Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Local

Appeals Court upholds Smithfield-funded grants

N.C. Court of Appeals judges have rejected a Randolph County minister’s attempt to claim for schools the proceeds of the state’s 2000 hog-farm mitigation deal with Smithfield Foods. Wednesday’s decision, from a unanimous three-judge panel, is but the latest to go against opponents of former Attorney General Mike Easley Sr.’s...

By Ray Gronberg

January 8, 2026

Moore “looks forward” to Trump housing proposal

Folks around the capitol will remember that back in 2023, the late Mecklenburg County state Rep. Kelly Alexander proposed a bill to counter the rise of Wall Street ownership of single-family homes. This quickly got pigeonholed by then-House Speaker Tim Moore, who told reporters the 100-home limit Alexander proposed was...

By Ray Gronberg

January 8, 2026

Regulators seek to resurrect livestock-farm rules

Division of Water Resources officials are going to try resurrecting a trio of restrictions on hog, chicken and cattle growers that state appellate judges struck down because they hadn’t gone through a formal rulemaking process. This time around, they’ll try to convince the Environmental Management Commission — and perhaps the...

By Ray Gronberg

January 8, 2026

Roxboro: Praised for raising property taxes

The Local Government Commission has given Roxboro’s government permission to borrow $922,542 to buy five police cars, a fire truck, a garbage truck and an asphalt roller for street repair. Now, this would ordinarily be newsworthy only in Roxboro, but the LGC sign-off comes amid House Speaker Destin Hall’s push...

By Ray Gronberg

January 7, 2026

Near-record number of new business in 2025

The year just past saw the second-highest number of new-business creations on record for North Carolina, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall says. In 2025, Marshall’s office registered 171,244 new incorporations, which the state bettered only in 2021, she said. The numbers continue a post-pandemic spike in new-business filings that’s bemused...

By Ray Gronberg

January 7, 2026

Boliek briefs legislators on lapse-salary report

State Auditor Dave Boliek has promised legislators they’ll have his office’s full report on state-agency lapsed salaries next week, after his aides incorporate the responses from each of the departments and programs it covers. Appearing before a joint oversight panel on Tuesday, Boliek also urged them to use the data...

By Ray Gronberg

January 7, 2026

Former state GOP official helping Cunningham

The legal team that drafted Rep. Carla Cunningham’s petition to remove Mecklenburg County’s sheriff from office includes a former N.C. Republican Party operative. Philip Thomas, one of the two lawyers who worked on the petition, was the state GOP’s chief counsel from the spring of 2020 to the start of...

By Ray Gronberg

January 6, 2026

Cunningham seeks ouster of Mecklenburg sheriff

Rep. Carla Cunningham has joined forces with a quartet of former Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office deputies to petition for a court-ordered removal of county Sheriff Garry McFadden. The petition accused McFadden of a variety of misconduct, including telling Cunningham the people of Mecklenburg County would “come after” her if she...

By Ray Gronberg

January 6, 2026

McFadden in the crosshairs

The petition seeking Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden’s removal from office contends that the two-term incumbent arbitrarily played favorites among deputies and jail inmates. Former Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Maj. Bryan Adams alleged McFadden promoted unqualified deputies because they were part of what he called “Team Sheriff.” In practice, that meant “going...

By Ray Gronberg

January 6, 2026

Dashboard reports state auditor’s lapsed-salary findings

There’s more — and less — than meets the eye when it comes to State Auditor Dave Boliek’s claim that there’s a bit more than $1 billion in lapsed salary on the books of various state agencies associated with job vacancies. The numbers in the dashboard Boliek’s office rolled out...

By Ray Gronberg

January 5, 2026

Berger staffer leaves for lobbying firm

Another of Senate leader Phil Berger’s top aides is moving over to the private sector. The Raleigh Group, the lobbying firm led by John Hardin, says Madison Alligood has joined the firm as general counsel. Alligood has been a policy adviser to Berger since the spring of 2022, and since...

By Ray Gronberg

January 5, 2026

Congress may refine Trump’s supersonic push

Congress may not let the Trump administration have the last word on the legalization of supersonic flight over U.S. soil. Before the holidays, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee reported out H.R. 3410, the “Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act.” Its co-sponsors include several members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation —...

By Ray Gronberg

December 31, 2025

Duke seeks NRC approval to base reactors at Belews Creek

Duke Energy has asked federal regulators to approve the idea of using part of its Belews Creek property in Stokes County as the site for a set of small nuclear reactors. The utility on Tuesday applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an “early site permit,” which entails reviewing...

By Ray Gronberg

December 30, 2025

Dominion, Trump aides battle over wind project

A federal judge has delayed until mid-January a hearing on Dominion Energy’s request that he block a Trump administration stop-work order targeting the utility’s $11.2 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker’s ruling came at the administration’s urging, and he’s already rejected Dominion’s request that...

By Ray Gronberg

December 30, 2025

A penny for the government’s thoughts

North Carolina retailers are already wondering how they’ll adjust once the penny disappears from circulation. But their trade group is pointing to U.S. Treasury Department guidance that says this is a problem mainly for cash transactions. Once the penny becomes uncommon, storeowners “will need to round transactions either up or...

By Ray Gronberg

December 29, 2025