News and Views with NC Policy Watch's Chris Fitzsimon: Recent Episodes

NC Policy Watch

News and Views provide timely analysis of the challenges North Carolina leaders face in charting a better course for the state through radio interviews.

Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg

One of the most worrisome challenges to human health to emerge in recent decades has been the growing environmental omnipresence of a class of chemicals known as PFAS. Often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down naturally and can remain in soil and water indefinitely, PFAS are used in countless consumer products.

One of the best known is a chemical known as GenX. It gained widespread notoriety a few years back when it came to light that a factory run by the chemical company Chemours had been spewing large quantities of GenX into air and water from its factory in southeastern North Carolina. One of the journalists who’s been on the GenX beat from the beginning is Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg and recently NC Newsline caught up with Lisa for an extended chat in which examined two recent and important legal and regulatory developments on the subject of GenX and PFAS and why both have left a lot of people frustrated and dissatisfied.

In Part One of our extended conversation, we discussed the environmental problems posed by so-called forever chemicals or PFAS. We also discussed a pair important new developments in the legal and regulatory spheres on the subject – the settlement of a large lawsuit brought by more than 2,500 property owners impacted by PFAS pollution in southeastern North Carolina and a move by the Trump administration to settle a regulatory proceeding targeting the source of that pollution – a company called Chemours.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into these subjects and why both settlements have left a lot of people very dissatisfied. And we also learned a little about another important subject Sorg is covering – the bankruptcy filing of a Durham-based company that purported to be helping to clean up the environment but has been accused of perpetrating a ripoff of utility ratepayers.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg.

Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper

With the 2026 midterm elections less than 100 days away, it a great time to check in with one of the state’s foremost experts on politics and elections, Western Carolina University Professor of Political Science, Chris Cooper.

This past week, Newsline got a chance to catch up with Cooper for an extended conversation in which we delved into an array of front burner topics. In Part One of our chat, we focused on the issue of our elections, themselves – how they’re run, how President Trump has repeatedly sought to sow distrust in their honesty and how they’re run, and how Trump’s Republican allies in North Carolina have taken a number of recent actions that they say will improve voting and elections, but that critics argue are really just thinly disguised efforts to discourage participation by voters the GOP fears will vote for Democratic candidates.

In Part Two of our conversation, Cooper shared some of his thoughts on the career of longtime South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham in light of his recent passing, as well as his take on the state of two high-profile North Carolina races on the ballot this fall – the U.S. Senate Race between Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley and western North Carolina congressional race between Chuck Edwards and Jamie Ager.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper.

Director of Development and Communications Sara Walker and main office Home Delivery Site Manager Melissa Evers

One in four Americans is 60+ and one in two lacks the income to pay for basic needs. That’s where “Meals on Wheels” makes a difference serving 13 million seniors nationwide. Recently, NC Newsline sat down with two staff members from the Wake County operation: Director of Development and Communications Sara Walker and main office Home Delivery Site Manager Melissa Evers.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Sara Walker and Melissa Evers of Wake County Meals on Wheels.

Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) (Photo: NCGA)

State Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham County is one of the many experts who’ve expressed concerns about how the state budget debate played out. While she’s happy about raises that some teachers will get, she’s concerned about those teachers and state employees who will receive a relative pittance.

And as Morey also pointed out to Newline during an extended conversation this past week, there were a lot of other very important (and in some instances deeply concerning) provisions in the budget – some of which have only come to light in recent days as she and other lawmakers and advocates have finally gotten a chance to fully dissect the hurriedly enacted 600-plus page document.

In Part Two of our discussion, we examined some other policy matters of importance as the legislature prepares to return to Raleigh in late July, including the recent and troubling spate of late-night teen takeovers in some communities that have raised discussion of issues like curfews and gun regulation, as well as ongoing Republican efforts to further alter state voting laws and election oversight for partisan purposes.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Rep. Marcia Morey.

Public Ed Works executive director David Rice

After more than a full year of delay at the legislature, North Carolina finally has a new state budget and as is almost always the case, what the new budget does and doesn’t do for public education is among the matters receiving the most attention.

The good news is that a lot of teachers will get some decent raises this fall. Unfortunately, the bad news is that those raises don’t apply to all teachers or school personnel. What’s more, thanks to inflation and the rising cost of health insurance premiums, most teachers remain stuck in the mud financially or even worse off than they were just a couple of years ago.

So, what should we make of this situation? Are lawmakers making encouraging strides in lifting up our public schools or is the new budget just the latest in a series of inadequate measures. Newsline caught up with the veteran executive editor of the nonprofit group Public Ed Works, David Rice, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Public Ed Works executive editor David Rice.

SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins (Courtesy photo)

Despite listing many concerns, Gov. Josh Stein signed the $34 billion state budget bill into law on July 7. One high-profile area that state employees and teachers felt didn’t go far enough was in compensation for those who keep North Carolina’s public structures and services up and running. While the budget does include decent, if long overdue, raises for some, for most it’s a paltry 3% that fails to keep up with inflation and rising health premiums. Newsline sat down with Ardis Watkins, the executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, for a broader look at the spending plan and why she says it was a mistake to eliminate hundreds of important jobs from the final document.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Ardis Watkins, the executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina.

NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

North Carolina’s new state budget runs more than 600 pages and includes dozens of other law changes unrelated to spending – many of which are only slowly coming to light and public awareness. NC Newsline state government reporter Brandon Kingdollar followed the twists and turns of the budget making process and recently joined us to discuss some of the controversial pieces of legislation included in the $34 billion spending package.

In Part Two of our discussion, we turned our attention to legislative efforts to ban hemp products and to alter the rules governing our elections and how people vote.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NC Newsline state government reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

Catawba College political scientist and pollster Michael Bitzer

There’s a longstanding pattern in American politics that in most off-year elections, the party of the president tends to lose support and right now, that’s looking more and more like what we’ll see this fall in North Carolina. According to new polling from the Catawba College YouGov Survey, support for President Trump, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley, and other GOP candidates generally has waned significantly – especially among unaffiliated voters.

So, what’s driving this shift and how significant is it? Recently NC Newsline sat down to discuss these questions and more with Catawba College political scientist and pollster, Michael Bitzer. And as our nation celebrates its 250th birthday, we also got a chance to ask Bitzer about his recent poll that gauged what North Carolinians think about one of the country’s most important founding documents and the principles it espoused.

Click here to listen to our full interview with Catawba College political scientist and pollster, Michael Bitzer.

North Carolina Black Alliance Director Marcus Bass (Photo: Claire Michal/NC Newsline)

Republican leaders at the North Carolina General Assembly have pursued few objectives with more zeal than their crusade to overhaul state elections. Repeatedly, GOP leaders have advanced new laws that make voting more difficult and the oversight of elections more partisan. A new omnibus bill that sprang up at the legislature in recent weeks doubles down on that strategy. To get a better idea of what’s been going on and what’s at stake, NC Newsline sat down for an extended conversation with the executive director of the North Carolina Black Alliance, Marcus Bass.

Bass said while such proposals may be dressed up and marketed as being about promoting election integrity, the real objectives aren’t that hard to discern.

Click here to listen to our full interview with North Carolina Black Alliance director Marcus Bass.

Documentary producer Cristin Severance (Courtesy: WRAL.com)

News deserts. At first blush, it seems like strange term in an era in which most people are regularly inundated on their devices with boatloads of emails and other messages about developments in the world around them. Unfortunately, as even a cursory look at the news landscape across the United States right now quickly reveals, vast swaths of the country – including many parts of North Carolina – are today totally bereft of local newspapers and trained journalists dedicated to carefully watching and reporting on their communities.

And as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with WRAL-TV documentary producer Cristin Severance, the spread of news deserts is having a big and negative impact on the health of the impacted communities and our democracy more generally. The documentary is entitled “Left Uncovered: Inside North Carolina’s News Deserts.”

Click here to listen to the full interview with WRAL-TV Documentary Producer Cristin Severance.

Rep. Deb Butler (Photo: NCGA)

After more than a year of waiting, it appears the North Carolina General Assembly will vote later this week on a comprehensive budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

Newline recently sat down for an extended conversation with New Hanover County State Representative Deb Butler to discuss the lack of open debate in crafting the final spending plan and the public’s right to know.

In part two of our chat, we turned our attention to some other matters of controversy in Raleigh right now – including the latest effort by Republican lawmakers to erect new roadblocks to voting, a proposal to end North Carolina’s longstanding and science-based ban on sea walls at the coast, and the spread of energy sucking data centers and their impact on the electricity bills paid by residential consumers.

Click below for the full interview with Rep. Deb Butler.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein (Photo: NCGA)

With a new state government fiscal year set to commence on July first, North Carolina state legislators have still yet to pass a budget for
the year that’s coming to an end on June 30th. We’re the only state in the union in which this is the case.

While the state has continued to function at a basic level, the lack of funding certainty, and even minimal raises for teachers and other state employees, has caused enormous hardship. Meanwhile, even as the budget and the negotiations around it remain shrouded in secrecy, other important proposals – including more changes to how the state conducts elections – continue to advance.

This past week, Newsline caught up with Wake County state Senator Lisa Grafstein to learn what Republican legislative leaders are telling rank and file members, and why from her perspective, average North Carolinians should be deeply concerned.

We also discussed legislation that would place new burdens on local government by capping property taxes and limiting their options for dealing with homeless populations, and yet another new effort to alter coastal policy without first hearing from and listening to the science experts.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Senator Lisa Grafstein.

Will Scott, North Carolina Policy Director (Photo: Courtesy EDF)

When a utility company like Duke Energy plans for the future, it tries to predict how much electricity its customers will need a decade from now. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, much of that process amounts to a guessing game in which utility company profits often play a much bigger role than keeping ratepayer bills low or protecting our natural environment.

And right now, this appears to be very much the case at the state Utilities Commission as it reviews Duke’s latest carbon plan for the years to come. As NC Newsline learned in a recent conversation with the Environmental Defense Fund’s North Carolina Policy Director, Will Scott, while Duke’s current proposal calls for building a fleet of new gas power plants by 2033, expert testimony indicates that North Carolinians should be deeply skeptical and supportive of alternative proposals that would emphasize improvements to the electric transmission grid and continued rapid development of less expensive and sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the Environmental Defense Fund’s North Carolina Policy Director Will Scott.

Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson (Courtesy photo)

As the effects of climate change continue to grow and spread at an alarming rate, it can be easy to become overwhelmed.

But as author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson documents and explains in her new book, “Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home,” the keys to tackling and adapting to climate change are, despite the recent national policy reversals, there for individuals and communities to embrace — and fast becoming so obvious and cost-effective that no amount of cynical politics will likely be able to derail them. Recently, NC Newsline sat down with Dr. Wilkinson for a special extended conversation, to learn more.

In Part One of our conversation, we discussed the vast and rapid changes that are altering our world for the worse as a result of climate change, as well as the fundamental need that people have for finding a way to chart a better path forward – one in which we come to terms with our collective and individual fears and worries and yet also are not paralyzed by them.

In Part Two, we turned our attention to the fact that, whether our leaders acknowledge the climate crisis or not, as she puts it, “the Earth itself is making known the challenge at hand.” We also explored the encouraging fact that the combination of scientific advances and, in many instances, the profit motive, are driving an array of advances that have enormous positive potential to help rapidly end our addiction to fossil fuels and promote the kind of healing our planet so desperately needs.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, author of “Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home.”

Dr. Hope Thompson is an expert on climate adaptation policy, comprehensive risk management, and equitable disaster resilience. (Courtesy photo: NRDC)

One of the most expensive and worrisome immediate impacts of climate change and the weather disasters it spawns is the fast-rising cost of homeowners insurance. Here in North Carolina and in many parts of the country, these soaring costs are a big contributor to the housing affordability crisis that plagues so many communities.

As Newsline learned in a recent conversation with Natural Resources Defense Council climate adaptation expert, Dr. Hope Thompson, there are several practical and affordable regulatory steps that we can take to address the problem – steps that will both make buildings more resilient and assure the availability of affordable homeowners insurance in the future.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Natural Resources Defense Council climate adaptation expert, Dr. Hope Thompson.

Click here to read Dr. Thompson’s latest commentary: Navigating North Carolina’s home insurance affordability crisis

States Newsroom national democracy reporter Jonathan Shorman

Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, hardly a day goes by in which there is not some brazen, precedent shattering action by the president or his allies.

Indeed, the orders, directives, proposals and court rulings are coming at such a rapid pace that it’s easy to become numb to them and what they might portend for our country.

Fortunately, many excellent journalists continue to chronicle and analyze these developments. One of the best is States Newsroom Democracy Reporter Jonathan Shorman. And recently, Newsline caught up with Shorman for an extended conversation about some of the most important current stories.

In Part One of our conversation with Shorman, we dug into President Trump’s unprecedented effort to establish a special fund that would enable him to dispense taxpayer money to allies of his who he says were harmed by the Biden administration.
We also looked at the aggressive gerrymandering efforts that Trump and his fellow Republicans have undertaken this year in hopes of preserving a narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House in the fall elections.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into the politics surrounding the fall elections, the big challenges that Republicans face given the state of the economy and the fact that Trump himself will not appear on the ballot, and some of the controversial actions Trump has taken or threatened to take in order to directly impact who can vote and how they do it.

Click here to listen to the full interview with States Newsroom national democracy reporter, Jonathan Shorman

Click here to read more of Shorman’s reporting on NC Newsline.

Amy Beros, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina

Genuine food insecurity in which people don’t know where their next meal is coming from is a subject that merits a lot of attention. By any fair assessment the fact that literally millions of North Carolinians – a large percentage of them children – go to bed hungry in the world’s richest nation is, or at least ought to be, a gigantic scandal.

As grim as some of these numbers are, recent actions in Washington – most notably big cuts to federal food assistance and the rising prices caused by the war in Iran – have conspired to make the situation even more dire. Recently, to take stock of just how desperate things have gotten and some of the things average folks can do to help respond, Newsline recently caught up with the President and CEO of the Foodbank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Amy Beros.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Amy Beros, President and CEO of the Foodbank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

Brooks Fuller (Courtesy photo)

Ever since Republicans captured control of the state legislature at the outset of the last decade, North Carolinians have been witness to a steady stream of proposals designed to make voting harder and more complicated and make the day-to-day oversight and regulation of elections more partisan. And now, with yet another national election of great importance just over five months away, new proposals are being introduced.

One such measure in the state Senate would reduce the state’s early voting period from 17 days to 10 despite the enormous bipartisan popularity of the current system. In addition, a series of proposals at the GOP-controlled state Board of Elections would make it easier to both toss out provisional ballots and mailed ballots on technicalities and restrict nondisruptive demonstrations designed to get voters to the polls. And recently to learn more about these proposals and how average North Carolinians can weigh in on them, Newsline spoke with the Policy Director of Common Cause North Carolina, Brooks Fuller.

Click here for the full interview with Brooks Fuller, Policy Director of Common Cause North Carolina.

NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

North Carolina state lawmakers are in the midst of the 2026 legislative session and, as had been expected, several important proposals are advancing that could impact everything from alcohol sales to the state constitution.
On the alcohol front, it appears that the recent ongoing trend to move the state away from longstanding blue laws continues as the demands of retailers and producers seem to slowly be overcoming the objections of religious conservatives and other alcohol opponents. And recently, as part of a wide-ranging two-part conversation with NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar, we dug into precisely what’s under consideration and what the competing sides are saying.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar, we examined the ongoing debate at the General Assembly over our state’s regulation of alcohol sales and how proposals to liberalize and privatize the process and move away from older, more restrictive regulatory schemes appear to be making headway.

In Part Two of our chat, we turned our attention to a series of constitutional amendments that Republican leaders are moving to place on the fall ballot that deal with an array of subjects – some of them potentially hugely impactful and some more symbolic that appear to be designed mostly to help drive conservative voter turnout.

Click here for the full interview with NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

Alexandra Sirota (Photo: NC Budget & Tax Center)

Republican state legislative leaders made headlines in recent days by announcing that they have finally reached agreement on a new state budget. But even as that long overdue news was being made, the lawmakers also moved to advance a series of state constitutional amendments that would, if enacted, have massive implications for future state budgets and core public services.
Topping the list: a proposal to slash the already existing cap on state income taxes and another to cap local property taxes — moves that would almost certainly further eviscerate the state’s already torn and threadbare public education system. Earlier this week, to get a better handle on the amendments and the new budget and what all of it means for the state going forward, Newsline caught up with one of the state’s preeminent nonpartisan fiscal policy experts – the executive director of the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, Alexandra Sirota.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the executive director of the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, Alexandra Sirota.

Jackson Ewing (Photo: Courtesy Duke University)

Earlier this month, regulatory commissions in North and South Carolina approved a merger between the two energy monopolies that dominate electricity production and distribution in our state: Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress. The merger comes at a time of rapid consolidation in the energy industry. Indeed, even as the merger of the two Duke entities is moving forward, Florida-based NextEra announced that it is acquiring Dominion Energy, which serves part or northeastern North Carolina.

So, what does all of this mean? What do the companies say about why it’s taking place? What are the potential benefits? What are the potential concerns – both for residential consumers and the wellbeing of our environment as the effects of climate change grow ever-more concerning? Recently, to get a handle on these questions and some others of importance, Newsline had an extended conversation with the Director of Energy and Climate Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, Dr. Jackson Ewing.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Dr. Jackson Ewing, Director of Energy and Climate Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University.

Wake County State Rep. Phil Rubin

It appears that, finally, after a year-long delay that has left North Carolina the only state in the union without a budget for the current fiscal year, Republican state legislative leaders may soon give final approval to a comprehensive budget plan and send it to Gov. Josh Stein.

Of course, as is usually the case, funding for public education was and remains one of the most hotly debated budget items. And while it appears that teachers will finally receive some long overdue but still modest raises, as we learned in a conversation with Wake County State Rep. Phil Rubin, the plan does little if anything to address the fundamentally skewed funding priorities that have long plagued and worn down our public schools. As Rubin explained to NC Newsline, not only does the budget plan continue to favor unaccountable private voucher schools at the expense of public schools, new plans to impose a one-size-fits-all scheme on county property taxes could make funding problems even worse.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Rep. Phil Rubin.

NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan (Courtesy photo)

When it comes to politics and policymaking, the present era is among the most divided and rancorous in modern American history. At the national level, the U.S. seems as if it’s more divided than ever on a host of basic issues. But is this really the case?

CEO of the national nonprofit, the NewDEAL Forum, Debbie Cox Bultan, says when you dig a little past the surface, it becomes evident that, in many ways, Americans are not as divided as it might seem. Especially at the state and local levels, it turns out that large majorities are actually in agreement on many of the issues that matter most and in their desire that public officials of all parties work together to find common ground solutions.

In Part One of Newsline’s extended conversation with Bultan, we explored her group’s findings about the many fundamental issues on which large majorities of Americans agree and their shared desire that elected leaders of all stripes find ways to work together and compromise to promote the common good.

In Part Two, we learned more about how the New Deal Forum is working to lift up the notion that public service can and should remain a thoroughly honorable profession. We also discussed the importance of combating the scourge of gerrymandering and election rigging that is afflicting our politics in the aftermath of a recent Supreme Court ruling that guts the federal Voting Rights Act.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the NewDEAL Forum’s Debbie Cox Bultan.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton (Courtesy photo)

One of the greatest achievements of the American Civil Rights movement was the enactment more than 60 years ago of a law known as the Voting Rights Act. Though it had several provisions, the basic objective of the law was simple – it was to eliminate centuries of deep-seated racial discrimination that had infected and polluted U.S. elections by assuring that all the nation’s citizens had an opportunity to be full participants in our democracy.

Unfortunately, despite the progress the law has helped usher in and the fact that the country still has miles to travel in overcoming racial discrimination, opposition to the law and excuses for weakening it have been a constant ever since its enactment. And last month, opponents and excuse makers succeeded in convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to gut a key provision that had barred politicians from rigging elections to dilute the impact of minority voters. And recently, to get a better handle on this troubling news, Newsline caught up with Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton for a special two-part conversation in which we examined the ruling and the damage that it will cause.

Click here to hear the full interview with Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton

Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline

Last week was national Teacher Appreciation Week, a time to celebrate educators who show up for their students every day. Unfortunately, for many of the teachers in North Carolina, underappreciated – especially from state lawmakers – is the main thing they’re experiencing these days.

On May 1st, thousands of educators, advocates and allies converged on Halifax Mall behind the state Legislative Building in Raleigh to protest the lack of a state budget and scheduled corporate tax cuts that may leave school districts with even less money next year.

NC Newsline spoke with several of those attending the rally about the message they would like to deliver to legislators during the ongoing legislative session.

Click here to hear the full interview with North Carolina educators Marie Delgado, Tennille Simms, and Jane Miller.

Justin Parmenter (Courtesy photo)

Thousands of North Carolina public school teachers and their supporters converged on Raleigh this past Friday to demand that state lawmakers end their chronic lack of support for public schools. That the participants in the “Kids over Corporations” rally had a strong case to make is hard to deny. Their event took place just days after a new report placed North Carolina 46th in the nation for teacher pay for the current school year — down three spots from last year — and 39th in the nation for per pupil spending.

One expert who was there on Friday, knows the ins and outs of state education policy like the back of his hand, and indeed, lives it every day, is Charlotte-Mecklenburg 7th grade language arts teacher Justin Parmenter. And prior to the rally, Parmeter joined NC Newsline to talk about the urgent needs he sees in our schools and why he hopes so fervently that state leaders will listen and act.

In Part One of our recent conversation, we discussed the increasingly dire situation that confronts the public schools in our state and why it’s essential that state lawmakers heed the demands of educators by dramatically improving public education funding.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of the need to better fund teacher pay in particular and public schools generally. We also discussed a pair of high-profile policy priorities of the political right – immigration enforcement and private school vouchers – that have only served to further undermine the stability, mission and morale of traditional public schools.

Click here to listen to the full interview with middle school teacher Justin Parmenter.

State Rep. Renee Price (Photo: NCGA)

One especially vexing public health issue that continues to plague North Carolina is the persistent crisis in the wellbeing of Black mothers and other moms of color. Time and again, statistics show that women of color face scandalous mortality rates that are far out of proportion with the general population.

Fortunately, studies and real-world experience confirm that there are many relatively simple and effective policy solutions that can make a big difference in combating the problem and recently NC Newsline caught up with a state lawmaker – Orange and Caswell County State Rep. Renee Price – who champions and explains them in simple, commonsense terms. Newsline also got a chance to ask her about two other important issues on which she’s pushing for action this spring – mental health services and public education.

Click here to listen to the full interview with State Rep. Renee Price of Orange and Caswell Counties.

Keith Poston, Wake Ed Partnership (Courtesy photo)

With the North Carolina General Assembly back in Raleigh for the 2026 session, the state of our public schools is once again at the top of the public policy agenda. Unfortunately, despite the talk we often hear from legislative leaders, the hard truth is that our schools are and have been struggling mightily for several years thanks to a chronic lack of funding.

What’s more, as Newsline was reminded in a conversation this past week with the President of the nonprofit Wake Ed Partnership, Keith Poston, the situation figures to get worse and soon unless lawmakers decide to pause the regressive tax cuts that are scheduled to take effect in the near future. What’s more as Poston also noted, even the efforts of well-off counties like Wake to supplement state school funding could be in jeopardy if lawmakers follow through with a new plan to enact one-size-fits-all rules on local property taxes.

Click here for the full interview with Keith Poston, President of the nonprofit Wake Ed Partnership.

NIEER Senior Director and Founder Steve Barnett and the lead author of The State of Preschool Yearbook, Associate Research Professor Allison Friedman-Krauss. (Courtesy photos)

State support for preschool education hit record highs for enrollment, quality, and funding in the 2024-2025 school year, according to a new report entitled “The State of Preschool 2025” from the National Institute for Early Education Research. That said, some states advanced more than others. This year’s report brings to the forefront for the first time one state that excels at both access and quality standards: Georgia.

Unfortunately, in North Carolina, preschool enrollment actually declined as did state government investments. To learn more about what the numbers mean and why state policymakers should prioritize pre-k, NC Newsline recently sat down with the institute’s Senior Director and Founder Steve Barnett and the lead author of The State of Preschool Yearbook, Associate Research Professor Allison Friedman-Krauss.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NIEER’s founder Steve Barnett and associate research professor Allison Fiedman-Krauss.

Learn more about this year’s rankings.

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s been 20 years now since North Carolina started its state lottery and with only a very few exceptions, state lotteries are now an almost universal phenomenon. Interestingly, however, the rise of lotteries has coincided with the massive growth of legalized private gambling, and this has posed challenges for state officials to keep their lotteries relevant and revenue producing.

Recently, to gauge how these efforts are faring, Robbie Sequeira, a reporter for the national news outlet Stateline, took a look at the state of U.S. lotteries and last week he was kind enough to join NC Newsline to share his findings. Newsline also got a chance to ask Sequeira about another topic on which he’s recently reported and found a somewhat unusual degree of bipartisanship in state government – the national shortage of affordable housing.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira.

Sally Hodges-Copple (Courtesy photo)

As state lawmakers return to Raleigh this week for their 2026 legislative short session, there’s one issue that looms as the most important and most challenging: the state budget. Thanks to a long series of personal and corporate income tax cuts (and more that are scheduled to take place), the state will soon face a massive new budget shortfall that will endanger an array of core public systems and services that are already being run on shoestring.

Now add to this that House and Senate Republicans haven’t even been able to agree on a budget for the current fiscal year and it’s no wonder that a growing chorus of experts has issued a dire warning about what lies ahead for the state fiscal picture absent swift action, and recently we sat down with one of those experts – the NC Budget and Tax Center’s Sally Hodges Copple – to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the NC Budget and Tax Center’s Sally Hodges-Copple.

Public School Forum’s Lauren Fox (Courtesy photo)

The state of North Carolina finds itself in a fiscal policy mess thanks to a series of regressive income tax cuts, there’s no larger or more important public function that will be adversely impacted than public education. For many years now, thanks to the decisions of Republican legislative leaders, North Carolina public schools have listed along near the bottom of national rankings in a host of important funding categories.

A landmark lawsuit – the Leandro case — sought to alter this situation by establishing that all schoolchildren in the state have a constitutional right to a sound basic education, but GOP lawmakers ignored the ruling and recently succeeded in getting a Republican majority on the court to effectively gut it. So where do things stand now and what’s next for public education in our state? Recently, Newsline sat down to discuss these questions with the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s Senior Director of Policy and Interim President/CEO, Lauren Fox.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the Public School Forum’s Lauren Fox.

New York Times reporter Eduardo Medina (Courtesy photo)

The biggest story in North Carolina politics right now – indeed, it’s a big national story – is the recent primary election defeat of longtime state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. The veteran Rockingham County Republican lawmaker lost to his local sheriff, Sam Page, by just 23 votes.

So, what happened and why and is Berger’s defeat indicative of a pattern that reaches beyond the borders of North Carolina? Last week, Newsline caught up with the Durham-based New York Times reporter who covers the politics and culture of our state and the rest of the south, Eduardo Medina, to get his assessment.

Click here to listen to the full interview with New York Times reporter Eduardo Medina.

Follow Medina’s work in The New York Times.

