Insurance group fights 'comparative fault'

The insurance industry is running a statewide radio ad campaign to oppose legislation that would make it easier to collect damages in accident and injury cases.

The Insurance Federation of North Carolina is sponsoring the ad against a House-passed bill that would shift from a legal system of contributory negligence in civil suits to a system known as comparative fault.

The industry claims the change would cost consumers $150 million more per year.

"We just want to make sure consumers know if legislators make this change, it is very likely to cost them more," said Jennifer Cohen, the federation's executive director. "At a time when many North Carolinians are struggling to make ends meet, we don't think this is the time or place to do that."

For decades, this has been a battle in the legislature, pitting business interests against trial lawyers, labor and other groups.

North Carolina is one of the last states that bars victims from recovering damages in civil suits if they are at fault to any degree - the so-called contributory negligence provision.

The measure is pending before the Senate.

Teachers' gadgets

Gov. Bev Perdue wants $41 million in the state budget for hand-held electronic devices and software for teachers to measure student progress.

Getting the money could be a challenge. Perdue told the State Board of Education recently that legislators are reluctant to go along with her request.

"The General Assembly is reluctant to embrace this piece of technology," said Perdue, a Democrat.

She asked board members to join in a mission "to do a dog-and-pony show as we try to encourage Judge Manning and other business leaders these adaptive tools can make a difference."

Perdue was referring to Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, who is overseeing implementation of the state Supreme Court ruling that established that children have the right to a sound basic education.

The purpose of the equipment is to let teachers know what students have learned. Teachers are supposed to use the information to adjust their teaching strategies.

Perdue has had a tendency to call these hand-held devices new to the state, but by asking for lobbying help from the state board, she had to acknowledge that they've been used for years in North Carolina.

Elementary schools have used hand-held devices in Reading First programs, and dozens of districts had purchased them on their own before Perdue took up the cause.

Marker for the mansion

The governor's house now has its own historical marker.

A marker was erected last week outside the Executive Mansion to point out the Victorian home on Blount Street that has served as the official residence for North Carolina governors since 1891.

Here's your history lesson on the mansion, courtesy of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources:

Construction started in 1883 after Gov. Thomas Jarvis appealed to the legislature to build a suitable home. Since the end of the Civil War, governors had rented a house or stayed in a hotel. "It does not comport with the dignity of the State for the Governor to live in a hotel, where he is unable to dispense the hospitality incumbent upon him and due the state, to say nothing of the personal inconvenience to himself," Jarvis noted.

Of course, Jarvis never dreamed of a female governor living in the mansion.

By staff writers Rob Christensen, Lynn Bonner and Jane Stancill