Charlotte City Attorney Mac McCarley said Thursday that public information requests for e-mail had become so burdensome that top officials had quit sending sensitive messages for fear they might become public.

The findings on why a Franklin County hospital was denied state permission to move from the center of the county to a location near the Wake County line will be released today.

About 20 state mental health workers gather at Dix to protest what they say are unsafe conditions in the state's psychiatric hospitals.

A respected legal scholar said Friday that the Easley administration's policy of allowing workers to delete e-mail messages when their "reference value" ends is lawful.

The federal government has withheld payment of $175 million for a state mental health program because of concerns that the state has been paying improper claims.

Gov. Mike Easley may want to study the recent experience of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, who announced in January that he would not seek re-election in part because of a furor over deleted e-mail messages by his office.

State mental health officials are willing to give local offices power to manage patient care -- but only if those offices are willing to merge with their neighbors.

North Carolina risks lives and violates federal rules by discharging patients from its state mental hospitals without adequate plans for community care, an advocacy group says.

The News & Observer and nine other North Carolina news organizations sued Gov. Mike Easley on Monday over his administration's deletion of e-mail, which they say violates the state's Public Records Law.

Two law firms that represent low-income people are suing the state over mental-health care, contending that patients are having their services taken away without good reason.

For nearly eight years, Gov. Mike Easley's low-profile style has served him well. Now, a series of high-profile problems at agencies in his administration could overshadow his goals for his last nine months in office.

Gov. Mike Easley said Wednesday that he has instructed his senior staff, his press office and other state public information officers to cooperate better with news media outlets to provide information to the public.

John Umstead Hospital has until April 25 to fix ongoing problems or lose federal money.

After nine hearings, no psychiatric care has been found for her.

Representatives of North Carolina's newspapers and broadcasters Thursday told a panel appointed by Gov. Mike Easley that state law requires government officials to retain copies of all e-mail messages pertaining to public business.

Gov. Mike Easley said Tuesday that he is not convinced that recently released notes jotted by state employees are clear evidence that officials in his office instructed others to destroy public records.

Three Republican gubernatorial candidates and the director of an open government group said Monday that the SBI should look into allegations that Gov. Mike Easley's staff told state public information officers to delete e-mail messages.

State government public information officers were instructed by Gov. Mike Easley's press office to delete e-mail to and from the governor's office, according to notes the governor's office released Saturday.

The next governor will be asked to repair North Carolina's fractured mental health system, which has wasted money, left sick people without adequate care, and cost lives.

The handpicked chairman of a committee appointed to review whether Gov. Mike Easley's administration is breaking public records law by deleting e-mails said he never sends them in the first place.

The state mental hospital in Morganton has taken a first step in getting its federal payments restored after having lost more than $1 million a month because of poor care of patients.

Dempsey Benton, the state's mental-health chief, also wants basic treatment available in every region of North Carolina.

Stephen Wayne Mintz's death received little public attention after he fell out the back of a state-owned laundry truck at Dorothea Dix Hospital in March 2006.

Gov. Mike Easley on Tuesday initiated a review to determine if his administration needs to change the way it handles e-mail messages.

The governor's changing policy allows state workers to destroy e-mail messages they consider to be 'ephemeral.'