Mitt Romney's latest ad says that President Obama's economic policies have failed, and that Romney's policies would create 350,000 new jobs in North Carolina.

Let's assume he means in his first four-year term. That would be 87,500 new jobs a year.  That's a lot of jobs.

First, let's look at what's happened since January 2009, when the president took office. There were 4,174,597 people working in North Carolina, according to statistics kept by the state Employment Security Commission. (Seasonally adjusted)

In July of this year, the number had grown to 4,202,281. So, looking at it this way, the North Carolina economy employs 27,684 more people.  If you want to give the president the benefit of the doubt, and say that he needed time to get his policies into place before they would show results, let's start at January 2010.  The state had more than 100,000 fewer people working at that point compared with the year earlier, so the base line was 4,070,722.  Between then and now, the state economy has 131,559 more employed people. So that was growth of around 52,000 employees a year.

Romney says he can add 87,500 jobs each year in his first term.  That may be doable, but it would be a heck of a thing.  In the '90s, when the state was growing gangbusters, the number of employees grew an average of 65,000 annually.

One of the problems in North Carolina is that globalization has decimated manufacturing. The number of people employed in manufacturing in North Carolina has dropped since 2000 from 759,026 to 435,220.  

Now, a big chunk of that happened early in the last decade, the continuation of the offshoring of jobs in textiles and other traditional North Carolina industries. But another big batch of manufacturing job losses happened in the recession. 2008 was an awful year for manufacturing in North Carolina.

If there is any good news, it is that the manufacturing losses have seemed to stabilize the last couple of years. Another piece of good news - maybe, depending on your point of view - is that increased natural gas production through fracking could bring more manufacturing jobs here. If you are against fracking, then this probably won't appeal to you, but it is possible that abundant, low-cost energy is a way to bring jobs back from overseas. One joker in the deck is that we don't really know yet how much natural gas can be extracted through fracking in NC, and won't know for a while.

President Barack Obama invited a broad spectrum of established and budding scientists to the White House for a science fair, including some people with North Carolina ties.

When one of the student presenters -- an eighth-grader from Arizona named Joey -- displayed his air cannon, the president couldn't resist learning more.

And when the president learned the air cannon could fire marshmallows up to 176 feet, he talks Joey into firing the cannon. Indoors. In the White House.

The rest, as they say, is presidential history -- and a potential Secret Service headache.

Here's the news release from the White House on the emergency declaration for North Carolina:

Much has changed since we last saw TV One's take-off on "The Bachelorette."

First of all, "Donald J. Trump Presents" has been removed from the title making it just "The Ultimate Merger" (TV One, 9 tonight). Whether that's because the Donald tarnished his brand with African-Americans because of his questionable attacks on President Obama's birthplace or because having  "Donald J. Trump Presents" in the title is ridiculous, we'll never know. There's mention that the hotel is Trump-owned, but this time there's no offensive warning to the men not to damage any property. Yep, that actually happened.

Despite the fact that she didn't find love, Omarosa isn't back (she found it off camera with actor Michael Clarke Duncan); instead another one-namer, model Toccara sorts through 14 men to find Mr. Right.

Wind. Solar. Nuclear. Coal. Natural gas. Can all of these be considered clean energy?

In President Obama's State of the Union address, he challenged the nation to set a new goal that 80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources by 2035. Read reactions to the Obama's new goal.

So it turns out Barack Obama and Holden Thorp share a love of science fairs.

Who knew?

In his State of the Union address earlier this year, Obama pushed for a smarter citizenry, saying he yearned for a day when science fair winners are held in the same regard as Super Bowl winners.

That rang true to Thorp, the UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor who snared a few science fair titles in his day.

The Fayetteville native was a science whiz kid growing up. Speaking to the UNC-CH Board of Trustees Thursday, he said Obama's words were inspirational.

"I spent the rest of the night looking through my closet for my old middle school science fair trophies," he joked.

Thorp also said he was heartened by Obama's hope that federal funding for academic research not be cut. UNC-CH is a research goliath, reeling in more than $800 million in grant-funded research last year.

And with projects paid through federal stimulus money now reaching their end, university researchers say it's critical that traditional sources of that grant money remain intact or even grow.

"I'm upbeat that research is going to be okay," Thorp said. "Obviously, the president is committed to it."

Research funding is high on the university's annual policy agenda, and Thorp said Thursday it is a key indicator of the university's level of national prominence.

It's a story the university tells often. With new leadership in the General Assembly, it'll get told even more often in weeks and months to come.

"With new people in the legislature, we think it's important to help them understand the research activity and impact on the economy," he said, adding that total grant-funded research last year totaled $803 million.

"That's money they don't have to provide," he said.

The spending freeze President Obama called for in his Tuesday night State of the Union address would largely spare higher education.

Obama's  proposed five-year discretionary spending freeze would spare education and research, which are too critical to the nation's future to sacrifice, he said.

"Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine," he said. "It may feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you'll feel the impact."

Obama indicated a desire to invest in biomedical research, information technology and energy. He proposed paying for those initiatives by cutting oil company tax breaks, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education.

This sits well with higher education backers.

"We agree with the president that the nation needs to take strong action to reduce budget deficits, and that as we do so, we must continue to direct additional resources toward research and education to ensure America's economic competitiveness and global leadership," said Robert M. Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, in the Chronicle of Higher Education. "It is our hope that sustained investment in research and education, even as we reduce deficits, is something Democrats and Republicans can agree on."

But as the Chronicle reports today, that investment may not go over well in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

Read on.

The big three networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- will interrupt regular programming tonight to broadcast the remarks of President Obama at this evening's memorial service in Tucson.

The remarks are expected to come sometime between 8pm - 9pm and will likely last less than 10 minutes.

CBS will air repeats of "Big Bang Theory" and "Rules of Engagement" from 8 to 9 and interrupt one of those. "Live to Dance" is moved to 9pm and a new episode of "The Defenders" will air at 10pm.

Thanks to "providential" timing, N.C. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin was the center of attention at the White House today.

During a meeting of state insurance commissioners and Obama administration officials, the biggest buzz was Monday's news of Goodwin's agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. The health insurer plans to refund customers $155.8 million and raise rates less than expected.

President Obama mentioned it several times as an example of the federal health overhaul spurring positive results for consumers. He also thanked Goodwin for his work with Blue Cross and told the group: "Well done, Wayne."

"I've met presidents before, but I've never been singled out by first name at the White House," Goodwin said by phone from the Washington airport.

President Barack Obama has appointed Saint Augustine’s College President Dianne Boardley Suber to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Suber is the 10th President of Saint Augustine's College and the first female to assume the presidency.

Suber is part of a group of HBCU presidents now meeting with President Obama and representatives from the White House Initiative on HBCUs.  The visit is part of the 2010 National HBCU Conference being held in the nation’s capitol.  

The theme of this year’s conference is “Moving Toward HBCU Cathedrals.”  In recognition of the important role HBCUs play in producing qualified individuals who contribute to the success of this nation, President Obama designated September 12-18 as National HBCU Week.

Obama announced Suber's appointment at the conference's opening session.