Officials for both the Democratic and Republican headquarters said the death of Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney forced their respective offices to consider whether additional security measures were needed.

Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings identified the suspect in the shooting as Timothy Dale Johnson, 50. Police later shot and killed him after a 30-mile chase.

Gwatney died at a hospital four hours after the gunman walked into Arkansas headquarters and shot the 48-year-old former state senator three times.

N.C. Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox said a security officer would be brought in next week and confirmed that the shooting directly affected the decision. Democratic Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton said officials were deciding what additional security measures might be needed.

Bolton said officials were waiting for further details surrounding Gwatney's death before announcing specific security plans.

"We strive for balance between accessibility and safety," she said. We want for people who come into the North Carolina Democratic Party headquarters to feel safe and secure."

Woodcox said small acts of vandalism had occurred at the GOP office during the summer, including the headquarters sign being broken and kicked in.

"We're constantly vigilant about who is coming into our office," he said. "But we don't want to be a closed-off office."

Woodcox said the incident transcended party lines and their political differences.

"We have important disagreements," he said. "But obviously when a human situation like this occurs, it's not any longer about parties."

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama addressed La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group in California last month.
    
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in North Carolina about 20 percent of Latinos are eligible to vote. That’s just about 120,000 Hispanics. The number may only account for two percent of eligible voters in the state, but four months before voters hit the polls, some key issues are in the minds of many.
    
With the help of his supporters, Mark Perry is reaching out to the Hispanic community.

Hoping to win the seat of the Wake County District Court Judge, criminal defense attorney, Mark Perry says his language barrier won't keep him away from reaching out to as many voters.

"Because I want to reach out to all the voters, in Wake County, everyone ought to exercise their franchise,” Perry said. “I jokingly refer to that as your license to complain, so anywhere there are registered voters, I want to meet them, because I need their assistance in trying to prevail in the elections this November the fourth."

Hundreds from the Hispanic community gathered in Cary at the La Ley music festival.
Although his opponent, Anna Worley, wasn't scheduled to attend, Perry’s volunteers say it was the perfect opportunity to spread voter awareness.

"I really do think we can make a difference,” said registered voter, Esther Gonzales. “Everyone who is Hispanic, who has a right to vote, should vote, and that's what's going to make our mark, right there."

"We can let the people know, those who are on top, what we need, what we want," said Alfredo Ramirez, another voter.

And while families where out to have a good time at the festival, when asked about the upcoming election, Gonzales was happy to share her opinion on what she believes really affects her community.

"Like if the gas goes up, then yeah, everything is going to go up eventually,” Gonzales said, “but I think that we should hit more on immigration, so they can be here more and be able to work and stuff. "

Congressmen, former colleagues and dignitaries attended the afternoon service, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Governor Mike Easley.

Helms died Friday at the age of 86.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky spoke at the service.

"He put duty above all else, duty to God, to country and to family," McConnell said.

Above all, McConnell remembered Helms' kindness. He also said the senator had an ability to let negative press roll off his back and played politics like no other.

"Nobody knew the rules of the senate better than Jesse Helms and no one used them against his adversaries to a more frustrating effect," McConnell said.

Family members and close friends sat in the front of the church, with other special guests nearby like Cindy McCain, Senator Richard Burr, Senator Elizabeth Dole and her husband retired Senator Bob Dole, UNC System President Erskine Bowles, Senator Fred Smith, Representative Paul Stam and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

"He taught me that you show everyone ultimate respect regardless of their title or position," McCrory said.

"There are many memories I'll have forever, how he used to call my mother on her birthday," Senator Elizabeth Dole said.

"He was small town North Carolina, he never lost that he never lost the humble touch, he never got proud and he never got arrogant," Senator Fred Smith said.

"And we are confidant that he has heard those words he longed to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant, come and share in your master's joy," McConnell said.

Helms was a politician and a friend to many of the people and dignitaries filling the church, but he was also a husband, father and grandfather. His grandchildren Mike Stuart and Jennifer Knox also spoke during the service.