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

No world news development of the past few weeks has commanded more attention or spurred greater controversy than President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. And while, at this point, the ultimate outcome of the war remains very much in question, the war is drawing very high degrees of skepticism from North Carolinians of all political persuasions – especially independents and Democratic voters.

Now add to this the largely negative view that most North Carolinians hold right now about the economy and the president’s performance in managing it, and it’s no surprise that his overall approval ratings have plummeted. So where exactly do things stand, how does this compare to past public attitudes on foreign wars, and what’s likely to be the key driver of public opinion during the 2026 election cycle? Recently, Newsline sat down with the director of the Elon University Poll, Prof. Jason Husser, to find out.

In Part One of my recent sit down with Elon University pollster and political scientist, Prof. Jason Husser, we discussed his most recent public opinion surveys and what they say about how North Carolinians view the Trump presidency – and why deep-seated skepticism about the war in Iran and the state of the economy are likely to present big problems for the president and his party in the fall elections.

In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to North Carolina politics and policy matters, including the fall U.S. Senate race between former Gov. Roy Cooper and challenger Michael Whatley, approval ratings for Gov. Josh Stein, and what North Carolinians are thinking about some high-profile issues, like concealed weapons and the rising costs of health care.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Elon University poll director Jason Husser.

State Senator Graig Meyer (D-Orange) holds a copy of the draft budget that was not passed in the 2025 session. After 12 years in the General Assembly, Meyer will resign to become the next executive director of the N.C. Justice Center. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)

Over the last few years, we’ve had several opportunities to chat with former state lawmaker Graig Meyer of Orange County during the four terms he served in the state House and two in the state Senate. Recently, however, Meyer decided to leave elected office to become the executive director of one of the state’s most important nonprofit advocacy organizations, the North Carolina Justice Center.

It won’t be an easy task. Meyer assumes his new role at a time in which many of the positions the Justice Center espouses – progressive tax policy, a stronger safety net, fair treatment for immigrants, tough consumer protection laws – are not in vogue at the state legislature. Nonetheless, as we learned in our most recent conversation, Meyer is energized by the new challenge and optimistic about the organization’s prospects for policy success at a time of big change at the General Assembly.

Click here to listen to the full interview with former state Senator Graig Meyer.

NC State Professor of Political Science Steven Greene (Photo: NCSU)

Even before his fateful and thus far largely unpopular decision to go to war with Iran in late February, both President Donald Trump and his party had been encountering some significant political headwinds as a result of an array of controversial policy actions. Now, with the war dragging on without much explanation or any clear plan for a conclusion, and rising prices for fuel and related items hitting Americans in their pocketbooks, standard political wisdom would predict a good chance of big Republican electoral defeats this fall.

That said, the fall elections are still seven months off, so how accurate are such predictions likely to be? Recently, to get a better gauge on where things stand, what people are thinking and where the president is likely playing with political fire as a result of some of the approaches he’s taken, Newsline sat down for a two-part conversation with one of our state’s most experienced and astute political observers, NC State University Professor of Political Science, Steven Greene.

In Part One of our recent conversation with Greene, we discussed President Trump’s deeply controversial decision to attack Iran, its impacts here at home, and how both matters are playing out in domestic politics as we look forward to the 2026 elections.

In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to the North Carolina political scene and, in particular, the massive earthquake that just hit the state legislature as a result of the primary defeat of the state’s most powerful politician – longtime Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NC State University political scientist Steven Greene.

Sam Hiner, executive director of the Young People’s Alliance (Courtesy photo)

Despite its many benefits, few technological developments of the 21st Century have had a larger negative impact on the overall mental health and wellbeing of American young people than the rise of social media. And while no one can imagine putting the social media genie back in the bottle from which it came, a growing chorus of parents, educators, mental health professionals and advocates is calling for better and tougher regulation of the giant corporations that dominate this field.

And it’s in light of this that many are welcoming a pair of recent court rulings in California and New Mexico that held corporations liable for damages to children injured on their platforms. One of those advocates is Sam Hiner, the co-founder of a national organization birthed in Chapel Hill known as the Young People’s Alliance. And recently Hiner joined NC Newsline to discuss the debate over social media as well as several other formidable challenges facing young people in the modern world.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Sam Hiner of the Young People’s Alliance.

Learn more about the Young People’s Alliance.

Kris Nordstrom (Courtesy photo)

One of the most remarkable, and in the minds of many, most shameful, developments in North Carolina public policy over the last three decades has been the failure of state leaders of both parties to fulfill their constitutional duty to provide all children in the state with access to a sound basic education. It’s now been over thirty years since the state Supreme Court clearly established the existence of such a right in the landmark Leandro case, but since then, elected leaders have found one excuse after another for ignoring it.

Thankfully, a cadre of dedicated researchers and advocates continues expose and push back against this unconstitutional inaction and this past week, Newsline caught up with one that group’s most persistent voices – North Carolina Justice Center senior policy analyst Kris Nordstrom.

Click here to listen to the full interview with North Carolina Justice Center senior policy analyst Kris Nordstrom.

University of North Carolina law professor Marcus Gadson (Photo: UNC.edu)

Unlike many others, North Carolina is not a “ballot initiative” state in which citizens can place constitutional amendments on the ballot by gathering enough signatures. Here, the power to advance constitutional amendments resides exclusively with the state legislature and right now, Republican lawmakers are proposing to do just that this fall with a proposal to limit the ability of local governments to set their property tax rates.

Like all tax cut proposals, this one is being couched as a boon to taxpayers that would help address the rising cost of living, but as we were reminded in a conversation this past week with University of North Carolina professor of law Marcus Gadson, it’s also the case that local taxes play a critical role in funding core public services that all residents depend on. What’s more, as Gadson also noted, at this point, the amendment proposal being advanced is very short on the kinds of specifics that would enable voters to make an informed decision.

Click here to listen to the full interview with University of North Carolina law professor Marcus Gadson.

WRAL TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance discusses sports gambling with former Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Aaron Ward. (Photo courtesy of WRAL TV)

It’s been two years now since sports betting became legal in North Carolina, and it’s quickly become one of the most impactful and transformative law changes in state history. In a remarkably short time, sports gambling – and, indeed, all kinds of gambling – have overtaken our society and produced one of the biggest and profitable industries in the nation.

Unfortunately, despite its popularity, rapid growth and sudden omnipresence, gambling has led to an array of deeply troubling trends – both for the sporting games that play such an important role in our culture, and for millions of average people – especially young people – for whom gambling is an expensive and often destructive addiction. A new WRAL documentary examines these developments – it’s called “The Gamble: Sports Betting in North Carolina,” and recently Newsline caught up with the journalist behind it, WRAL TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance.

Click here to listen to the full interview with WRAL TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance.

Watch “The Gamble: Sports Betting in North Carolina.”

Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications manager Sue Sturgis.

If you’re like most average consumers, you’re acutely aware of how your monthly energy bill has been rising steadily in recent years. And a new report from the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute shines a bright light on one big factor behind those hikes that turns out to be very much in the utility companies’ control – profits.

The report is entitled “Paying for Their Profits: How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits” and it finds that big investor-owned utilities like Duke Energy are making a mint even as huge numbers of average ratepayers struggle mightily to keep up with their bills. And recently NC Newsline sat down with one of the report’s co-authors, Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications Manager Sue Sturgis, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications Manager Sue Sturgis.

Kimberly S. Jones, 2023 NC Teacher of the Year (Photo: NCDPI)

If there’s a core public service in North Carolina that’s found itself most consistently in the crosshairs of hostile politicians the last several years, it’s public education. Thanks to the repeated enactment of budgets that have underfunded everything from teacher salaries to facilities to the number of administrators, nurses, and counselors, North Carolina’s public schools have fallen among the lowest funded in the nation.

Despite this trend, thousands of dedicated educators are hanging in there and continuing to advocate for a time in the not-too-distant future in which state leaders will see the error of their ways and renew our state’s historic commitment to supporting a first-class public education system. Recently Newsline caught up with one of those professionals – North Carolina 2023 Teacher of the year and nationally board-certified teacher, Kim Jones – to discuss teacher retention and Governor Josh Stein’s critical needs budget.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Kimberly S. Jones, 2023 North Carolina Teacher of the Year

Scott Peoples (Courtesy photo)

As the U.S. rapidly moves toward the one-month mark in President Trump’s highly controversial war with Iran, the costs – both in human lives and dollars and cents — continue to mount rapidly. And these costs are impacting virtually all Americans. Not only are direct expenditures on the war impacting the U.S. Treasury and the government’s ability to fund core public services, the economic impacts – most notably in the form of soaring fuel prices – are taking a toll on millions of average consumers.

And it’s in light of these developments that the group Veterans for Responsible Leadership has launched a new billboard campaign in North Carolina critiquing the war and calling for Congress to exercise its authority to control the president’s thus far unilateral actions. And recently, Newsline caught up with the group’s North Carolina-based executive director, former U.S. 82nd Airborne Division captain, Scott Peoples.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Scott Peoples, executive director of Veterans for Responsible Leadership.

N.C. Budget & Tax Center policy analyst Alex Campbell

As the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians are well aware, the economic news of late remains a mix of good and bad news. On the hopeful side, the official unemployment rate remains comparatively low. What’s more, there are some important ways in which our state remains better situated than many others. On the other hand, however, there are several areas in which things are trending in a negative direction.

Perhaps most notable here, is the ongoing affordability crisis that continues to keep prices for several basics of life – housing, health care, groceries – beyond the reach of many average households. Now add the failure of state and national policy leaders to tackle these matters effectively and it’s no wonder that concerns are running high – both among experts and average citizens. And recently NC Newsline caught up with North Carolina Budget and Tax Center Policy Analyst Alex Campbell to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with North Carolina Budget and Tax Center Policy Analyst Alex Campbell.

Cecilia Holden, president and CEO of myFutureNC (Courtesy photo)

How is North Carolina doing in building a workforce with the necessary degrees and job credentials for the 21st Century economy?

While the challenges here are huge, this is one area in which state policymakers have created a nonprofit that’s charged with monitoring our progress and, where it can, helping to move things in a positive direction. The group is called myFutureNC, and recently it released its latest update on the headway we’re making. And earlier this month, NC Newsline caught up with the group’s President and CEO, Cecelia Holden.

In Part One of our conversation, we checked in and heard some encouraging news related to how well our state is doing in meeting its decade-long goal of building a workforce in which two-million residents hold a post-secondary degree or industry-valued credential by 2030.

In Part Two of our conversation, we dug deeper into the issue and reviewed some of the major challenges we face, including the reading and math scores of younger students, the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the disparities in how different regions of the state are faring. And we also examined what many see as a major elephant in the economic room and future employment trends: artificial intelligence.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Cecilia Holden, president and CEO of myFutureNC.

Click here to read the latest report.

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper

An especially noteworthy 2026 primary election has come and gone, and there were a lot of important and high-profile outcomes – some expected and some surprising.

Topping the list of predicted results were the outcomes in the Democratic and Republican U.S. Senate primaries, where former Gov. Roy Cooper and GOP party official Michael Whatley cruised to easy wins and are now set for what all expect to be an expensive November showdown.

Interestingly, however, despite its national importance, the Senate primaries were partially overshadowed by a Republican primary in a state Senate race in which longtime Senate leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page are headed for a recount. NC Newsline caught up with Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper to review these and other results.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper.

Abigail M. Hatcher, PhD (Photo: UNC.edu)

Among the many controversial actions taken by North Carolina public university leaders since Republicans at the state legislature took control of the system and campus boards, few have provoked greater concern than a recent announcement that administrators at UNC Chapel Hill would begin secretly recording classroom lectures and discussions.

In addition to their concerns about the basic and creepy Big Brother aspects of such a proposal, faculty members in Chapel Hill pushed back forcefully against the plan as an unwarranted move that would stifle learning and free discussion. Happily, the plan appears to have been scrapped, but that has not stopped efforts on the campus to restrict academic freedom, and recently, to learn more, Newline caught up with the interim vice president of the North Carolina Conference of the American Association of University Professors, Dr. Abigail Hatcher.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Dr. Abigail Hatcher, the interim vice president of the North Carolina Conference of the American Association of University Professors.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy

There’s been no bigger or more controversial national news story in recent weeks than the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown. All across the country – and perhaps most notably in Minnesota – federal immigration officers have employed an array harsh and often discriminatory and violent tactics to round up people suspected of being undocumented – many of them U.S. citizens.

And of course, the massive sweep has created a need for places to house detainees – at least temporarily – and so it is that we’re now learning of plans to create a vast network of so-called detention centers (that is prisons) across the country. What’s more, as Kevin Hardy, a reporter for the national news outlet Stateline recently reported, in addition to taking over existing jails and prisons, the administration is moving to convert and use large private warehouses and manufacturing buildings for this purpose. Not surprisingly, this is causing a lot of concerns for local government leaders on a variety of grounds, and recently, Newsline caught up with Hardy for an extended conversation to learn more.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy, we discussed the revelation that the Trump administration plans to establish a new network of so-called detention centers – that is, prisons – to house the thousands of people swept up in recent immigration raids. What’s more, the plan is to convert a large number of private warehouses and manufacturing facilities – many of them located in communities not typically used for prisons – to this purpose.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into the subject and, in particular, the opposition that has arisen to this scheme from both Republican and Democratic local officials, the public campaigns that some communities have undertaken to convince owners of these facilities not to go along with the administration’s plans, and the prospects for expected court challenges.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy.

Will Scott, North Carolina Policy Director (Photo: Courtesy EDF)

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the first several weeks of 2026 have featured a large complement of wintry and bitterly cold weather and that’s something that’s sure to drive up the electric bills that will soon hit thousands of residential ratepayers. And while there’s nothing that can be done to control the weather, there are steps energy providers and elected officials can take to help minimize electricity rates – most notably, working to shift as quickly as possible to sustainable sources of energy with predictable costs like solar and wind.

Unfortunately, while North Carolina had been moving in that direction, recent political lobbying by Duke Energy has sidetracked those efforts and, as Newsline learned in a recent chat with Will Scott, the North Carolina Policy Director for the Environmental Defense Fund, the result will be more reliance on volatilely priced fossil fuels and a shift in the burden for funding Duke’s profits from industrial and commercial customers to residential consumers.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Will Scott, the North Carolina Policy Director for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

If there’s a most egregious disconnect right now between state and national policy and what reams of scientific evidence and countless common-sense observations tell us about the world around us, it’s clearly in the realm of environmental protection and, in particular, climate change. As has been repeatedly and thoroughly documented, our planet currently faces an existential crisis that demands an urgent, all-hands-on-deck response from government at all levels, the private and nonprofit sectors, scientists, and average citizens.

Unfortunately, as Newsline learned recently in an extended conversation with North Carolina League of Conservation Voters’ clean energy campaigns director, Meech Carter, the perverse reality right now is that many corporate actors, along with the Trump administration, are moving in the opposite direction by loosening or eliminating anti-pollution rules and conservation efforts, expanding the use of expensive fossil fuels and sticking average ratepayers with the bill.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation Carter, we explored the troubling fact that new actions by North Carolina-based electricity giant Duke Energy, are poised to both raise prices on average consumers and further inhibit critically important efforts to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.

In Part Two of our chat we dug deeper into these issues by examining the troubling growth of so-called data centers, recent actions by the Trump administration to end federal regulation of pollutants that cause climate change, the critical need to rebuild western North Carolina better and stronger 18 months after Hurricane Helene, and why its critical that caring and thinking people vote in this year’s elections if our state and nation are to return to the pursuit of sane environmental policies.

Click here to listen to the full interview with North Carolina League of Conservation Voters’ clean energy campaigns director Meech Carter.

NC Newsline investigative reporter Lynn Bonner

Early voting is already well underway in this year’s primary election that concludes on March 3, but even as this process plays out, conservative activists and self-described “election integrity experts” are renewing their longstanding campaign to purge registered voters from the rolls in groups and geographic areas that generally tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

The latest effort: a recent offer from a group of conservative activists to provide North Carolina’s Republican dominated Board of Elections with new computer software that they claim will identify fraudulent voters.

As NC Newsline reporter Lynn Bonner explained in a recent story, however, the software in question remains in a developmental stage and is a of a type and origin that pro-democracy advocates say should raise some serious red flags. And recently, we sat down with Bonner to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NC Newsline investigative reporter Lynn Bonner.

Click here to read Bonner’s story.

Dr. Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history and director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service

During his 2024 campaign to return to the White House, President Trump promised American voters that he would almost immediately deliver a new era of
peace and prosperity. Today, a little over a year since his return to office, it’s increasingly clear that most Americans do not believe he has delivered.

In addition to a string of losses for Trump allies in a series of special elections, several new opinion surveys indicate that most Americans – including a significant percentage of Republicans – are unhappy with rising costs of everything from housing to health care to groceries. And yet, despite these trends, Trump retains a core of strong supporters – and this is true in North Carolina – who remain loyal and willing to accept his characterization of the facts, even when they’re contradicted by official statistics. And recently to get a better handle on this situation, Newsline sat down for an extended chat with the author of one of the most recent polls, veteran Catawba College political scientist, Prof. Michal Bitzer.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with veteran Catawba College political scientist, Prof. Michael Bitzer, we discussed recent polling numbers that indicate that while President Trump retains a core of strong supporters, his overall approval ratings are waning in light of several controversial global policy actions and an economy that’s failing to live up to his campaign promise of lower prices and bigger paychecks.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of the widespread discontent over the state of the economy, as well as the general bipartisan dissatisfaction with the performance of the U.S. Congress. In addition, we checked in on the continued strong polling numbers for North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and looked ahead to the upcoming North Carolina U.S. Senate contest in which former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to face one of a group of lesser-known Republican candidates.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Catawba College political scientist Prof. Michal Bitzer.

North Carolina mall business owners Abigail Helberg-Moffitt and Sam Ratto (Courtesy photos)

If you celebrated Valentine’s Day over the weekend, chances are you noted that tariffs are driving up the cost of flowers, chocolates, and many other items associated with the holiday.

Many of the products that define Valentine’s rely heavily on imports. The United States imports nearly all the cacao used to make chocolate, primarily from West Africa, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. About 80 percent of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are also imported.

To get a better idea of how across-the-board tariffs are impacting consumers, we checked in recently with two small business owners in Raleigh and in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Sam Ratto is the owner of Videri Chocolate Factory in downtown Raleigh and Abigail Helberg-Moffitt is the owner of Bloom WNC in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Click here to listen to their story.

Read their full story here.

Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Courtesy photo)

For those who had hoped the New Year would return a modicum and calm and normalcy to the nation, the past several weeks have been a profound disappointment. Between the Trump administration’s continued war on basic government services, rogue foreign policy threats, destructive and frequently lawless attacks on immigrant communities, and failure to address the affordability crisis afflicting millions of Americans, the first few weeks of 2026 have looked distressingly similar to 2025. Most recently, with the President’s brazen proposals to seize oversight of elections from the states, the nation seems headed from more chaos and controversy.

Fortunately, a growing and bipartisan chorus of elected leaders is speaking up and pushing back and NC Newsline recently caught up with North Carolina U.S. Representative Deborah Ross to talk about those efforts.

Click here for the full interview with Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02)

Dr. Mennicke is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work (Photo: Charlotte.edu)

For close to 90 years, most American universities and their faculty members have operated under a popular, useful and commonly understood definition of academic freedom – that is the notion that a free search for the truth and its exposition (one not beholden to politicians or the whims of public opinion) is at the heart of higher education’s mission. Indeed, throughout this period, a national organization known as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has made championing such a definition its guiding mission.

However, in recent years, conservative partisans have been leading a relentless campaign to undermine academic freedom and, in recent months, that effort has given rise to a new initiative at the UNC System Board of Governors. And recently to learn more, Newsline caught up with an AAUP leader here in North Carolina – UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of Social Work, Anneliese Mennicke.

Click here for the full interview with UNC Charlotte Associate Professor Anneliese Mennicke.

Shannon Schumacher (Courtesy photo)

The nation’s persistent affordability crisis continues to leave large majorities of Americans deeply concerned about the state of the country and dissatisfied with national political leaders and, as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with KFF senior survey polling analyst Dr. Shannon Schumacher, nowhere is this better evidenced than in the field of health care.

As Schumacher told us in a recent conversation, new KFF polling finds that the combination of soaring costs and frayed and uncertain insurance coverage has left millions of people worse off than they were just a year ago and deeply concerned about the policies, actions and inactions of the Trump administration and congressional leaders as we look forward to the 2026 elections.

Click here to listen to the full interview with KFF senior survey polling analyst Dr. Shannon Schumacher.

Dr. Arthur Lavin with the organization Grandparents for Vaccines.

One of the most worrisome trends impacting our nation’s public health right now is the spread of misinformation about the risks and benefits of vaccines. Tragically, this sobering development is on display right now in our state where multiple outbreaks of measles – a dangerous and sometimes deadly and debilitating illness – have emerged thanks to the failure of parents to secure vaccination for their children.

And it’s in light of developments like this that an array of experts and average citizens are pushing back with accurate information and advocacy, and recently we caught up with one of the leaders of that effort – veteran Ohio-based pediatrician Dr. Arthur Lavin. Lavin helps lead a national organization called Grandparents for Vaccines and as he told Newsline, he and his colleagues in this effort are determined to remind Americans of some simple truths about communicable disease that many have forgotten.

Click here for the full interview with Dr. Arthur Lavin of Grandparents for Vaccines.

Veteran political consultant Thomas Mills

North Carolina primary election is just weeks away, and it looks like our state will play host to one of the nation’s most expensive and important U.S. Senate races as former Democratic governor Roy Cooper heads toward a fall clash with one of three candidates seeking the Republican nomination.
Of course, all of this comes at a time of profound national division and turmoil as President Trump continues to pursue an agenda that polls say most Americans view as reckless and unattuned to their needs. At such a moment, it seemed to us like a good time to check in with one of our state’s most experienced political observers, veteran Democratic consultant and columnist Thomas Mills. And as Mills told us in Part One of our extended conversation, this fall’s elections are likely to show once again that North Carolina remains one of the nation’s most closely divided states.

In Part Two of our chat, we examined the fascinating state Senate contest in Rockingham and Guilford counties in which long-time Republican leader and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger faces a formidable challenge from popular Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. We also discussed whether there is a chance for Democrats to gain any seats in the state legislature and U.S. House delegations in light of aggressive Republican gerrymandering and what Mills sees as some of the key issues that are likely to be foremost in voters’ minds as they go to the polls.

Click listen to the full interview with veteran political consultant Thomas Mills. You can read more of his observations at Politics NC.

Sailor Jones, Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director (Courtesy photo)

Few organizations have had a larger impact on the honesty, transparency and overall health of North Carolina’s government over the few decades than the state chapter of the national nonprofit advocacy organization Common Cause. Recently, the group’s longtime executive director Bob Phillips moved on to retirement, turning over the reins to the longtime organizational deputy director Sailor Jones.

NC Newsline recently sat down with Jones to discuss why he’s already redoubling the group’s efforts to resist assaults on fair elections. And Jones weighs in on recent actions by the NC State Board of Elections to reject campus voting sites and curb Sunday voting in several counties.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the new executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, Sailor Jones.

Raul Pinto, Deputy Legal Director at the American Immigration Council

All across the country, ICE and Border Patrol agents have conducted police-state-style raids and other actions that have terrorized communities and raised constitutional issues of profound importance.

At the same time, numerous changes to immigration policy – many of them adopted without public knowledge or input – have made an already complex system more opaque and confusing than ever.

At such a challenging moment, the nation is blessed to have a small and courageous cadre of nonprofit advocates who work each day to monitor and shine a light on the system and advocate for basic American values like due process. And recently Newsline got a chance to talk with one of the most able and best-informed attorneys working in this arena, American Immigration Council Deputy Legal Director, Raul Pinto.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with American Immigration Council Deputy Legal Director, Raul Pinto, we delved into some of the most worrisome front burner issues related to immigrants and immigration policy currently afflicting the nation – including the deeply disturbing mass raids, arrests and violence launched by the Trump administration in numerous communities across the country.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of these and related issues, including the matter of transparency and accountability in the immigration law system and an ongoing effort by Pinto and his colleagues to compel the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to simply provide immigrants with their own immigration records.

Click here for the full interview with Raul Pinto, Deputy Legal Director at the American Immigration Council

Editor’s note: Newsline’s interview with Pinto was recorded before a second U.S. citizen was shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.

Meredith College pollster Professor David McLennan (Courtesy photo)

The headlines are making clear, big and important debates and actions – especially several controversial actions of the Trump administration and its allies — have continued to roil American policy and politics in the New Year. From the health care wars to the widespread immigration crackdowns to a bevy of contentious foreign policy moves, Americans are concerned about the present and future and, in many instances, deeply divided.

It’s the kind of moment that keeps political scientists and pollsters busy as they work to assess the state of public opinion and how it’s likely to impact voting patterns and upcoming elections, and one especially trustworthy monitor of the situation in North Carolina is Meredith College political science professor and pollster David McLennan. And recently, we caught up with McLennan for an extended interview in which we dug into several of these matters.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with Meredith College political scientist and pollster David McLennan, we examined some of the top issues making political and policy news in the New Year and how they relate to the latest developments we’re seeing in American public opinion and voter registration numbers.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued this conversation, and looked more closely at some of the most controversial issues – including the Trump administration’s national crackdown on immigrants and its controversial foreign policy actions and statements — as well as how these controversies might impact the 2026 elections and, in particular, North Carolina’s highly anticipated U.S. Senate race between former Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican challenger Michael Whatley.

Bishop William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)

Commemorative services are planned across the state Monday as the nation pauses for a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. MLK Day is a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.

Bishop William Barber – president of Repairers of the Breach and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement – will mark the day with a series of speeches encouraging people of all backgrounds to come together and sound the alarm against unjust policies that have led to healthcare cuts, gerrymandered districts, reduced funding for public schools, and increased aggressive actions by ICE agents.

Barber and a coalition of North Carolina religious leaders and advocacy organizations recently announced plans for a memorial march in mid-February to speak out against regressive policies while highlighting what they believe is a better path forward for the nation. NC Newsline sat down with Bishop Barber to discuss the upcoming march and his thoughts as we mark the 2026 MLK Day. Barber shared with us one of the key objectives of the upcoming February march is to lift up a vision of what caring and thinking people are for, more than just the policies that they’re against.

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee

For those who had hoped the New Year might usher in a period of renewed calm in American policy and politics, this first week has been yet another profound disappointment. Topping the list of worrisome developments was President Donald Trump’s decision to use U.S. military personnel to arrest the president of Venezuela Niclas Maduro and his wife.

Trump’s action to decapitate the leadership of a sovereign nation and quote “run” the oil rich country going forward has prompted protests and deep concern across the nation and the world about violations of international law and the U.S. Constitution. And one of the many American elected officials to voice such concerns has been North Carolina Fourth District Congresswoman Valerie Foushee. As Newsline learned in a recent extended interview, Foushee is strongly opposed to putting armed forces personnel in jeopardy in service of another nation-building exercise that she views as unlawful.

We examined several other subjects, including the the failure of Foushee’s GOP colleagues in Congress to renew federal subsidies for Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act, the un-American actions of ICE and border patrol agents, the anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection and President Trump’s pardon of numerous perpetrators.

Click here to listen to the full interview with North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04)

Editor’s note: NC Newsline’s interview with Foushee was conducted prior to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an ICE agent that has ignited nationwide protests.

