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Economic Development

Legislators vote to ban third-party lawsuit funding

Legislators have handed the NC Chamber a win on one of its top priorities for the session, a ban on third-party litigation funding by investors. House Bill 315 cleared the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday. Across the chambers, there was only one dissenting vote: Sen. Jonah Garson,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

Jacksonville annexation bid for Camp Lejeune sparks fight

Camp Lejeune’s service needs and Jacksonville’s ability to meet them have sparked an intramural battle among Onslow County’s all-Republican legislative delegation. It played out this week in House Finance when Sen. Michael Lazzara, R-Onslow, asked members via Senate Bill 817 to support allowing Jacksonville to annex much of the southern...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

House votes to regulate crypto kiosks

The House has passed and sent to the Senate a bill that for the first time in North Carolina would set up a regulatory system for crypto-currency kiosks. House Bill 920 cleared the chamber on a 115-0 vote after members voted down an amendment that would have set tighter limits...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

Jackson: Utilities Commission needs to clamp down on Duke returns

Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office wants the N.C. Utilities Commission to give Duke Energy’s return on equity a haircut as it considers the utility’s request for a rate increase. “We think they overshot the mark,” Jackson says of Duke’s request. Duke’s rate request for 2027 and 2028 asks the commission...

By Ray Gronberg

June 9, 2026

Reg reform and granny flats

House members have passed and returned to the Senate an omnibus regulatory reform bill that among other things instructs local governments in parts of the state to allow more home construction. The 85-28 vote on Senate Bill 445 came after large, bipartisan majorities rejected amendments proposed by Rep. Jay Adams,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

Chamber pods state on Wilmington rail link

NC Chamber leaders want the state to begin looking at reactivating an abandoned rail corridor that would connect Wilmington and its port to the Goldsboro area. The first order of business for restoring the line from Wallace in Duplin County to Castle Hayne in New Hanover County is obtaining an...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

DOT boss: Money can’t sit waiting for Charlotte on I-77

State Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson is pushing back against the idea that his agency is making unfounded threats when it comes to pulling money from the Interstate 77 widening. The fate of the $600 million the state’s earmarked for the project has been up for grabs ever since the Charlotte...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

Hall on I-77: “Unbelievable to me”

House Speaker Destin Hall says he doesn’t know if there’s “anything in terms of punitive” action legislators will take against Charlotte-area governments for rescinding their support of the Interstate 77 widening. But he’s sure other regions will welcome news that the $600 million the N.C. Department of Transportation otherwise would’ve...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

DOT: New I-77 plan gets graded like any other

The N.C. Department of Transportation isn’t going to treat a new Interstate 77 project in Charlotte differently from any other highway project local governments across the state ask it to take on. That means it’ll have to go through the prioritization process legislators and DOT formalized in the 2010s early...

By Ray Gronberg

June 1, 2026

OBX beer-store chain speaks up for canned cocktails

It’s all well and good that the state House wants to legalize the sale of canned cocktails outside of ABC stores, but the Senate needs to get in the act too, the co-owner of a chain of beer and wine stores on the Outer Banks says. The Senate is advancing...

By Ray Gronberg

June 1, 2026

BorgWarner plans addition in Hendersonville

A Michigan-based car-parts supplier is looking to branch out and will invest $100 million to add 378 jobs over the next four years to its existing plant in Hendersonville. BorgWarner, which also has operations in the Buncombe County town of Arden, will add 140,000 square feet to its current 220,000-square-foot...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

Ross criticizes Trump’s Carolina Long Bay buyout

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-2nd, and some of her West Coast colleagues are scrutinizing the big-money settlement the Trump administration paid out in April to a French company to get it to abandon its offshore wind leases. Their objections during a recent U.S. House oversight hearing focused on the administration’s...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

REBIC opposes longer moratorium on water-transfer permits

A Charlotte business group is asking members to “reach out” to legislators to stand up for the city’s ability to get another 30 million gallons of water a day from the Catawba River. The Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition is targeting the 17-month extension some House members are proposing...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

DOT shuts down I-77 “engagement” center

State Department of Transportation officials have pulled the plug on a “community engagement center” in Charlotte they opened in late March to answer questions about the Interstate 77 widening project. The move comes because project’s dead following this week’s vote by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization to rescind its...

By Ray Gronberg

May 26, 2026

Supreme Court upholds Duke Energy 2023-25 rates

The N.C. Supreme Court has rejected challenges from manufacturers, electric co-ops and Attorney General Jeff Jackson to Duke Energy’s 2023-25 rate-increase packages. Justice Trey Allen’s opinion held that held the N.C. Utilities Commission on all of the key issues had the discretion to act as it did in setting rates...

By Ray Gronberg

May 26, 2026