Gene Conti almost missed his get-well call from an old boss, former President Bill Clinton.

The North Carolina transportation secretary has been away from the office, recuperating after surgery Dec. 20 at Duke Hospital. He was about to leave home Wednesday afternoon on an errand with his wife, Betsy, when the phone rang.

Don’t answer it, Betsy said. Let’s go.

Instead, she tapped her foot while her husband chatted with his caller for about five minutes. Yes, Gene said into the phone, my doctors have had me on a weight-loss program, too. I’m walking a treadmill, just like you did.

“Who was that?” Betsy asked when he finally hung up. ... [MORE]

For three years, 29.9 cents was North Carolina's gas tax ceiling. Then in 2009 it became our gas tax floor.

Now the state gas tax has climbed to 32.5 cents a gallon, an all-time high. We pay about $7.25 in state and federal taxes on every 15-gallon tankful.

The General Assembly, with its new Republican majority, will have to revisit the issue of ceilings and floors this spring. 

“My inclination would be to restore the cap,” pushing the tax back to 29.9 cents, said Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican who will be the new Senate leader.

“Lord knows, individuals are having enough trouble covering their personal obligations as it is, and for the state to raise taxes on [gas] is just compounding problems for individuals.”

More Tuesday in the Road Worrier. [1/4/11 update: see today's column with reader comments.]

North Carolina will get just $1.5 million of the high-speed rail money recently spurned by new Republican leaders in Ohio and Wisconsin, Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, said today.

Most of the $1.195 billion originally designated for the two midwestern states will be spent instead on the nation's three most ambitious passenger rail projects -- two in California ($624 million) and one in Florida ($342 million).  The remaining 11 states receiving shares range from Washington state ($162 million) and Illinois ($42 million) to Indiana ($365,000), with North Carolina third from the bottom.

LaHood, a Republican serving in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama, had generated higher hopes when he told a Charlotte audience Nov. 17 that North Carolina could expect good news when DOT redistributed the Ohio and Wisconsin money. "You all are going to be in the high-speed rail business," he said then. ... [MORE]

You might get a $100 ticket, starting Wednesday, if you obscure your automobile license plate with one of those fat frames that promote pastimes, car dealers and alma maters.

You say you'd rather be fishing? The police would rather be able to read your license plate.

That includes every letter and number of your license number, the state that issued your license, and the month and year your registration expires.

Under a new state law that takes effect Wednesday, you’re not street-legal if ... [MORE].

Which “liberal Democrats” and “environmental whackos” (to quote some of the commenters on today’s story, “Highway may divide Garner to protect mussels”) gave us the Endangered Species Act?

The 1973 law was designed to protect threatened and endangered species and the ecosystems they depend on. It was enacted in a surge of environmentalism that swept mainstream politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many people had a hand in this deed – and a key figure was Republican President Richard Nixon.

In 1972, Nixon sent Congress a sweeping agenda for environmental legislation to address issues including toxic waste, air and water pollution, wetland and wilderness area protection, and endangered species ... [MORE]

Rep. Paul Stam is in line for a big leadership position in the House, with the Republicans back in charge. (It's less clear if he will take the speaker's position, as there will be plenty of jockeying over the job.)

One of the big tasks in the term ahead will be redrawing the election districts for senators and House members, an act that can lead to "safe" districts for one party or the other. And controlling the redistricting process has been seen as one of the prizes of this year's legislative election.

As it turns out, Stam doesn't want lawmakers involved.

Stam was one of four members and a primary sponsor who filed this bill (H252) in Feb. 2009 that would set up an 11-member, independent commission to handle redistricting.

The bill hasn't passed to date.

It would be made up of people from each of the major political parties (4 each) and three others. The commission members would not come from the campaign trail or elected office, or from the lobbying ranks.

Its plan, under the bill, would have the full force of the General Assembly.

"The General Assembly shall not adopt any legislative district plan," the bill says.

It's easy to do this kind of research on your own.

Just click over to the General Assembly website and then click on House or Senate. After that, you can click through from the left side of the page to members of the leadership. Find the person you are interested in, and then click to their "sponsored bills" page.

Stam's bills from the past session are here.

