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Stein floats idea for funding job training

Within Gov. Josh Stein’s budget request for fiscal 2026-27 is a proposal to set up a new program called the “Strategic Workforce Training” fund to underwrite job training and similar services. Stein and his aides would fund it by assessing employers a fee tied to what they pay each year...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

Lawmakers, or lawbreakers?

North Carolina’s General Assembly is a serial lawbreaker, a state House member says. Rep. Phil Rubin, D-Wake, made the accusation during this week’s floor debate on Senate Bill 214, the rewritten “various local provisions” package that would give Franklin County a leg up in a regional water-rights dispute. It also...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

Boliek asks SBI to probe N.C. A&T student-fee diversions

State Auditor Dave Boliek has asked the SBI to probe what he calls “gross misconduct” at N.C. A&T State University involving its use of about $5.1 million in student-fee money. Between the summers of 2017 and 2025, campus officials channeled the money into “financial assistance for students,” handing it out...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

Could Franklin Co. grab Henderson’s water plant?

A “local provisions” bill got pulled from the House’s Wednesday docket because some legislators think it’ll give Franklin County authority to seize ownership of a neighboring community’s water-treatment plant. The House-Senate compromise draft of Senate Bill 214 includes a section that would allow Franklin County to acquire, through condemnation, property...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

Lobbyists indicted; charged in connection with legislators’ 2024 bourbon tour

A Wake County grand jury has indicted four prominent North Carolina lobbyists on charges alleging that they solicited violations of state law that bans gift-giving to legislators. Handed up on Tuesday, the indictments target Kevin Wilkinson of The Southern Group, Bo Heath of McGuireWoods Consulting, Doug Miskew of Public Sector...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Legislators to probe COVID-related prison releases

Just in time for this fall’s Cooper-Whatley U.S. Senate race, General Assembly leaders announced Monday they’re forming a panel to investigate COVID-related early prison releases. Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, and House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, will co-chair the probe, House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger say....

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Lumbee advance casino proposal

Lumbee leaders have approved an amendment to the tribal constitution that sets up a vote this summer by the tribe’s enrolled members that would clear the way for casino gaming. According to The Robesonian, the Lumbee Tribal Council voted 17-2 in favor of the amendment during its monthly meeting last...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Activist investor proposes split of Ingles

The activist investor in Ingles Markets that’s seeking a board seat says it wants to split the company, separating it into one that would focus on selling groceries and a second that would operate as a “grocery-anchored real estate” firm. This would “optimize the capital structure of both entities and...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Feds fine Durham energy firm $722M

Federal regulators have fined a Durham-based energy-efficiency trader $722 million, saying it’s behind “one of the largest and most brazen frauds” they’ve ever seen. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also ordered American Efficient and its corporate parents and siblings to return $409.8 million, plus interest, to the PJM Interconnection and...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Port’s future at risk, Wilmington Chamber boss says

The Stein administration’s refusal to endorse plans to deepen the Port of Wilmington’s ship channel has created “uncertainty around a project that has been carefully studied,” one of the city’s key business leaders says. It needs to make good by working with NC Ports and the U.S. Army Corps of...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Duke paid no federal income tax in 2025

Duke Energy and three other large, North Carolina-headquartered corporations paid no federal income tax in 2025, a Washington-based advocacy group says. A common thread linking them and 84 other prominent companies, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says, is that many rely on depreciation-related tax breaks. Congress expanded these last...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

House panel shelves hospital-taxation proposals

The House’s property tax committee wrapped up its pre-session work on Wednesday without offering any endorsement of the idea of reeling in some of the tax breaks the state gives hospitals. Members endorsed the idea of putting a constitutional amendment on the fall ballot that, if voter-approved, would require the...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

First State Health Plan claims-processing RFP comes a cropper

State Treasurer Brad Briner’s staff needs to send out a new RFP for a State Health Plan claims processor because the first one didn’t draw any responses that met their minimum requirements. The new RFP will go out “in the coming weeks” and the goal remains to have options for...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

UNC Wilmington pushing for new med school

Officials at UNC Wilmington want the university to set up its own standalone medical school, and have a plan they say can enroll the first 60 would-be doctors for the 2029-30 academic year. Chancellor Aswani Volety briefed members of the UNC System Board of Governors about the idea on Wednesday....

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Utilities commissioners: power-rate loophole is anti-consumer

A state law that allows Duke Energy to file rate plans lasting less than three years is anti-consumer, according to two members of the N.C. Utilities Commission. It allows Duke to reap the benefit “of performance-based regulation” while avoiding a third-year cap on rate increases, commissioners Donald van der Vaart and...

By Ray Gronberg

April 15, 2026