"The greatest lesson he gave me was the lesson of love. He did all these things and made all these stands because he loved the lord, he loved his country he loved North Carolina, he loved his family," Knox said.

Jimmy Broughton, Helms' former chief of staff, said he was treated like family.

"His message was basically that we have a family relationship. He wants no bowing and scraping to him, he's just a country boy from Union County," Broughton said.

Chris McClure, Executive Director of the N.C. Republican Party tell NBC17 the 86-year-old Senator from Monroe, North Carolina died around 1:15 a.m. July 4, 2008.

"It's just incredible that he would die on July 4, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in the mold of those great men," said former North Carolina GOP Rep. Bill Cobey, the chairman of The Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University.

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"He was very comfortable," said former chief of staff Jimmy Broughton, who added Helms died of natural causes in Raleigh.

Helms, who first became known to North Carolina voters as a newspaper and television commentator, won election to the Senate in 1972 and decided not to run for a sixth term in 2002.

"Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?" Helms wrote in a 1959 editorial that foretold his political style.

As he aged, Helms was slowed by a variety of illnesses, including a bone disorder, prostate cancer and heart problems, and he made his way through the Capitol on a motorized scooter as his career neared an end. In April 2006, his family announced that he had been moved into a convalescent center after being diagnosed with vascular dementia, in which repeated minor strokes damage the brain.

Helms' public appearances had dwindled as his health deteriorated. When his memoirs were published in August 2005, he appeared at a Raleigh book store to sign copies but did not make a speech.

In an e-mail interview with The Associated Press at that time, Helms said he hoped what future generations learn about him "will be based on the truth and not the deliberate inaccuracies those who disagreed with me took such delight in repeating."

"My legacy will be up to others to describe," he added.

Helms served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Foreign Relations Committees over the years at times when the GOP held the Senate majority, using his posts to protect his state's tobacco growers and other farmers and place his stamp on foreign policy.

His opposition to Communism defined his foreign policy views. He took a dim view of many arms control treaties, opposed Fidel Castro at every turn, and supported the contras in Nicaragua as well as the right-wing government of El Salvador. He opposed the Panama Canal treaties that President Jimmy Carter pushed through a reluctant Senate in 1977.

Early on, his habit of blocking nominations and legislation won him a nickname of "Senator No." He delighted in forcing roll call votes that required Democrats to take politically difficult votes on federal funding for art he deemed pornographic, school busing, flag-burning and other cultural issues.

In 1993, when then-President Clinton sought confirmation for an openly homosexual assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Helms registered his disgust. "I'm not going to put a lesbian in a position like that," he said in a newspaper interview at the time. "If you want to call me a bigot, fine."

After Democrats killed the appointment of U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, a former Helms aide, to a federal appeals court post in 1991, Helms blocked all of Clinton's judicial nominations from North Carolina for eight years.

Helms occasionally opted for compromise in later years in the Senate, working with Democrats on legislation to restructure the foreign policy bureaucracy and pay back debts to the United
Nations, an organization be disdained for most of his career.

And he softened his views on AIDS after years of clashes with gay activists, advocating greater federal funding to fight the disease in Africa and elsewhere overseas.

But in his memoirs, Helms made clear that his opinions on other issues had hardly moderated since he left office. He compared abortion to both the Holocaust and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I will never be silent about the death of those who cannot speak for themselves," the former senator wrote in "Here's Where I Stand."

Helms never lost a race for the Senate, but he never won one by much, either, a reflection of his divisive political profile in his native state.

He knew it, too. "Well, there is no joy in Mudville tonight. The mighty ultraliberal establishment, and the liberal politicians and editors and commentators and columnists have struck out again," he said in 1990, after winning his fourth term.

He won the 1972 election after switching parties, and defeated then-Gov. Jim Hunt in an epic battle in 1984 in what was then the costliest Senate race on record.