Reporter Lisa Sorg (File photo)

As we commence the New Year, few if any subjects raise greater concerns for the wellbeing of Americans than the ongoing global environmental crisis. From climate change to the growing and widespread prevalence of toxic chemicals, to the Trump administration’s ongoing war against environmental protection regulations, this past year has been another deeply worrisome one for the health of our planet.

And while it will clearly be difficult to effect the public policy turnaround that’s so urgently needed anytime very soon, one predicate that will be absolutely necessary is a continuing flow of accurate information and on this front, North Carolina is fortunate to have one of the nation’s best and most knowledgeable environmental reporters – Lisa Sorg of Inside Climate News. And this past week, Newsline caught up with Lisa to discuss some of the most important environmental stories of 2025 and what’s likely to be making news in 2026.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Lisa Sorg of Inside Climate News.

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s common knowledge that the nation’s housing market – especially in growing areas like North Carolina – has become prohibitively expensive for millions of people, and a new report from researchers at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Geospatial Solutions (which is housed at the institute) highlights a major culprit – the rising tide of corporate ownership of the nation’s residential housing stock.

According to the report – which is entitled “Who Owns America,” nearly 9% of residential parcels in 500 U.S. counties are owned by a corporation and the concentrations exceed 20% in some cities. What’s more, the trend is expanding rapidly, and it’s further complicating the already deeply challenging housing market for first-time buyers. And in December to learn more about the report and the housing market challenges it helps to highlight, we caught up with the national housing reporter for the news outlet, Stateline, Robbie Sequeira.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Robbie Sequeira.

Editor’s note: This is a rebroadcast of our interview from Dec. 7, 2025.

NC State University economist Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

The rising cost of housing continues to be a huge problem for millions of Americans. But, of course, as just about any average person can also confirm, lack of affordability is not just a problem confined to housing – it’s spreading across the U.S. economy in dozens of areas. So, what’s going on here? During the COVID pandemic, we knew precisely what was going on – a huge drop in supply that was giving rise to rapid inflation, and that problem was rapidly and successfully addressed during the Biden presidency.

So why are prices going up again and what should elected leaders be doing about it? Recently Newsline got a chance to discuss these and some related matters in an extended conversation with NC State extension economist and professor emeritus Mike Walden.

In Part One of our extended conversation, we discussed the affordability crisis that’s plaguing millions of average Americans – and how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are contributing to the problem and undermining the bold promises he made to Americans during the 2024 election.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of the economic challenges that confront the nation, including the impact of artificial intelligence, the changing nature of work, the ongoing disinvestment in research in higher education and the soaring costs of health care.

Click here to listen to the full interview with economist Mike Walden.

Editor’s note: This is a rebroadcast of our interview from Dec. 7, 2025.

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

Few areas of modern American popular culture have undergone greater or more rapid changes in recent years that college sports. Thanks to a series of successful legal challenges, the nation’s longstanding practice of treating college athletes as amateurs has been completely upended and, especially at big schools engaged high-profile sports like football and basketball, teams have become professionalized, with many athletes switching schools yearly, and raking in multi-million dollar deals under so-called “name image and likeness.”

In a time of such rapid change and upheaval, it comes as little surprise that many people who were used to how things once worked – be they university leaders or average citizens and sports fans — are experiencing a sense of disorientation and discomfort. And this fact was made clear in some opinion surveys conducted last October by the Elon University Poll and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and at that time, NC Newsline caught up with the Elon poll director, Prof. Jason Husser, to learn more.

Now that we are in the midst of the college football bowl season, we thought it would be an ideal time to revisit that interview and the poll findings.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Elon University Professor Jason Husser.

Sam Hiner, executive director of the Young People’s Alliance (Courtesy photo)

In our fast-changing world, few technological developments of recent years have had a bigger impact on young people than the emergence of instant communication and social media. And while it’s not difficult to identify the positive impacts of these phenomena, the worrisome impacts are also numerous. And this is a trend that seems certain to intensify in years to come with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

Thankfully, many advocates have started to speak out in favor of stronger laws to protect vulnerable people – especially young people – from exploitation like predatory algorithms, social media bullying, artificial intelligence and other impacts from the online world that endanger people’s mental and even physical health. And a few months’ back, NC Newsline caught up with the leader of one such group, the co-founder and executive director of the Young People’s Alliance, North Carolinian Sam Hiner.

Click here to listen to our full interview with Sam Hiner, the co-founder and executive director of the Young People’s Alliance.

Dr. Latonya Agard, NC Coalition to End Homelessness

The affordability crisis plaguing the American economy continues to grow more serious, and if there is a most visible sector of the economy for which soaring prices are causing the most havoc, it has to be housing. Across the country, the skyrocketing cost of housing – both for purchase and rent – is conspiring to swell the ranks of Americans who are inadequately housed, or even completely homeless.

What’s more and quite maddeningly, this disastrous trend is being abetted by the Trump administration and its congressional allies, who have made it a priority to abandon the federal government’s proven “housing first” policy in favor of a mishmash of poorly funded alternatives and coercive tactics that some advocates characterize as an attack on homeless people. And recently to learn more about where things stand and what advocates are doing to push back, Newsline caught up with the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, Dr. Latonya L. Agard.

Click here for the full interview with Dr. Latonya L. Agard.

Bob Phillips, Common Cause of North Carolina

When veteran journalist and advocate Bob Phillips took over as executive director of Common Cause of North Carolina a quarter century ago, he was the organization’s sole staff member and the work he pursued to fight for fair elections, voting rights and honest government could often be a lonely effort. Today, as he prepares to retire next month, he’s no longer quite so lonely – with a staff of 15 Common Cause North Carolina is now the organization’s largest state affiliate – but many of the battles he fights remain daunting and uphill affairs.

Especially when it comes to elections and combating the gerrymandering that allows politicians to rig their outcomes, Common Cause and its allies continue to face stiff headwinds from President Trump and his allies in Congress, state legislatures and the federal courts. And yet, as Bob reminded Newsline when we talked last week, there remain simple and doable fixes that could return fairness to our elections, and there are many reasons to believe caring and thinking Americans will be able to make them a reality in the not too distant future.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Bob Phillips.

Ron Pringle, President and CEO of the Raleigh-based Interfaith Food Shuttle (Courtesy photo)

It continues to be one of the great scandals of modern America that in the world’s richest nation, millions of people – including an especially high percentage of children – suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Here in North Carolina, around one in seven people — including a quarter of our children — are burdened by food insecurity.

And just to make the situation that much more outrageous and inexcusable, recent actions by federal and state elected officials to undermine SNAP food assistance and slash funding for anti-hunger nonprofits have made the situation significantly worse. The result: this year, more people than ever are struggling to feed their families. Amazingly, however, the good people doing anti-hunger work remain resilient and unbowed, and recently we got the chance to learn more about the needs in our community and how average folks can help in an extended conversation with the president and CEO of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Ron Pringle.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with Pringle, we discuss the hunger crisis that currently afflicts North Carolina and how recent actions by federal and state lawmakers to slash funding for food assistance and nonprofits that aid people in need have made an already bad situation significantly worse.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into the details of the current hunger crisis, some of the many innovative and hopeful ways in which groups like the Food Shuttle, even with depleted funding, seek to attack it, and how average North Carolinians can support their effort by donating their time, talents and treasure.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle President and CEO Ron Pringle.

Click here to learn more about the Food Shuttle

Community organizer Jon Council (Courtesy photo)

It’s now been nearly 15 months since the worst storm in modern times to hit western North Carolina – Hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Helene – inundated numerous mountain communities, killed more than 100 people and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
Unfortunately, as NC Newsline has reported on numerous occasions, especially when it comes to the federal government, the response has been decidedly and often maddeningly inadequate. Despite repeated pleas from Gov. Josh Stein, funding from Washington has been slow and spotty and, thanks to Trump administration bloodletting, federal agencies that should be helping to spearhead the recovery have been inadequately staffed and often missing in action. As a result, western North Carolina residents remain deeply frustrated and worried about the future and recently we caught up with a storm survivor and local recovery leader who’s traveling to the nation’s capital along with a group of other disaster survivors from around the country this week to call for a better federal response – Watauga County carpenter and organizer Jon Council.

Click here for the full interview with Down Home North Carolina community organizer Jon Council.

NC State University economist Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

The rising cost of housing continues to be a huge problem for millions of Americans. But, of course, as just about any average person can also confirm, lack of affordability is not just a problem confined to housing – it’s spreading across the U.S. economy in dozens of areas. So, what’s going on here? During the COVID pandemic, we knew precisely what was going on – a huge drop in supply that was giving rise to rapid inflation, and that problem was rapidly and successfully addressed during the Biden presidency.

So why are prices going up again and what should elected leaders be doing about it? Recently Newsline got a chance to discuss these and some related matters in an extended conversation with NC State extension economist and professor emeritus Mike Walden.

In Part One of our extended conversation, we discussed the affordability crisis that’s plaguing millions of average Americans – and how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are contributing to the problem and undermining the bold promises he made to Americans during the 2024 election.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of the economic challenges that confront the nation, including the impact of artificial intelligence, the changing nature of work, the ongoing disinvestment in research in higher education and the soaring costs of health care.

Click here to listen to the full interview with economist Mike Walden.

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s common knowledge that the nation’s housing market – especially in growing areas like North Carolina – has become prohibitively expensive for millions of people, and a new report from researchers at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Geospatial Solutions (which is housed at the institute) highlights a major culprit – the rising tide of corporate ownership of the nation’s residential housing stock.

According to the report – which is entitled “Who Owns America,” nearly 9% of residential parcels in 500 U.S. counties are owned by a corporation and the concentrations exceed 20% in some cities. What’s more, the trend is expanding rapidly, and it’s further complicating the already deeply challenging housing market for first-time buyers. And recently to learn more about the report and the housing market challenges it helps to highlight, we caught up with the national housing reporter for the news outlet, Stateline, Robbie Sequeira.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Robbie Sequeira.

Senator Natalie Murdock

The record federal government shutdown may be over, but the dysfunction to which it gave rise and helped spur continues to plague North Carolina. Here in our state alone, millions of average people who have long relied upon government structures and services to help make basics like health care and access to food more affordable are suddenly confronting dire situations.

Whether it’s Medicaid, Affordable Care Act Marketplace health insurance policies or SNAP food assistance, recent actions of the Trump administration and its congressional allies are causing havoc for people living on the edge. What’s more, as we learned in a recent conversation with North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock of Chatham and Durham Counties, Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly, who could be taking action to ease the confusion and suffering, have instead chosen inaction.

Click here to listen to the full interview with state Senator Natalie Murdock.

Andrew Willis Garcés of Siembra NC

One of the top news items at the start of the holiday season here in North Carolina has been the Trump administration’s latest anti-immigrant crackdown. The mass border patrol enforcement action has spurred chaos in several communities with tens of thousands of students skipping school, workers afraid to report to their jobs, and business owners shuttering their doors as masked individuals rounded up people with the use of highly questionable tactics.

Not surprisingly, as in many other parts of the country, thousands of North Carolinians are standing up to witness and document these often troubling actions and this past week Newsline sat down with an advocate whose organization is playing an important role in educating caring and thinking people about how they can support their immigrant neighbors, Siembra NC senior strategist, Andrew Willis Garcés.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Siembra NC’s Andrew Willis Garcés.

NC Newsline reporter Brandon Kingdollar

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is causing heartache and consternation for thousands upon thousands of North Carolinians. What’s more it’s not just people lacking proper documentation who are being negatively impacted. As NC Newsline journalist Brandon Kingdollar recently reported, in many instances, it’s American citizens and lawful residents who are being wrongfully targeted and harmed, and recently, we caught up with Brandon to learn more. We also got a chance to ask him about another controversial federal law enforcement initiative – this one targeting a product that millions of Americans have grown used to being lawful.

Click here for the full interview with NC Newsline reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

Reporter Greg Childress

Affordable housing remains one of the most vexing problems in North Carolina and around the country. What’s more, as we were reminded in a conversation this past week with NC Newsline poverty and housing reporter Greg Chidress, it’s a challenge that’s only been made worse by real and threatened federal funding cuts and the uncertainty those cuts are driving amongst the heroic service providers here and elsewhere who do their best to help the unhoused and expand the housing stock.

Happily, the story is not exclusively bleak. As Childress reminded us, there is evidence of a growth in new housing construction in some communities. What’s more, as was highlighted in a recent story he authored about a dynamic young activist and nonprofit leader in the city of Kinston, local advocacy and entrepreneurship can still make a real difference in addressing this daunting problem.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Newsline report Greg Childress.

Gene Nichol (File photo)

One of the most visible and prolific voices for progressive policy change in 21st Century North Carolina is UNC Professor of Law Gene Nichol. Since taking up residence here three decades ago, Prof. Nichol has taught, written and advocated with remarkable energy and clarity for public policies that promote economic, social and political justice. He established a center at UNC that worked to document and combat poverty and inequality, and he’s long served as one of the state’s toughest and most unapologetic public critics of the conservative politicians who’ve dominated state policymaking in the last 15 years.

Now, Nichol is out with a new book in which he documents the relentless right-wing political and policy crusade that’s being waged by the state’s conservative legislature leadership and speaks directly to caring and thinking North Carolinians about how they can fight back. The book, which is published by the folks at Blair Publishing, is entitled “Now what? How North Carolina Can Blaze a Progressive Path Forward” and this past week, we caught up with the author to learn more.

Click here for the full interview with UNC law professor, author and commentator Gene Nichol.

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

Few national policy changes of the past year have drawn more attention or caused more controversy that President Trump’s on-again off-again economic tariffs. But when it comes to lasting global impacts, it’s all but certain that tariffs will pale in comparison to another controversial policy shift – the Trump administration decision to abandon our nation’s commitment to combating climate change.

This past week, representatives from around the world convened in Brazil for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30 — a key opportunity to check in on how the world is doing in meeting the climate pledges made by scores of nations under the Paris Agreement. And sadly, as we learned in a recent conversation with North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Clean Energy Campaigns Director Meech Carter, the news – especially here in the U.S. – is not encouraging.

Click here for the full interview with Meech Carter as we discuss climate change, energy policy, and the absence of the U.S. at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Mary Carroll Dodd is the owner of Red Scout Farm near Black Mountain

One of the most visible and controversial economic policy shifts to be implemented during the first year of the second Trump administration has been the return of big economic tariffs (that is, federal taxes) on foreign imports. The President claims that tariffs will boost domestic businesses, but results thus far – especially given the on-again-off-again way in which they’ve been applied and removed — have been, at the very best, mixed.

One North Carolina businessperson who can testify to the challenging ways in which tariffs have impacted their business is western North Carolina farmer, Mary Carroll Dodd. Dodd is the owner of Red Scout Farm near Black Mountain, where she farms on land her family has owned for 125 years. And as she told Newsline when we caught up with her a few days’ back, tariffs have been anything but a boon to her business.

Click here for the full interview with Mary Carroll Dodd.

NC Newsline political reporter Galen Bacharier

The federal government shutdown continued to have an array of devastating impacts in recent days and, by any fair estimate, one of the most harmful has been the shutoff in SNAP food assistance. While a pair of federal court rulings appear to have forced the Trump administration to restart benefits for the millions of families who rely upon them, at last report, those benefits will be at just half of previous levels – a change that will guarantee a spike in hunger and suffering.

So how is this playing out in North Carolina? How many people are being adversely impacted and what if anything can be done to lessen the impact? Recently, we sat down with a journalist who’s been watching and reporting on this situation – NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier.

Rebecca Cerese (Courtesy photo)

The government shutdown and its devastating impact on millions of federal workers and average citizens is not the only dysfunction emanating from Washington these days. Thanks to the refusal of Congress and the Trump administration to extend health insurance tax credits enacted during the Biden years, millions of Americans are facing astronomical price spikes for Affordable Care Act health insurance policies for the New Year.

So, how bad is the situation and what can average North Carolinians do – both to urge Congress to act and to learn about how to fashion solutions to cope with the price hikes? Recently, Newsline sat down with one of our state’s most knowledgeable health care policy experts – Rebecca Cerese of the North Carolina Justice Center – to hear some answers to these and other closely related questions.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Rebecca Cerese of the North Carolina Justice Center.

Fact sheets and additional resources:

Enhanced Premium Tax Credit (EPTC) Fact Sheet,
Health Resource Sheet.
A Fact Sheet that offers tips on how to navigate hospital medical bills
Fact Sheet on the NC Medical Debt Relief and Protection Program
NC Navigator Consortium

Melissa McDonald

Amid the federal government shutdown and the pause in SNAP benefits, a growing number of groups and individuals are coming together and collaborating to promote the success and well-being of students and their families.

One such group in our state is the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition – a nonprofit that’s working hard to promote a model across the state in which traditional public schools become the hubs of their communities – not just for K-12 education, but for an array of core public services and structures – something that’s especially important at a time like the present when core government services have been going away.

And recently, NC Newsline caught up with the Coalition’s Director of Services, Melissa McDonald, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Melissa McDonald of the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition.

Jared Bernstein (Courtesy photo)

Over the last couple of decades, few if any American economists have played a more prominent role in the national debate over the economy or in actually crafting economic policy than Jared Bernstein. Bernstein served as chair of the national Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden and is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

And recently Bernstein was kind enough to join NC Newsline for a conversation about the current state of the U.S. economy and, among many other things, how the ongoing rise in inflation combined with growth in unemployment signals the arrival of the dreaded phenomenon known as stagflation, and how President Trump’s chaotic policies – most notably the imposition of tariffs on imported goods and services – are fueling what could well be a very destructive and hard-to-reverse economic trend.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Jared Bernstein, the former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

This is a rebroadcast of our interview that originally aired September 21, 2025.

Senator DeAndrea Salvador (Photo: NCGA)

It’s almost impossible to turn on one’s computer, phone or TV these days without hearing about or, indeed, experiencing the impact of AI – artificial intelligence. The rapid rise of this remarkable technology is reshaping our world in many important ways – some that provide grounds for great hope and others that give rise to profound concerns.

Not surprisingly, AI’s rapid rise is also spurring discussion of a raft of ethical and public policy issues – from questions of privacy and consumer protection to the need to regulate so-called deepfakes, to the very question of how humans assure that they retain control over the technology. Thankfully, some smart leaders have begun to pay close attention to the policy implications of AI, and here in North Carolina, one of those leaders is Mecklenburg County State Senator DeAndrea Salvador. And recently Sen. Salvador joined NC Newsline for a special two-part conversation in which we discussed some of these issues, and how for her, AI is a deeply personal matter.

In Part One of our extended conversation with State Senator Salvador of Mecklenburg County, we dove into a discussion of AI – artificial intelligence – the hopes and fears to which it’s giving rise and, in Senator Salvador’s case, how AI allowed an online talk she had given a few years’ back to be excerpted and manipulated for use in corporate advertising without her consent.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of the important policy implications of AI’s rapid rise, some of the legislation that she and others have introduced to help steer things in what they hope will be a healthy direction, and a new AI leadership council that Gov. Josh Stein has established (and on which Salvador serves) that will try to keep AI working for North Carolinians rather than the other way around.

Click here to listen to the full interview with State Senator DeAndrea Salvador.

This is a rebroadcast of our interview that originally aired September 21, 2025.

Samuel Gunter, executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition.

North Carolina faces a dire shortage of affordable housing. One need merely talk to friends and family members – even those with middle class incomes – to understand just how difficult it is to find affordable rental housing, much less homeownership opportunities.

That said, the numbers are bleak. The National Low Income Housing Coalition released a report this past summer entitled “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing” which showed how the wages that millions of hourly workers are earning don’t come close to what’s necessary. In North Carolina, a full-time worker must earn a minimum of $27.14 per hour to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment. So how did we get here, how are policies in Washington deepening the crisis and what should we be doing? Back in August, Newsline got a chance to explore these questions and more in an extended conversation with the executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, Samuel Gunter.

In Part One of our extended conversation with the executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, Samuel Gunter, we dug into some of the details of our state and national affordable housing shortages, why the current market is failing millions, and why the latest budget cuts and policy changes emanating from Washington are not going to help.

In Part Two of our chat we turned to several related matters, including the way in which natural disasters and the Trump administration’s immigrant deportation policies are dramatically worsening the situation and how the recent Trump executive order targeting homeless people for arrest or involuntary commitment represents another significant step in the wrong direction.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Samuel Gunter.

This is a rebroadcast of our interview that originally aired on August 3, 2025.

Amy Beros (Photo: Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC)

In 34 central and eastern North Carolina counties, one-in-five people – that’s well over half-a-million men, women and children – suffers from food insecurity.

And sadly, things aren’t going to get better any time soon. Indeed, thanks to recent acts of Congress and the state legislature, SNAP food assistance and other parts of our already threadbare and inadequate anti-hunger system are experiencing new, big and devastating cuts that are sure to worsen the problem. Not surprisingly, anti-hunger advocates are speaking up and demanding better and back in June Newsline caught up with one such leader – the President and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Amy Beros.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Amy Beros.

This is a rebroadcast of our interview that originally aired on June 8, 2025.

Pollster Jason Husser

Few areas of modern American popular culture have undergone greater or more rapid changes in recent years that college sports. Thanks to a series of successful legal challenges, the nation’s longstanding practice of treating college athletes as amateurs has been completely upended and, especially at big schools engaged high-profile sports like football and basketball, teams have become professionalized, with many athletes switching schools yearly, and raking in multi-million dollar deals under so-called “name image and likeness.”

In a time of such rapid change and upheaval, it comes as little surprise that many people who were used to how things once worked – be they university leaders or average citizens and sports fans — are experiencing a sense of disorientation and discomfort. And this fact was made clear in some recent opinion surveys conducted by the Elon University Poll and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and recently Newsline caught up with the Elon poll director, Prof. Jason Husser, to learn more.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation Husser, we discussed some of the results of the recent opinion surveys of university leaders he oversaw on the subject of the rapid changes that have been underway in college athletics – particularly the professionalization of once amateur sports and the newfound ability athletes enjoy to transfer from school-to-school.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of these issues, the concerns that many university leaders have about how these changes are impacting low revenue sports, and, in addition, how these views compare and contrast to what a poll conducted this past summer revealed about the attitudes of the general public.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Elon University Professor Jason Husser.

Attorneys Sara Harrington and Holly Stiles

Over the last several decades, much of the world has made significant progress in how it views and responds to the affliction we’ve come to refer to as substance use disorder. Whereas people who once struggled with the misuse of and addiction to drugs and alcohol were once dismissed as weak and flawed, we’ve learned that substance use disorder is an illness not unlike many others that can and should give rise to treatment rather than judgment and ostracization.

A recent lawsuit settlement should help advance this ongoing piece of societal progress. The case involved a pair of North Carolina skilled nursing facilities that sought to deny admission to an individual in violation of multiple federal laws because of his substance use disorder and recent drug use. The case settlement requires the facilities to develop and implement a Substance Use Disorder Non-Discrimination Policy and to implement several other modern, medically sound policies and recently, in order to learn more, we caught up with a pair of attorneys from the nonprofit that helped spearhead the case, Disability Rights North Carolina: Holly Stiles and Sara Harrington.

Click here to listen to the full interview Holly Stiles and Sara Harrington.

Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina

If there’s a single factor that’s playing the largest role in spurring the dysfunction and divisiveness that plague modern American politics, gerrymandering – the intentional rigging of electoral districts for partisan purposes – is it. With the assistance of digital technology and recent judicial rulings that have given them complete carte blanche, state legislatures across the country are making a mockery of fair elections by drawing and redrawing electoral districts to assure partisan electoral outcomes even before the candidates are selected.

And sadly, one of the national poster children for this destructive trend is North Carolina, where in response to the demands of President Trump, Republican leaders have signaled a willingness to redraw the state’s already rigged U.S. House map to expand their 10-4 majority to 11-3. Recently, in order to learn more about the GOP scheme and a new poll that shows strong bipartisan opposition to it, Newsline caught up with one of our state’s leading defenders of democracy and fair elections, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, Bob Phillips.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Common Cause of North Carolina executive director Bob Phillips.

Drew Ball, Natural Resources Defense Council (Photo: Screengrab from NC Newsline interview)

Despite the fact that they have yet to adopt a budget for the state fiscal year that commenced July 1, and are scheduled to return to Raleigh a couple more times this year, it appears that state lawmakers have wrapped up most of their action for the 2025 legislative session. And if that is in fact the case, one of the biggest losers in the Raleigh policy battles this year will have been our natural environment.

In addition to passing new laws to weaken important environmental protections, lawmakers have failed to fund a host of important public initiatives that are designed to clean up dangerous pollutants and strengthen communities to better withstand future natural disasters. And recently we caught up with one of our state’s top environmental policy experts — the Southeast Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Drew Ball – to learn some of the sobering details.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Drew Ball, Southeast Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Rep. Carolyn Logan of Mecklenburg County (Photo: NCGA)

State lawmakers returned to Raleigh in late September for a brief stay, and in the aftermath of a horrific killing that had occurred just weeks before on a Charlotte commuter train, legislative leaders made criminal justice and their stated intention of “getting tough on crime” the central focus. Among the law changes sent to Gov. Stein for his review were provisions that would make it easier to hold people accused of crimes without bail pending trial and jumpstart the state’s death penalty law.

Despite its rapid approval, not everyone on Jones Street was convinced that the “get tough” approach is the answer, and one of those people was State Rep. Carolyn Logan of Mecklenburg County, who told Newsline that she believes the state needs a more creative and comprehensive approach to making her community safer.

Click here to listen to the full interview with State Rep. Carolyn Logan of Mecklenburg County.

Jake Sussman

The North Carolina General Assembly was back in Raleigh in late September to enact legislation that leaders say will quote “get tough on crime” by limiting access to bail and pre-trial release for more criminal defendants and jump-starting the state’s long un-used death penalty.

Shortly after lawmakers departed the capital, Newsline caught up with an attorney who has studied this kind of legislation and its impact on crime in several states — the Chief Counsel of the Justice System Reform team at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Jake Sussman. And sadly, Sussman says there’s no evidence that lawmakers’ “get tough” approach will make a meaningful difference. To do that, he says, lawmakers will finally need to muster the courage to engage with complex and expensive policy solutions like fixing the state’s desperately underfunded mental health system.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Jake Sussman.

N.C. Budget & Tax Center policy analyst Alex Campbell

North Carolina is now into the second year of Hurricane Helene recovery and as we discussed in a special edition of News & Views last week, while there have been many encouraging and inspiring aspects to this story, the hard truth is that we have a very long way to go. And as Newsline learned recently in a conversation with policy analyst Alex Campbell of the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, the main reason for the slow pace of the recovery is funding – or more precisely, the lack of it from both the federal and state governments. Indeed, Campbell believes unless elected officials do something soon to inject billions of additional dollars, western North Carolina is in for many more tough years.

Click here to listen to the full interview with BTC policy analyst Alex Campbell.

Matt Calabria (Courtesy photo)

This past week marked the one-year anniversary of Helene – a deadly hurricane-turned tropical-storm that wreaked unprecedented havoc in western North Carolina. Helene caused widespread and massive flooding that killed scores of people and caused more than $60 billion dollars in damage to North Carolina’s mountain west.

