O'Reilly, host of "The O'Reilly Factor," questioned Edwards' assertion that 200,000 veterans "will go to sleep under bridges and on grates" because they are homeless tonight.

"They may be out there, but there's not many of them out there. OK," O'Reilly said. "If you know where's a veteran sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it."

Edwards responded with a statement: "For someone who spends a lot of time shouting about patriotism, you would think he would be outraged by the treatment of our homeless veterans. How many more will it take before we wake up and solve this crisis?"

The Edwards campaign cited a November study by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A spokeswoman for the alliance said it got the information from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the year 2006.

The VA report said "about one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. Current population estimates suggest that about 195,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year."

The report said about 45 percent of the homeless vets suffer from mental illness and slightly more than 70 percent suffer from alcohol or other drug abuse problems.

Legislature, live

Bill Graham wants to see the legislature online, live.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate said in a debate Jan. 10 that North Carolina legislators need to open the process and provide live video footage of sessions of both houses via the Internet.

"One of the first things we need to do with the budget process and with government in Raleigh in general is shed a little sunshine into the General Assembly," Graham said. "There needs to be live streaming Web cams in the Senate and the House so we can see how this stuff is put together."

Graham's proposal has precedent. Georgia, South Carolina and Florida offer live Web video coverage of all legislative sessions.

North Carolina already provides live audio for sessions in both houses, press conferences and all meetings in the Appropriations and Finance Committee rooms; but no video footage is available.

House speaker recovers fast

Joe Hackney is back in action.

The House speaker has made a quick recovery from prostate cancer surgery, taking a tour of a special warfare center this week at Fort Bragg with three other lawmakers.

According to a news release from the speaker's office, the lawmakers toured a vertical wind tunnel that helps paratroopers learn to maneuver in the air and a "laser shoot house" where soldiers with live ammunition sharpen their close quarter combat skills.

Bill Holmes, Hackney's spokesman, said the speaker began holding meetings in his office Jan. 2, and has also attended a few fundraisers for his colleagues. He's back working the Chatham County beef cattle farm with one of his brothers.

Hackney, 62, an Orange County Democrat, had surgery to remove his prostate on Dec. 21 at UNC Hospitals after doctors confirmed the cancer in September. Doctors said that the cancer was contained within the prostate and that they expected Hackney to make a full recovery.

Dellinger would raise dropout age

Hampton Dellinger, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, has released a schools plan that includes raising the dropout age to 18 and expanding preschool for 3-year-olds.

Dellinger, a Raleigh lawyer and former aide to Gov. Mike Easley, wants to expand Easley's More at Four program so that at-risk and other 3-year-olds can attend prekindergarten programs.

Other proposals include raising teachers' salaries above the national average, establishing "parent portals," so parents can get information about their children's school attendance and academic progress in real time, and expanding driver's education programs to "transit ed" so that students can learn about mass transit options.

Dellinger also said he had a major disagreement with one of his Democratic rivals, state Sen. Walter H. Dalton. He said Dalton, one of the Senate's chief budget writers, had agreed to cuts in the education budget during the recession in 2001.

"When it comes to major policy matters, including education funding, Mr. Dalton and I disagree," Dellinger said in a statement.