Latino values clear, but the voter rolls are not

Henry Cisneros says the future of the Democratic Party lies with Latinos.

The former Cabinet secretary said Friday that the country's growing Hispanic population in the United States will be a vital constituency in the future. He said that the surge won't change the party's issues much because they are already "part of the American dream."

"There are very few issues where the Latino interest diverges from the traditional American interest," he told Dome. "This is a group that comes here to work, that is traditional in its family values, in its church values."

A supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Cisneros was traveling in North Carolina and making appearances on local Spanish-language radio on her behalf.

Still, Clinton won't win too many votes from Hispanics in North Carolina. According to recent figures from the State Board of Elections, there are 41,897 Hispanic voters, or less than 1 percent of the electorate.

But Triangle Community Foundation President Andrea Bazan-Manson, who was traveling with Cisneros, said that number may be undercounted because voters gained a box to check noting that they are Hispanic only in the past three years.

"All of us that registered 15 years ago didn't have a choice," she said.

Troopers pan review

The N.C. Troopers Association is slamming an independent consultant's review of the state Highway Patrol.

The association released a statement Friday calling the report "incomplete, biased, misleading, and inaccurate in relevant parts." It also said the report is a "severe disservice" to troopers, the Highway Patrol and taxpayers.

The association is the second group to criticize the review. John Midgette, executive director of the N.C. Police Benevolent Association, also delivered a harsh critique after the review was released Wednesday.

Kroll, based in New York City, was hired to perform a review of the patrol's hiring, training and supervision practices. Gov. Mike Easley called for the review in the fall after several high-profile cases of trooper misconduct.

The review produced more than 40 recommendations ranging from freeing up front-line supervisors of bureaucratic tasks so they can spend more time in the field to better pay for troopers. It also found that the patrol was a "highly professional, well-managed" organization.

Terry Story, president of the troopers association, had expressed support for many of the recommendations in an interview with The News & Observer on Wednesday, but he said at the time that his comments were based on media reports of the review, which he had not yet read.

The association said it has the same concerns Midgette voiced, that the review was flawed from the start because it did not take a broad enough look at problems within the patrol.

Troopers have long complained about unequal treatment in disciplinary actions, a concern the review acknowledged but did not support.

The reviewers did not closely examine disciplinary cases, noting that the state's personnel laws bar the public from much of that information.

The troopers association also said Kroll should have surveyed the entire force, instead of interviewing a sampling of troopers.

Payroll oops

More than 400 employees at the state Department of Transportation were shortchanged on their pay Friday.

State Controller Robert L. Powell said that 407 employees missed out on a total of $288,954. Powell said the problem was because of a human error made while the payroll system was being "tweaked" to fix something else.

To make up for it, additional checks were delivered to the employees later Friday and Saturday.

That was faster than depositing the money directly in their bank accounts, Powell said.

Powell, whose agency is responsible for the payroll, said he would apologize to the employees who were not paid in full on time.

Overheard:

"If it goes all the way to Denver, I don't think it would be bad for the party."

- Gov. Mike Easley, a supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that he does not think it will hurt the Democratic Party's chances in November if the nominee is not decided until the national convention in Denver.

EDITOR'S NOTE

The News & Observer had planned to run today a special edition of Under the Dome looking at the campaign finances of candidates for several Council of State primaries. But because of confusion with some of the campaign finance reports, we were concerned about our ability to provide a fair, accurate and clear comparison of the finances of all the candidates. Campaign finance reports for all state candidates are available at the Web site for the N.C. State Board of Elections - www.sboe.state. nc.us.