In the year since, clean-up and recovery have been ongoing – sometimes seemingly never-ending — tasks for the communities affected and state leaders. Indeed, since he took office just a few months after Helene, Gov. Josh Stein has made Helene recovery his administration’s top priority and recently Newsline was lucky enough to get a snapshot of where things stand when we caught up with the Governor’s point person in that effort, Matt Calabria.

Click here for the full interview with Matt Calabria, the Director of Governor Josh Stein’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina.

Chris Joyell (Courtesy photo)

As with virtually all natural disasters, public funds and programs are at the heart of the ongoing recovery effort from Hurricane Helene. That said, federal relief from the Trump administration has been maddeningly minimal and slow, and that hard reality has helped force local private actors to display unusual resiliency and creativity in helping to keep the recovery up and running.

One group that’s been making a real impact is a nonprofit known as Mountain True. Not only have Mountain True staff and volunteers played an important role in the massive debris clean-up that continues to this day, but its experts are also developing strategies and plans to better prepare western North Carolina for future natural disasters, and last week NC Newsline I spoke with the Healthy Communities Director of Mountain True’s Appalachian Design Center, Chris Joyell.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Chris Joyell.

Matt Raker (Courtesy photo)

If western North Carolina is going to fully rebuild and recapture the economic vitality it enjoyed prior to Helene, small businesses will be at the heart of the effort. And make no mistake, the challenges are enormous.

Surveys show that 96% of small businesses in the region were impacted by the storm, and while the majority have reopened, revenue for most is still more than 20% below pre-Helene levels.

Fortunately, some smart and energetic nonprofits are working energetically and successfully to help revive small business and one such group is the community economic development nonprofit, Mountain BizWorks, and recently Newsline caught up with the group’s executive director, Matt Raker.

Click here for he full interview with Mountain BizWorks’ Matt Raker.

Jared Bernstein (Courtesy photo)

Over the last couple of decades, few if any American economists have played a more prominent role in the national debate over the economy or in actually crafting economic policy than Jared Bernstein. Bernstein served as chair of the national Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden and is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

And recently Bernstein was kind enough to join NC Newsline for a conversation about the current state of the U.S. economy and, among many other things, how the ongoing rise in inflation combined with growth in unemployment signals the arrival of the dreaded phenomenon known as stagflation, and how President Trump’s chaotic policies – most notably the imposition of tariffs on imported goods and services – are fueling what could well be a very destructive and hard-to-reverse economic trend.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Jared Bernstein, the former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Senator DeAndrea Salvador (Photo: NCGA)

It’s almost impossible to turn on one’s computer, phone or TV these days without hearing about or, indeed, experiencing the impact of AI – artificial intelligence. The rapid rise of this remarkable technology is reshaping our world in many important ways – some that provide grounds for great hope and others that give rise to profound concerns.

Not surprisingly, AI’s rapid rise is also spurring discussion of a raft of ethical and public policy issues – from questions of privacy and consumer protection to the need to regulate so-called deepfakes, to the very question of how humans assure that they retain control over the technology. Thankfully, some smart leaders have begun to pay close attention to the policy implications of AI, and here in North Carolina, one of those leaders is Mecklenburg County State Senator DeAndrea Salvador. And recently Sen. Salvador joined NC Newsline for a special two-part conversation in which we discussed some of these issues, and how for her, AI is a deeply personal matter.

In Part One of our extended conversation with State Senator Salvador of Mecklenburg County, we dove into a discussion of AI – artificial intelligence – the hopes and fears to which it’s giving rise and, in Senator Salvador’s case, how AI allowed an online talk she had given a few years’ back to be excerpted and manipulated for use in corporate advertising without her consent.

In Part Two of our chat, we dug deeper into some of the important policy implications of AI’s rapid rise, some of the legislation that she and others have introduced to help steer things in what they hope will be a healthy direction, and a new AI leadership council that Gov. Josh Stein has established (and on which Salvador serves) that will try to keep AI working for North Carolinians rather than the other way around.

Click here to listen to the full interview with State Senator DeAndrea Salvador.

Rep. Pricey Harrison (Photo: NCGA)

North Carolina state government continues to operate without a budget for the fiscal year that commenced July 1. Thanks largely to a disagreement between Republican leaders of the House and Senate over whether the state should plow ahead with a series of scheduled tax cuts – even as fiscal analysts warn of big impending budget shortfalls – the state is operating on a makeshift continuation budget that’s leaving a host of core public services inadequately funded.

What’s really behind this stalemate and what are some of the impacts it’s producing for state residents? Recently, as part of a special extended interview, Newsline posed these questions and several others to one of the North Carolina General Assembly’s longest serving and most widely respected members, State Rep. Pricey Harrison of Guilford County. And as Harrison explained, the hard truth is that the budget failure and its myriad impacts are likely the result of the political fears of one very powerful state Senator who faces a Republican primary challenger in 2026.

In part one of our extended conversation with Harrison, we discussed the ongoing failure of Republican legislative leaders to reach agreement on a state budget for the fiscal year, as well as GOP proposals to enact new, significant and worrisome changes to our state’s voting laws prior to the 2026 elections.

In part two of our interview, we turned our attention to an area to which Harrison has long been recognized as one of the General Assembly’s best informed and most impactful voices – environmental protection – and in particular the damage that continues to result from new state and federal laws that hamstring environmental regulators. In addition, we also chatted about the massive and negative impacts that President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have on our state’s social safety net unless state lawmakers step up to fill the huge gaps that will soon be created.

Click here for the full the full interview with state Rep. Pricey Harrison.

Kris Nordstrom (Courtesy photo)

It’s an interesting fact that while North Carolina’s population continues to steadily increase, enrollment in public schools is trending in the opposite direction. Part of the explanation for this is to be found in demographic shifts, but as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with veteran education policy analyst Kris Nordstrom of the North Carolina Justice Center, there are other factors involved as well – things like the state legislature’s ongoing expansion of private school options and its failure to adequately fund traditional public schools.

Nordstrom has authored a new report on this subject – it’s entitled “Navigating Declining Enrollment: How smarter state policies can help schools thrive” – and in it, he details some of the policy changes that could help slow or reverse the trend, as well as steps state and local officials could take to lessen the negative impacts when they’re forced to close schools.

Click here to listen to the full interview with veteran education policy analyst Kris Nordstrom.

Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Photo: House.gov)

The 2024 election is now mostly in the rear-view mirror, and as we all know by now, huge change is in the offing thanks to the return of Donald Trump. Trump’s election would appear to bode ill for a host of important and successful federal government initiatives of recent years on such matters as health care, environmental protection, education and more.

One member of Congress who will be doing her best to defend many of those successful initiatives is Wake County U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross. Ross was reelected by a wide margin this past Tuesday and as she told NC Newsline when we caught up with her the day after Election Day, she’s hopeful that Democrats can add some balance to Washington and that her colleagues will return to Capitol Hill in the next few weeks to provide much more aid for hurricane-impacted areas of western North Carolina.

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Coope (Screengrab from video recording)

Even though North Carolinians gave the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump, last Tuesday was, in many ways, a status quo election in our state, in which very little has changed in the way the two major parties are controlling key levers of power. What’s more, as we learned in a conversation the day after the election with Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper, there is every indication that despite its performance in recent presidential elections, North Carolina remains one of the nation’s most deeply purple states. Cooper shares his takeaways from the November 5th elections.

Jason Kanawati Stephany, Vice President of Communications & Public Policy at Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina

This year’s election may have come and gone, but one thing that hasn’t gone anywhere in North Carolina this year is hunger. Especially since congressional Republicans blocked the reauthorization of some key social safety net programs that led to great success during the pandemic, food insecurity has expanded to the point at which more than 560,000 people in our region alone fit this troubling description.

And with the recent devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, things have been even more dire in western North Carolina – a fact that has led the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina to ship truckloads of goods to the mountains. Earlier this week, we learned more about this effort, the work of the food bank more generally and the need for average folks to become anti-hunger advocates in a conversation with the food bank’s Vice President of Communications and Public Policy, Jason Kanawati Stephany.

Click here to learn more about how you can contribute.

Karen Brinson Bell, NC State Board of Elections (photo: Screen grab from virtual press conference)

Tuesday is Election Day and the beginning of the end of what’s been an incredibly long political season. One group of people who are acutely aware of this situation and the sharp national focus it has brought to North Carolina are the dedicated professionals who run our state’s elections.

Between repeated rule changes and lawsuits, crazy conspiracy theories spread by irresponsible politicians, and the impacts of Hurricane Helene, it’s been another trying year for state and county election officials. Fortunately, North Carolina is lucky enough to have a competent and unflappable leader at the helm in State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell, and as she reminded us when we caught up with her – her team is well prepared to oversee another honest and smoothly run election.

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen (Courtesy photo)

As we learned in our previous segment with state Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell, there’s every reason to believe that this year’s election with run smoothly and fairly in North Carolina and that by late Tuesday evening, we’ll have a lot of results from most of the key races.

What those results will be, however, remains the great mystery of the moment. Larger-than-usual turnout from North Carolina Republicans in the first days of early voting spurred optimism for GOP candidates, but that pattern has since turned around. And as we learned in a conversation this past week with the executive director of Public Policy Polling, Tom Jensen, the outcomes in most top-of-the-ballot contests remain much in doubt and dependent on voter turnout in late early voting and on Election Day.

Former President Donald Trump (left ) and Vice President Kamala Harris (right) Photos: Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images; Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

As anyone paying any attention is well aware, North Carolina is one of just a handful of U.S. states that will determine the outcome of this year’s presidential election. Thanks to our nation’s controversial – some would say obsolete and deeply flawed — electoral college system for electing presidents, it’s quite possible for candidates to lose the popular vote and still win the election by prevailing in the right states. Indeed, it’s already happened twice in this century.

As a result, this year’s two main candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former president Donald Trump, as well as their many surrogates, have visited North Carolina repeatedly in recent weeks.

Indeed, this past Wednesday, Harris and Trump held rallies less than 60 miles apart at almost the same moment, with Harris addressing a large crowd at a Raleigh’s Walnut Creek music park and Trump holding forth at an arena in Rocky Mount.

In his remarks, Trump returned once again to his familiar themes of grievance and division, as he spoke of plans to deport immigrants, recycled some of the familiar false claims about vote counting, and hurled personal insults at Vice President Harris. Meanwhile, in her remarks in Raleigh – which were preceded by spirited introductions from both Gov. Roy Cooper and Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Attorney General Josh Stein – Harris called for national unity behind her theme of a New Way Forward. And while she was highly critical of Trump, she also pledged to be the president of all Americans and to give those who disagree with her a quote “seat at the table.”

We hear excerpts from both Trump and Harris in this week’s show.

The bottom line: Rarely have two candidates offered such different visions of America’s future. If you haven’t already voted, please do so this Tuesday.

Kody Kinsley, secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo: DHHS)

It’s a sobering fact that one of the largest sources of consumer debt in North Carolina and across the nation is unpaid medical bills. Of course, no one gets sick or accumulates healthcare debt on purpose, but for most average households – including those with health insurance coverage – even a brief hospital stay can generate massive bills that can be all but impossible to pay off. This fact has led to North Carolinians having billions of dollars of medical debt hanging over their heads.

Happily, and to its great credit, however, Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration is doing something about the problem. It recently unveiled an innovative program under which all of the state’s hospitals will forgive billions of dollars in consumer debt in exchange for some new reimbursements from the federal government. It’s a true-win-win situation for all involved and recently we got a chance to have an extended conversation with the administration official behind this exciting, first-of-its kind initiative, state Health and Human Services Secretary, Kody Kinsley.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with North Carolina’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kody Kinsley, we discussed the subject of medical debt and the exciting new initiative his office has spearheaded to get the state’s hospitals to forgive billions of dollars of debt and provide millions of North Carolinians with a fresh start.

In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to another pair of timely topics from the world of health and healthcare – the encouraging progress the state is making in enrolling hundreds of thousands of people in the newly expanded Medicaid program, and the continued importance of vaccines in safeguarding public health – both to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and any number of other dangerous diseases (from measles to Mpox). This is a rebroadcast of an interview that originally aired September 1, 2024.

Amber Gavin (Courtesy photo)

It’s been more than two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion care and more than a year since North Carolina enacted a 12-week ban on the procedure – this on top of a raft of other burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions. So, what can we say about what’s been happening since?

National statistics indicate that abortions overall are up, but we also know that anti-abortion activists and political candidates are still seeking and promising a national ban. Recently, in order to try and make sense of this confusing situation we caught up with one of our state’s most knowledgeable experts, the Vice President of Advocacy and Operations at the healthcare provider, A Woman’s Choice, Amber Gavin. This interview originally aired September 1, 2024.

As Americans vote in the 2024 national election, few issues are more prominent than the national economy. For the most part – especially in comparison to elections past – the economic news is extremely good. Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployment rate, and the addition of 254,000 jobs to the economy.

And still, despite the good news, many people have yet to benefit from the rising tide. Recently in order to get a handle on the state of the economy – the good news and the continued challenges — I caught up with States Newsroom national economy reporter, Casey Quinlan.

Colin Seeberger (Courtesy photo)

If you’ve been hearing a lot this election season about something called Project 2025, there’s good reason. It’s a 922-page policy blueprint from the far-right Heritage Foundation that its authors hope will serve as a lengthy “to do” list for a new Republican presidential administration.

And in a host of vitally important areas – from education to the environment to reproductive freedom to the very future of democracy – it’s a frightening scheme to behold. Several weeks back I got a chance to discuss Project 2025 with the senior adviser for Communications at the Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress, Colin Seeberger.

In Part One of our chat, we examined how Project 2025 would alter and threaten basic and long-established norms of American democracy.

In Part Two, we examined some of the many dramatic changes that Project 2025 would inflict on an array of core rights and public services – including K-12 education, the social safety net, reproductive freedom, and the nation’s response to the global climate emergency.

Common Cause NC Sailor Jones (Backdrop Photo: Getty Images)

Amazingly, the November 5th general election is underway in North Carolina. Absentee voting by mail is already taking place and early in-person voting starts October 17. And with those facts in mind, there are a lot of changes that state lawmakers have made that make voting a bit more of a challenge, and that’s a situation that’s been rendered even more complicated for many voters in western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene.

Happily, some wise observers and advocates are carefully tracking the changes and translating them into plain English for average folks, and this past week I caught up with one of those experts – Common Cause of North Carolina Associate Director Sailor Jones.

State Rep. Pricey Harrison of Guilford County (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina is rightfully provoking calls for action by state and federal lawmakers, and one area in which one hopes such demands bear fruit is in planning and prevention. As the New York Times recently reported, state Republican legislative leaders have repeatedly blocked legislation and rules, and overrode gubernatorial vetoes, designed to protect against the impacts of hurricanes and other storms.

Thankfully, advocates have long identified and championed policies that would better prepare our state for the storms that will inevitably come our way (and also combat the climate change that’s helping to drive them) and one of the most knowledgeable is State Rep. Pricey Harrison of Guilford County. And as Harrison told me when I caught up with her this past week, it’s her hope that Hurricane Helene will finally spur her colleagues to action in this long-neglected area.

Rep. Lindsey Prather discusses the damage to western North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene. (Photo of Biltmore Village by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

As we’re all painfully aware by now, the last several days have been among the darkest in modern North Carolina history. The cause, of course, was Helene – a devastating hurricane-turned-tropical-storm that wreaked havoc across western North Carolina with unprecedented rainfall and flooding. Numerous communities suffered massive damage, and some were essentially wiped off the map.

The storm caused scores of fatalities and many, many people remain unaccounted for. And this is especially true in Buncombe County and the city of Asheville where the challenges for relief efforts posed by geography, downed trees, and washed out roads have been enormous. In an effort to learn more, NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield managed to catch up with Buncombe County State Rep. Lindsey Prather, who discussed her community’s plight, its immediate needs, and the necessity for state lawmakers to fund what promises to be a lengthy recovery.

State legislators returns to Raleigh October 9th.

Trevor Higgins (Courtesy photo CAP)

While the bad news from Hurricane Helene has been unrelenting in recent days, one small glimmer of hope – or at least a path forward — can be found in the science surrounding Helene and other extreme weather events. Simply put: we know for a fact that warming oceans and the increasingly warm and humid weather that we see in many parts of the world as the result of climate change are making hurricanes more frequent and severe.

And as NC Newsline was reminded earlier this week in a conversation with Trevor Higgins, the Senior Vice President of Energy and Environment at the Center for American Progress, there are numerous important step we can and must take to respond to the climate crisis by transitioning to a sustainable energy economy and strengthening public infrastructure. What’s more, happily, Higgins told me, these are both areas in which the Biden-Harris administration has already made enormous recent progress.

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

It’s hard to believe, but Election Day is now less than a month away. Indeed, many people have already voted by mail and early in-person voting starts October 17th. So, what do we know about what’s likely to happen? That’s a question several different pollsters have been trying to divine in recent weeks, including Elon University Poll Director Jason Husser. And as Newsline learned in a conversation Husser, two very different North Carolina races currently stand out – the presidential race where the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seems destined to come down to the wire and the gubernatorial contest, where Attorney General Josh Stein has pulled ahead of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson by a significant margin.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler (Photo: AFL-CIO)

North Carolina is and will, for the foreseeable future, remain a so-called “right-to-work” state in which laws make it extremely tough build workplace unions. Despite this enormous barrier, however, there’s growing evidence that interest in and support for organized labor in our state is enjoying a bit of a renaissance.

With wages in many companies remaining low and flat, even as corporate profits and executive pay have soared, many North Carolina workers– especially younger workers – are rethinking unions. This reality was on display recently in Raleigh as the state AFL-CIO hosted a large and energetic gathering at its annual convention. And right after she delivered a keynote address at the event, NC Newsline caught up with the national president of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler.

Marcus Bass, NC Black Alliance

Election Day 2024 is now just a little over six weeks away and not surprisingly, there’s been a spike of late in the activity of nonprofits that are seeking to help potential voters get schooled on the issues and ready to cast informed ballots. And one of those groups is the North Carolina Black Alliance. For several years now, the Alliance has worked to enhance Black communities by developing and promoting systemic policy change, as well as youth and leadership development.

This year, the Alliance has been especially active and in the coming days it will sponsor a pair of statewide events – a “Long March for Unity and Justice” that will visit several cities in the coming days and, on September 28, a statewide “Rooted in Wellness” Day that will feature events in 13 cities. And recently NC Newline sat down with the group’s Deputy Director Marcus Bass to learn more.

Courtesy photo of Josh Cowen and his book THE PRIVATEERS: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers

One of the most significant developments in the world of K-12 education in recent decades has been the rise of the so-called “school choice” movement, and in particular, the action taken by several states, including North Carolina, to spend big dollars on taxpayer-funded private school vouchers.

Proponents say vouchers are a tool to boost education and lift student achievement, but as Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University explains in a new book, that’s a claim that simply isn’t supported by the data. Indeed, Cowen’s research reveals that what’s really driving the expansion of vouchers isn’t a commitment to learning, but rather a Christian nationalist political movement that wants to fundamentally alter American society. The book is called “The Privateers – How Billionaires created a culture war and sold school vouchers” and Newsline recently caught up with Prof. Cowen for a special extended conversation.

Prof. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University

The long-awaited presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump finally took place this past week, and according to most independent analysts, the evening went very well for Harris. While she projected an image of calmness and confidence, Trump seemed rattled at times and often uttered false statements and cited wild conspiracy theories.

Of course, as NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield discussed the morning after the debate in a conversation with Western Carolina University Professor of Political Science Chris Cooper, the most important audience for the debate was the small slice of American voters who remain undecided, and it’s not yet clear how things will break for that group – both with respect to the presidency and several other key races in North Carolina.

Kris Nordstrom

The North Carolina General Assembly returned to Raleigh last week to approve a Republican plan to dramatically expand the state’s controversial private school voucher program. The plan advanced despite strong opposition from the Governor, Democratic lawmakers and an array of advocates for public schools.

So what exactly will the plan do? How much will it cost? And what, if anything, is the legislature doing to help traditional K-12 schools that have been struggling with funding shortfalls, teacher shortages and that will soon confront another funding cut later this month when an important federal pandemic relief program dries up? Recently, NC Newsline posed these questions and others to one of our state’s most knowledgeable public education policy experts, the North Carolina Justice Center’s Kris Nordstrom.

Investigative reporter Lisa Sorg

The global imperative of dramatically reducing fossil fuel consumption is as urgent as ever, but that isn’t preventing private and public plans to build new fossil fuel infrastructure. See for example, a massive new facility under construction in Person County. As Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg reported this past week, the 74 acre Moriah Energy Center is designed hold 50 million gallons of liquefied natural gas in two pressurized tanks 160 feet tall and 600 feet around.
Not surprisingly, Sorg found that the development has aroused deep concerns amongst neighbors in the rural community who see the planned facility as a profound threat to their way of life and recently she joined NC Newsline to share some of the details.

Read more: As the planet warms, activists in North Carolina mobilize to stop a gathering storm

Rep. Julie von Haefen - Photo: ncleg.gov

For several years now, the Republican leadership of the North Carolina legislature has appropriated millions of dollars to the state’s network of so-called crisis pregnancy centers. The centers give the impression that they provide healthcare services, but critics argue that they do no such thing. Recently, in an effort to learn more about these groups and what they do with taxpayer dollars, State Rep. Julie von Haefen of Wake County paid a visit to one of the centers and last week, she joined NC Newsline to discuss what she learned, as well as some thoughts that she has on the state of our public education system at the start of the new school year.

Ana Pardo (Courtesy photo)

On the whole, the U.S. economy has been faring well in recent years – especially when compared to the dark days of the pandemic. That said, the situation average workers find themselves in varies widely from state to state and one where things remain mired well below average is North Carolina. Indeed, a recent report by the group Oxfam America ranked North Carolina as the worst state in the country for working people.

As advocates at the North Carolina Justice Center point out in their new “State of Working North Carolina” report, however, it doesn’t have to be this way and the solutions here are not mysterious or complicated. What’s more, doing better by workers would actually lift the entire economy. Recently to learn more, Newsline sat down with the co-director of the Center’s Workers’ Rights Project, Ana Pardo.

Click here to read The Cost of Inaction — 2024 State of Working North Carolina

Jennifer Roberts and Bob Orr (Courtesy photos)

It’s hard to believe, but early absentee voting will soon be underway in the fall election. And while a scattering of ill-informed critics continues to cast aspersions and promote conspiracy theories, the evidence is overwhelming that our state’s electoral systems are honest and trustworthy.

What’s more, for those who may still harbor doubts or have questions about how things work, our state is lucky enough to have a bipartisan pair of experts touring the state and holding events in the coming weeks at which people from all parties and perspectives are invited to come listen, learn and ask hard questions. And recently Newsline caught up with those experts — former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr – to learn more about their Trusted Elections Tour and the efforts of the Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections.

The North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe, and Secure Elections is a cross-partisan initiative working for a more peaceful North Carolina where everyone can participate and have their voices heard.

Upcoming tour locations and times include:

*September 10, 2024 –* Burlington, NC

Elon University: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

*September 11, 2024 –* Raleigh, NC

Meredith College: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

*September 12, 2024 –* Durham, NC

Durham Convention Center: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

*September 16, 2024 –* Rocky Mount, NC

Nash Community College: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

*September 17, 2024 –* Roanoke Rapids, NC

Halifax Community College: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

*September 18, 2024 –* Elizabeth City, NC

Elizabeth City State University (Ridley Student Center Ballroom): 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Kody Kinsley, secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo: DHHS)

It’s a sobering fact that one of the largest sources of consumer debt in North Carolina and across the nation is unpaid medical bills. Of course, no one gets sick or accumulates healthcare debt on purpose, but for most average households – including those with health insurance coverage – even a brief hospital stay can generate massive bills that can be all but impossible to pay off. This fact has led to North Carolinians having billions of dollars of medical debt hanging over their heads.

Happily, and to its great credit, however, Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration is doing something about the problem. It recently unveiled an innovative program under which all of the state’s hospitals will forgive billions of dollars in consumer debt in exchange for some new reimbursements from the federal government. It’s a true-win-win situation for all involved and recently Newsline got a chance to have an extended conversation with the administration official behind this exciting, first-of-its kind initiative, state Health and Human Services Secretary, Kody Kinsley.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with Kinsley, we discussed the subject of medical debt and the exciting new initiative his office has spearheaded to get the state’s hospitals to forgive billions of dollars of debt and provide millions of North Carolinians with a fresh start.

In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to another pair of timely topics from the world of health and healthcare – the encouraging progress the state is making in enrolling hundreds of thousands of people in the newly expanded Medicaid program, and the continued importance of vaccines in safeguarding public health – both to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and any number of other dangerous diseases (from measles to Mpox).

Amber Gavin

It’s been more than two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion care and more than a year since North Carolina enacted a 12-week ban on the procedure – this on top of a raft of other burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions. So, what can we say about what’s been happening since?

National statistics indicate that abortions overall are up, but we also know that anti-abortion activists and political candidates are still seeking and promising a national ban. Recently, in order to try and make sense of this confusing situation Newsline caught up with one of our state’s most knowledgeable experts, the Vice President of Advocacy and Operations at the healthcare provider, A Woman’s Choice, Amber Gavin.

Sarah Ovaska (Photo: SCSJ)

It seldom comes as a surprise when laws negatively impacting people of color are enacted in the American South and a new report from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice provides the latest list of sobering examples.

The report, which is entitled “State of the South: Voting Rights Under Assault,” documents how voters of color (as well as young voters and those with disabilities) have been systematically targeted with laws and policies that block or discourage their participation in democracy. And sadly, the report also identifies a bevy of sobering statistics which show how voter participation among these groups is abysmally low. Recently, to better understand the situation and the steps necessary to reverse these troubling trends, NC Newsline caught up with the author of the report, SOLVE Senior communications strategist, Sarah Ovaska.

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

As Tropical Storm Debby reminded North Carolinians in powerful and sobering fashion once again earlier this month, climate change continues to progress and grow more serious. While no one can say that any particular storm is a byproduct of climate change, scientists do say loudly and without equivocation that climate change is making hurricanes and other tropical systems (not to mention other problematic climate phenomena like thunderstorm outbreaks, droughts, and even winter snowstorms) more frequent and more intense.

Fortunately, as NC Newsline was reminded in a recent extended conversation with Meech Carter, the Clean Energy Campaigns Director for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, while the situation is very real and urgent, there are many things that we can and should be doing to tackle the problem, and thanks to some critical investments flowing from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, North Carolina is taking some important initial steps.

In Part One of our conversation with Carter, we talked about the undeniable reality of climate change and how recent investments that have flowed from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act are making a welcome difference in North Carolina.

In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to the battle to reduce carbon pollution from fossil fuels and how, despite having some promising goals, North Carolina’s giant monopoly energy provider, Duke Energy, has a built-in incentive to embrace costly solutions and has, unfortunately, been seeking to delay necessary action to speed the shift to renewable energy.

Thomas Mills (Courtesy photo)

It seemed almost unimaginable less than a month ago, but as they head into their national convention this week, U.S. Democrats are riding a wave of voter enthusiasm for presidential nominee – Vice President Kamala Harris – and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Indeed, polls in key swing states that showed Republican nominee Donald Trump leading just weeks ago have now flipped.

