Price's bill aims at non-military contractors

U.S. Rep. David Price has introduced legislation that would allow the United States to investigate and prosecute serious crimes conducted overseas by private contractors working for the State Department and other non-military government agencies.

The legislation expands on the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which provides similar criminal jurisdiction over members of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense employees and contractors. Such jurisdiction doesn't exist for private contractors working for non-military agencies.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, became concerned about the gap in part after the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007 by Blackwater guards working for the State Department. Charges against five Blackwater guards were dropped in December. Blackwater, now known as Xe, is based in Moyock.

Price's bill, known as the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, would direct the Justice Department to create new units to investigate, arrest and prosecute contractors who commit serious crimes. It would also allow federal agents to arrest alleged offenders outside the United States if a crime is committed.

The act would require the Attorney General to report annually to Congress on the number of offenses prosecuted.

E-mail safe from deletion

The state's new e-mail archive system will capture e-mail messages before they hit the inboxes of state employees.

In other words, if the system works as advertised, state employees can't delete e-mail anymore. Gov. Bev Perdue ordered the state to install a new, searchable archive system. The system, called Mimosa, will capture all messages, including spam, said Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Perdue.

The system has been installed in the governor's office and will be added to other agencies.

Perdue climbing in polls

North Carolina voters see Perdue more favorably than a month ago, according to a poll by the Civitas Institute.

The poll of 600 likely voters taken Jan. 19-21 found that 38 percent had a favorable opinion of Perdue while 43 percent saw her unfavorably.

In Civitas' December poll, only 32 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Perdue, a Democrat, while 38 percent had an unfavorable opinion.

The January poll was conducted by Tel Opinion Research of Arlington, Va., and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Perdue's approval ratings have taken a steady and prolonged dip since she took office.

Burr adds to campaign team

Mark Braden, who was deputy campaign manager for Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey, has taken the same job for North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.

Braden will manage the campaign's day-to-day operations and oversee all campaign operations for Burr, who is seeking re-election in November.

Before helping Christie defeat Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in November, Braden served as national advance lead for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008.

Burr ex-staffer goes to RNC

Meanwhile, a former staffer for Burr now is the top spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Doug Heye was the communications director for Burr's last campaign, then took the same position in his Senate office - a job he held for two years. Heye left Burr's office to run the Senate campaign for RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who was then lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Heye graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994.

By Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett and staff writers Benjamin Niolet and Rob Christensen.

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