The family of Meg Scott Phipps says the guilty plea was a sham and prosecutors forced Phipps, the former agriculture commissioner, to admit crimes she didn't commit.

Former Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham earned respect as friend of farmer. He died Thursday of complications from pneumonia.

Expect an overwhelming feeling of deja vu at today's public hearing at the General Assembly on new legislative districts. It'll start with maps you've seen before. Legislators will be gathering comments on plans drawn by a judge last year that aren't any good anymore.

State sentencing put off till spring.

Former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps walked shackled into federal court Monday and, after a year of claiming innocence, admitted taking part in an illegal campaign fund-raising conspiracy.

Strates Shows, which ran the fair's midway this year, paid the state more than $4.6 million, state agriculture officials announced Tuesday.

Meg Scott Phipps' best defense now may be to admit guilt. And even that may not keep her out of prison.

There was one bright note to Meg Scott Phipps' conviction Thursday: It was a rarity in the annals of North Carolina politics. No statewide officeholder has been convicted of committing a crime while in office, according to political experts contacted after the verdict.

I stood in the Wake County Courthouse elevator with Meg Scott Phipps on Thursday and I realized: She still thinks she's innocent. A Superior Court jury that afternoon had convicted Phipps, North Carolina's former agriculture commissioner, on perjury charges, confirming that she lied to investigators about her campaign finances. Testimony showed that Phipps' reign at the state Agriculture Department was a shakedown scheme.

Mike Blanton describes meeting with Meg Scott Phipps and Linda Saunders to plan lies they would tell.

Testimony implies Scott had role in improprieties.