Protesters to stake out dinner

A group of Republican activists will protest the annual Vance-Aycock Democratic dinner.

The Carolina Stompers, a recently created group in Asheville, plans to protest the Oct. 6 event for honoring former Democratic Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock.

Aycock played a role in the 1898 coup that overthrew Wilmington's city council.

Chad Nesbitt, an Asheville radio and TV producer and stepson of Democratic Sen. Martin Nesbitt, predicted more than 120 people will come to the protest at Charlotte and Macon streets, just down the road from the Grove Park Inn.

Nesbitt, who is white, said he was upset that Democrats have apologized for their role in the race riots but continue to honor Aycock with the name of the dinner, which has been held since 1960.

"They're still honoring a white supremacist," he said.

Easley eats alone

Gov. Mike Easley eats alone a lot more than he used to.

According to a review of his daily schedule over the past three years, the governor only occasionally brings the state's power brokers for lunch at the governor's mansion.

In the run-up to his re-election campaign in 2004, Easley lunched with at least six notables, including former Gov. Jim Hunt, former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth and Red Hat software CEO Matthew Szulik.

But, according to his schedule, Easley's social calendar dried up after he was re-elected.

In 2005, he scheduled lunches only with Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and future lottery commission Chairman Dr. Charles Sanders.

In 2006, he hosted only Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Burbidge. And in 2007, only Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, broke bread at the Executive Mansion.

Not all of Easley's lunch dates may be on the schedule, however, and some may have been canceled.

To see a list of the governor's lunches, go to the Under the Dome blog at projects.newsobserver.com/tags/mike_easley.

Hackney in Argentina

House Speaker Joe Hackney is in the midst of a two-week trip to Argentina to talk about how North Carolina's legislature works and to learn how governments operate in the South American country.

His spokesman, Bill Holmes, said the National Conference of State Legislatures is paying for the trip, which is intended to promote an exchange of ideas between the U.S. and Argentina.

Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, is president-elect of the conference's executive committee.

Highway Patrol not laughing

After a week of news about the sexual misadventures of troopers, the last thing the state Highway Patrol wanted to see was its badge, patch and patrol vehicle on a Web site for retirees that includes an off-color sex joke that references ethnic stereotypes.

But that's what the public can find at the Web site for the N.C. Highway Patrol Retirees Association, at www.nchpra.org.

Association members have created a joke page on the site. One joke turns on the size of a woman's breasts, while another uses ethnic stereotypes as to which males are better equipped to have sex.

Patrol spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin said he would contact the patrol's legal staff to see whether they can require the retirees association to remove all the trooper paraphernalia because the jokes do not reflect the patrol's sensibilities. He called the jokes "inappropriate."

The association is not affiliated with the patrol, but many of its members are retirees.

Bill Ethridge, a retired major with 33 years in the patrol, posted the ethnic joke. He lives in Union County and is the association's secretary-treasurer.

"I just see it as a common joke that's told," he said. "Throughout your life you hear different jokes of that nature. I certainly don't think it's a connection to the conduct that's going on in the Highway Patrol."