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A big day for North Carolina’s car industry

Toyota executives say their company’s new, $13.9 billion battery factory near Liberty is flexible enough that it can respond to whatever the market or the government’s regulation of the car industry throws at it. The plant started shipping batteries in late May or early June, to assembly plants in Alabama...

By Ray Gronberg

November 13, 2025

Duke and private credit

Duke Energy CFO Brian Savoy made waves this week when he told a reporter from Bloomberg that the utility is exploring the idea of using “private credit” to finance a portion of its construction plans. The publication quoted him as saying that non-bank lending could be the “icing on the cake”...

By Ray Gronberg

November 12, 2025

Overturning CON

State Treasurer Brad Briner and the State Employees Association of North Carolina have joined forces to support a New Bern ophthalmologist’s attempt to overturn the state’s certificate of need law. In a Nov. 5 court filing, they argued that the law is a barrier to one of the treasurer’s strategies...

By Ray Gronberg

November 11, 2025

DMV news

Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Paul Tine is pouring cold water every chance he gets on the idea that lawmakers should separate DMV from the N.C. Department of Transportation. Such a break-out, he told members of a joint legislative oversight committee recently, would likely end up costing taxpayers more money...

By Ray Gronberg

November 11, 2025

U.S. senators weigh Lumbee recognition

Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks’ arguments against giving North Carolina’s Lumbee full federal recognition ran into a chilly reception this week from a key U.S. Senate committee. Members of the Senate’s Indian Affairs committee signaled little patience with Hicks’ view that Congress should let the...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

Toyota execs on earnings, tariffs and N.C.

Toyota’s new $12.9 billion battery factory near Liberty remains a key piece of its plans for the U.S. going forward, company executives said this week during their latest earnings announcement. “In all regions of the world, we want to produce locally and procure locally so that we can manufacture cars...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

N.C. ferry system needs money

North Carolina’s ferry system needs a significant infusion of money to ensure its continued reliability, deal with the upkeep on its boats and to update its maintenance yards, its leader says. Ferry Division Director Jed Dixon and his staff reckon the system needs $23.5 million more a year in recurring...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

Football at the Court of Appeals

North Carolina’s Court of Appeals found itself having to referee an arbitration dispute between two sets of sports agents that emerged after their attempts to form an alliance fell apart. Judge Allegra Collins and two of her colleagues ruled that the NFL Players Association has no role in trying to...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

Small-town troubles

Perhaps the most vexing issue facing the Local Government Commission is the the troubles North Carolina’s smallest towns have in keeping their finances in order. Tuesday’s meeting highlighted this again when the commission decided to again hold off on giving the town of Speed its full allotment of state-shared sales-tax...

By Welcome

November 5, 2025

Questions for Charlotte and Raleigh

LGC members didn’t voice any concerns about the Durham project, but they did have questions about two other affordable-housing initiatives in Charlotte and Raleigh. The Charlotte project envisions building 238 units off West Boulevard near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, for people making up to 60% of the area median income....

By Ray Gronberg

November 5, 2025

Local government

Local Government Commission members on Tuesday approved financing for a passel of affordable-housing projects around the state, among them one for a site in Durham that’s defied redevelopment for the bulk of this century. The LGC’s vote included authorization for the Durham Housing Authority to issue $44 million in conduit...

By Ray Gronberg

November 5, 2025

Elizabeth City’s food bills, audited

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office says Elizabeth City officials played “fast and loose” with procurement-card charges, mainly for food they provided to employees during an assortment of city-sponsored events. Its review of purchases by former City Manager Montré Freeman and other officials found a number of food buys that “could...

By Ray Gronberg

November 4, 2025

Stein in Asia

Gov. Josh Stein’s trip to Japan last week for the annual Southeast United States/Japan conference also gave him a chance to stop in Taiwan to visit with the island’s president and various corporate leaders there, his aides say. Stein hosted a “North Carolina Business Seminar for a number of leading...

By Ray Gronberg

November 4, 2025

N.C. repped in the World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers are once again the champions of baseball, by virtue of defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in the seventh and final game of this year’s World Series. This came despite the efforts of East Carolina University product Trey Yesavage, who pitched an inning and a third...

By Ray Gronberg

November 3, 2025

Tillis floats a banking bill

North Carolina U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is circulating a “discussion draft” of a bill that would bar large banks and credit unions from discriminating against customers based on their politics or type of business. Called the “Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act,” the draft seeks “to eliminate ‘reputational risk’ as...

By Ray Gronberg

November 3, 2025