He defeated former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt in 1990 and 1996 in racially tinged campaigns. In the first race, a Helms commercial showed a white fist crumbling up a job application, these words underneath: "You needed that job ... but they had to give it to a minority."

"The tension that he creates, the fear he creates in people, is how he's won campaigns," Gantt said several years later.

Helms also played a role in national GOP politics - supporting Ronald Reagan in 1976 in a presidential primary challenge to then-President Gerald R. Ford. Reagan's candidacy was near collapse when it came time for the North Carolina primary. Helms was in charge of the effort, and Reagan won a startling upset that resurrected his challenge.

During the 1990s, Helms clashed frequently with President Clinton, whom he deemed unqualified to be commander in chief. Even some Republicans cringed when Helms said Clinton was so unpopular he would need a bodyguard on North Carolina military bases. Helms said he hadn't meant it as a threat.

Asked to gauge Clinton's performance overall, Helms said in 1995: "He's a nice guy. He's very pleasant. But ... (as) Ronald Reagan used to say about another politician, `Deep down, he's shallow."'

Helms went out of his way to establish good relations with Madeleine Albright, Clinton's second secretary of state. But that didn't stop him from single-handedly blocking Clinton's appointment of William Weld - a Republican - as ambassador to Mexico.

Helms clashed with other Republicans over the years, including fellow Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in 1987, after Democrats had won a Senate majority. Helms had promised in his 1984 campaign not to take the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee, but he invoked seniority over Lugar to claim the seat as the panel's ranking Republican.

He was unafraid of inconveniencing his fellow senators - sometimes all of them at once. "I did not come to Washington to win a popularity contest," he once said while holding the Senate in session with a filibuster that delayed the beginning of a Christmas break. And he once objected to a request by phoning in his dissent from home, where he was watching Senate proceedings on television.

Helms attended Wake Forest College in 1941 but never graduated and was in the Navy during World War II.

In many ways, Helms' values were forged in the small town where his father was police chief.

"I shall always remember the shady streets, the quiet Sundays, the cotton wagons, the Fourth of July parades, the New Year's Eve firecrackers. I shall never forget the stream of school kids marching uptown to place flowers on the Courthouse Square monument on Confederate Memorial Day," Helms wrote in a newspaper column in 1956.

He took an active role in North Carolina politics early on, working to elect a segregationist candidate, Willis Smith, to the Senate in 1950. He worked as Smith's top staff aide for a time, then returned to Raleigh as executive director of the state bankers association.

Helms became a member of the Raleigh city council in 1957 and got his first public platform for espousing his conservative views when he became a television editorialist for WRAL in Raleigh in
1960. He also wrote a column that at one time was carried in 200 newspapers. Helms also was city editor at The Raleigh Times.

Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son. They adopted the boy in 1962 after the child, 9 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy, said in a newspaper article that he wanted parents.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on the passing of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms:

"Today we lost a Senator whose stature in Congress had few equals. Senator Jesse Helms was a leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in. Jesse and Dot were great friends to Elaine and me. We mourn his passing and extend our deepest sympathies to the extended Helms family."

Governor Mike Easley made the following statement on the passing of Sen. Helms:

"Whether you liked his politics or not, he was a national force able to deliver for his constituents. We last appeared together when the Navy named a submarine after North Carolina at his request. He certainly didn't shy from controversy and you always knew what his positions were. Whether we were working together to stop international drug trafficking or opposing each other on the campaign trail, he was always a gentleman to me."

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge issued this statement following the passing of Helms:

"Senator Helms dedicated his life to serving the people of North Carolina. Whether people agreed or disagreed with him, Senator Helms would always let his constituents know where he stood on the important issues of the day. My condolences go out to his family, his wife, his children and his grandchildren."

Further details on funeral arrangements will be forthcoming.

"Someone asked (Kobe Bryant), on your mantle, what (awards) would have the highest place? The gold medal," Krzyzewski said Wednesday. "And all the guys would say, and have said, 'What's more important? The gold medal. Playing for our country.'

