House member calls lapses forgetfulness

When state Rep. Pryor Gibson was pushing legislation last July to allow proposed regional landfills to proceed under a moratorium, Gibson said he had voluntarily refunded contributions from waste management executives and planned to give back others to avoid appearances of a conflict.

Gibson's most recent campaign finance report, received by the State Board of Elections last month, shows he refunded several contributions, but only one was to a waste executive. The others, he kept.

On July 5, Gibson's campaign refunded a $1,000 contribution from Lonnie Poole III, an executive with Waste Industries. It also refunded two contributions totaling $700 from Fred Yelverton of Apex; and $200 from Charles Peacock, his report shows.

Gibson's report, filed in July, lists Yelverton and Peacock as sanitation executives with Waste Enterprises Inc. Actually, both are crop scientists at N.C. State University.

Meanwhile, Gibson kept contributions totaling $750 from Waste Industries' president and CEO, Jimmy Perry, and $750 from Waste Industries' chief operating officer, Harry Habets of Pinehurst, and from the Waste Management Political Action Committee.

Gibson, an Anson County Democrat, said he returned the contributions to Yelverton and Peacock because of a clerical error. (Peacock's erroneously listed occupation has been corrected in Gibson's most recent campaign finance, but Yelverton's hasn't.)

After he realized the error, however, Gibson did not try to refund the other waste executive contributions.

"I'll be honest, I probably forgot," Gibson said. "At the end of the day, after the moratorium was done, I didn't think there was any conflict. I felt like the potential conflict was over.

"In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have sent any of them back."

Mum on 'Jeopardy!'

The answer: David Mills, executive director of the Common Sense Foundation think tank.

The question: Who was a contestant on "Jeopardy!" in November?

But you will have to watch the show Tuesday night to find out whether he was a winner. Mills said his appearance was taped Nov. 7 at the show's studio in Culver City, Calif.

"Unfortunately, I signed a mandatory ten-page contract forbidding me to divulge any details about the outcome until after the broadcast," Mills said in an e-mail message.

Dome tried to trick Mills into answering the question by asking whether he would also appear on Wednesday's show, but he showed the kind of smarts that land you on "Jeopardy!" in the first place.

"I'd love to tell you," Mills responded via e-mail, "but I was introduced to Jeopardy's 'compliance' attorney while I was out there, and he was not a funny man."

Triangle viewers can find "Jeopardy!" on WTVD, Channel 11, at 7 p.m. weeknights.

Moore action honored

State Treasurer Richard Moore's decision in November to divest state retirement money from companies that do business in Sudan has earned him the "New Dem of the Week" honor from the Democratic Leadership Council.

The council calls itself a progressive network of elected officials and community leaders. It includes two people who are expected to run for president in 2008 -- Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who has announced his candidacy; and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who is expected to run.

Sudan is widely criticized for human-rights abuses and government complicity in a war involving rebel factions, militia groups and government forces.