Prosecutors want Poole trial "with dispatch"

If emails are considered unreliable then why use them? this is only another ploy to once again swindle the public. Although it may be a legitimate legal question, it is no reason to hold up such an important case. The corruption that has existed in politics is finally making the news it deserves. Both parties have shown to not be trustworthy and have become marginalized to the point of most would rather have some alternative than these two parties. The democrats have surely lost their rights to hold any leadership positions in this state. I think the voters have awakened and the independant voters will hold the power from now on. The 2 party system is surely dying out and the question now is what will replace it. It is a shame we have wasted so much time, money, and energy dealing with this mess along with the incompetence in Washington at a time when we need leadership, there is none.

With all due respect to you, Mr. McKnight, I doubt the good former governor would agree with your sentiment ("...Gov. Mike Easley did not view emails as constituting lawful official state government documents and communications..."). This is a novel way of distracting from the issue at hand, however, and for that, nice try. The emails are a small part of the evidence against Poole and I suspect the eventual evidence against Easley. The man used his position to enrich himself, laundered money and failed to complete basic ethics documents as required by law. Willful misrepresentation on top of using his office to influence regulators regarding projects he invested tens of thousands of dollars (illegally), and you argue that email is the problem? Good one.

As a citizen fed up with the hypocrisy, elitism and downright crooked nature of NC politics, I must say I wish Gov. Easley was taking advice from you.

   The News & Observer was once known as "The Old Reliable," so perhaps the time has come for the newspaper to do an in-depth study of the reliability of email as an "official" form of communications. So many "email notifications" are sent out to North Carolina citizens these days that often turn out to be inaccurate, unauthentic as to purported source, or outright fraudulent.

    Then there is the question of the technical capability of altering the content of emails in the process of sending or forwarded them. How many citizens have themselves personally had to deal with "email message" scams or have known other individuals who have had to contend with these untruthful "communications" from one source or another?  

   It is good that former Gov. Mike Easley did not view emails as constituting lawful official state government documents and communications, and therefore, the North Carolina General Assembly ought to face these issues directly in light of current email irregularities and act to declare that only properly printed and signed letters and certain other papers shall serve as official communications for all offices and departments of North Carolina state government.

   David P. McKnight