Congressman Howard Coble was scheduled for discharge from the hospital Tuesday and was planning to meet with news media today to discuss his hospitalization.

Coble has been receiving in-patient therapy at The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro since Dec. 21.

The 80-year-old Coble was admitted to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13 when it was determined that an upper respiratory illness had seriously depleted his sodium levels.

Ed McDonald, Coble's chief of staff, is scheduled for gallbladder surgery at the same D.C. hospital this week. He has been filing almost daily reports on his boss' condition.

In the meantime personnel in the Washington and Greensboro offices are filling in for McDonald.

Coble's news conference is planned at 1 p.m. today at his Greensboro office.

FILING - Although attention is focused on the GOP presidential nomination process elsewhere in the country these days, political hopefuls in North Carolina must wait until Feb. 13 to make their plans official.

That's the date the filing period opens. It ends Feb. 29.

At the local level, Moore County voters will elect two members of the Board of Commissioners and four members of the nonpartisan school board.

At the legislative and congressional levels, Moore County will find different district boundaries in 2012. If redistricting maps adopted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly withstand court challenges, then Moore County will be in a new congressional district and a new state senatorial district. Minor changes are also in store for state House districts.

FRACKING - Two public hearings on the fracking controversy will be held in March.

The first will be March 20 in Sanford. The second will be March 27 in Chapel Hill.

It is expected that by those dates, state officials will have completed a study of the benefits and risks associated with natural gas exploration in North Carolina.

The issue has already provoked strong opposition from a number of groups across the state who have raised questions about the effect fracking might have on water quality and safety.

Fracking is the informal term for hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to extract natural gas trapped beneath the ground. Scientists have detected a supply of natural gas underground in Moore, Lee and Chatham counties.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at florence@thepilot.com.