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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

Roberts: No decision yet on Smith Center future

UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts says he and his team “haven’t made any decisions” about the future of the university’s basketball arena, and remain open to advice on the subject. He told trustees he intends to set up two stakeholder committees, “one of basketball folks and one made up...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2026

Egleston, Bokhari join lobbying group

Florida-based lobbying firm The Southern Group has hired two former Charlotte city councilmen to start a Charlotte office. Tariq Bokhari and Larken Egleston will head the branch for the firm, which opened a Raleigh office in 2024 led by Kevin Wilkinson, a lobbyist and one-time aide to former U.S. Rep....

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2026

UNC pushing for 2027 Carolina North groundbreaking

UNC Chapel Hill will finally break ground on its Carolina North satellite campus in 2027, Chancellor Lee Roberts and his aides say. Briefing trustees Wednesday morning, Roberts said the plan for the first phase of development on the site will include housing for 2,200 students, plus classroom, lab and research...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2026

Buckhout claims $2M+ war chest

First District Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout says she’s raised more than $2 million so far in her second bid for the U.S. House seat currently held by Rep. Don Davis. The Republican also says she intends to launch “a six-figure television and digital advertising campaign in the district,” which covers...

By Ray Gronberg

January 21, 2026

Weekend poll shows Page leading District 26 race

A new poll that was in the field over the weekend shows Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page with a 39% to 34% advantage over Senate leader Phil Berger in the District 26 Republican primary. That’s effectively showing the race as a toss-up, as the spread is well within the poll’s...

By Ray Gronberg

January 21, 2026

Prisons tap unused pay to plug gaps

While State Auditor Dave Boliek’s lapsed-salary assessment leaves plenty of room for doubt about how much money state agencies have left unused, there’s no doubt some are using surplus funds on other things. One of the main examples here is the Department of Adult Correction, which operates North Carolina’s prison...

By Ray Gronberg

January 21, 2026

Locke looks at farm exposure to trade wars

An analysis commissioned by the John Locke Foundation warns that trade wars could take a $695 million bite out of North Carolina’s agriculture sector. Written by NC State professor Jeffrey Dorfman, it says the state’s tobacco, sweet potato and cotton farmers are particularly vulnerable to retaliation from China, the European...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2026

Agencies point out errors in auditor’s lapsed-salary report

State agencies say N.C. Auditor Dave Boliek’s lapsed-salary report is riddled with errors that exaggerate how much money is actually available for legislators to reallocate. These include but go beyond the report’s inclusion of 619 unfunded slots in the state Commerce Department. As previously reported here, many of those are...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2026

Stein: Make data centers pay their own way

Gov. Josh Stein and the Trump administration agree data centers should bear the cost of any new power-generation capacity they require. Stein recently joined two U.S. cabinet secretaries and a bipartisan coalition of Mid-Atlantic and Midwest governors in urging the PJM Interconnection to revamp its pricing and resource planning. PJM runs...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Senate negotiators reduce ask for NC Children’s

N.C. Senate budget negotiators appear to have given up on securing $638 million for the proposed NC Children’s Hospital in southern Wake County. Instead, their focus is now on securing $103.5 million for the project’s financing, part of a previous authorisation in 2023 to spend approximately $320 million. UNC Health...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Judge rules against Trump on Dominion wind farm

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down work on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker ruled both that Dominion’s “likely to prevail” in its lawsuit against the administration’s stop-work order and that it needs a preliminary injunction to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Trump idea amounts to “price controls,” bankers say

North Carolina’s bankers are no happier than their New York colleagues with President Donald Trump’s proposal for a one-year, 10% cap on credit-card interest. Such a move would “eliminate credit card access for millions of Americans and thousands of North Carolinians,” said Peter Gwaltney, president of the N.C. Bankers Association....

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2026

Preyer resigns UNC CH trustees seat

Former UNC Chapel Hill trustee John Preyer resigned to devote more time to his own business and not in response to pressure from the UNC System or any other source, one of his allies on the board says. “He was not asked to leave by anyone,” trustee Marty Kotis said...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2026

Crypto bill pulled for more negotiations

Another crypto bill is wending its way through Congress, but ran into a speed bump this week as banking and crypto interests continue to clash over its provisions. The U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee, chaired by South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, had been scheduled for Thursday to mark up a...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2026