Video poker ban, minimum wage topics in legislature
The House voted overwhelmingly to phase out video poker machines in North Carolina. The bill now goes to the Senate, which is expected to approve the phase-out, making the gambling machines illegal by July 1, 2007. The Senate has in previous years approved video poker bans, and it approved such a measure last month. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, had previously prevented a vote on a ban from coming up on the House floor. He?d said he didn?t like the effect it would have on jobs. However, he relented after investigations into contributions made by people in the video poker industry to his campaign. The House gave its final approval to a bill that would raise the minimum wage in North Carolina by $1 an hour. The Senate has approved a similar increase as a part of its budget package. Under the House plan, wages for the state?s lowest-paid workers would increase from $5. 15 per hour to $6. 15 on Jan. 1, 2007. Final details on passage have yet to be worked out. An investigation into House Speaker Jim Black?s campaign has lead to that chamber approving a bill barring intermediaries from completing information on campaign contribution checks. The investigation showed that Black had filled out the payee line in some checks in previous years. A study shows that racial violence in Wilmington in 1898 was actually a coup d?etat, and not a race riot. The report urges incentives for minority small businesses and compensation to heirs of victims. A commission looking into the violence found that an elected Reconstruction Republican government was violently thrown out of office by white supremacists and Democrats on Nov. 10, 1898. North Carolina has joined the multi-state PowerBall lottery game. Proceeds on the first day topped $1 million, even though snafus prevented about 20 percent of the vendors from starting sales.
June 9, 2006
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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