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Senate Dems to push for vote on House Helene bill

Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch came to her current post believing her caucus needs “to be more bullish” and aggressive in its approach to dealing with the chamber’s GOP supermajority. It’s looking like we’re about to see just what that means. On Monday, Batch’s office announced that Senate Democrats will...

By Ray Gronberg

June 18, 2025

Carolina governors oppose offshore drilling

Gov. Josh Stein and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have joined forces to urge the Trump administration to maintain a moratorium on oil and gas exploration and production off the Carolinas. In a June 15 letter, the governors cited the ecological and economic benefits of the status quo as reasons to...

By Ray Gronberg

June 18, 2025

UNC Health sues Humana and Aetna over Medicare drug reimbursement cuts

UNC Health has sued two of the country’s top health insurers, seeking to recoup alleged shortfalls in Medicare Advantage reimbursements. Lawyers for the Chapel Hill-based health system filed complaints against Humana and Aetna in a Winston-Salem federal court on June 10. Both lawsuits allege the insurers “improperly and unilaterally” shortchanged UNC Health in reimbursements...

By Ray Gronberg

June 17, 2025

Battle lines reemerge on housing bill

Hard on the heels of the NC Chamber warning legislators it’s scoring them on how they vote on the zoning-policy changes embedded in Senate Bill 205, the N.C. Association of County Commissioners is marshaling its forces against the bill. The association contends that if it’s more housing construction legislators want, SB 205 will prove...

By Ray Gronberg

June 16, 2025

Stein signs law revamping N.C. investment oversight

Gov. Josh Stein has signed into law House Bill 506, which revamps the way North Carolina and its treasurer will manage the state’s investments going forward. Stein said the bill — which in its final form passed the Senate 40-0 and the House 113-0 — brings North Carolina into “line with...

By Ray Gronberg

June 16, 2025

JetZero picks Greensboro’s PTI for factory thanks to runway, room to grow

There are a few more odds and ends to deal with about JetZero’s decision to build a factory at Piedmont Triad International Airport for the new, fuel-efficient airliners it’s designing. Senate leader Phil Berger alluded to one of these during his comments during Thursday’s announcement. “It started with building a bridge,” Berger...

By Ray Gronberg

June 16, 2025

House Dems split on energy bill

A 75-36 House vote has put the session’s major energy policy bill back in the hands of the Senate. