Medical marijuana bill clears its first committee hurdle
Sen. Bill Rabon's medical marijuana bill cleared its first committee hurdle on Tuesday and is likely to get a floor vote in the chamber early next week, provided the timetable he sees ahead for it holds.
Health Care
SAVE Act reintroduced for 2023 legislative session
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has renewed the drive to give advanced practice nurses greater freedom to practice in their areas of speciality without physician supervision.
Insurance Dept. seeks rewrite of CCRC law
At the behest of the N.C. Department of Insurance, legislators this year may completely rewrite the statute that establishes the regulatory framework for North Carolina's 63 licensed community care retirement communities.
More doctors needed
Current estimates suggest East Carolina University can start construction late in 2024 on the Brody School of Medicine's new, $215 million home, but campus and UNC System leaders say there's no time like now to begin expanding the school's roster of trainees.
Budget & Taxes
8. What is a ‘serious violation’ in school? Bill seeks to change student code of conduct
Alex Granados/Education NC
House bill targets international wire transfers
Republican legislators are usually fans of cutting taxes, and with legislative- and executive-branch economists agreeing the state's on track for about a $3.3 billion surplus in fiscal 2022-23, there are already rumblings that more cuts might be on the way.
Legislators hear cautionary note on revenues
Don't go counting your surpluses before they hatch. Fiscal Research Division economist Emma Turner didn't say that, exactly, to House and Senate appropriations committee members during a briefing Tuesday morning on the consensus revenue forecast from her office and the Office of State Budget and Management.
Education
Career planning for kids
Sixth grade isn't too soon for kids to start thinking about what they might do with their lives, in the view of the supporters of a new bill pending in the N.C. Senate.
Hints of a wider scope for faculty buyout fund
A proposed incentive fund to entice professors on five UNC System campuses to retire could have broader applications in the 16-university system, its CFOtold legislators on Wednesday.
UNC's wish list
The UNC System's Board of Governors is meeting this week and among other things is scheduled to ratify its fiscal 2023-24 budget request to the General Assembly.
Elections
New leader of N.C. Democratic Party faces an old challenge
The N.C. Democratic Party has new leadership, but key legislators say new Chairwoman Anderson Clayton and her team face an old challenge: money, and how to get its hands on enough to help the party's candidates compete.
Democrats to vote on leadership this weekend
Democratic Party leaders from across the state will meet this weekend to elect their state party chair – a contest that could have big implications for their direction.
Will Regan run for office?
A persistent rumor in political circles these days is that EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the former secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, might run for governor in 2024.