-founders of Wake CARES — Kathleen Brennan, Patrice Lee and Dawn Graff — hosted a Family Fun Day on July 17 to support Margiotta.

“It is no surprise that so many people support Ron in his re-election to the School Board,” said Brennan in the press release. “Ron has worked tirelessly to respond to the frustration of parents throughout Wake County at the former status quo that resulted in years of policies that resulted in frequent reassignments, mandatory year round schedules and a failure to innovate or achieve the academic potential of students throughout the system."

Here's a blast from the past today with Cynthia Matson's announcement that she will run for the District 5 seat on the Wake County school board.

For you newcomers, Matson founded Assignment By Choice, the grand daddy for groups like Wake CARES and the Wake Schools Community Alliance. During the middle part of the last decade, ABC criticized Wake's assignment policy and the use of mandatory year-round schools.

"ABC was the original catalyst for the school reform movement in Wake County which united parents and increased public awareness on issues facing our school system," Matson says in her campaign announcement.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Two of three N.C. Court of Appeals judges hearing today's Open Meetings lawsuit against the Wake County school system have a history with the district.

Judge Robert Hunter was the attorney who represented Wake CARES in the lawsuit against the Wake school system over mandatory year-round schools.

Judge Cressie Thigpen was the co-chairman of a committee appointed by the school board and county commissioners that in 2003 recommended increased school funding. It developed a funding formula that was never really used by commissioners.

UPDATE

The other case on the docket before the Wake school appeal has been cancelled. But with a large crowd expected for the Wake schools case, the judges are holding off from starting at 9:30 a.m. to let more people arrive.

There was a last-minute change in the panel hearing the case.

Cressie Thigpen and Robert N. Hunter are not hearing the case. In their places are Robert C. Hunter and Sam Ervin IV. Thigpen and Hunter recused themselves.

Education Week is checking in on the Wake County school diversity fight as part of its weekly focus on a school district.

Today's article focuses on the school board's decision to have Superintendent Tony Tata review the Wake School Choice Plan as part of his efforts to develop a new long-term student assignment plan. The article calls the decision a step "that may turn down the temperature of the intense debate."

Going forward on the blog, I'm just going to call the proposal from the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership the Wake School Choice Plan.

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."

More words are being traded in The Washington Post over last month's article on Wake County's school diversity fight.

In a letter to the editor in Saturday's Post, Calla Wright of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children challenges a recent letter submitted by Kathleen Brennan of Wake CARES.

Wright accuses Brennan of "scapegoating" by blaming the diversity policy and not growth for reassigning 60,000 students over the past 10 years.