So why have things shifted so quickly and dramatically? Will it last? And does it mean that Trump is now vulnerable in North Carolina? These are just some of the questions that veteran North Carolina political consultant and observer Thomas Millis discussed with NC Newsline during an extended recent conversation. In Part One of our chat Mills explained, among other things, why he believes that Harris’s rise is, ultimately, a reflection of what American voters – particularly younger voters – want.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of national politics, while also turning our attention to some high-profile North Carolina races.

Read more of Mills’ analysis at the substack PoliticsNC.

Noel Nickle, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

It’s been 18 years now since North Carolina last put a person to death as punishment for a crime – a time period in which a fast-growing number of states and countries have abolished the death penalty. Nonetheless, the death penalty remains on the state’s statute books and 136 people still reside on Death Row. And that fact continues to spur an active and growing movement of activists who say the time has long since passed for the state to end what they argue is a barbaric and obsolete punishment.

Right now, the group’s efforts revolve around calling on Gov. Roy Cooper to use his constitutional power to commute the sentences of those 136 individuals to life in prison before he leaves office at the end of the year, and recently we got a chance to learn more about these efforts in a conversation with the director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Noel Nickle.

Senator Natalie Murdock (Photo: NCGA)

The North Carolina General Assembly has mostly wrapped up the business its leaders intend to deal with in 2024, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some important matters that got left on the table. Take the vexing issue of maternal health. For decades North Carolina has experienced big and persistent problems in this area – especially for moms of color.

For some time now, Senator Natalie Murdock of Durham and Chatham Counties has been trying to convince Republican leaders to appropriate modest sums to tackle this issue, but once again this year she ran into a brick wall. Fortunately, she’s not giving up on her efforts to raise this issue or her concerns about the highly questionable funding that GOP lawmakers have directed to so-called crisis pregnancy centers.

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with Murdock, we discussed several sobering facts about maternal health and mortality in North Carolina and her ongoing efforts to convince Republican legislative leaders to allow consideration of a bill known as the Momnibus Act that would tackle the issue.

In Part Two of our chat, we turned to the subject of politics and, in particular, the new levels of enthusiasm she’s seeing among many North Carolina Democrats and Independents in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside and pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. And as Sen. Murdock explained, while the change at the top of the ticket is making a big impact, the fall election is still likely to come down to which side is more successful in building an on-the-ground get-out-the-vote effort over the coming weeks.

Political scientist and pollster David McLennan

Just weeks after President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not seek reelection and hours after she formally secured the nomination of the Democratic Party as its presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate this past week. It’s the Harris campaign’s hope that Walz’s everyman appeal and record as a military vet will appeal to voters in several states in the Midwest and South.

Will it work? As we learned in a conversation after the announcement with Meredith College political science professor and pollster David McLennan, it’s too early to say whether the Harris-Walz ticket is bound for victory, but it does appear that the Democrats have very quickly made up significant ground on GOP nominees Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Colin Seeberger (Courtesy photo)

If you’ve been hearing a lot about something called Project 2025 of late, there’s good reason. It’s a 922-page policy blueprint from the far-right Heritage Foundation that its authors hope will serve as a lengthy “to do” list for a second Trump administration. The team that wrote it includes scores of former Trump staffers and prominent Republican leaders.

And in a host of vitally important areas – from education to the environment to reproductive freedom to the very future of democracy – it’s a frightening scheme to behold. This week’s edition of News & Views is dedicated to an examination of Project 2025 and we commence our review with an overview conversation with the senior adviser for Communications at the Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress, Colin Seeberger.

In Part One of our recent conversation with Seeberger of the Center for American Progress, we examined how Project 2025 — a detailed and often frightening blueprint for remaking the U.S. government under a conservative president – would alter and threaten basic and long-established norms of
American democracy.

In Part two of our chat, we examined some of the many dramatic changes that Project 2025 would inflict on an array of core rights and public services – including K-12 education, the social safety net, reproductive freedom, and the nation’s response to the global climate emergency.

Donald Cohen (Courtesy photo)

Project 2025 is a detailed policy blueprint from the far-right Heritage Foundation that its authors hope will serve as a lengthy “to do” list for a second Trump administration. One disturbing part of the plan that’s gotten somewhat less attention than others is its emphasis on privatizing core public services – that is, turning things like the National Weather Service and the Transportation Security Administration over to profit-making businesses. And recently to try and better understand such schemes and why they pose such a threat to public wellbeing, NC Newsline caught up with one of the nation’s foremost experts on (and critics of) the privatization of government services – he’s the founder and executive director of the group In the Public Interest, Donald Cohen.

Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons (Photo: NCGA)

While it can certainly have many appealing aspects, serving in the North Carolina General Assembly can also be a very difficult assignment. The pay is less than minimum wage and has been frozen for decades. The length of sessions has gotten much longer and more unpredictable. And, of course, in recent years, the political rancor and conflict have increased significantly.

One lawmaker who’s managed to successfully negotiate these challenges in recent years is Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons of Guilford County. Recently, however, Wheeler Clemmons announced that she’s resigning from her seat to take on a new job with the UNC system, and this past week she was kind enough to sit down with NC Newline and share some reflections as she prepares to depart.

Attorney Jason Pikler (Photo: Courtesy NC Justice Center)

Debt buying.

You may never have heard of it but amazingly, debt buying – a scheme in which companies buy old and stale claims from creditors for pennies on the dollar and then file lawsuits against thousands of debtors who may not even remember the debt – is a big and often predatory multi-million-dollar industry.

Several years’ back, North Carolina passed a consumer protection law to guard against some of the industry’s worst excesses, and recently a team of consumer protection attorneys led by the North Carolina Justice Center’s Jason Pikler, secured a sizable settlement on behalf of thousands of consumers against one very large debt buyer known as Portfolio Recovery Associates. And this past week, NC Newsline caught up with Pikler to learn more about debt buying, the settlement, and some basic tips for consumers.

NC State Professor of Political Science Steven Greene (Photo: NCSU)

The political news has been coming at us like it’s shot from a firehose as of late and that was certainly the case this past week in and around President Joe Biden’s historic announcement that he will not seek reelection, and the remarkable jolt of electricity that his passing of the torch to Vice President Harris provided to Democrats.

So what does all this mean for the fall election – both nationally and here in North Carolina? Will the Democrats’ newfound energy last? Is the vice president ready for the challenge? And who will she pick as her running mate?

Recently, NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield discussed all these questions and several others with NC State Professor of Political Science Steven Greene.

Jennifer Roberts and Bob Orr (Courtesy photos)

One very hopeful development for the security and honesty of elections in North Carolina in recent months has been the emergence of the North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections.

The bipartisan group is led by former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and for some time now they’ve served on a group known as the Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections that’s been working hard to examine how our elections are conducted, to identify strengths, weaknesses and needs, to debunk myths, and to boost public confidence in democracy. And happily, as they told NC Newsline when we caught up with them this past week, their latest findings indicate that there are both good reasons for confidence in our elections and some simple improvements worth investing in that could make the situation even better.

Learn more about the upcoming Trusted Elections Tour, a grassroots project initiated by The Carter Center.

Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Professor David Schanzer (Courtesy photo)

We’re in the midst of the dog days of summer, but it’s been anything but quiet of late when it comes to this year’s national presidential election. Between the horrific assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, the convening of the Republican National Convention that followed close on its heels, and the ongoing debate surrounding the readiness of the two main candidates and their sharply differing views on a host of key issues, the election has been THE national news story in recent weeks.
Fortunately, at this time in North Carolina, we’re lucky enough to be the home state of one of the nation’s most insightful analysts of national politics and, importantly, the political violence that has become all too familiar in our world. Prof. David Schanzer teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, is the Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, and also writes about our challenging political climate at the substack site Perilous Times. He joined Newsline’s Rob Schofield recently for a special two-part conversation.

In Part One of our special extended conversation with national politics and terrorism expert Prof. David Schanzer of Duke University, we discussed the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and any connection it might have to our current heated political environment.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of President Biden’s legacy and what it would mean for Democrats to nominate a different candidate, what we can and can’t glean from public opinion polls, and importantly, the fact that the election will serve as a referendum on a host of enormously important policy debates with huge implications for the nation’s future.

Editor’s note: Our interview with Professor David Schanzer was recorded in advance of President Biden’s announcement on July 21, 2024 that he was withdrawing from the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Read more from David Schanzer at the Perilous Times substack.

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen (Courtesy photo)

For the last 17 years, one of the nation’s most knowledgeable and accurate political pollsters has been based right here in North Carolina. Over the course of numerous primary and general elections during that period, Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling has dissected and accurately forecast literally hundreds of races across the country. And with this year’s election now just a few months away, Jensen is once again busily analyzing the trends in voter attitudes.

NC Newsline caught up with Tom in his Raleigh office late last week and learned that President Biden’s much-criticized debate performance has actually had little impact on voters thus far and that this November is likely to still be a nail-biter – both for the presidential race and for a number of statewide races here in North Carolina.

Prof. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University

As the nation heads towards one of its most important elections in modern history, a major ruckus has arisen among some Democrats around President Joe Biden’s age and whether his performance in a recent presidential debate with Donald Trump indicates that it’s time for him to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.
In order to get a better handle on the impact of this discussion and some of the possible implications, Newsline caught up earlier with one of our state’s top political scientists, Prof. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University. And as Cooper told us, while he thinks it’s still too early to say whether the issue will continue to be a problem for the president or blow over, a lot of it boils down to the president’s ability to persuade people that he’s still up to the job.

In Part Two of our conversation, we shifted to some of the unprecedented challenges faced by Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, including his recent criminal conviction for falsifying business records, his search for a vice presidential running mate, his apparent attempt to disavow Project 2025 – a blueprint for a second Trump administration developed by his aides and supporters – as well as some of the things we can look forward to at this coming week’s GOP nominating convention and the Democratic event that takes place next month.

This interview was recorded July 8th, in advance of the weekend events in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina (Screengrab from press briefing)

The North Carolina General Assembly wrapped up its 2024 “short session” recently and once again, it was a tough session for many basic aspects of democratic government.

Whether they were unveiling secretly written proposals to overhaul state campaign finance laws, placing new unfunded obligations on election administrators, or cementing in place law changes that will make voting more of a challenge, lawmakers stuck to the same playbook they’ve used in recent years. All that said, as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with one of the state’s top good government watchdogs, Common Cause of North Carolina executive director, Bob Phillips, things might well have been worse had lawmakers not abruptly ended the session when they did.

NC Tenants Union executive director Nick MacLeod

North Carolina has always been a state in which the law has allotted very few legal rights to residential tenants. Unless the actions of a landlord are truly outrageous – and sometimes even when they are – tenants rarely prevail when they seek to push back against evictions or fight for better rents and treatment. And in the post-pandemic era of high rents and scarce housing of any kind, this situation has gotten significantly worse.

One organization, however, that’s working hard to resist this tide by helping to organize residents of housing complexes across the state is a group based in Durham known as the North Carolina Tenants Union. And recently NC Newsline got a chance to learn more about the group and its work and mission in a special extended conversation with its executive director, Nick MacLeod.

In Part One of our conversation, we learned how this newly formed nonprofit has been working hard in several communities across the state to build a movement dedicated to the idea that tenants should have more of a say about the homes in which they live.

In Part Two of our chat, we learn more about some of the group’s work with local organizers to help groups of tenants speak with one voice and negotiate for better rents and living conditions. We also talked about how state landlord-tenant law makes it virtually impossible for untrained tenants to represent themselves in court – or to even understand proceedings that can put them out on the street – and how providing people facing eviction with access to basic legal representation could make an enormous difference.

Duke Health OB/GYN Dr. Beverly Gray (Photo: Courtesy of Scholars@Duke)

It’s been two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion care and since then, numerous states – including North Carolina – have moved rapidly to end or greatly restrict abortion access. In 2023, Republican state legislators in Raleigh enacted a law that both bans abortion after the 12th week of gestation and imposes several additional burdensome restrictions for early term abortions.

So, what’s been the effect of these changes – both on the health of women and the pregnancy care they receive and the health professionals who try to provide that care? Recently, NC Newsline caught up with one of the state’s best-informed experts on these subjects, Duke Health OB/GYN Dr. Beverly Gray, to find out.

Alexandra Sirota (Photo: NC Budget & Tax Center)

Ever since North Carolina Republicans took control of the state legislature in 2011, they’ve pursued a sustained and aggressive effort to remake the state’s tax and budget systems. Repeatedly, they’ve enacted big cuts to progressive levies like the personal and corporate income taxes that primarily impact the wealthy, while slashing spending on core public structures like public education. So, what’s been the impact of this sea change? What impacts will the new state budget proposals currently under discussion at the General Assembly have? And what will the future hold if legislative leaders stay on the path they’ve charted?

Recently NC Newsline got a chance to pose those questions to an expert who’s been observing and chronicling the changes since they got underway, the executive director of the nonpartisan North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, Alexandra Sirota.

In Part One of our special extended conversation with Sirota, we took a look back at the past dozen or so years of fiscal policy changes that have been implemented by Republican legislators at the North Carolina General Assembly, and the impacts they’ve had on our state tax and budget systems.

In Part Two, our conversation shifted to the details of the latest budget bills under consideration at the Legislative Building as well a new proposed state constitutional amendment that would lower the cap on the state income tax, and according to Sirota, serve only to further undermine the health of an already inadequate tax code.

Melissa Price Kromm

If there’s been a most controversial bill to wend its way through the North Carolina General Assembly this spring, right now it has to be House Bill 237 – a proposal that would change state laws governing the wearing masks in public, the rights of public protesters and the complex rules that govern contributions to political campaigns.

The bill has drawn sharp criticism from a host of advocates and experts and one of the most persistent and insightful has been veteran good government watchdog Melissa Price Kromm of the group North Carolina for the People Action. As Price Kromm explained when NC Newsline caught up with her recently, the legislation poses a threat to the First Amendment and public health and threatens to flood state elections with huge sums of unaccountable and corrupting dark money. Learn more about the bill that earned the latest veto from Governor Roy Cooper.

Erica Palmer Smith

For several years now, researchers at the national Annie E. Casey Foundation have measured and documented how well each U.S. state is doing when it comes to the well-being of its children. The annual KIDS Count report looks at several important indicators in fields like economic well-being, educational achievement and health, assesses whether states are progressing or falling behind, and then ranks them one to fifty.

In North Carolina, the state group with which the Casey experts coordinate is the children’s advocacy organization, NC Child, and recently NC Newsline caught up with the group’s executive director, Erica Palmer Smith to learn more about how our state is faring. And the verdict, sadly, is well below par.

Click here to view the 2024 report for North Carolina.

Christina Baal-Owens (Courtesy: Public Wise)

It’s been well over three years since Donald Trump’s lie about the 2020 election was thoroughly debunked, but tragically many American politicians – even some who participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection – continue to hold elected office or to seek it as candidates in 2024.

For Christina Baal-Owen, executive director of the national voting rights nonprofit, Public Wise, this reality and the threat it poses to our democracy is something of which all Americans should be made aware in the run-up to the November election. To that end, her organization has published what it calls an Election Threat Index that tracks and monitors the politicians who continue to promote Trump’s lie and who participated or supported the insurrection. Recently Newsline caught up with Baal-Owens to learn more.

House Democraic leader Rep. Robert Reives (Photo: NCGA)

North Carolina Republican legislative leaders sprang a big surprise on their Democratic colleagues and just about all legislative observers recently when they suddenly unveiled a new, out-of-nowhere and extremely complex proposal to rewrite state campaign finance laws.

The legislation, which would provide wealthy individuals with new ways to give unlimited amounts of cash to support North Carolina candidates while keeping their identities hidden, emerged as an add-on to a controversial bill on the wearing of masks in public. The proposal quickly raised the ire of Democratic lawmakers and good government groups who objected to both the substance of the bill and the questionable tactics used to advance it.

NC Newsline sat down with House Democratic leader, Rep. Robert Reives, to get his take on the bill as well as some other high priority decisions that face state lawmakers in the coming days.

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Virginia Kase Solomón (Photo: Common Cause)

If there’s a most troubling issue facing our nation and its elected leaders at the dawn of the summer of 2024, many observers believe it is the state of our democracy. In the aftermath of the failed January 6, 2021 insurrection and subsequent widespread threats of violence and retribution from politicians and activists on the political right, many caring and thinking people are deeply concerned – both about what might happen come this November, as well several other recent developments in which basic norms of law and politics have been under attack.

Fortunately, at this potentially harrowing moment, the nation is not without an array of strong and committed defenders of democracy – watchdogs that closely monitor events and speak up loudly and clearly for honest and ethical laws and policies. And recently we were fortunate enough to have a conversation with the leader of one of those watchdog organizations, the President of the national good government advocacy nonprofit, Common Cause, Virginia Kase Solomón.

In Part One of our special extended conversation, we discussed the state of American democracy and the threats that confront it with a look at the pernicious phenomenon of gerrymandering – the rigging of election outcomes by drawing districts to discriminate against certain classes of voters for racial and political reasons.

In Part Two of our conversation, we surveyed several other challenges to honest and representative government, including the issue of Supreme Court ethics, potential threats to election workers in the fall elections, mis- and disinformation in political campaigns and accountability in the media.

The post Virginia Kase Solomón, President of Common Cause, about the state of democracy in modern America appeared first on NC Newsline.

Rep. Marcia Morey (Photo: NCGA)

In 2019, North Carolina was the last state in the union to modernize its criminal justice system by ending the practice of automatically treating 16 and 17-year-olds accused of criminal offenses as adults. Now, however, state lawmakers are considering a proposal to backtrack on that progress. Under a bill moving through the General Assembly, the Raise the Age law would be, in effect, repealed for several classes of felonies.

One lawmaker who has deep concerns about the move is Durham County Representative (and former chief district court judge) Marcia Morey. Recently, NC Newslinecaught up with Morey to learn about her concerns – as well as to get her thoughts on the state’s impending childcare crisis and the troubling attacks on our justice system that have followed in the wake of Donald Trump’s conviction for falsifying records.

The post Rep. Marcia Morey on efforts to roll back the recently enacted Raise the Age law appeared first on NC Newsline.

Gene Nichol (File photo)

In recent years, the North Carolina Supreme Court has undergone a radical transformation. Since Republican justices assumed control of the court after the 2022 election, they have moved swiftly – not merely to chart a more conservative path, but to quite literally redefine the court’s role in state government.

And as Gene Nichol, a veteran law professor and constitutional scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill details in a new law review article, nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the realm of voting and elections, where in a trio of rulings, the court effectively decreed that the legislature is free to gerrymander electoral districts and erect obstacles to voting for disfavored groups to its heart’s content. And recently, NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with Prof. Nichol to learn more about this shift and what it means for our state.

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Erin Carey (Courtesy photo)

Over the last several decades, North Carolina has been transformed from a largely rural state covered with forests and farms into an ever more urban place plastered with vast swaths of concrete and asphalt.

And it’s in light of this reality that Gov. Roy Cooper’s recent decision to veto a transportation bill approved by the legislature that would have opened the door to expanded highway tree cutting to allow more room for billboards has been lauded by environmental advocates. Of course, sustaining gubernatorial vetoes is tough these days in the Republican-dominated legislature, and recently NC Newsline caught up with Erin Carey of the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club to learn more about the substance of the bill and its prospects going forward.

The post Erin Carey of the NC Sierra Club on a controversial bill that earned the governor’s veto appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dr. Rachel Jensen (photo: Clayton Henkel)

This month marks the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion care. It’s also been just over one-year since the Republican-controlled General Assembly in North Carolina’s enacted our state’s 12-week abortion ban.

Abortion access will likely be a critical issue for some voters this year, and it’s already having an impact on the medical community. Doctors are reassessing residency programs especially in states where there are strict abortion bans. While other doctors –not in the obstetrics field — are questioning what they can and can’t tell their pregnant patients, based on North Carolina’s abortion restrictions.

Recently, News & Views producer Clayton Henkel sat down with Dr. Rachel Jensen, a North Carolina OB/GYN and abortion provider, to discuss how North Carolina’s restrictive new law has changed her training over the past year, the care she’s able to provide to her patients, and her hopes for the November election.

The post OB/GYN Dr. Rachel Jensen on how abortion restrictions have changed healthcare, medical training appeared first on NC Newsline.

Raymond C. Pierce (Photo courtesy of the Southern Education Foundation)

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that ended the legal segregation of American public schools.

Today, however, despite much progress on many fronts, resistance to racial integration in education remains stubbornly persistent and sadly, this is the case here in North Carolina, where the data show that many, many schools remain hugely and destructively segregated. So where does this leave us and what steps do leaders need to take to get things back on track? Recently NC Newsline caught up with the President of one of the nation’s leading education research organizations – Raymond c. Pierce of the Southern Education Foundation – to get his assessment.

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Elizabeth Barber - Photo: ACLU of NC

Just when you thought we were starting to put some of the more contentious debates that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic to rest, the North Carolina legislature has revived the argument over face masks. Under a bill recently passed the by the state Senate, not only would penalties be increased for protesters who break the law while wearing face masks, but the very practice of wearing a mask in public – even for public health reasons – would be banned.

Meanwhile, in another proposal moving quickly through the legislature, a large part of the state’s groundbreaking 2019 “Raise the Age” law that ended the automatic treatment of 16- and 17-year-olds accused of crime as adults would be repealed, and recently Newsline caught up with one of most thoughtful and articulate critics both measures – ACLU of North Carolina Policy Director Liz Barber.

The post ACLU of North Carolina’s Liz Barber discusses a pair of controversial legislative proposals appeared first on NC Newsline.

Paul Fulton shown with a billboard the group Public Ed works has sponsored across the state. (Courtesy photo)

For several decades in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, North Carolina’s public education system was widely celebrated as an up-and-coming national model. And a key to that success was the deep and abiding support of an array of forward-looking business leaders who understood that well-funded systems of K-12 and higher education were essential – for the state and its residents as well as for the quality of their workforces and, ultimately, their bottom lines. Unfortunately, in recent years, support for public education from business leaders has waned somewhat and that in turn has emboldened conservatives in the legislature to slash education funding. Now, however, some of the architects of the past success are pushing back against this trend and demanding a renewed commitment to school funding and recently we caught up with one of the most prominent members of that group – the board president of the nonprofit Public Ed Works, veteran corporate leader, Paul Fulton.

The post Paul Fulton of the nonprofit Public Ed Works on securing better pay for NC public school teachers appeared first on NC Newsline.

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su

Over the past three-plus years there are few if any areas of public policy in which the Biden administration has been more active in advancing rules and practices designed to lift average people and those long left behind by the American economy than in the realm labor relations. Whether it’s promoting better wages and working conditions, creating more good, living wage jobs, or developing new and innovative strategies to help women and other underrepresented populations gain access to those jobs, the Biden team has been determined and persistent. And recently, as part of that effort, the nation’s Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su traveled to North Carolina for a series of events in which she met with local elected officials, labor leaders and average workers. And in between appearances, she was also kind enough to join Newsline’s Rob Schofield to share some of the details.

The post Labor Sec. Julie Su on the Biden administration’s efforts to expand access to good paying jobs appeared first on NC Newsline.

Lauren Fox, Ph.D.Senior Director, Policy & Research, Public School Forum

Earlier this month, one of our state’s leading and most respected champions of public education, the Public School Forum of North Carolina, held its annual Eggs and Issues breakfast in Raleigh. The event drew several prominent elected officials and candidates from both parties – all of whom endorsed the idea that the state must do much more to fund and support public education.

Unfortunately, as we learned in a recent conversation with the Forum’s Senior Director of Policy and Research, Lauren Fox, Republican legislative leaders were not among that group and they continue to largely ignore the Forum’s repeated pleas for things like better teacher pay, better services to address student mental health needs, and enactment of the court-ordered comprehensive school improvement plan from the Leandro school funding lawsuit.

Read the Forum’s report: Top Education Issues 2024-25 Measuring Progress.

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North Carolina's childcare industry could see a serious reduction in its workforce without additional help. Stabilization grants run out in June. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

Charlotte preschool director Emma Biggs (Courtesy photo)North Carolina childcare providers are facing a potentially disastrous financial cliff in June. During the pandemic, the federal government provided significant relief dollars that helped thousands of providers stay open by raising worker salaries to minimally adequate levels. Unfortunately, those relief dollars are scheduled to run out next month.

To call attention to this situation, many providers across the nation briefly closed their centers last week as part of a National Day Without Childcare and one of those providers was Emma Biggs, the director of the Pathway Preschool Center in Charlotte. And as Biggs reminded NC Newsline when we caught up with her for a brief interview, if elected leaders fail to step in to replace the expiring funds, as many as 1,500 childcare centers across North Carolina serving nearly 92,000 children and their families will soon be at risk of going out of business.

Childcare providers, workers, and parents converged on the General Assembly on May 16th to let lawmakers know what it would be like if all those centers were to close, leaving working parents scrambling to find a solution. Click below to view our photo gallery of “A Day Without Childcare.”

North Carolina's childcare industry could see a serious reduction in its workforce without additional help. Stabilization grants run out in June. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

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Cannabis advocate and consultant Chris Suttle (Courtesy photo)

Medical marijuana is now legal and accessible for the vast majority of Americans, but one state that remains a stubborn holdout is North Carolina. A state Senate bill known as the Compassionate Care Act would change that by allowing patients suffering from a list of illnesses to gain access. The bill is sponsored by a conservative Republican and enjoyed bipartisan support when it won Senate approval last year, but right now, House Republicans refuse to take it up.

So, is there a chance the measure will pass during the ongoing short session and what are proponents of the bill doing and saying to try and break the logjam?

NC Newsline caught up with one of the bill’s most outspoken champions, cannabis advocate and consultant, Chris Suttle.

Suttle shares details on a May 24th trip for legislators to North Carolina’s first marijuana dispensary run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He believes the guardrails they have put in place may alleviate some concerns that conservative lawmakers have about moving forward with Senate Bill 3.

The post Chris Suttle on SB3 and whether NC could become the 39th state to legalize medical marijuana appeared first on NC Newsline.

Sen. Michael Garrett (Photo: NCGA)

Republican legislative leaders are moving swiftly to dramatically expand the state’s controversial private school voucher program. A bill quickly advancing will appropriate nearly $500 million new dollars to thousands of middle- and upper-income families to help cover the cost of private school tuition.

Not surprisingly, the plan has drawn sharp criticism for Democratic lawmakers – who are angered at the idea of appropriating such huge sums to aid well-off private schools and families of means at the same time public schools and the state’s childcare system are suffering mightily. The voucher debate also comes as North Carolina is facing a childcare cliff in June, that could see many centers close their doors or be forced to raise prices dramatically for working parents.

One lawmaker who’s been especially thoughtful on both issues is Guilford County state Senator Michael Garrett, and last week, NC Newsline caught up with him in his Raleigh office.

The post Sen. Michael Garrett on why the childcare cliff (not vouchers) should be NC’s top priority appeared first on NC Newsline.

Illiana Santillan (Photo courtesy El Pueblo)

For several years now, North Carolina Republican legislators have been attempting to enact a law that would impose a one-size-fits-all approach on county sheriffs when it comes to dealing with the immigrant communities they serve. The proposal would mandate that sheriffs act as, in effect, adjuncts of federal immigration enforcement – even when the sheriffs have made the determination that doing so will endanger public safety by causing community cooperation with their offices to plummet.