"And that's really the way other countries have felt playing against us. That's been an advantage (for them) - like, why are you playing?" he added. "Why are you competing? And our guys are competing for the right reasons."

While the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team has a few weeks off before training camp starts later this month, there's precious little time for Krzyzewski to catch his breath.

Back on Duke's campus for his annual summer youth basketball camp, Coach K held court during a wide-ranging news conference in which he confirmed Tyson Chandler would be an alternate on the American team, emphasized that his work with the Olympians actually has improved his coaching at Duke and defended the 12-man U.S. roster from cynics who might scoff, he suggested, that his players are "going to sell shoes."

"You know what, they're going to sell shoes anyway," Krzyzewski said. "Those guys aren't hurting if they sell less shoes. They're doing it because they want to be a part of this. I felt that from every guy the entire time I've been coaching this group."

The medical center news office issued a statement from Kennedy's surgeon, Dr. Allan Friedman, saying that Kennedy was recovering well from last week's craniotomy to remove a malignant glioma tumor from his brain.

"Senator Edward Kennedy is making an excellent recovery from his brain surgery," Dr. Friedman was quoted as saying. "He will continue his recuperation at home in Massachusetts under the supervision of the very capable doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with them and with the entire Kennedy team, particularly Dr. Larry Horowitz."

Horowitz is a longtime colleague of Senator Kennedy who served as director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health in the 1970s, when the two men traveled across the country together to examine the American health-care system.

Horowitz is a gastroenterologist by training who is said to have played a role in steering medical treatment for other members of the Kennedy family, including Patrick Kennedy and Edward Kennedy Jr. He is the author of "Taking Charge of Your Medical Fate," published in 1988 as a step-by-step guide to navigating the medical world and "controlling one's fate during medical crises."

According to the Boston Globe, Horowitz was instrumental in connecting the senator with Dr. Friedman at Duke.

The 76-year-old senator was expected to stay at the North Carolina hospital for about a week before returning home to Massachusetts for further treatment.

In the following days, Kennedy will probably be given drugs to prevent brain swelling and seizures, which are possible complications of the surgery. The senator will also be closely watched for bleeding and blood clots, because strokes are also a risk, though they are uncommon.

"After a brief recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment," his doctor, Dr. Allan Friedman, said in a statement following Monday's procedure. "I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Sen. Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery."

Doctors gave few details about the surgery, and did not say how much was removed. The procedure lasted about 3½ hours.

"I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow," the Massachusetts Democrat was quoted by a family spokeswoman as telling his wife, Vicki, immediately after the surgery.

The sole surviving son of America's most glamorous and tragic political family was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an often lethal type of brain tumor discovered in about 9,000 Americans a year.

Details about Kennedy's exact type of tumor have not been disclosed, but some cancer specialists have said it is a glioblastoma multiforme - an especially deadly and tough-to-remove type - because other kinds are more common in younger people.

Cutting a tumor down to size - or "debulking" it - is extremely delicate because of the risk of harming healthy brain tissue that governs movement and speech. But Friedman, who is the top neurosurgeon at Duke and an internationally known tumor surgeon, said Kennedy should not experience any permanent neurological effects.

Median survival for glioblastomas is 12 to 15 months, but the range is wide, said Dr. Mark Gilbert, a brain tumor expert at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The outlook for patients with malignant gliomas is poor, and depends on what type of glioma a patient has. Median survival for patients with moderately severe ones is three to five years, and less than a year for those with the most severe type.

Doctors have not revealed Kennedy's treatment plan, but typical radiation treatment is five days a week for a month, using 3D imaging techniques that narrowly deliver the beams to the tumor,
affecting as little surrounding tissue as possible.

Kennedy also likely will receive the chemotherapy drug Temodar during and after radiation. It can cause typical chemo side effects - nausea, vomiting and fatigue - but treatments are much better for these than even a few years ago, doctors stressed.

