The re-election campaign of President Barack Obama will hold student "summit" at N.C. Central University in Durham on Tuesday, kicking off its effort to organize historically black campuses across the country.
The event will be attended by Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager; Valerie Jarrett, a top Democratic strategist and long-time adviser to the president, and actress Gabrielle Union, said U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson, who will also attend.
The 6 p.m. event will launch the Greater Together program on historically black campuses nationwide.
McCrory names Peck manager
The former executive director of the N.C. Republican Party is taking the helm of Pat McCrory's campaign for governor.
Russell Peck led the state party before stepping down after Chairman Robin Hayes took control. Since then, Peck has worked as director of external affairs for America's Natural Gas Alliance.
Peck's previous experience includes a stint with the Republican National Committee in New Jersey during the 2009 governor's race and roles with John McCain's 2008 campaign in Florida and North Carolina. Peck - like his replacement at the state party, executive director Scott Laster - has deep Florida GOP roots, working as an intern to Gov. Jeb Bush and as a transition team member for Gov. Charlie Crist, as well as for the Republican Party of Florida.
Cowell appears on 'GMA'
State Treasurer Janet Cowell appeared Friday on "Good Morning America" as part of an ABC segment on unclaimed money.
Cowell stood in a gymnasium at the Arapahoe Charter School with ABC's Elisabeth Leamy to present three checks from unclaimed property. The N.C. Community College System received about $18,000. The UNC system received about $127,000. And the N.C. Department of Public Instruction received about $229,000.
The charter school received the single largest amount of any individual school at $47,720.
The segment was part of a series on returning unclaimed property through state treasurer's offices across the country.
Manufacturing on rebound?
President Barack Obama's campaign surrogates say there is evidence that North Carolina's manufacturing economy is coming back.
"Things are slowly getting better," Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said last week. "We have just seen our unemployment rate in Forsyth County drop to 8.8 percent, which is well below the state average."
In each of the past 23 months, Joines said the private sector has added jobs. In North Carolina, manufacturing exports grew by more than 19 percent from 2010 to 2011, he said.
State Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro, said "the last thing we can afford is to go back to the same exact tried and failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place. That is the real choice for North Carolinians and all Americans this fall."
"Governor (Mitt) Romney's budget proposes to cut critical investments in our community colleges and infrastructure and clean energy sources that have been vital to job growth in North Carolina," Harrison said.
The teleconference was set up by the Obama campaign in conjunction with the president's appearance Friday at a Boeing plant in Seattle, during which he talked about the growth in manufacturing jobs.
Price gets GOP opponent
U.S. Rep. David Price has a Republican opponent in the 4th District race.
He is political newcomer Doug Yopp, a Raleigh fundraiser in higher education, who promises to run on a platform of term limits, against taxpayer bailouts and for energy independence.
But the newly conformed 4th District has made the district even more Democratic by the Republican-led legislature, making the race a particularly difficult one for Republicans such as Yopp.
