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Locke poll finds widening leads for Democrats

The latest poll for the Locke Foundation finds about an eight-point generic advantage for Democrats on the General Assembly ballot. Harper Polling’s survey was in the field from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15 and found that of the 608 likely voters it talked to, 49.5% said they were probably or...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Charlotte schools quarrel reaches ears in Raleigh

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office confirmed Thursday that it’s looking into what it terms “the matter involving Superintendent Crystal Hill” of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The acknowledgement comes amid some intense drama for the district, which has a $2.1 billion budget and as of the 2025-26 academic year was serving 143,757...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Rural practice still not drawing NC med-school grads

North Carolina’s would-be physicians have been shying away from setting up primary care practices in the rural parts of the state for years, and the situation is not getting better. Only eight of the 463 people who graduated from a public or private medical school here in 2015 were practicing...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

BOG open to another set of tuition increases

UNC System President Peter Hans and his aides left Wednesday’s Board of Governors budget committee meeting with an implicit green light to entertain campus-level requests for another set of tuition increases. The idea drew objections mainly from BOG member Art Pope, the former state legislator and CEO of Variety Wholesalers....

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

UNC flagships’ pay for football lags the big guys

Even UNC System President Peter Hans concedes that in college sports going forward, it’s likely that “those who spend the most will generally win the most games.” His comment, leading off a Wednesday briefing on athletics spending for the Board of Governors, came the same day The Athletic published a...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

FERC: Grid performed better in early 2026 storms

Federal regulators say the East Coast’s power grid, North Carolina’s included, handled January’s two winter storms way better than it did the Christmas Eve storm back in 2022 that prompted some overnight blackouts. The main reason for this, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says, is that utilities like Duke Energy...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

More detail on UNC System athletics spending

UNC System campuses used student fees to raise $136.4 million for their intercollegiate sports teams in fiscal 2024-25, about 21.3% of what it cost to field them. Campus also directly subsidized their sports programs to the tune of $63.2 million, via cash allocations from other parts of their operation or...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Legislators should act on data-center rates, AG says

Though they definitely favor setting up a special power-rate class for data centers, Attorney General Jeff Jackson and his aides nonetheless say the N.C. Utilities Commission has to tread carefully. Anything on those lines has to be “artfully designed” to remain in compliance with state anti-discrimination law that bars utilities...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

CON needs to go, State Health Plan trustee says

The No. 2 man on the State Health Plan trustees told a Congressional subcommittee he favors doing away with North Carolina’s certificate-of-need laws to foster more competition in the healthcare sector. “There’s no reason for you to have to seek state permission to build a healthcare facility,” says Dr. Brian...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

State Health Plan adds rural Atrium hospitals to mid-price tier

State Health Plan officials have added a dozen Atrium Health hospitals and clinics to the plan’s middle-cost tier, but Atrium’s big hospitals in Charlotte and Winston-Salem aren’t among them. The decision follows weeks of talks between the two sides and means that teachers and other state employees in the Charlotte...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

BOG asked to keep reins on campus construction

A proposed rewrite of the UNC System’s construction-project policy would retain for the Board of Governors the ability to veto new buildings, even if legislators signal a willingness to fund them. On the docket for this week’s BOG meetings, the revision system President Peter Hans and his aides propose says...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

A fourth of K-12 students are in two places

Here at Business North Carolina, we remain bemused by some of the numbers in the analysis of school enrollments that consultant Brian Eschbacher gave the Charter Schools Review Board on Sept. 8. One that sticks out is that close to a quarter of the students that attend North Carolina’s public...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Every UNC university with athletics subsidizes it

Not a single one of the UNC System’s schools is able to pay for intercollegiate athletics with just the revenue its teams bring in — and they’re all subsidizing their programs in some way from the academic side of the house. With sports-related expenses likely to rise, the situation calls...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

NC and Chemours make a deal

North Carolina has struck a $590 million deal with Chemours and its corporate cousins to settle one of lawsuits spawned by the PFAS contamination of the southeast part of the state. Announced Thursday, the settlement includes $455 million in payments to the state spread over 15 years, and to some...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Charter advocates ponder school-choice patterns

About 25% of North Carolina’s K-12 school children attend a charter, private or home school, but the pattern of choice varies considerably across the state, a Colorado-based consultant says. In Northampton County, most kids don’t go to the county schools. As of 2024-25, about 56% go to one of the...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026