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Feds planning $34M grant for Belews Creek upgrades

Federal officials want to send $34 million Duke Energy’s way to help pay for upgrades to the gas-and-coal-fired Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County — a facility Duke intends to retire at the end of 2039. The prospective taxpayer subsidy would cover about a third of the project cost,...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

Hall channels campaign money to caucus members

House Speaker Destin Hall has raised $1.2 million so far in the 2025-26 election cycle, his most recent report to the State Board of Elections says. His campaign’s fundraising includes $296,000 in PAC money. Max-level, $6,800 PAC donors in the second half of 2025 include groups representing the Cherokee and...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

The G20 comes to Asheville

Asheville will host some of the preparatory meetings for the annual G20 summit in August and early September, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says. The sessions will begin on Aug. 29 and 30 with meetings between the top deputies of each participating country’s finance ministry and central bank. The actual...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

Scout says it’s on track; German publication dubious

Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors says its all-electric pickup and SUV assembled in South Carolina will be on sale next year, firing back at a published report that the multibillion dollar project will be delayed. The report in the German publication Der Spiegel cited unspecified “technical issues” for causing a delay to...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026

Court of Appeals: Duke fuel rider wrongly approved

A bipartisan state Court of Appeals panel says the Utilities Commission erred when it allowed Duke Energy to recover $17 million in excess fuel costs it paid out in 2022 via a surcharge on its 2024 rates. But Judge John Arrowood and his colleagues declined to order Duke to refund...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026

Nonprofit hospitals get $215M in local taxes breaks a year

The House’s property-tax committee is scrutinizing the tax breaks North Carolina gives its nonprofit hospitals, but a couple of its rank-and-file members are speaking up against the idea of making major changes. Legislative staffers on Wednesday told the panel the property and sales-tax breaks the hospitals receive cost city and county...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026

AG’s office settles towing-practices lawsuit

Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office has settled a lawsuit against a Charlotte tower it’d accused of price gouging and deceptive trade practices. The deal with David J. Satterfield, A1 Towing, and Automobile Recovery & Towing Enforcement puts several restrictions on the firms’ business practices and requires payment of $30,000 in...

By Ray Gronberg

February 18, 2026

Labor Department signs safety partnership for tower project

North Carolina’s Labor Department has active safety “partnership” deals in place with the contractors spearheading work on four of the state’s highest-profile construction projects. It recently touted the signing of an agreement with Barnhill Building Group covering the company’s work on The Creamery, a 37-floor mixed use tower that’s going...

By Ray Gronberg

February 18, 2026

NTSB issues final report on 2025 mid-air

Unsustainable arrival rates, increasing traffic volumes and airline scheduling practices were all contributing factors to 2025’s mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport in Washington, federal safety inspectors say. The collision between a commuter jet and a U.S. Army helicopter killed 67 people, among them the helicopter’s Durham-native pilot and the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 18, 2026

Energy task force submits its first report

Data centers account for about 80% of the additional demand Duke Energy is expecting to come its way because of economic-development drives in the Carolinas That’s the word from Gov. Josh Stein’s Energy Policy Task Force, and part of the reason it’s advocating that policymakers make sure data centers pay...

By Ray Gronberg

February 17, 2026

Sadler outraising Cunningham for upcoming primary

The Rev. Rodney Sadler has raised more than twice as much money for his state House party primary as District 106 incumbent Rep. Carla Cunningham. Year-end finance reports to the State Board of Elections show that Sadlerpulled in just under $121,820. Cunningham raised $57,449, but started the race with a...

By Ray Gronberg

February 17, 2026

Judge dismisses climate-change suit against Duke

Saying the issue’s too much a political matter, a Business Court judge has dismissed Carrboro’s climate-change lawsuit against Duke Energy. Judge Mark Davis — a former state Supreme Court justice returned to the bench in 2021 by former Gov. Roy Cooper — said a jury could only resort to “utter...

By Ray Gronberg

February 16, 2026

Stein picks engineer for Utilities Commission

Former Duke Energy and Strata Clean Energy engineer John Gajda is joining the N.C. Utilities Commission. Gov. Josh Stein announced on Friday that’d he’d picked Gajda for the slot on the commission that opened up when lawyer and former chair Karen Kemeraitstepped down. Given recent legislatively dictated changes to his...

By Ray Gronberg

February 16, 2026

Lumbee I-95 land deal spurs questions

In December, the Lumbee Tribe’s for-profit arm paid a combined $6.8 million for two tracts of land alongside Interstate 95, where a Native American-owned casino may someday emerge. That was $3.6 million more than the combined properties’ sale price a few days earlier. Deeds recorded with Robeson County show that...

By Ray Gronberg

February 16, 2026

Jackson presses on in rent-fixing lawsuit

State Attorney General Jeff Jackson says North Carolina’s apartment-rent price-fixing lawsuit against RealPage continues, even though the federal government is moving to settle its end of the case. “If I can’t get a fair deal from them, I’ll just take it to trial and let a jury decide,” Jackson said...

By Ray Gronberg

February 15, 2026