A new Public Policy Polling survey echoes an Elon University poll that came out earlier this week showing a majority of North Carolinians oppose a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. PPP found 52 percent of those surveyed support greater rights for same-sex relationships. The new poll also carves out a couple of interesting slices: Senior citizens are the only age group with a majority (54 percent) that opposes any legal recognition for same-sex couples. Independent voters are even more supportive of the issue than Democrats, with 64 percent of them in favor. A bill is pending in the General Assembly to write a ban into the constitution.

We've gotten a number of letters recently about issues before the General Assembly that were simply too long to run. One writer would like the state to rethink its expenditures on computers in schools, one offers his take on whether judges should be appointed rather than elected, one takes issue with the idea of Sunday blue laws, one offers a real-life experience that reflects on the Marriage Amendment and another takes on the annexation issues in the state.