NC House and Senate members wasted little time Wednesday in introducing a variety of new bills on the opening day of the short session. Lawmakers filed nearly 60 pieces of legislation -  touching on everything from annexation, to eugenics compensation, to determining the optimal time it takes to eat a school lunch.

Here’s a sampling:

Senate Bill 800 – Eugenics Compensation Program – This act would provide $50,000 compensation for certain qualified individuals who were lawfully sterilized under the authority of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina. This is on the Senate calendar for Thursday.

House Bill 981 – General Assembly Approve Sale of Dix Property – This act would prohibit the sale or lease of any of the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus without the prior approval of the General Assembly.

House Bill 977 – School Mealtime – This act directs the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction to determine the optimal amount of seat time students need for breakfast and lunch and explore innovative options for utilizing mealtime as instructional time.

House Bill 958 – NC Zoo Public-Private Partnership – The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources is directed to enter into a management agreement with the North Carolina Zoological Society, Inc., for a term not to exceed 25 years, for the Society to maintain and operate the Zoo. As a management fee to support operation of the Zoo, ten million dollars ($10,000,000) shall be appropriated annually by the State to the Society.

House Bill 962 – Repeal Ferry Tolls – This bill would repeal the ferry tolls and direct the Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division to continue studying during the 2011-2013 fiscal biennium, the issue of increasing ferry tolls.

House Bill 948 – Repeal Literacy Test – This bill seeks to repeal Section 4 of Article VI of the North Carolina Constitution that provides that “Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language.” If approved, this would be voted on  during November’s general election.

Legislators returning to Raleigh for the short-session got an earful from dozens of constituents angry about the direction the state is headed. Armed with pots and spoons, they hammered out their frustration over cuts to education and health care,  the state’s stubbornly high unemployment rate, fracking, and last week’s passage of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions.

“I think it’s a noise born of frustration, because we think this legislature has turned a deaf ear to citizens concerns for far too long,” said MaryBe McMillan, Secretary-Treasurer of the NC State AFL-CIO.

To hear more from Wednesday’s demonstrators, click below:

Taking eyeglasses away from poor grandmothers – among many other issues – helped inspire the “Pots and Pans” protest at the NC General Assembly this morning: