Crossroads GPS, the Super PAC associated with Karl Rove, the former advisor to President George W. Bush, has begun airing a new commercial in North Carolina. It is a soft-focused ad that aimed at people who may have voted for Obama in 2008 and may be having doubts about voting for him again.

The ad, called "Basketball," is airing in North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The three-week run costs $9.7 million. The ad features a mother watching her children playing basketball, and later watching her grown up children still living at home.

"I supported President Obama because he spoke so beautifully," says the mother in the commercial. "He promised change, but things changed for the worse.”

John Hope Franklin stamp in works

There is a movement under way to approve a U.S. stamp to commemorate the life of Duke University historian John Hope Franklin.

“Dr. Franklin was an inspiration,” writes Democratic Congressman Brad Miller of Raleigh in a letter to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee.

“He taught at leading institutions in the U.S. and abroad,” Miller wrote. “He served on national commissions and delegations. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Dr. Franklin’s legacy will endure for generations.”

The citizens committee makes recommendations to the U.S. Postal Service.

Ann Coulter in Wake

Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter will headline a fund raiser this fall for the Wake County Republican Women’s Club.

Coulter will appear at the Sept. 16 fund raiser at the North Ridge County Club. Basic tickets are $250 for the 5 p.m. event.

This is a return engagement for Coulter who spoke to the same group in September 2010.

She is famous for stirring the pot, having written such books as “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) and “If Democrats Had Any Brains They’d Be Republicans.”

UNC students plan to hold

protest march in Charlotte

A group including members of

the Students for a Democratic Soci−

ety from UNC-Chapel Hill is aiming

for a big anti-corporate march the

weekend before this summer’s

Democratic convention, and is pro−

testing the nonresponse they’ve

gotten on the event from Charlotte

city officials.

Eight months after filing re−

quests for a march permit, the Co−

alition to March on Wall Street

South says it has only received de−

lays, returned applications, and ad−

ministrative run-arounds from

Charlotte and Mecklenburg Coun−

ty.

“The big banks in uptown Char−

lotte are responsible for kicking

people out of their homes, plunging

students and families deep into

debt, funding prisons and fueling

deportations, and destroying the

environment,” said Matt Hickson,

co-chair of UNC Chapel Hill Stu−

dents for a Democratic Society. "These are some of the issues we’ll be raising at the March on Wall Street South on Sept. 2.”

Staff writers Rob Christensen, John Frank and Thomas Goldsmith

Send tips to dome@newsobserver.com.