Claim: “The North Carolina Supreme Court and Justice Lake had a case, and they said when he was mayor pro tem he collaborated with his employer, Duke Energy, to have the city of Charlotte condemn part of a family farm in order to enhance Duke’s profit line,” Dalton said during the debate. “And they said he filed a sworn affidavit and didn’t tell the truth. He was looking after that special interest. He wasn’t looking after the people. He certainly wasn’t looking after the farmer.”

McCrory responded by saying, “This is the first I’ve heard of this. It is just amazing, this attack on the private sector. … I had 34 years of business experience with Duke Energy, which I am very proud of. I was employed by them the whole time I was mayor. Never was there a question of ethical indiscretion.”

Dalton later responded, “I think that is a pretty significant indiscretion.”

This is a big no-no for reporters - Get Paid By the People You Cover!

A pharmaceutical company offered a free-lance reporter $250 just to show up to a press conference/presentation on Botox and two other drugs.

The ethics policy at The N&O says this: "Staffers may not accept gifts or favors from their sources, the  people regularly relied on for tips and information. It's clear we cannot be in the debt of anyone we depend on for news. This means not taking gifts of any kind and not accepting favors, such as an offer by a municipal official to void a ticket."

Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt apologized early Saturday morning for kicking yours truly out of a meeting in which lawmakers hashed out differences on the omnibus ethics bill.

Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, said he needed to keep the meeting closed so that lawmakers who had staked themselves out on the legislation could "walk back from the plank" and start reaching consensus.

They did, and at about 3 a.m. the legislature overwhelmingly passed the bill, which includes several measures that address issues raised in our Keeping Secrets series earlier this year.

Here's a scorecard on the three major areas raised in the series:

Salary and employment histories: The bill makes them public.

Disciplinary actions: The bill makes public dismissal letters and past suspensions and demotions of public employees, but no general opening of personnel files for those who commit on-the-job felonies.

Hiring actions: Lawmakers left this one largely untouched, though there is a provision that would provide a "general description" of promotions. But it's not likely that description will include the fact that a lawmaker or political fundraiser helped make that promotion happen.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a ban on so-called soft money donations in a campaign finance case that has some echoes in Raleigh, where some want to see limitations placed on the political parties.

Bloomberg cast the decision as a rare victory for supporters of campaign finance limits.

Read the New York Times' report here, which quotes an expert as saying: “This is only temporary good news for those who think the soft-money ban is an important anticorruption component of federal campaign finance law.”

A National Journal piece is here.

-- J. Andrew Curliss

The ethics bill kicking around the state Senate could see some major additions tomorrow.

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger said he and other Republicans are looking to beef up the bill in several ways that range from more open personnel records to limits on legislative leaders' campaign giving to colleagues.

Berger said he plans to add in the ethics provisions that the state House passed last year. They include disclosure of fundraising by political appointees and a prohibition on contractors from donating to campaigns.

Berger would add more transparency to personnel matters by making public disciplinary actions for state and local employees, as well and letters of recommendation from elected officials. The Senate bill currently only makes salary and employment histories public.

State Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and Senate Rules Chairman, has also expressed an interest in making disciplinary actions public, something that the State Employees Association of North Carolina opposes.

Our recent series, Keeping Secrets, showed that North Carolina has one of the nation's most secretive laws regarding personnel matters, making little more than current salaries and current positions public.

Another planned provision that will likely trigger discussion is limiting the amount of campaign money that legislative leaders can steer toward a legislative candidate. Currently, legislative leaders can steer unlimited amounts of money to campaigns by running them through their political parties. The practice has resulted in legislative races in swing districts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, wants to limit the giving to no more than $100,000 per candidate.

A state Senate judiciary committee is expected to take up the bill at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It would need to clear the committee, the full Senate and the House before the legislative session comes to a close.

The Senate's version of an ethics bill, now on hold because of the public financing provisions in it, includes a one-year "cooling off" period for lawmakers going to lobby their old colleagues.

The current law includes a six-month delay for lawmakers lobbying.

The new ethics proposal also would make it one year before public employees could register to lobby their state agency.

The reason for this, as stated in the bill, is "to strengthen public confidence in government by increasing the revolving door period."

The one year idea isn't new.

In fact, it was in the original ethics legislation that passed back in 2006.

But at the time, then-Rep. Drew Saunders, a Democrat of Mecklenburg County, successfully cut the provision to six months.

Two years later, after Saunders lost in a primary, he went to lobby for Electricities. He's been there the past two years.

City Council Ward 3 candidate Allan Polak has requested a city inquiry into a code of ethics violation he alleges his opponent, council member Mike Woodard, committed this week.