long-leaf-pine• WECT reports that retiring Seventh District Congressman Mike McIntyre was inducted into The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, calling it “the highest civilian honor bestowed in the state of North Carolina.” The award, also called “prestigious” in the headline, was given to “anybody who asked, as long as there was no indictment pending,” Gary Pearce, longtime press secretary to Jim Hunt, told The News & Observer in 2009.

• The Greensboro New & Record reports an old chestnut of a political story, that now that Labor Day passed, “political campaigns — particularly the close contest between Sen. Kay Hagan and N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis — things are just heating up.”

• Equally perceptive was The News & Observer, which reports that the debates in the race between Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan would be a “head-to-head matchup that could shape the final nine weeks of the campaign.”

• In another “Labor Day is the start of the fall campaign” story, WWAY reports that David Rouzer, the Republican nominee for the 7th District US House seat, hosted a roundtable discussion with coastal leaders.