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Senators pursuing flood-rule rebuilding exemption

You’ll remember that at a recent joint oversight hearing, Rep. Karl Gillespie, R-Macon, and Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, complained that flood-protection rules could keep many Hurricane Helene victims from rebuilding in place. Now, Moffitt and some key senators are trying to do something to prevent that. Senate Bill 266 would...

By Ray Gronberg

March 18, 2025

Report: Honda to buy NC-produced Toyota batteries

Toyota’s $13.9 billion battery factory near Liberty is reportedly about to acquire a new customer — Honda. Tokyo-based Nikkei Asia says Honda is poised to source from the Liberty plant enough batteries to equip about 400,000 hybrid-electric vehicles, which would cover “all of the [HEVs] it sells in the” U.S....

By Ray Gronberg

March 18, 2025

Fourth try the charm for sawmill deregulation?

Rep. Karl Gillespie, R-Macon, is having another try at getting legislators to pass a bill that would allow the use of ungraded dimensional lumber in one- and two-family homes and some apartment construction. His House Bill 184 gained an endorsement recently from the House Agriculture and Environment committee, and could...

By Ray Gronberg

March 17, 2025

Rabon and Mecklenburg’s transit tax

Here at the Trib and Business North Carolina, we’ve been curious about why Senate Rules chair Bill Rabon, R-New Hanover, is sponsoring Senate Bill 145, which would authorize a new Mecklenburg County transit tax referendum. Rabon says he’s lending a hand because he thinks the bill might need the help...

By Ray Gronberg

March 14, 2025

Power update

The Senate has passed and sent to the House its proposal to eliminate the 70% interim carbon-reduction goal legislators handed down to regulators and Duke Energy just four years ago. Senate Bill 261 cleared the chamber on Thursday, just three days after its introduction, reflecting its status as a leadership...

By Ray Gronberg

March 14, 2025

A new use for Charlotte tennis subsides?

A House spending bill looks to claw back and reallocate $20 million the budget for the 2023-25 biennium earmarked for “Project Breakpoint,” an abortive effort to build a pro tennis stadium complex in Charlotte. House Bill 74 passed the chamber on March 5, and for now is parked in the...

By Ray Gronberg

March 13, 2025

Hurricane bill heads to conference

The General Assembly’s latest hurricane-relief bill encountered what’s probably a temporary setback this week when the House decided it wouldn’t concur in the changes the Senate made to the roughly half-billion-dollar aid package. House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, has already named 12 conferees to help work out the chambers’ differences...

By Ray Gronberg

March 13, 2025

GE Aerospace bets big on N.C., again

Jet engine maker GE Aerospace says it’s going to invest nearly $1 billion in adding capacity to its U.S. factories and supply chain, and North Carolina is going to share in the bounty. Specifically, the company’s going to put: $52 million into its Wilmington plant, for metal-shaping machines, industrial furnaces,...

By Ray Gronberg

March 13, 2025

Power struggle

Eliminating the state’s interim carbon-reduction goal would slow the development of solar- and wind-energy projects over the next decade or so, but it wouldn’t get additional nuclear power to the grid any quicker. That’s the upshot of the modeling state legislators asked of the N.C. Public Staff ahead of introducing...

By Ray Gronberg

March 13, 2025

Transylvania looking to boost Ecusta redevelopment

There’s a move afoot to set up a rural development authority in Transylvania County to facilitate the redevelopment of the former Ecusta Mill site near Brevard. But the idea comes with a twist, namely that instead of using existing law that allows some counties to set up such an organization...

By Ray Gronberg

March 12, 2025

Target Belichick

A 4,100-word March 7 story by ESPN unearthed more details about the hiring of football Bill Belichick and dissension between UNC Chapel Hill board of trustee members and university officials. Perhaps the story’s main news involved Sen. Thom Tillis’ involvement in the hiring, which UNC fans hope will lead to...

By Welcome

March 11, 2025

Global TransPark eyes bigger military missions

The expansion of Fleet Readiness Center East at the Global TransPark already promises big things, but TransPark leaders are hoping it someday goes beyond servicing just C-130s, UH-1 Hueys and HH-60 Pave Hawks. Some of the hangars that workers are building for FRC East at the Kinston Regional Jetport are...

By Ray Gronberg

March 10, 2025

Hudson pipes up against town halls

Finally, we note that national media outlets are reporting that U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-9th, recently counseled his GOP colleagues to avoid holding in-person town halls with constituents. Hudson chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, the federal-level campaign arm of the House GOP caucus. According to reports in the New...

By Ray Gronberg

March 7, 2025

State ports working with new shipping alliances

There’s both “risk and opportunity” for North Carolina’s ports in a new alignment of some of the world’s major shipping firms, N.C. Ports Executive Director Brian Clark says. In February, Danish shipping giant Maersk paired up with Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd to create what the two are calling the Gemini Cooperation. Maersk...

By Ray Gronberg

March 7, 2025

Heirship properties, red tape and Helene

Legislators can help the Hurricane Helene recovery effort by cutting some of the red tape that surrounds heirship properties and placing additional time limits on local land-use regulatory approvals, one of Gov. Josh Stein’s aides says. On the heirship issue, the state needs to make changes so it can expedite...

By Ray Gronberg

March 7, 2025