Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for free birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes.

The state's largest civil rights group, the NAACP, is asking voters to reject what it says is an invitation to discriminate.

Seven-term Raleigh City Councilman John Odom knows all too well about the rigors of running for office every two years. Odom wants the city to consider four-year terms. He says it would result in better government.

Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary, the co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and one of the most influential lawmakers in the Triangle, said Friday that he will not seek re-election.