-- J. Andrew Curliss

It seems clear that Republican Sen. Phil Berger will be leading the Senate when the legislature returns in January.

It's hard to know now what he'll push, but here is a link to bills Berger sponsored in the past session. Some have passed. Some haven't.

Among those that didn't find traction previously include:

* A Constitutional amendment to give the public a veto of General Assembly actions.

* A law that would limit general fund spending to the previous year's income.

* An act that would prohibit illegal immigrants from attending community colleges.

* A law that would increase penalties for felony death by vehicle crimes.

* Efforts to increase the number of charter schools in North Carolina.

* A Constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

It's easy to do this kind of research on your own.

Just click over to the General Assembly website and then click on House or Senate. After that, you can click through from the left side of the page to members of the leadership. Find the person you are interested in, and then click to their "sponsored bills" page.

-- J. Andrew Curliss

Buddy Finch, who said he was fired in retaliation for his effort to root out government waste and abuse, wants a judge to put him back in charge of the NCDOT Ferry Division - and to shield him from political meddling.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this week in Wake Superior Court, Finch asks to be reinstated with back pay. A retired 30-year Coast Guard veteran, he was fired in June after 55 days as state ferry director.

Finch’s attorney, John C. Hunter of Asheville, said the state’s whistleblower law gives judges broad powers to reinstate and protect government workers who suffer illegal retaliation for their efforts to clean up abuses.

“We're asking that they not interfere with his ability to deal with the various problems he found and he reported,” Hunter said. “We're asking the court to keep a continuing role there, if necessary.” ... [MORE]

With chronic joblessness dominating the economic debate, Rep. Bob Etheridge said this morning he plans to introduce a stimulus bill that would pay businesses to start hiring again.

Etheridge, a Democrat whose district includes portions of Wake, Johnston and Chatham counties, faces a November election in which the economy is almost certain to be the defining issue. He said this morning that a financial incentive would push businesses to accelerate hiring, which would stimulate economic recovery.

"The biggest cost for almost every business out there is labor," Etheridge said. "The missing piece in this economic recovery puzzle is to make labor costs manageable."

Superior Court Judge Howard Manning said Monday that an new executive order signed by Gov. Bev Perdue requiring her administration to retain government e-mail fully complies with the state's public records law.

However, the judge took no action on a motion from lawyers for Perdue to dismiss the lawsuit filed by several North Carolina news organizations, including The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, over former Gov. Mike Easley's mass deletion of government e-mails.

The lawsuit was filed last year after a former spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services publicly disclosed orders she recieved to delete all e-mails sent to and from the governor's office each day.

Without conceding that any e-mails were deleted by the Easley administration, Special Deputy Attorney General Dale Talbert challenged lawyers for the media organizations to produce the deleted e-mails to prove they were, in fact, deleted.

Talbert also argued that Manning could not issue a legal finding of fact in civil court that the Easley administration deleted e-mails because that would indicate the former governor committed a criminal act for which he has not been tried in criminal court. Knowingly destroying public records is a misdemeanor under state law.

Talbert said the media lawsuit, which was originally filed when Easley was still governor, is no longer valid because the new governor has issued an order telling her administration to follow the law.

Though he delayed making any ruling on the motion to dismiss, Judge Manning did not appear to buy the argument that the suit was no longer valid just because a new person occupies the Governor's Mansion.

"I'm declaring the new governor's policy to have a clean bill of health," Manning said to Amanda Martin, the lawyer representing the media organizations. "But I'm not going to dismiss your case today."

Manning gave Martin 30 days to review a lengthy new policy regarding e-mail retention released by the state Department of Cultural Resources last week and to update their complaint to reflect the new action taken by Perdue.

Manning appeared to agree with Talbert, however, that he should not issue a judicial order requiring Perdue's people to actually implement and follow the order she signed.

"I'm not going to order them to comply with the law," the judge said. "People are supposed to comply with the law."

Manning observed that the next step in the case would be for the state to provide the lawyers for the media organizations documents through discovery that could prove uncomfortable for Easley, who is now under scrutiny by both state election officials and federal prosecutors for alleged campaign finance violations and influence peddling.

"As if the former governor doesn't have enough to worry about," Manning lamented.