In the past, Gov. Roy Cooper has successfully vetoed the legislation, but in recent weeks, the proposal has reemerged. Recently, in order to get a better handle on where things stand and why proposals like this represent the wrong approach to our state and national immigration policy challenges, NC Newsline caught up with one of the state’s leading advocates for immigrant communities, the executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group El Pueblo, Iliana Santillan.

The post El Pueblo’s Illiana Santillan on a troubling bill changing how NC sheriffs deal with immigrants appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dr. Jenn Ayscue (Photo: NCSU.edu)

It’s now been 70 years since the United States Supreme Court ordered an end to racial segregation in public schools in the famous case of Brown v. Board of Education. And while resistance to desegregation never went away, there was a window of time in the late 20th and early 21st Century in which many states and localities – including North Carolina — made enormous headway in building diverse and integrated public school systems.

Unfortunately, as a new report from researchers at NC State makes clear, that momentum in our state has waned and now things are trending in the opposite direction. The report is entitled “Can Our Schools Capture the Education Gains of Diversity? North Carolina School Segregation, Alternatives and Possible Gains.” It was recently published in the journal of the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and recently I caught up with one of the authors, NC State Assistant Professor of Education, Dr. Jennifer Ayscue.

Read the report: Can Our Schools Capture the Education Gains of Diversity? North Carolina School Segregation, Alternatives and Possible Gains. It was published earlier this month by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The post Dr. Jenn Ayscue on a new report examining the resegregation of North Carolina public schools appeared first on NC Newsline.

Political scientist and pollster David McLennan

With North Carolina being one of the most important and hotly contested states in the upcoming November election, national and state-based pollsters are carefully and regularly monitoring voter attitudes and public opinion trends. And as News & Views listeners are well-aware, one of the best and most reliable experts in this realm is Meredith College political science professor and pollster David McLennan.

Recently NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with David to check in on the state of the presidential and gubernatorial races as well as what North Carolinians are thinking about some current hot button issues, including laws that make it hard from some citizens to vote and the advent of legal online sports gambling in our state.

The post Meredith College political science professor David McLennan on top-of-the-ticket political races appeared first on NC Newsline.

NC Justice Center Workers’ Rights Project Co-Director Clermont Ripley (Photo: Phyllis Nunn)

Last week a pair of federal agencies announced some important new rules to protect workers. A new Federal Trade Commission rule bans non-compete clauses that have hindered the rights of workers to take better jobs. Meanwhile, a new Department of Labor rule will make millions of salaried workers employed in executive, administrative and professional industries eligible for overtime pay.

Recently NC Newsline sat down with North Carolina Justice Center workers’ rights attorney Clermont Ripley to discuss the details and what it will mean for North Carolinians.

The post Attorney Clermont Ripley on two new workplace rules regarding salaried workers and non-competes appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dennis Gaddy, Executive Director of the Community Success Initiative (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

For most people who leave North Carolina prisons each year, readjusting to life on the outside is incredibly difficult. A record of incarceration can prevent people from landing apartments or jobs. And even people who have been arrested but never convicted can also have a hard time shaking that history when their mugshots appear forever online.

Recently, in an effort to convince lawmakers to enact reforms that could address some of these roadblocks, advocates gathered at the state legislature for a Second Chance lobby day, and during the event, NC Newsline caught with one of the leaders of the effort, the executive director of the North Carolina Community Success Initiative, Dennis Gaddy.

The post Dennis Gaddy of the Community Success Initiative on second chances, legislation to improve reentry appeared first on NC Newsline.

Senator Natasha Marcus (Mecklenburg Co.)

North Carolina’s General Assembly returned to Raleigh this past week for the 2024 “short session” — a session that figures to feature debates on a number of familiar topics – including public and higher education, an impending childcare cliff, and funding for several state agencies that are struggling with staff attrition and vacancies.

One lawmaker likely to be an especially knowledgeable and outspoken participant in these discussions is Mecklenburg County state Senator Natasha Marcus. During her three terms in Raleigh, Marcus has developed into one of the Senate’s leading voices on an array of core issues and recently she sat down with NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield for an extended conversation. In Part One of our chat, we discussed some of the issues at the top of the short session agenda – including K-12 education, childcare, and the struggles of state election officials to cope with staff attrition fueled by inadequate resources and harassment.

In Part Two of our chat, we discussed some other important policy debates impacting state government right now, including the big problems that have arisen with the state’s new eCourts system and some massive increases in premium rates that the insurance industry is seeking approval to impose on owners of manufactured homes.

The post Senator Natasha Marcus discusses the some of the priorities and challenges this legislative session appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dr. Steve Barnett, National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)

There’s a very good argument to be made that the United States should guarantee free and universal early childhood education from birth to all American families. Nations that invest in the care of young children when their minds and bodies are still developing see vastly improved outcomes later on. Sadly, the U.S. is not yet one of those nations. Instead, it consigns millions of pre-Kindergartners each year to a patchwork of private providers of widely varying quality – most of which operate on a financial shoestring.

Those looking to understand this system, its flaws, and the ways in which it should be improved would do well to follow the work of Dr. Steven Barnett at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. Recently, the Institute released its annual State of Preschool report and Barnett shared with NC Newsline how North Carolina fares when it comes to preschool enrollment, funding, and quality.

Read the latest report for North Carolina here.

The post Dr. Steven Barnett on where NC stands when it comes to preschool enrollment, funding, and quality appeared first on NC Newsline.

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (NC-13) (Courtesy photo)

Thanks to new and gerrymandered congressional maps enacted last fall by the Republican-dominated state legislature, the outcomes to almost all of North Carolina’s fall congressional elections have been pre-decided. One lawmaker directly impacted by this is Triangle-area Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel, who saw his formerly competitive district transformed into one that only a Republican can win.

To his credit, however, Nickel has resolved to make the term he’s serving in Congress an impactful one and last week, he sat down with Newsline to discuss several areas in which he’s been working hard – including advancing a bill to rein gerrymandering in the future, traveling to Ukraine to witness firsthand the battle to resist Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion, and championing legislation to protect the right to in vitro fertilization.

Editor’s note: NC Newsline’s interview was recorded April 16th, prior to the U.S. House voting to advance the bipartisan foreign aid package.

The post Congressman Wiley Nickel on a new plan to end gerrymandering and his recent trip to Ukraine appeared first on NC Newsline.

Investigative reporter Lisa Sorg

PFAS. Most North Carolinians had never heard that term until a few years ago, but sadly it’s now a permanent part of the lexicon.

It refers, of course, to a class of dangerous substances – often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment — that shortsighted manufacturers and polluters have introduced into water, soil, plants and animals, including humans, just about everywhere. PFAS are associated with a variety of cancers and human health problems.

Effectively regulating PFAs is incredibly complex, but to its credit, the EPA recently established the first-ever federal regulations on six types of toxic PFAS in drinking water, and earlier we sat down with our colleague – NC Newsline environmental reporter Lisa Sorg – to get the details.

The post Newsline reporter Lisa Sorg on the first-ever federal regulations for PFAS in our drinking water appeared first on NC Newsline.

CRL's Rochelle Sparko

For consumer protection advocates, the job of monitoring and going after predatory lending scams can sometimes resemble the old amusement park game of whack-a-mole. As soon as one predator is brought to justice, another one pops up. That description came to mind of late when Newsline learned about a new cellphone app that some schemers are marketing that allows people to obtain quick but incredibly expensive cash advances – in effect, payday loans.

Happily, North Carolinians are lucky enough to live in a state that’s home to one of the nation’s top consumer advocacy groups – the Center for Responsible Lending – and recently we sat down with the Center’s Director of North Carolina policy, attorney Rochelle Sparko, to discuss a new report her group has released on these predatory apps – and it’s a report that that contains some very stark warnings for consumers.

The post Rochelle Sparko discusses the hidden costs of earned wage advances (EWA) and cash advance apps appeared first on NC Newsline.

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04)

North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04) joins NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield to discuss the latest developments in Congress, including a controversial trip to Israel, the possibility of more aid for Ukraine, abortion rights, and the IMPACT Act.

The post U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee on her recent trip to Israel, Ukraine aid, abortion rights and more appeared first on NC Newsline.

Tamika Walker Kelly

As several news stories have reported in recent weeks, North Carolina public schools have been enduring a sizable and troubling exodus. Education officials disclosed that the state experienced a teacher attrition rate of 11.5% between March 2022 and March 2023. That means that more than 10,000 of the state’s teachers left the profession in that time period.

This kind of sobering news is nothing new for the state’s public education system in recent years – a system that has been repeatedly battered by disinvestment and partisan attacks from the political right. And still, despite it all, thousands of dedicated and hard-working educators continue to soldier on – ever hopeful that at some point legislative leaders will listen to their pleas and reverse their destructive course. And earlier this week NC Newsline caught up with one of their leaders, the President of the North Carolina Association of Educators, Tamika Walker Kelly.

The post NCAE president Tamika Walker Kelly on what’s causing our state’s high teacher attrition rate appeared first on NC Newsline.

Child Care Resources Inc. President Janet Singerman and Charlotte-area childcare provider Rhonda Rivers

As is the case in most of the U.S., North Carolina’s childcare system is not what it should be. Across the state, thousands of childcare providers operate in almost perpetual crisis – a crisis in which barely-making-it schools employ overworked and grievously underpaid teachers to serve stressed-out parents who have enormous difficulty finding quality care they can afford.

And while a big influx of federal aid during the pandemic helped stabilize this fragile and system somewhat, that money is scheduled to run out in June.

So where do things stand? What will happen if no replacement funds are found? And what can state lawmakers do to fill the gap?

Recently NC Newsline got a chance to discuss these questions with a pair of experts: Child Care Resources Inc. President Janet Singerman and Charlotte-area childcare provider, Rhonda Rivers.

Read more about NC’s childcare cliff here.

The post North Carolina’s impending crisis in the childcare system with Janet Singerman and Rhonda Rivers appeared first on NC Newsline.

Common Cause policy director Ann Webb (Courtesy photo)

In 2009, as voting by mail, became more and more a part of North Carolina elections, lawmakers of both parties unanimously agreed that mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day would still be counted if they arrived at county boards of elections within three days afterward.

Under a new law passed by Republican majorities at the North Carolina legislature last year, however, the grace period was ended – even though official election results aren’t tallied and posted until several days after the election.

The result: a lot of mailed ballots will now not be counted. Indeed, a report by Common Cause of North Carolina found that the new law disenfranchised hundreds of voters unnecessarily in the March primary and recently NC Newsline sat down to learn more of the troubling details of this situation with Common Cause Policy Director Ann Webb.

The post Ann Webb of Common Cause NC on how the end of the three-day grace period is disenfranchising voters appeared first on NC Newsline.

SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins (Courtesy photo)

As a growing list of reports has documented in recent months, several North Carolina state government agencies are struggling mightily to recruit and retain employees. The Department of Health and Human services reports a 25% vacancy rate and in some prisons, the numbers are even higher than that. And not surprisingly, these kinds of worker shortages are having big and negative impacts on both the workers who remain and the quality of public services.

The explanations for this worrisome situation are numerous, but as NC Newsline learned in a recent conversation with the executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, Ardis Watkins, no factor looms larger than low salaries and tough working conditions that are directly attributable to the shortsighted budgeting policies that Republican legislative leaders have been pursuing for the last several years.

The post Ardis Watkins of the State Employees Association of NC on staggering vacancy rates in key agencies appeared first on NC Newsline.

National economy reporter Casey Quinlan

By just about any key measure, the U.S. economy is in remarkably good shape. Jobs are plentiful, wages are up, inflation has leveled off and by all indications, we’ve avoided the recession that some analysts had feared was looming. That said, things are far from perfect. High prices for essentials like housing and food continue to have a big and negative impacts on many households and surveys show that average American consumers remain concerned and less confident about the future than might be expected.

So what’s going on here, what are the reasons for optimism and concern, and what are policymakers trying to do to address the situation? Last week, NC Newsline sat down with States Newsroom national economy reporter Casey Quinlan to find out.

The post Reporter Casey Quinlan on why many Americans are worried about the economy during record strength appeared first on NC Newsline.

Rep. Julie von Haefen

Last week, the United States Supreme Court heard is first major abortion case since it issued the 2022 Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade. At issue this time is mifepristone – a safe and effective medication that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration a quarter century ago and that today is used in a large majority of the nation’s abortions.

The arguments in the case drew advocates and elected officials from across the country to Washington, including Wake County State Rep. Julie von Haefen. Von Haefen, who was a signatory to a “friend of the court” brief in the case and had a chance to address a group of pro-choice advocates, returned to North Carolina the following day and sat down with NC Newsline for a chat to discuss both the abortion pill case as well as some other issues likely to be discussed in Raleigh later this month as the legislature’s 2024 short session gets underway.

The post Rep. Julie von Haefen discusses abortion access, safe gun storage, and the ’24 legislative session appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dr. Scott Brennen of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center on Technology Policy

Artificial intelligence or AI. It’s a topic that generates a lot of talk, a lot of hope, and a lot of concerns these days.

On the positive side, AI has the potential to aid in solving an array of vexing societal problems and to help average people work better and faster in numerous ways.

On the other hand, of course, AI also raises real concerns – both with respect to the ability of humans to control and manage it and the possibility that it will be abused by bad actors in order to mislead people with false or phony communications. This latter concern is of particular relevance as Americans prepare to vote in the 2024 election. Fortunately, a lot of smart people are paying close attention to these kinds of issues and recently NC Newsline caught up with one of them for a special extended conversation on the topic, the head of online expression policy at the UNC-Chapel Hill Center on Technology Policy – Dr. Scott Brennen.

In Part One of our conversation, we delved into the subject of artificial intelligence (or AI) and some of the good and bad things it can do when it comes to communication. In Part Two of our chat, we continued this discussion with a special focus on political communication – both with respect to the 2024 election and more generally. And as Brennen told me, while he remains optimistic that phony AI messaging poses only a limited risk to the national election, there are risks and some important steps that elected officials can and should consider taking to help preserve the health of our democracy.

Read: The new political ad machine: Policy frameworks for political ads in an age of AI

The post Dr. Scott Brennen of UNC-CH’s Center on Technology Policy discusses Artificial Intelligence appeared first on NC Newsline.

Erica Palmer Smith

Finding affordable childcare: it’s a huge challenge in North Carolina. While our state has one of the nation’s highest rates of working parents with young children, 44% of the state’s families live in a “childcare desert” where there are more than three times as many children as licensed childcare slots.

What’s more, things could get much worse very soon. Thanks to actions of Republicans in Congress, federal subsidies that helped keep childcare facilities afloat during the pandemic have ended, and while the state legislature came up with a temporary fix last year, those funds will run out in June. Unless action is taken before then, thousands of facilities could be in grave jeopardy.

Thankfully, children’s advocates are lobbying lawmakers for a permanent fix and recently NC Newsline caught up with one of the leaders of that effort, the executive director of the group NC Child, Erica Palmer Smith.

The post NC Child’s Erica Palmer Smith on the looming crisis facing North Carolina’s childcare industry appeared first on NC Newsline.

Sophia Resnick (Courtesy Photo)

It’s been almost two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a half century of precedent by overturning the Roe v. Wade decision and ending the constitutional right to abortion care. And as had been expected, the ruling has produced a convoluted patchwork of laws that’s left women in many states – particularly women of low-income – in incredibly difficult straits.

What’s more a new case that will come before the court in the coming days involving the abortion pill mifepristone could make the situation even more dire. Recently, in order to get a better understanding of the state of reproductive rights in 2024 and what the future might hold if the Court were to side once again with abortion opponents, NC Newsline caught up with States Newsroom national reproductive rights reporter Sofia Resnick.

You can follow Resnick’s in-depth reporting here.

The post Reproductive rights reporter Sofia Resnick on the next big case before the U.S. Supreme Court appeared first on NC Newsline.

Documentary producer Cristin Severance with Fon and Kimberly Dockery (pictured right) discuss how a gun that was wrongfully taken by a minor forever changed their world. (Photo: Courtesy WRAL)

Firearms are the leading cause of death when it comes to kids. And a brand-new WRAL documentary looks at why kids are dying from guns in North Carolina. It’s called “Unsafe: North Carolina kids dying from gun violence” and WRAL-TV investigative documentary reporter Cristin Severance produced and hosts the doc. The documentary highlights the tragic death of 8-year-old Jenesis Dockery, who died four days shy of her 9th birthday after being shot by her babysitter’s 11 year-old-son. The UnSafe documentary will also explore one proven solution to stopping these tragedies.

Severance previews the documentary for NC Newsline. Watch and share this very special documentary that’s now available online.

The post Documentary producer Cristin Severance on “UnSafe: North Carolina kids dying from gun violence” appeared first on NC Newsline.

UNC System President Peter Hans (Courtesy Photo)

In Part One of our recent extended conversation with the University of North Carolina System president Peter Hans, we discussed some of the successes UNC campuses have had in keeping tuition and fees relatively affordable, while also dealing with some of the tough realities posed by shifting demographics that have lowered the number of college applicants seeking enrollment across the U.S. and forced some schools to make cuts to programming. In Part Two of our conversation, we explored some of the more controversial topics that have been front and center during Hans’s tenure in office.

The post UNC System President Peter Hans on the state of higher education appeared first on NC Newsline.

Dr. Michelle L Malkin (Photo: Courtesy ECU)

Legalized sports gambling arrived in North Carolina this past week, just in time for college basketball’s March Madness. And while many are treating this news as a ho-hum development, there are a lot of observers and experts who have some profound concerns.

Michelle L. Malkin is an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at East Carolina University in Greenville and the director of ECU’s new Gambling Research and Policy Initiative. Malkin told NC Newsline that while there are safety advantages that legal and regulated gambling provides over illegal and unregulated gambling, there are also reasons to be concerned that the new system will entrap a large number of people in highly addictive behavior.

The post Dr. Michelle Malkin, director of ECU’s new Gambling Research and Policy Initiative appeared first on NC Newsline.

Kris Nordstrom, senior policy analyst

A new report from national experts at the Network for Public Education paints a sobering picture of the policy choices North Carolina state legislators have made for our public schools in recent years. The report is called “The Best and the Worst Statehouses for Supporting Public Schools and their Students,” and sadly, it gives North Carolina an “F” grade – lumping us in with a small group of five under-achievers at the very bottom of the 50 states.

Of course, the tragedy of this is that it doesn’t have to be this way. The state has all the resources it needs to adequately fund and support our public schools and take them to the top of the national rankings. Unfortunately, as Kris Nordstrom, a senior policy analyst with the North Carolina Justice Center’s Education & Law Project explains, such an approach would be at odds with the strategy being pursued by Republican legislative leaders to starve traditional public schools and shift taxpayer funding to unaccountable charter and voucher schools.

The post Education policy Kris Nordstrom discusses a damaging new report about NC public schools appeared first on NC Newsline.

Prof. Chris Cooper - Photo: wcu.edu

The 2024 North Carolina Super Tuesday primary election has finally come and gone and now it’s full speed ahead for the next eight months to the November election. And for better or worse, voters should have very little trouble distinguishing the major party candidates.

According to Western Carolina University political scientist, Prof. Chris Cooper, thanks to victories of the Trump wing of the Republican Party that ousted more traditional conservatives in race after race – Governor, Lt. Governor, congressional seats, and of course the presidency — the contrast in the visions espoused by the candidates who will be on the ballot for this fall’s general election could scarcely be wider.

The post WCU political scientist Prof. Chris Cooper discusses Super Tuesday election results appeared first on NC Newsline.

Professor Michael Bitzer (Photo courtesy Catawba College)

Super Tuesday is upon us and that means it’s primary election week in North Carolina and several other states as voters go to the polls to choose major party nominees for president and a host of other important offices. And while the primary season has been rather subdued here, with few of the top contests looking especially close or competitive, this week’s primary will be enormously impactful – especially in congressional districts where gerrymandering has already assured which party’s candidate will win in November. Earlier we got a chance to discuss where things stand in the presidential race, some of the controversies that have arisen, and some of the issues that will likely be front and center in the months to come with Catawba College Political Science professor Michael Bitzer.

The post Catawba College Political Science professor Michael Bitzer previews Super Tuesday appeared first on NC Newsline.

Education Law Attorney Matt Ellinwood

In late February, the North Carolina Supreme Court took the extraordinary (and what many see as the deeply worrisome) step of revisiting the landmark Leandro school funding case – a case that has long guaranteed all of the state’s schoolchildren a constitutional right to a sound basic education.

At issue is whether state lawmakers can be ordered to appropriate the funds necessary to make the constitutional guarantee a reality throughout the state, and as we learned in a conversation with attorney Matt Ellinwood – -the director of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Education and Law Project – the arguments before the high court provided great cause for concern. As Ellinwood also noted, however, regardless of the outcome in the case, education advocates have no intention of giving up on their efforts to secure adequate funding for North Carolina’s public schools.

The post Matt Ellinwood discusses the latest state Supreme Court review of the Leandro school funding case appeared first on NC Newsline.

Lauren Fox, Ph.D.Senior Director, Policy & Research, Public School Forum

A top challenge facing public schools in North Carolina right now is a chronic teacher shortage – a shortage attributable to pitifully low salaries and several other shortsighted policies. Fortunately, there are some obvious and doable actions that state leaders can take to address this problem – actions detailed in a recent report from experts at the Public School Forum of North Carolina.

And as we learned in a recent conversation with the Forum’s senior director of policy and research, Dr. Lauren Fox, many of these solutions –as well as solutions to the massive funding problem that afflicts several low wealth counties – can be addressed if state lawmakers simply get serious providing the necessary dollars to get the job done.

Read the Forum’s new report: Rebuilding the Educator Pipeline — Policies and Practices to Make it Happen in NC

The post Dr. Lauren Fox of the Public School Forum on rebuilding North Carolina’s educator pipeline appeared first on NC Newsline.

Ricky Hurtado, former state representative and current chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs (Courtesy photo)

If you’re paying any attention to the national political debate these days, you know that the political right has made immigration and a campaign to demonize immigrants its top talking point for the 2024 election cycle. Republicans in the U.S. House have even sought to condition passage of a critical foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, on a Democratic agreement to, effectively, close the southern border.

Meanwhile, here in North Carolina – a place thousands of miles from the border in which immigrants are an essential and hugely beneficial part of the economy and society generally – we’re hearing similar hateful rhetoric and proposals, and recently NC Newsline caught up with a leader who’s working hard to counter them with facts and common sense, the chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, former State Representative Ricky Hurtado.

The post Chair of the Governor’s Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs pushes back on anti-immigrant fervor appeared first on NC Newsline.

Noel Nickle, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

This week in Johnston County, the death penalty – a punishment our state has not inflicted in close to two decades – will, effectively, go on trial, when one of more than a hundred pending challenges to the racially discriminatory way North Carolina long sentenced people to death is heard in the case of a defendant named Hasson Bacote. Lawyers for Mr. Bacote say they’ll show that race affected not only jury selection and jury sentencing in his case, but in scores of cases across North Carolina.

The trial comes at a moment in which death penalty opponents have launched a spirited new effort to end the death penalty in North Carolina once and for all and last week NC Newsline sat down with on of the leaders of that movement, the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Noel Nickle.

The post Noel Nickle of the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty on the Racial Justice Act appeared first on NC Newsline.

Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Professor David Schanzer

In the eyes of a growing number of observers, the future of democracy itself will be at stake in the 2024 U.S. elections and this sobering fact has enormous implications – not just for Americans but for the populations of dozens of allies around the world.

One expert who’s watching this matter closely and expressing deep concern on a regular basis is Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Professor David Schanzer. Schanzer who heads the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and holds forth regularly on the substack website, Perilous Times, says the current pro-Russia, pro-authoritarian turn of many U.S. Republicans is an extremely troubling development.

The post Duke University’s David Schanzer on the state of democracy, how U.S. allies view the ’24 election appeared first on NC Newsline.

Senior Counsel Douglas Keith (Courtesy photo: Brennan Center)

Throughout most of U.S. history, state courts (and judicial elections) have seldom been the site of pitched political battles. While these courts regularly issued important rulings with significant impacts on public policy debates, the judges and justices who served on these courts were generally able to avoid being drawn into the bareknuckle politics that so often characterize races for other elected offices.

In recent decades, however, things have changed. In the late 20th Century, the political right launched an ambitious national effort to promote and fund the campaigns of conservative judges and in recent years, progressives have been doing their best to respond. These developments have had a big impact on the courts and American politics generally, and recently we had an extended chat with an expert who follows, chronicles, and weighs in on this subject, attorney Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center for Justice. In Part One of our conversation, Keith explained how this arose and just what big deal it’s become.

In Part Two of our chat, we discussed some of the worrisome implications of this transformation, and perhaps most importantly, some of the changes that states can and should consider adopting in order to depoliticize state courts and restore public faith in the idea of an independent and impartial judiciary. Read Keith’s latest report here.

The post Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center discusses the Politics of Judicial Elections appeared first on NC Newsline.

It’s been ten years since North Carolina’s experiment with private school vouchers commenced and, as multiple reports have made clear, when it comes to student achievement, widely shared opportunity, and the wise use of public resources, the program has been a dramatic failure. Given however, that state lawmakers have no intention of scaling back the […]

The post The Public School Forum of North Carolina’s Lauren Fox on NC’s private school voucher program appeared first on NC Newsline.

By any fair estimation, North Carolina Republican legislators and judges enjoy commanding positions of authority when it comes to the workings of the General Assembly, the judiciary and many of the areas of state government that those two branches impact. Elections and election law are prime examples. As some recent actions by legislative and judicial […]

The post Melissa Price Kromm on the efforts of a Supreme Court Justice to defend her right to free speech appeared first on NC Newsline.

When it comes to the current economic well-being of average Americans, it’s clear that the nation has made great progress in recent years. Unemployment and poverty are down, wages are up and recently, even inflation has started to cool. Despite this encouraging progress, however, the number of people struggling to stay afloat and avoid hunger […]

The post The state of hunger in North Carolina appeared first on NC Newsline.

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The post Rep. Cynthia Ball on the never-ending session, the UNC shooting and election law changes appeared first on NC Newsline.

The new WRAL Documentary explores the damage caused by massive amounts of toxic chemicals dumped into the Cape Fear River. Watch the documentary here.

The post WRAL-TV doc producer Cristin Severance discusses “Forever Chemicals” appeared first on NC Newsline.

NC DHHS Sec. Kody Kinsley (Photo: NC Newsline)

North Carolina’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Kody Kinsley joins NC Newsline for an extended conversation in which we discuss the desperate need to make Medicaid expansion a reality, the inadequate funding allotted by lawmakers to serve people with mental health problems and developmental disabilities, and a hopeful bit of progress in expanding donations to the nation’s blood supply.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post NC Health and Human Services Sec. Kody Kinsley on the need to make Medicaid expansion a reality appeared first on NC Newsline.

Common Cause NC Sailor Jones (Backdrop Photo: Getty Images)

Senate Bill 747 is a grab-bag of Republican election law changes. Last week Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill noting the legislation has “nothing to do with election security and everything to do with Republicans keeping and gaining power.”

Republicans have pledged a quick override of Cooper’s latest veto.

Common Cause of North Carolina Associate Director Sailor Jones joins NC Newsline to discuss SB 747, efforts to make voting more complicated in our state, and the legislature’s attempt to further gerrymander electoral districts.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Common Cause NC’s Sailor Jones on the legislature’s latest efforts to make voting more difficult appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina State Health Director Dr. Betsey Tilson on where things stand with COVID-19, the virus’s latest variant, other worrisome respiratory infections impacting our state, and the steps you should take in the weeks ahead to protect yourself and your loved ones.