He also may be treated with Avastin, a newer targeted drug to deprive the tumor of its blood supply, though this is still experimental as initial treatment, rather than after patients have relapsed.

Monday's operation "spells nothing but hope," Dr. John Sampson, associate deputy director of Duke's brain tumor center, said from Chicago, where he was attending a conference of 30,000 cancer specialists. "What we're seeing with the surgery and this conference is that there's hope for patients with this kind of cancer."

Read About Dr. Allan Friedman
Read More About Friedman's Research
Send Best Wishes To Sen. Kennedy
Related: Kennedy Surgeon Is Amazing, Says Former Patient

The 76-year-old senator now faces chemotherapy and radiation to treat the malignant glioma, a lethal type of brain tumor.

Kennedy surgeon Dr. Allan Friedman says Monday his patient was awake during the 3½-hour procedure, and should experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery.

A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Democrat says Kennedy spoke with his wife, Vicki, right after surgery. He told her: "I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow."

"After a brief recuperation he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatments. I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Sen. Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery."

Targeted brain surgery like that planned Monday morning for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is a delicate balance - removing as much tumor as possible improves cancer control, but there's also the risk of harming healthy brain tissue that lets patients walk and talk.

"The surgeon usually does as much as possible within the bounds of safety. We do not want to do neurological damage in an effort to remove as much of the tumor as possible," said Dr. Mark Gilbert, a brain tumor expert at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

He spoke in Chicago from a conference attended by 30,000 cancer specialists.

The 76-year-old senator was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an especially lethal type of brain tumor. A statement from the Massachusetts Democrat's office said he would be operated on Monday morning in Durham, N.C., by Dr. Allan Friedman, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Anthony Coley, a Kennedy spokesman, said the surgery is expected to begin around 9 a.m. It is expected to last about six hours.

"I am deeply grateful to the people of Massachusetts and to my friends, colleagues and so many others across the country and around the world who have expressed their support and good wishes as I tackle this new and unexpected health challenge," Kennedy said in the statement. "I am humbled by the outpouring and am strengthened by your prayers and kindness."

He expects to remain at the North Carolina facility for one week to recuperate and then will begin further treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital and start chemotherapy.

Kennedy said that over the past few days he and his wife, Vicki, "along with my outstanding team of doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, have consulted with experts from around the country and have decided that the best course of action for my brain tumor is targeted surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation."

Kennedy said he selected a team of neuro-oncologists from Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and Duke University Medical Center.

Friedman is chief of the division of neurosurgery in the surgical department at Duke and also co-director of the neuro-oncology department there. His clinical interests are brain tumors, skull-based tumors, peripheral nerve surgery, pituitary tumors and cerebrovascular disaster, according to his resume on the Web site of Duke Medical Center.

Dr. Friedman is the chief of Neurosurgery and the co-director of the Neuro-Oncology program at Duke University Medical Center. A 1974 graduate of the University of Illinois School of Medicine, Friedman completed residencies in Neurosugery at Duke from 1974 to 1980 and at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 1980.

According to the Duke University Medical Center Web site, Friedman is participating in collaborative research in the areas of primary malignant brain tumors, including clinical trials of monoclonal antibodies and new chemotherapy medications.

After his treatment, Kennedy said, "I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president." Kennedy has endorsed Obama, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Kennedy was hospitalized May 17 at Massachusetts General Hospital after undergoing a seizure at his home on Cape Cod. Doctors later announced that he had a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe, a brain region that governs sensation but also plays some role in movement and language.

Malignant gliomas are diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year. In general, half of all patients die within a year.

The National Taxpayers Union shows the average taxpayer spent more than a day and over $200 to collect, calculate, and compile the numbers for their returns this year.

In order to qualify for the economic stimulus rebate check, citizens must file 2007 taxes.

Several post office locations around The Triangle will be open until midnight to make sure tax returns get in on time.