Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Local

State-pension investment returns improve

North Carolina’s public retirement-system investments earned an estimated 13.3% return in calendar 2025, just under the average for well-stocked peer investment funds. It “was a very strong year,” said Kevin SigRist, chief investment officer in State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office and such the head of the new N.C. Investment Authority....

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Wolfspeed gets feds’ OK for Japanese investor

Durham-based Wolfspeed says federal regulators have given permission for a Japanese company to take an equity stake in the chipmaker. The decision came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and stems from Wolfspeed’s Chapter 11 restructuring last year. One of the company’s largest creditors going into...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

State pension fund sets request for legislative support

Trustees of the state’s largest public-employee pension plan have confirmed that they’ll ask legislators for a 2026-27 employer contribution equivalent to 17.49% of covered salaries. The decision in effect means that the state would contribute just under $3.5 billion to the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System — TSERS —...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Insurance Dept. sees no fraud in Rockingham Co. dispute

North Carolina’s Department of Insurance closed the books on a complaintalleging that Rockingham County officials illegally asked the county’s insurance to pay for their defense against a libel lawsuit. “We received a complaint related to the Rockingham County commissioners. We reviewed it and closed it because of no evidence of...

By Ray Gronberg

January 30, 2026

State Health Plan rolls out first “preferred providers”

State Health Plan trustees have approved “preferred provider” contracts with the clinic networks of UNC Health and two other groups, State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office says. The move is part of the plan’s cost-control strategy and addresses the primary care needs of its members. Follow-on decisions will address speciality, maternity...

By Ray Gronberg

January 30, 2026

Tillis, Budd and Noem

The hold-ups of federal Hurricane Helene recovery subsidies are figuring in U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis’ public condemnations of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “She’s not even handling the other part of her job,” Tillis told reporters this week after being asked whether he has confidence in the former South...

By Ray Gronberg

January 29, 2026

Info about colleges’ NIL program hard to come by

UNC System schools are mostly sticking to the position that the details of the name, image and likeness programs they use to pay their athletes aren’t up for public discussion. Spokespeople for UNC Chapel Hill, NC State and East Carolina University both responded to recent Business North Carolina queries by declining to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 29, 2026

WSSU only UNC school holding out against tuition increase

Only one of the UNC System’s 16 universities — Winston-Salem State — wants to continue holding the line on in-state undergraduate tuition heading into the 2026-27 academic year. Thirteen others have proposed 3% increases in line with the signals the system Board of Governors and state legislators have sent in...

By Ray Gronberg

January 28, 2026

Federal gag order prompts House Oversight delay

State House leaders have postponed a Thursday oversight hearing they’d scheduled to discuss the security situation on Charlotte’s transit system and in Charlotte generally. The decision to move the hearing to Feb. 9 came after U.S. Magistrate Judge David Kessler barred legislators from releasing anything they’ve gleaned from the investigative...

By Ray Gronberg

January 28, 2026

Lumbee land buy could accommodate casino

The Lumbee tribe has bought land in Robeson County that could someday host eastern North Carolina’s first casino. State Rep. John Lowery, the tribe’s chairman, recently announced that Lumbee Tribe Holdings has acquired 241 acres that “can be utilized for long-term economic development initiatives that benefit our people for generations to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

Solar farms using but 40,284 acres in N.C.

North Carolina’s utility-scale solar farms are using only 0.31% of the state’s farmland, the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association says. All told, 733 solar arrays capable of generating more than 1 megawatt of power are using 40,284 acres, the group says, basing the assessment on a review of aerial photography and...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

Trustees want $25M in admin cuts at UNC Chapel Hill

Trustees at UNC Chapel Hill have given Chancellor Lee Roberts and his team orders to find $25 million in administrative spending cuts and a green light to start laying off people if necessary to meet that. The move comes at the urging of the board’s Budget committee and its chairman,...

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

Immigration battle changing political calculus, some Dems say

Federal immigration crackdowns are politicizing and energizing Americans in ways that haven’t happened in decades, a group of Black politicians and political activists say. But both political parties are behind the curve in dealing with the ramifications, said former state Rep. Chaz Beasley and other participants in a Thursday media...

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

N.C. Electric Co-ops sets CEO transition

N.C. Electric Cooperatives has hired a new CEO who will take the helm early in April. Amadou Fall has been the COO of the N.C. Electric Membership Corp. since early 2021. NCEMC is one of three groups under the Electric Cooperatives umbrella and handles its power generation and transmission work....

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

Boliek defends lapsed-salary report: “We have added a layer of true transparency”

State Auditor Dave Boliek defends the validity of his office’s lapsed-salary report even though it counted unfunded, placeholder job slots towards its $1.04 billion total. “I actually think we have added a layer of true transparency and context that did not previously exist,” he said during a Friday interview with...

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026