The post NC’s Health Director on an uptick in COVID cases and how to protect yourself from fall viruses appeared first on NC Newsline.

In the list of horrors that a parent might ever experience, losing one’s child because she unknowingly grabbed and drank a bottle of water laced with fentanyl has to be among the worst imaginable. And tragically, that’s what happened to a North Carolina woman named Barb Walsh in 2021 when her 21-year-old daughter Sophia died […]

The post Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina appeared first on NC Newsline.

We are still in the dog days of summer 2023, but don’t look now – the 2024 presidential campaign is already underway. At last count, more than a dozen Republican candidates are attempting to unseat Donald Trump as the party’s standard bearer in hopes of taking on President Joe Biden next fall. And even as […]

The post Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer on the ripple effect of the Trump indictments appeared first on NC Newsline.

We’re now six weeks into North Carolina’s new state fiscal year and across the state, public school students and teachers are preparing to return to class. Indeed, in some schools, they’re already back. Unfortunately, neither of these facts has served to spur Republican state legislative leaders to come to an agreement on a new state […]

The post Newsline reporter Greg Childress on the start of the new school year and the rise in book banning appeared first on NC Newsline.

Heat, humidity and the quest for air conditioning are a part of every summer in most places. But a trio of researchers from Duke University believe this summer should also be a wake-up call for many Americans. Ashley Ward and Jordan Clark of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University are joined by Emergency […]

The post A trio of Duke University experts discuss this summer’s extraordinary and deadly heat waves appeared first on NC Newsline.

The dog days of summer and the traditional August congressional recess have both arrived, but that isn’t preventing some lawmakers from continuing to work hard on an array of important issues that confront the nation. One of those lawmakers is North Carolina Fourth District Congresswoman Valerie Foushee. Recently NC Newsline caught up with Foushee and […]

The post Congresswoman Valerie Foushee on her efforts to combat gun violence and strengthen fair elections appeared first on NC Newsline.

For several years now, fossil fuel interests have been attempting to construct a pipeline that would transport fracked natural gas from West Virginia, down through Virginia, and possibly into North Carolina. And as NC Newsline has reported in depth, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (and the proposed North Carolina extension known as MVP Southgate) raise a […]

The post Sen. Graig Meyer on the MVP pipeline dispute and the need for a sustainable energy future appeared first on NC Newsline.

One of the most helpful steps taken by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic was the provision of aid to the nation’s childcare providers so that at least a significant percentage of them could remain in business. With federal aid now winding down and employers having trouble filling jobs throughout the economy, however, it’s […]

The post NC Child Executive Director Erica Palmer Smith on addressing the state’s ongoing childcare crisis appeared first on NC Newsline.

For the past several weeks things have gone quiet at the North Carolina General Assembly. The 2023 session isn’t over – far from it – but, as NC Newsline learned recently in special two-part conversation with Wake County State Rep. Julie von Haefen, the decisions about when the House and Senate will finalize the budget […]

The post Rep. Julie von Haefen on affordable childcare, budget talks and GOP bills targeting LGBTQ kids appeared first on NC Newsline.

A recent report documents some interesting and worrisome findings about the North Carolina Supreme Court. The group People’s Parity Project Action looked at scores of state Supreme Court rulings over a period of several years in cases in which individuals sued corporations and employers. Their central finding: an extended record of defeat for average citizens […]

The post Billy Corriher of People’s Parity Project Action on the report: The People v. Corporate America appeared first on NC Newsline.

Year-round schools are back in session and traditional calendar schools are opening in just a few short weeks. Over at the NC General Assembly, however, lawmakers have yet to turn in their homework – a state budget. The result: great uncertainty for administrators seeking to gear up for the new year – particularly in addressing […]

The post NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly on the impact of the delayed state budget appeared first on NC Newsline.

Over the last 12-plus years of Republican rule at the General Assembly, North Carolina’s state fiscal system has been almost completely overhauled. Thanks to a combination of big, repeated, and regressive tax and spending cuts, public investments in core public services and structures like education have fallen dramatically while the taxes paid by wealthy individuals […]

The post NC Budget & Tax Center executive director Alexandra Sirota on the legislature’s budget battles appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina’s new and restrictive abortion law took effect July first and it bans almost all abortions after 12 weeks gestation and imposes enormous new burdens on women and healthcare providers from the moment of conception. In an effort to further understand the impact the new law has had since it was implemented, NC Newsline […]

The post Pro Choice North Carolina director Tara Romano on the rollout of NC’s restrictive new abortion law appeared first on NC Newsline.

There’s a widespread perception in many circles these days that Washington has become a city completely paralyzed by political gridlock. As NC Newsline was reminded, however, in a recent conversation with North Carolina Sixth District Congresswoman, Kathy Manning, in many areas, this is actually not the case. Indeed, as Manning reported, she’s succeeded in recent […]

The post Congresswoman Kathy Manning on NC’s business climate and reproductive healthcare appeared first on NC Newsline.

If there’s been a dominant story during the 2023 state legislative session it’s been Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes and the revived ability that Republican lawmakers enjoy to override them — after having obtained supermajorities in both legislative houses as a result of the party switch of a longtime Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg […]

The post Senator Mike Woodard on the delayed NC budget, pending veto overrides, and election law changes appeared first on NC Newsline.

Wetlands. To some they may seem like unsightly swamps but as we’ve come to understand in recent decades, wetlands are an absolutely essential part of global ecosystems and something that we plow over and develop at our own peril. Worrisomely, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling promises to invite the destruction of vast swaths of […]

The post Reporter Jacob Fischler on how D.C. decisionmakers are responding to some environmental rulings appeared first on NC Newsline.

Between a recent Supreme Court ruling that undermined the federal Clean Water Act and some hugely destructive language included in the new state Farm Act recently approved by the General Assembly, roughly 2.5 million acres of our state’s wetlands – that’s the shrinking, endangered, and vitally important regions that insulate and protect areas inhabited by […]

The post Rep. Pricey Harrison on some worrisome new proposals that will impact our elections and environment appeared first on NC Newsline.

The list of shortcomings and failures associated with North Carolina’s decade-long experiment with private school vouchers (aka “Opportunity Scholarships”) is a long and sobering one. Not only is there no evidence that vouchers have improved student achievement, but the record shows that many voucher schools discriminate based on religion and sexual orientation while several employ […]

The post Policy analyst Kris Nordstrom on the latest disturbing findings about NC’s school voucher program appeared first on NC Newsline.

It’s been a year of sustained controversy at the North Carolina General Assembly. Having reestablished narrow supermajorities in both houses, Republicans have revived a bevy of bills previously vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper on an array of divisive subjects – from abortion rights and LGBTQ equality to public education and the rules that govern voting […]

The post Sen. Julie Mayfield discusses voting rights, abortion access and healthcare for transgender youth appeared first on NC Newsline.

Every year, researchers at the national nonprofit research organization, the Commonwealth Fund, produce a report that uses the most recent data to assess how well the healthcare system is working in every U.S. State. The report – which is called the “Scorecard on State Health System Performance” – looks at an array of interrelated issues […]

The post Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund details the 2023 Scorecard on State Health System Performance appeared first on NC Newsline.

Wake County State Senator Jay Chaudhuri discusses voting rights, public education, and LGBTQ equality as we get an update on progress being made during the 2023 legislative session. Chaudhuri also weighs in on the scandal that has rocked the NC House in recent days.

The post Sen. Jay Chaudhuri discusses proposed voting restrictions and the troubling expansion of vouchers appeared first on NC Newsline.

It’s hard to believe it, but the 2024 Super Tuesday presidential primary in which North Carolina will play a big role, is just a little over eight months away, and already the fields of Republican challengers – both for the presidency and Governor of North Carolina – are full of candidates. And while this reality […]

The post Elon Univ. poll director Jason Husser summarizes voter attitudes, hot button issues ahead of 2024 appeared first on NC Newsline.

It’s Pride Month – the time of year in which people across the globe celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its history, culture, and rights. And while much encouraging progress continues to be made in this realm, this year’s celebration comes at a difficult and troubling time for those who support human rights. Kendra Johnson, the […]

The post Equality NC’s Kendra Johnson discusses a rise in bills to deny the rights of LGBTQ people appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina enacted a big and transformative change to the state’s juvenile justice system a few years back when it became the last state in the union to raise the age from 16 to 18 at which a young person accused of a crime is automatically treated as an adult. The change was a good […]

The post William Lassiter, head of the NC Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention appeared first on NC Newsline.

The school year for colleges and universities has come to an end, but that’s done nothing to stop the steady drumbeat of big stories and policy controversies that continue to emerge in the world of higher education. Recently NC Newsline investigative reporter Joe Killian sat down for a special extended conversation in which we discussed […]

The post Reporter Joe Killian discusses UNC-CH, Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Ida B. Wells Society’s funding appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina is about to implement some big and dramatic changes to the way it regulates voting and conducts elections. Going forward, all voters – even those who vote by mail – must produce a photo ID. Meanwhile, another bill recently introduced by Republican lawmakers would impose additional restrictions on voting by mail and same-day […]

The post NC Newsline reporter Lynn Bonner on some big changes coming to the laws governing NC elections appeared first on NC Newsline.

The laws governing voting in our state are about to undergo some big and controversial changes, including the introduction of a photo ID requirement for all voters – even those who vote by mail. Proponents claim that the changes are about making our elections more secure, but skeptics argue that the real motivation is to […]

The post Senator Lisa Grafstein shares her worries about proposed election law changes appeared first on NC Newsline.

Under legislation making its way through the General Assembly this session, North Carolina will soon dramatically expand its controversial private school vouchers program so that households of all incomes will be eligible to receive a state subsidy to send their kids to private school. The multi-million-dollar expansion comes at the same moment that the state’s […]

The post Educator and policy analyst Justin Parmenter on the plans to dramatically expand school vouchers appeared first on NC Newsline.

As NC Newsline investigative reporter Lisa Sorg has been detailing in a new series of special reports, the county of 100,000-plus residents – most of whom are poor and/or people of color – is literally inundated with mind-boggling quantities of toxic chemicals and animal waste. What’s more, as we learned in a conversation with Sorg, […]

The post Reporter Lisa Sorg discusses her new special series on Robeson County’s environmental plight appeared first on NC Newsline.

Among the many vexing challenges facing state government agencies in North Carolina these days is this: finding and keeping qualified workers. Across the state, job vacancies and turnover are extremely high. Even when agencies find good people, keeping them from departing for better paying jobs in the private sector is often impossible. Fortunately, the causes […]

The post SEANC director Ardis Watkins on NC’s chronic public employee shortage and pending state budget appeared first on NC Newsline.

The Fines and Fees Justice Center recently worked with the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke University Law School to produce a new and damning report entitled “Debt Sentence: How Fines and Fees Hurt Working Families.” As the title implies, the report explains how the runaway costs of court fines and fees often […]

The post Tim Curry of the Fines & Fees Justice Center: How court fines and fees hurt working families appeared first on NC Newsline.

Now that the governor’s veto has been overridden, a multitude of new restrictions related to abortion go into effect in North Carolina on July 1st. While the bill (SB 20) has been widely characterized as a 12-week ban, a closer look at the details of the new and complex law makes clear that it goes a lot further. In an effort to understand these momentous changes, as well as how they comport with public opinion and might ultimately impact state politics, NC Newsline caught up with an expert who’s actually carefully read and analyzed the legislation: Dr. Rebecca Kreitzer. Kreitzer is an associate professor of public policy and an adjunct associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can read her complete analysis of the legislation at Old North State Politics.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Dr. Rebecca Kreitzer discusses NC’s new abortion law and the impact on state politics appeared first on NC Newsline.

Some big and controversial changes are afoot in public education. Under legislation advanced by Republican lawmakers, North Carolina will soon enact a massive expansion of its hotly debated voucher program that will, for the first time, subsidize the tuition paid by wealthy families to private and parochial schools. What’s more, this change comes at the same moment that lawmakers are refusing to abide by a judicial order to adequately fund the state’s public schools.

And recently, NC Newsline got a chance to learn more about this unprecedented situation from an expert and critic who brings the unique, three-way perspective as an advocate, an ordained minister, and a mom – the executive director of the group Pastors for North Carolina Children, the Rev. Suzanne Parker Miller.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Rev. Suzanne Parker Miller on vouchers and the failure to adequately fund NC’s public schools appeared first on NC Newsline.

Sea-level rise driven by climate change: What once was a controversial topic in some circles is now an indisputable and deeply problematic reality for coastal communities across the globe – including dozens on the North Carolina Outer Banks, where beaches are disappearing at a frightening clip.

The hard reality of this situation is quickly presenting policymakers with some extremely tough decisions, but as is made clear in a new report on the situation in the Outer Banks town of Rodanthe, there’s little doubt about what makes the most sense from both a scientific and financial perspective, and recently we got a chance to learn more about both in a conversation NC Newsline had with one of the nation’s top experts, the head of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, Professor Rob Young.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Rob Young of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines discusses fast-eroding shorelines appeared first on NC Newsline.

This past week at the NC General Assembly saw the final enactment of a deeply controversial ban on abortion care as well as the state Senate’s version of a new two-year state budget.

Unfortunately, despite the scope, importance and controversial nature of these bills, the opportunities for real input from senators and representatives – especially Democratic legislators — has been almost nonexistent. To their credit, however, that hasn’t stopped many of these lawmakers from speaking up and articulating a very different vision for the state wherever and whenever possible.

Earlier NC Newsline caught up with one of the leaders of this effort, Mecklenburg County state senator Rachel Hunt.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Sen. Rachel Hunt on the abortion ban and a troubling path Republicans are paving for public schools appeared first on NC Newsline.

A trio of rulings handed down by the Republican majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court will soon bring some big and important changes to the state’s elections. Not only will a photo ID now be required for all who cast ballots – even by mail – but thousands of formerly incarcerated people who regained the right to vote last year will now be removed from the voter rolls once again.

Add to this that the legislature was given a greenlight to gerrymander legislative and congressional districts in another round of redistricting and it’s clear that elections will look very different and soon.

At such a time, you’d think legislators would be assuring that election officials have all the resources they need to handle and manage these changes, but as NC Newsline learned last week in a special extended conversation with the executive director of the State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, that’s something about which there’s great uncertainty. Brinson Bell discusses the need for additional resources and the work already underway to ensure fair and safe elections as we approach the 2023 municipal elections and the much anticipated contests of 2024.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post State Board of Elections director Karen Brinson Bell on important changes coming to NC elections appeared first on NC Newsline.

In a sudden move that largely threw traditional legislative processes to the wind, the Republican majority of the North Carolina General Assembly passed a far-reaching bill recently that would erect large and burdensome roadblocks from the moment of conception for patients seeking abortion care.

On the day following the final vote, NC Newsline caught up with an attorney who testified with great eloquence against the bill, ACLU of North Carolina Senior Policy Counsel Liz Barber. And as Barber told Newsline’s Rob Schofield, while the proponents have billed the legislation as a modest compromise, the hard truth is that it’s anything but.

The post ACLU of NC Senior Policy Counsel Liz Barber on how SB20 would actually impact reproductive rights appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina is on the precipice of enacting problematic legislation that would turn back the clock a half-century and insert state government officials into the most private and intimate reproductive healthcare decisions of pregnant North Carolinians. Jina Dhillon, the Policy and Advocacy manager at the Triangle-based global reproductive health organization IPAS, explains to NC Newline the bill runs counter to trends around the globe that generally favor an expansion of reproductive freedom.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Jina Dhillon of IPAS on how SB20 would put North Carolina at odds with trends around the world appeared first on NC Newsline.

When most people think about legislators writing, debating, and enacting new state laws, most envision solemn and deliberate proceedings chock-full of parliamentary procedure and lengthy committee hearings featuring an array of witnesses, experts and amendments.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it usually works in Raleigh. And that was especially the case recently when lawmakers rushed through a restrictive new abortion ban.

As State Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons of Guilford County told NC Newsline last week, the lengthy and complex new legislation went from being unveiled to the Governor’s desk in just hours – and that’s a fact that has left her deeply frustrated and deeply worried about the wellbeing of young women and girls who are likely to be the ones most impacted.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons discusses the rushed process for SB20 and the impact on young girls appeared first on NC Newsline.

The Republican majority of the North Carolina state Supreme Court issued a trio a rulings last week on the subject of elections and voting rights that promise to further undermine our increasingly fragile democracy. In Harper v. Hall, the court ruled that state lawmakers are free to gerrymander electoral districts for partisan gain to their hearts’ content. In Homes v. Moore, it blessed a voter ID law that will disenfranchise thousands of citizens. And in Community
Success Initiative v. Moore, the court made it likely that thousands of low-income formerly incarcerated people will never regain their right to vote.

And earlier this week, in an effort to understand these momentous rulings, NC Newsline caught up with one of the state’s leading good government watchdogs, Common Cause of North Carolina executive director, Bob Phillips.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Common Cause of NC’s Bob Phillips on a trio of remarkable rulings from the state Supreme Court appeared first on NC Newsline.

This past week was crossover week at the North Carolina General Assembly – the legislature’s self-imposed deadline for passing bills to keep them eligible during the 2023 session. It’s an event that helped turn the steady stream of backward-looking bills that have been winning approval from the Republican supermajorities into a virtual torrent.

Fortunately, despite the toxic impacts of gerrymandering – a phenomenon that has rigged so many electoral districts — there remains a cadre of caring and thinking lawmakers who continue to speak up against this regressive turn. Earlier this week NC Newsline caught up with Wake County state representative Julie von Haefen to discuss the latest developments in the legislature.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post State Rep. Julie von Haefen on a bevy of bills that threaten to undermine public education appeared first on NC Newsline.

Kris Nordstrom, senior policy analyst

Kris Nordstrom, senior policy analyst

One of the top priorities for the conservative majorities at the General Assembly this year is a bill that would dramatically expand the state’s controversial private school voucher program.

Under the legislation, all North Carolina households with kids – even wealthy
families who already send their children to exclusive and expensive private
schools – would be eligible for large taxpayer-funded subsidies.

What’s more, as we learned in a conversation with one of the state’s most
knowledgeable education policy experts – the North Carolina Justice Center’s Kris
Nordstrom – it’s a plan that has the potential to fundamentally remake k-12
education in our state in some deeply troubling ways.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Education policy expert Kris Nordstrom of the NC Justice Center discusses school vouchers appeared first on NC Newsline.

State Rep. John Autry of Mecklenburg County

State Rep. John Autry of Mecklenburg County

It’s a hard truth of American politics that many state and federal lawmakers base
their decisions and votes almost exclusively on how it will impact their own
political futures. Often, even hugely momentous, life and death votes are cast
with an eye to the polls and the views of TV talking heads, rather than the likely
impact on the lives of real people.
And then there are legislators like North Carolina State Representative John Autry
– a leader whose top concern is usually how his actions will impact the lives of his
grandchildren and their peers. Earlier this week I caught up with the Mecklenburg
County lawmaker and as I learned in our refreshing chat, when it comes to an
array of issues – be it attacks on transgender students, efforts to expand school
vouchers, the health of our environment, or the possibility of using psychedelics to develop new therapies for PTSD — Autry is a man who keeps his eyes fixed squarely on the future.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Rep. John Autry discusses the attacks on transgender students and the promise of psychedelics appeared first on NC Newsline.

Professor Chris Cooper - Photo: WCU

Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper discusses the fast-approaching 2024 election cycle — including the likelihood of a Biden- Trump rematch, the GOP gubernatorial primary in North Carolina, and the impact that the debate over abortion rights is likely to have.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Western Carolina University Professor Chris Cooper discusses early contenders in the 2024 elections appeared first on NC Newsline.

A recent ruling by a Texas federal judge sought to end the access American women have enjoyed for more than two decades to the safe and effective abortion medication known as Mifepristone. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has – at least for the time being – stayed the ruling.

But Congresswoman Kathy Manning believes the stakes in this case go well beyond reproductive rights.

Manning is working hard in this and several other arenas to champion access to healthcare for all, and to resist efforts to use the federal debt ceiling debate as an excuse to slash core services like public education.

Rep. Manning also discusses the critical need to address a troubling rise in antisemitism.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning discusses reproductive freedom, the debt ceiling and a rise in antisemitism appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina is in the midst of an affordable
housing crisis. With a fast-growing population – particularly in urban areas – this
problem has been present for years, but it’s grown appreciably more dire since
the onset of the pandemic, with the median price of a home shooting up 25
percent just since 2021.
Recently in response to the crisis, North Carolina’s League of Municipalities and
Association of County Commissioners teamed up to produce a new report on the
subject that details many of the causes of the shortage – some of which might
surprise you – as well as some concrete steps that state leaders can take to tackle
it.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Erin Wynia of the NC League of Municipalities discusses the state’s housing crisis appeared first on NC Newsline.

As anyone who pays attention to North Carolina politics is well-aware, the General Assembly was rocked recently by the decision of State Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County to switch her political allegiance from the Democratic Party to the GOP. The move gives Republicans a supermajority in both legislative chambers and would seem to boost prospects for overriding any vetoes that Gov. Roy Cooper might issue on any number of subjects – including the state budget, abortion rights, school vouchers, and LGBTQ equality.

Interestingly, however, as NC Newsline was reminded in an extended conversation with state Senator Graig Meyer – a Democrat who represents Orange, Caswell, and Person Counties – in some ways, the situation on Jones Street was changed little by Cotham’s switch. With Republicans themselves divided on some key issues, and overrides already close and subject to the vagaries of last-minute surprise votes and personal agendas, there were few sure things even before the switch. On some other issues, however – most notably public education – the switch does appear to have bolstered a deeply worrisome Republican plan to dramatically expand school vouchers at the expense of traditional public schools.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts The post Sen. Graig Meyer discusses abortion restrictions, vouchers, and future transportation funding appeared first on NC Newsline.

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts Read this year’s report card.

One of the most important and worrisome impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath has been the hugely negative impact on the mental health of
our nation’s youth. Recently, the children’s advocacy group NC Child partnered with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine to prepare and release a 2023 Child
Health Report Card for our state and mental health was identified as a top concern. Indeed, the report card gave North Carolina an “F” grade in this
category.

As we learned in a conversation with NC Child health policy director Kaylan Szafransky, this wasn’t the only area in which North Carolina received a failing grade. Happily, however, there are some obvious and affordable steps that state leaders can take to address these problems and, in some instances, there’s been at least some initial signs of progress.

The post NC Child Health Policy Director Kaylan Szafranski discusses the 2023 Children’s Health Report Card appeared first on NC Newsline.

Disability Rights NC attorney Susan Pollitt and investigative reporter Kelan Lyons

Disability Rights NC attorney Susan Pollitt and investigative reporter Kelan Lyons

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts It’s a hard truth that North Carolina’s criminal justice system regularly metes out wrongful and inequitable sentences, and recently, NC Newsline investigative reporter Kelan Lyons detailed one such deeply disturbing case.

Bobby Norfleet was convicted of a crime in 1979 as a young man – trying unsuccessfully to set a fire to a house – and because of the way the law read then (and because Norfleet was poor, Black and represented by a new and inexperienced attorney) he got sentenced to life. Forty-three years later, a social worker discovered him as a feeble and much-abused inmate and thanks to attorney Susan Pollitt of the group Disability Rights North Carolina, Norfleet was released. Read Norfleet’s story here.

The post Disability Rights NC attorney Susan Pollitt and investigative reporter Kelan Lyons appeared first on NC Newsline.

Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham)

Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham)

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts State Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham County provides an update on the events at the General Assembly – including the disturbing votes to repeal the state’s pistol permit system and introduce online sports gambling to the state.

The post Rep. Marcia Morey discusses sports wagering, repeal of the state’s pistol permit system appeared first on NC Newsline.

Michael Schwalbe (Photo: Sherryl-Kleinman)

Michael Schwalbe (Photo: Sherryl- Kleinman)

Stream and subscribe | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts One of the top agenda items for Republican leaders at the General Assembly this year is legislation that would micromanage the teaching of U.S. history and discussions of race – mostly for the purpose of limiting discussion and assuring that white students in particular, aren’t made to feel guilty or uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, as North Carolina State professor emeritus Michael Schwalbe – a social scientist who taught students about the roles of race and the legacy of white supremacy for decades – explained in a chat we had last week, when this subject is approached in a thoughtful and truthful way, there are enormous and powerful insights that can be conveyed and absorbed by students.

The post NCSU Prof.Michael Schwalbe on efforts to stifle discussions of race and privilege in our schools appeared first on NC Newsline.

State Representative Deb Butler of New Hanover County discusses Governor Cooper’s approval of legislation to expand the state’s Medicaid program and her hopes that her Republican colleagues won’t sabotage it by inserting poison pills into the state budget. Butler also weighs in on legislation that would bring 24/7 digital gambling to North Carolina.

The post Rep. Deb Butler discusses Medicaid expansion, the House budget, and sports wagering appeared first on NC Newsline.

NC Child executive director Erica Palmer Smith explains why the decision of Republican legislative leaders to finally embrace Medicaid expansion was the result of years of determined advocacy.

The post NC Child director Erica Palmer Smith discusses Medicaid expansion, improving children’s well-being appeared first on NC Newsline.

North Carolina took a big and important step toward making Medicaid expansion a reality last week when Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill to make it the 40th state to take the plunge. As welcome as this news is, however, it’s important to point out that expansion will not be a magic overnight healthcare solution.

As Dean Vincent Guilamo-Ramos of the Duke University School of Nursing told NC Newsline earlier this week, North Carolina currently has a huge shortage of primary care providers thanks to a combination of obsolete regulations (some governing the practice of nursing) and inadequate public investments. Adding more patients will stretch that system even further. Guilamo-Ramos joins us to discuss some possible solutions.

The post Dean Vincent Guilamo-Ramos of the Duke School of Nursing on NC’s shortage of primary care providers appeared first on NC Newsline.

Sen. Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford)The post State Senator Gladys Robinson discusses the long overdue decision to approve Medicaid expansion appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections executive director Melissa Price Kromm discusses the need to preserve and protect the institutions of our democracy and some recently introduced legislation at the General Assembly that would advance that cause.

The post North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections executive director Melissa Price Kromm appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Chapel Hill attorney and policy advisor Patrick Oglesby about the ongoing movement to reform marijuana laws and why North Carolina should employ a model that benefits the people rather than large for-profit corporations

The post Chapel Hill attorney and policy advisor Patrick Oglesby about the ongoing movement to reform marijuana laws appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr provide an update on their ongoing work to help restore and strengthen faith in the honesty and legitimacy of U.S. elections.

The post Former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Rep. Ashton Wheeler-Clemmons shares a bit of encouraging news about the prospects for some bipartisan legislation to help working families with child care.

The post Rep. Ashton Wheeler-Clemmons appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lynn Bonner dissects the announcement from Republican state legislative leaders that they’ve reached a breakthrough agreement on expanding Medicaid, and how that may play out with this year’s state budget. Read more of Bonner’s reporting here.

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lynn Bonner appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

4,000+ people died in North Carolina from drug overdoses in 2021. 77% of those deaths involved fentanyl. WRAL-TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance discusses WRAL’s latest documentary, Crisis Next Door, that airs March 15th.

