Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Local

Lilley confirmation hearing

The confirmation process for state Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley got underway on Tuesday, with questions from a Senate panel that focused mostly on the department’s role in hurricane recovery. Lilley’s department is in charge of orchestrating housing-reconstruction programs in western North Carolina, using about $1.2 billion in federal money the...

By Ray Gronberg

April 2, 2025

Treasurer’s office pairs up with OpenAI

State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office has launched a 12-week experiment with San Francisco-based OpenAI to figure out if the company’s tools can help improve the efficiency of some state-government operations. The project will focus on two specific jobs in the treasurer’s office: Matching unclaimed property with its owners and screening...

By Ray Gronberg

April 1, 2025

Duke details nuke prospects

Duke Energy has three sites suitable for the construction of large nuclear reactors, but the best prospect of the trio is in South Carolina near Gaffney, the utility says. That’s because the utility already has a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the William...

By Ray Gronberg

April 1, 2025

Antitrust

Duke Energy has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate decision that reinstated a competing power provider’s antitrust lawsuit against the Charlotte-based utility. Its petition for review contends that a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel led by Judge Paul Niemeyer last summer ignored the high court’s...

By Ray Gronberg

April 1, 2025

Burgin files another bill targeting AI

Republicans have been making news this session for their interest in narrowing the scope of the state attorney general’s authority. But there’s one GOP senator that wants to widen it. Sen. Jim Burgin’s move in Senate Bill 624 is part of his broader effort to lay down some legislative markers...

By Ray Gronberg

March 31, 2025

Credit unions

House members are trying once again to loosen some of the reins that limit the operations of North Carolina credit unions. This year’s bill, House Bill 187, cleared the chamber on March 25 on a 101-11 vote that featured bipartisan support and opposition. HB 187 is more or less the...

By Ray Gronberg

March 31, 2025

Boliek, Cooper and DMV

State Auditor Dave Boliek has told at least one county GOP group his office’s ongoing audit of the Division of Motor Vehicles could wind up damaging former Gov. Roy Cooper. The Spring Hope Enterprise reported this week that Boliek, in comments to the Nash County Republican Party convention, said that...

By Ray Gronberg

March 27, 2025

RTI announces big layoff

RTI International says cuts in federal funding will lead to 525 permanent layoffs at its Durham office, many without the customary 60-day notice. Layoffs began March 7 and will continue through at least May 1, according to a WARN Act notice filed with the state. RTI’s is the largest mass...

By Ray Gronberg

March 27, 2025

Port-call fees

North Carolina’s ports in Wilmington and Morehead City could face dire consequences if the federal government imposes massive port-call fees to penalize the operators of Chinese-built ships, their director says. The move would “no doubt result in a contraction of carrier calls and in effect force mid-size ports out of...

By Ray Gronberg

March 26, 2025

Briner on pension contributions

State Treasurer Brad Briner says his quarrel with Gov. Josh Stein over state pension funding is more a question of timing than about their ultimate aims. On the campaign trail last year and since taking office this year, Briner has said the treasurer’s office has to boost the pensions’ investment...

By Ray Gronberg

March 25, 2025

Charlotte’s thirst

A trio of state senators are trying to clamp down on Charlotte’s quest to gain a larger share of the Catawba River’s water. Filed Monday, Senate Bill 428 would alter the state’s interbasin transfer law to create a new “major transfer” category and subject it to stricter rules. Sen. Warren...

By Ray Gronberg

March 25, 2025

Stein puts out the help-wanted sign

Gov. Josh Stein wants former federal workers laid off in the DOGE process to know they can perhaps land on their feet by going to work for North Carolina. His administration launched a new help-wanted website on Friday that stresses that many state jobs are open and well-suited to experienced professionals. “Whether you were...

By Ray Gronberg

March 24, 2025

Asphalt in Ashe County

A unanimous state Supreme Court ordered Ashe County’s planning board to issue a permit allowing the development of an asphalt plant near Glendale Springs. Its decision, released Friday, looks to end a nine-year legal battle that’s traveled up and down North Carolina’s appellate court system multiple times since Appalachian Materials first applied for...

By Ray Gronberg

March 24, 2025

Appeals panel upholds dismissal of air-crash lawsuit

A unanimous state Court of Appeals panel has sided with aircraft engine maker Continental Aerospace Technologies in a product liability lawsuit stemming from a 2013 plane crash. Writing for the panel, Judge Toby Hampson upheld a lower court’s decision to grant Continental summary judgment in its battle with the estates...

By Ray Gronberg

March 21, 2025

A further word on projected energy costs

We’ve obtained a clarification about the $13 billion estimated savings that Sen. Paul Newton and other advocates of Senate Bill 261 say would occur if the state abandons the 70% interim carbon reduction goal it set for electricity providers. The $13 billion present-value figure is “the cumulative savings over the...

By Ray Gronberg

March 20, 2025