The post WRAL-TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force executive director Kella Hatcher tells us about her group’s latest report and the big challenges our state faces in improving the health and well-being of our children. Read the 2023 report here.

The post North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force executive director Kella Hatcher appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

North Carolina Fourth District Congresswoman Valerie Foushee discusses her eventful first few weeks in the nation’s capital, the ongoing game of chicken that some on the political right are trying to play with the national debt, and the growing role of Black women as the backbone of the Democratic Party.

The post Congresswoman Valerie Foushee appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry and Duke University Law School professor Brandon Garrett discuss their unique and extraordinary new joint initiative to shine a light into a long-hidden corner of the criminal justice system: plea bargains.

Read the full report here.

The post Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry and Duke University Law School professor Brandon Garrett appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

State Senator Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg County on the latest from the General Assembly, including the legislature’s worrisome rush to further weaken state gun safety laws.

The post State Senator Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg County appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Professor David McLennan, director of the Meredith College Poll tells us what North Carolinians are thinking about an array of hot-button policy issues, including election conspiracy theories, abortion rights, medical marijuana and more.

The post Professor David McLennan, director of the Meredith College Poll appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

States Newsroom national energy policy reporter Robert Zullo discusses some of the challenges of protecting our electric grid from attacks like the one that took place in Moore County and the challenges in siting renewable energy.

The post States Newsroom national energy policy reporter Robert Zullo appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

UNC Chapel Hill history professor William Sturkey on his deep concerns about the plans of university trustees to establish a new school on the campus devoted to advancing conservative ideology.

Read Sturkey’s latest commentary: UNC Chapel Hill trustees misfire with rushed and ill-conceived plan to launch conservative school

The post UNC Chapel Hill history professor William Sturkey appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

State Senator Michael Garrett of Guilford County offers his takes on some of the proposals taking center stage during the early days of the 2023 legislative session, including the controversial “don’t say gay” bill and the chances for Medicaid expansion.

The post State Senator Michael Garrett of Guilford County appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Hudson McCormick, North Carolina director of the national nonprofit State Innovation Exchange (SiX), discusses new polling that shines a light on what average North Carolinians wish state lawmakers were prioritizing

The post Hudson McCormick, North Carolina director of the national nonprofit State Innovation Exchange (SiX) appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Senator Sydney Batch discusses the tenuous state of reproductive freedom in North Carolina, along with some of her other concerns (and hopes) for the 2023 session of the North Carolina General Assembly

The post Senator Sydney Batch on the tenuous state of reproductive freedom appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Voting rights attorney Hilary Harris Klein of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice on the state Supreme Court’s recent controversial decision to revisit two rulings on gerrymandering and voter ID that were handed down just last December

The post Voting rights attorney Hilary Harris Klein of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

From curbing youth tobacco use to expanding Medicaid, NC Alliance for Health executive director Morgan Wittman Gramman discusses steps state leaders can and should take in 2023 to dramatically improve health outcomes for thousands of North Carolinians.

The post North Carolina Alliance for Health executive director Morgan Wittman Gramman appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read the Forum’s new 2023-24 report.

The post Dr. Mary Ann Wolf, president of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, discusses top education policy issues facing the 2023 General Assembly appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about our higher education system at Higher Ed Works.

The post David Rice of Higher Ed Works discusses the many challenges facing North Carolina’s colleges and universities appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congressman Wiley Nickel discusses an array of important policy issues facing the nation including the federal debt ceiling and the future of abortion rights appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post American Immigration Council senior attorney Raul Pinto on why the U.S. simply must do more to aid people seeking asylum and get serious about enacting immigration reform appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Tara RomanoThe post Pro-Choice North Carolina executive director Tara Romano discusses the fragile state of reproductive freedom in our state appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post North Carolina Budget & Tax Center fiscal and economic policy expert Patrick McHugh on the state of the economy appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Rose Hoban of North Carolina Health News discusses NC’s chances for Medicaid expansion, abortion restrictions, and changes on the horizon for the state health plan appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Prof. Timothy Kaufman-Osborn discusses his new book that looks at how universities – including UNC – could improve the way they’re governed appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Rep. Deborah RossThe post Congresswoman Deborah Ross discusses some of the under-reported accomplishments pushed through in the waning days of 2022, and some of the battles that will be front and center in the new year appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read their new report, “We Set People Up For Impossible Decisions: Women and Low Wage Work in NC”

The post Gene Nichol and Heather Hunt of the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund at UNC Law School discuss their new report on the many unnecessary burdens our state imposes on low wage working women appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read more of Bonner’s reporting here.

The post Investigative reporter Lynn Bonner highlights some of the topics likely to take center stage this session at the North Carolina General Assembly appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read more of Childress’ reporting here.

The post Education reporter Greg Childress tells us why the high-profile policy debates in the world of K-12 education this year will likely sound a lot like the ones we heard in 2022 appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read more of Killian’s reporting here.

The post Investigative reporter Joe Killian will get us caught up on what’s been happening in the ever-more-politicized UNC system appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post North Carolina Congressman G.K. Butterfield reflects on his long career of public service, the accomplishments of the outgoing Congress, and some of the challenges that face American democracy appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Education policy researcher Kris Nordstrom on how and why chronic underinvestment from state lawmakers has sent North Carolina’s public education system to bottom of the national pack in some key metrics appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Kelan Lyons discusses some of the big challenges state leaders need to confront in our systems of criminal and juvenile justice appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

This an encore broadcast of an interview that first aired in May.

The post Rockingham County physician Steve Luking discusses his decades of serving rural blue-collar patients and why it’s made him into a such passionate advocate for expanding Medicaid appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post North Carolina Congressman David Price discusses his many years of service in Washington, the successes of which he’s most proud, and his hopes and concerns for the future appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Retired U.S. Marine, Afghanistan veteran and North Carolina-based writer Worth Parker on the desperate need for Congressional action to aid Afghans who put their lives on the line for Americans during our country’s decades-long occupation

The post Retired U.S. Marine, Afghanistan veteran and North Carolina-based writer Worth Parker appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Equality North Carolina executive director Kendra Johnson discusses the Respect for Marriage Act and the recent rise in threats and acts of violence targeting LGBTQ Americans appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The WRAL documentary team investigates what happened to these hurricane victims in its latest documentary Aftermath: North Carolina Hurricane Victims Left Behind. The new documentary premieres on WRAL-TV on Tuesday, December 13, at 7:30 p.m.

The post WRAL investigative documentary reporter Cristin Severance and NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lisa Sorg discuss a new documentary that explores North Carolina’s troubled efforts to aid the victims of Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Common Cause North Carolina executive director Bob Phillips on what could be one of the most important cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in decades appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about NCGV.

The post North Carolinians Against Gun Violence executive director Becky Ceartas on the continued national plague of mass shootings and some simple and obvious steps we all should be taking in response appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Photo courtesy: NCCADP/Art Grand

The post Jean Parks of Asheville discusses the growing chorus of voices calling for the formal end to the death penalty in North Carolina appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Justice Center executive director Rick Glazier discusses the state of public education funding and whether the impending shift in the partisan makeup of the state Supreme Court is likely to have an impact on the landmark Leandro case appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post State Senator Natalie Murdock discusses the destructive impact of partisan gerrymandering, the desire of many voters to protect abortion rights, and what issues may dominate the 2023 legislative session. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congressman-elect Wiley Nickel of North Carolina’s 13th District talks about the 118th Congress and why he thinks it’s still possible for Democrats and Republicans in Washington to find common ground appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Western Carolina University political scientist Dr. Chris Cooper discusses why Democrats did well in congressional elections even as Republicans extended their control over state government appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about how to help the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina

The post President and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina Ashley McCumber discusses the state of hunger in North Carolina appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Note that our interview with Prof. McLennan was recorded November 8, 2022.

The post Meredith College political scientist and polling expert David McLennan shares his take on the outcome of the midterm elections appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Jennifer Shutt, senior Washington, DC-based reporter for States Newsroom and NC Policy Watch, discusses the implications of the midterm elections for Congress and national politics appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more at Code the Dream.

The post Dan Rearick, co-founder of the nonprofit Code the Dream, discusses their remarkable work to bring some long overdue diversity the world of technology appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

This an encore posting of an interview first broadcast in August of this year.

The post Kaylan Szafranski of NC Child about the schoolchildren facing mental health challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

This is an encore posting of an interview first broadcast in August of this year.

The post Attorney Whitley Carpenter of the advocacy group Forward Justice on restoring voting rights to the formerly incarcerated appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Pollster Tom Jensen of Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling discusses the 2022 midterms appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Policy Watch education reporter Greg Childress discusses a new plan for paying NC teachers appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Wake Tech president Scott Ralls discusses the proposed bond issue on the November ballot appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Catawba College political scientist Prof. Michael Bitzer discusses the candidates and issues in the 2022 midterm elections appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more at: https://www.ncsbe.gov/

The post State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell tells us why all North Carolinians can rest assured that officials across the state are prepared to conduct a safe, orderly, and accurate midterm election appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read: Missing the mark for North Carolina: 2022-23 state budget fails to address the many effects of inflation

The post NC Budget & Tax Center fiscal policy analyst Suzy Khachaturyan explains why state budget writers have only worsened the negative impacts of inflation on public employees and the services they provide appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Tom Wolf, deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post National AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler on the nation’s resurgent labor movement and why the issues it champions are resonating with a growing number of American workers appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Senator Gladys Robinson discusses efforts to address student learning loss and enhance teacher recruitment and retention appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Veteran political consultant and observer Thomas Mills weighs in on the midterm elections and the neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read Sorg’s ongoing coverage of ReBuildNC’s hurricane recovery efforts

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lisa Sorg on the numerous ongoing problems in ReBuild NC’s efforts to aid residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post State Senator Kirk DeViere of Cumberland County discusses the hurricane recovery backlog and why the patience of state lawmakers with the state’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency may be running thin appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Watch the documentary here.

The post WRAL TV investigative documentary producer Cristin Severance discusses a powerful new documentary entitled “Critical Term: Why are Black mothers and babies dying?” appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post UNC Health infectious disease expert Dr. David Wohl discusses what you need to know about the updated bivalent COVID booster and the latest on monkeypox appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Prof. David Schanzer reflects on the 9/11 anniversary, threats to our democracy, and the rise of domestic terrorism. Schanzer serves as the director of the Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security and a Duke University public policy professor in the Sanford School. Read his new blog: Perilous Times.

The post Duke University public policy Professor David Schanzer reflects on the 9/11 anniversary, threats to our democracy, and the rise of domestic terrorism. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Stein also shares why he has made protecting the reproductive rights of NC women a top priority. Click below to listen to the full interview.

The post Attorney General Josh Stein discusses the opioid crisis and what his office is doing to force irresponsible drug companies to make amends. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read more of Joe’s coverage on this topic here and here.

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Joe Killian on the dangerous rise and spread of a powerful synthetic opioid known as fentanyl appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about the North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections. To register for an event in your area click here. To attend a virtual statewide event on September 19th, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EhV2LqJiQeubJ6G5K4PNyA

The post Former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr about their new bipartisan effort to debunk conspiracy theories and assure North Carolinians about the security and honesty of state elections appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Listen to NC Labor History Revealed: The Podcast

The post North Carolina AFL-CIO communications director Jeremy Sprinkle about the resurgence of unions and worker organizing in North Carolina and across the country appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Listen to NC Labor History Revealed: The Podcast

The post North Carolina AFL-CIO communications director Jeremy Sprinkle about the resurgence of unions and worker organizing in North Carolina and across the country appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post North Carolina State Health Director and Chief Medical Officer Betsey Tilson on what parents should know and do in order to best protect their kids from COVID and other illnesses as the new school year gets underway appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

James Ford, State Board of Education member and executive director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) discusses the big and worrisome teacher shortage and some of the other top challenges and controversies confronting North Carolina public education leaders.

The post James E. Ford, State Board of Education member and executive director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about the group’s Aug. 31st prayer vigil here.

The post Rev. Suzanne Parker Miller of Pastors for North Carolina Children discusses the Leandro plan and mobilizing the faith community to advocate for our public schools appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Will Scott of the North Carolina Conservation Network on some of the hopeful climate change provisions contained in the Inflation Reduction Act appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NCAE president Tamika Walker Kelly on the huge teacher shortage confronting the state and why a new plan for licensing and compensating teachers is unlikely to help appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2022 KIDS COUNT Data Book.

The post NC Child health policy director Kaylan Szafranski discusses the latest research on child well-being appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Rep. Rachel Hunt discusses some of the key education policy debates and challenges confronting our state as well as the outlook for preserving abortion rights appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Early voting in the 2022 midterm elections commences in just a little over two months. We get a sense of where some key contests with one of the nation’s top pollsters, Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling

The post Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Noel Nickle and Nick Courman of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congresswoman Kathy Manning discusses reproductive freedom, marriage equality, and takeaways from the Jan. 6th committee appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about the campaign here: https://unlockourvotenc.org/

The post Attorney Whitley Carpenter of Forward Justice discusses the end of felony disenfranchisement and unlocking the vote appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about Wake County’s share of the National Opioid Settlement.

The post Wake County Board of Commissioners chairman Sig Hutchinson on the county’s creative and determined work to tackle opioid abuse appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Attorney Matt Ellinwood of the Justice Center’s Education & Law Project and Letha Muhammad of The Education Justice Alliance

The post Education advocates Matt Ellinwood and Letha Muhammad on why an upcoming hearing before the state Supreme Court likely represents one of the last best chances for North Carolina to preserve and rebuild its public schools appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read Lerner’s two part series on Criminalizing the vote here and here.

The post States Newsroom democracy reporter Kira Lerner discusses why Republican-led legislatures are enacting a raft of new criminal laws related to elections appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Jim Hoffman, president and founder of American Heroes for North Carolina, discusses how Medicaid expansion would dramatically help veterans and their families appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Charlotte-Mecklenburg public school teacher and education policy analyst Justin Parmenter discusses some mysterious and troubling efforts to promote a new and controversial teacher licensure and pay plan appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post UNC infectious disease expert Dr. David Wohl discusses the state of the COVID pandemic and the latest on the spread of the Monkeypox virus appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post State Rep. Deb Butler on the shortcomings of the new state budget, the future of reproductive care, and the never-ending effort of Republican legislative leaders to amass and consolidate more and more power appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Jina Dhillon of the Triangle-based global reproductive health organization IPAS on what experience in other countries teaches about the destructive impact that the reversal of Roe v. Wade will have on the health of American women appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Criminal justice reform advocates Quisha Mallette and Lauren Robbins discuss efforts to curb a predatory industry that tries to take advantage of law enforcement mugshots appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Veteran Wake County State Representative Grier Martin reflects on his long and honorable tenure in the General Assembly as he takes on a new professional challenge at the Pentagon appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

In Moore vs. Harper, the GOP lawmakers advance the truly frightening idea that state courts have, effectively, no authority to review the legality of decisions that state legislatures make when it comes to federal elections.Southern Coalition for Social Justice co-executive director and chief counsel for Voting Rights Allison Riggs discusses the implications of the pending case.

The post Southern Coalition for Social Justice co-executive director Allison Riggs discusses the potential impact of Moore v. Harper appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Rep. Pricey Harrison on the contentious debate over sports gambling in our state and the EPA’s welcome action to combat pollution caused by “forever chemicals” appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper discusses the extraordinary developments in Washington surrounding the January 6 investigation appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Senator Natasha Marcus discusses the US Supreme Court’s injustice in overturning Roe, and the critical need for North Carolinians to continue to access reproductive healthcare appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Representative Marcia Morey discusses red flag laws and efforts to combat the rise in gun violence appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina, on the GOP’s proposed establishment of a new and burdensome signature check on all absentee ballot requests. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Tiffany Gladney, Policy Director of NC Child, on efforts to address gun control, improve youth mental health, and expand Medicaid appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congresswoman Deborah Ross on the national gun violence crisis, the need to makes schools safer, and the early work of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post National Consumer Law Center attorney Jenifer Bosco on efforts to reduce consumer medical debt appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

“Durham Under Fire” premieres on June 29th. Find the station’s latest documentaries online here.

The post Investigative reporter and documentary producer Cristin Severance discusses WRAL-TV’s “Durham Under Fire” latest documentary appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Sen. Natalie Murdock weighs in on Medicaid expansion, gun violence prevention, medical cannabis, and the latest controversial remarks by NC’s Lt. Gov. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Senator Jay Chaudhuri on the misplaced priorities of Republican lawmakers advancing a controversial education bill that could pose big problems for educators and LGBTQ youth appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Click here to read and follow: Unnatural disaster: A special PW series on North Carolina’s struggles to aid homeowners displaced by Hurricane Matthew

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lisa Sorg on how and why the state of North Carolina is allowing hundreds of families displaced by Hurricane Matthew to remain homeless five and a half years later appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Christina Adeleke of the North Carolina AIDS Action Network discusses Medicaid expansion, PrEP and ongoing efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Rep. Julie von Haefen discusses the effort to preserve abortion rights, gun violence prevention measures and issues the General Assembly should be prioritizing in the short session appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post ACLU of North Carolina attorney Daniel Bowes discusses the legislation on his organization’s radar as it strives to protect the basic civil rights and liberties of our state’s residents appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read the 2022 Child Fatality Task Force Report

The post Kella Hatcher, executive director of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force, discusses the big challenges posed by our state’s stubbornly high infant mortality rate and the troubling spike in firearm-fueled teen suicides appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Meredith College political scientist David McLennan examines the results from several key races in the NC primary, and where things stand ahead of the general election appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Special NC Policy Watch election correspondent Kirk Ross takes a deeper dive into the U.S. Senate race appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Duke University Doctors on an Abortion Ban: Unnecessary Health Risks, Stresses on Safety Nets appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Joe Killian, NC Policy Watch higher education reporter, on the UNC System’s leadership and a new troubling report by the American Association of University Professors. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Duke University professor of law and public policy Neil Siegel on the controversy surrounding the leaked Supreme Court draft ruling that would end abortion rights in the United States appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Equality North Carolina executive director Kendra Johnson discusses the Supreme Court leak and the political right’s concerted campaign against LGBTQ equality appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about changes to the U.S. Department of Education income-driven repayment (IDR) programs.

The post Attorney Rochelle Sparko of the Center for Responsible Lending discusses the Biden administration’s new action to help the nation’s millions of student loan borrowers appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Veteran Rockingham County physician Steve Luking on NC’s overdue need to expand Medicaid appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Becky Ceartas of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence proposes modest bipartisan ideas that could save lives appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read Bonner’s story here.

The post Reporter Lynn Bonner discusses why NC nurse practitioners want to change state law to give them more autonomy appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Budget & Tax Center economic analyst Patrick McHugh discusses inflation, energy costs and NC’s uneven recovery from the pandemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Surgeon General declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health with one in five young people experiencing anxiety or depression. The latest WRAL Doc, Pandemic Generation, shines a light on the real, lasting impacts of remote learning, quarantine, and the uncertainty our kids endured these last two years. Watch the documentary here.

The post Documentary producer Cristin Severance discusses WRAL-TV’s latest powerful documentary entitled “Pandemic Generation: Kids in Crisis” appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Veteran Mecklenburg Co. school teacher and education policy commentator Justin Parmenter on a controversial draft plan recently floated by the Department of Public Instruction to alter how North Carolina teachers are paid. Read more about the proposal here.

The post Veteran Mecklenburg Co. school teacher and education policy commentator Justin Parmenter appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Award-winning investigative journalist and author Phoebe Zerwick discusses her new book: Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read: Tiny particles, huge environmental problem: Micro-plastics found not only in the sea but in the Neuse River Basin

The post Environmental reporter Lisa Sorg discusses micro-plastics and the huge problem it poses for NC waterways. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Administration, Pam Cashwell, and the Executive Director of the state’s Council for Women and Youth Involvement, Danielle Carman, discuss the newly released report: “The Status of Women in North Carolina: Poverty and Opportunity.”

The post The Status of Women in North Carolina: Poverty and Opportunity – with NCDOA Sec. Pam Cashwell and Director Danielle Carman appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congressman David Price discusses the war in Ukraine, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the GOP’s use of history as a wedge issue. appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Samuel Gunter, Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, discusses soaring housing costs and what NC can do about it appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Meredith College political science professor David McLennan offers a preview of the May primary and discusses the rise of unaffiliated voters appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

UNC School of Government professor Anita Brown Graham discusses Carolina Across 100 and the new ‘Our State, Our Work’ program that connects young adults who are out of work and out of school with promising career paths. Learn more about the latest ncIMPACT initiative here.

The post UNC School of Government professor Anita Brown Graham discusses Carolina Across 100 and the new ‘Our State, Our Work’ program appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about the North Carolina Open Government Coalition.

The post North Carolina Open Government Coalition Director Brooks Fuller discusses ‘Sunshine Week’ and the importance of open and transparent government appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post North Carolina Association of Educators’ president Tamika Walker Kelly discusses teacher attrition and Leandro funding appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The latest WRAL documentary dives into the facts of the case, its impact on students in North Carolina and why there could finally be a resolution. Click below to listen to our interview with documentary producer Cristin Severance. Watch the full Leandro documentary here.

The post WRAL investigative reporter Cristin Severance discusses the new documentary “Leandro: The Case for a Sound Basic Education” appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

ACLU of North Carolina attorney Michele Delgado discusses the settlement of a federal class action lawsuit that could provide relief for thousands of North Carolinians with suspended driver’s licenses.

The post ACLU of North Carolina attorney Michele Delgado appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

As thousands of new refuges seek asylum, Washington gridlock continues to block the Biden administration’s efforts to advance comprehensive U.S. immigration reform. We get the latest on where things stand from immigration rights attorney Dan Melo.

The post Immigration rights attorney Dan Melo of the NC Justice Center appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Will Scott, North Carolina Conservation Network energy policy manager, discusses the growing climate emergency appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Erica Palmer Smith, Care 4 Carolina Coalition director, discusses the increasing likelihood of Medicaid expansion for North Carolina appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Durham Tech Community College President J.B. Buxton discusses COVID recovery, increasing college attainment rates, and a new initiative to address affordable housing appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more about Turquoise Parker’s amazing efforts here and here. Connect with Mrs. Parker’s by email or social media and learn how to volunteer in her ongoing hunger relief efforts: Via Email: mrsturquoiseparker@gmail.com Twitter: @PrkrsProfessors. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/turquoiselejeune Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohgorgeous1/

The post Durham elementary school teacher Turquoise Parker tells us about a remarkably successful, all-volunteer initiative she’s developed to combat K-12 student hunger appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Executive Director Mary Ann Wolf Read: The Public School Forum’s Top Education Issue report for 2022

The post Mary Ann Wolf, President and CEO of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, discusses the teacher shortage and the state’s top education issues appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read the report: Temp Workers Demand Good Jobs, February 2022

The post Clermont F. Ripley, co-director of the Workers’ Rights Project, discusses permatemping, wage theft and deceptive recruitment practices by staffing agencies appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post State Senator Mike Woodard discusses the latest on redistricting and the possibility of Medicaid expansion appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Learn more in the District Attorney’s annual report.

The post Durham District Attorney Satana DeBerry discusses improving public safety, gun violence and restorative justice appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Dr. Mark McClellan with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy on the return to normalcy and reducing future COVID-19 outbreaks appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Acclaimed author and journalist David Daley discusses what to expect next now that the NC’s Supreme Court has struck down the state’s gerrymandered maps appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Janice Robinson, North Carolina program director for Red, Wine & Blue The post Janice Robinson, NC program director for Red, Wine and Blue, on efforts by parents to push back against recent book banning appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Duke University law professor, Neil Siegel on the legacy of retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and what to expect in the coming weeks as President Biden moves to fill the vacancy appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congresswoman Deborah Ross on the Breyer announcement, NC’s ongoing redistricting battles, her efforts to help the restaurant industry survive the pandemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read Greg’s latest here.

The post NC Policy Watch education reporter Greg Childress discusses his exclusive reports on a troubled North Carolina charter school and its questionable management practices appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Yurij Rudensky
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Brennan Center for Justice The post Yurij Rudensky of the Brennan Center: North Carolina’s Racially Discriminatory Maps Show Why the Voting Rights Act Must Be Restored appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC State political science professor Mark Nance discusses gerrymandering and its impact on the legitimacy of our democracy appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Dr. Jonathan Quick, Dr. Christopher Woods and Professor Lavanya Vasudevan

The post Duke University public health experts on the future of omicron and the move from pandemic to endemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Child policy director Tiffany Gladney discusses child well-being during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Policy Watch special correspondent Kirk Ross discusses the 2022 U.S. Senate race appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Health News founder Rose Hoban discusses the rise of the omicron variant and where things stand on the two-year anniversary of the pandemic appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Cooper is the Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Public policy Institute at Western Carolina University.

The post Western Carolina University political scientist professor Chris Cooper previews some of the top political challenges of 2022 appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Congressman David Price and Duke University Professor David Schanzer of the Sanford School of Public Policy discuss what is known in the year after the January 6th Capitol riot appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The Food Bank provided over 115 million meals to families & individuals last year. Learn how to help.

The post Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC’s Jessica Slider-Whichard discusses how the ongoing pandemic is impacting hunger in our state appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post The latest on the contagious omicron variant with Gov. Roy Cooper and North Carolina’s new Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Lisa Sorg discusses climate change and previews some of the top environmental stories of 2022 appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post NC Policy Watch investigative reporter Joe Killian discusses the reshaping of UNC and how leaders are addressing COVID concerns appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

For over four decades now, advocates at Legal Aid have provided free legal help to low-income North Carolinians in civil cases involving basic human needs like safety, shelter, income and many other issues.Toll-Free Helpline: 1-866-219-LANC

The post Legal Aid of North Carolina executive director George Hausen appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read their new report: “The persistent and pervasive challenge of child poverty and hunger in North Carolina”

The post Gene Nichol and Heather Hunt of the N.C. Poverty Research Fund at UNC Law School examines the scandal of child poverty and hunger in North Carolina appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Originally broadcast November 28, 2021.

The post Rose Vaughn Williams, NC League of Municipalities Executive Director, discusses the new state budget and President Biden’s ambitious infrastructure package appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Originally broadcast October 24, 2021

The post Consumer advocate Rochelle Sparko of the Center for Responsible Lending on the state of the national student loan debt crisis appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Originally broadcast July 4, 2021.

The post Susannah Tuttle, director of NC Interfaith Power & Light, discusses a hope-filled response to climate change appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The Vote Collectors: The True Story of the Scamsters, Politicians, and Preachers Behind the Nation’s Greatest Electoral Fraud

The post Investigative reporter Nick Ochsner discusses “The Vote Collectors” and electoral fraud appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The Vote Collectors: The True Story of the Scamsters, Politicians, and Preachers Behind the Nation's Greatest Electoral Fraud

The Privatization of Everything

How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back

The post Donald Cohen, founder of In the Public Interest, discusses “The Privatization of Everything” appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Representative Susan Fisher discusses some of the current front burner policy debates and her 18-years in the NC House appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

The post Duke University health experts Dr. Cameron Wolfe and David Montefiori discuss the omicron COVID-19 variant and what to know ahead of the holidays appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

Read the report here.

The post North Carolina Community Action Association Angella Dunston: Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Low-Income Households and Communities appeared first on NC Policy Watch.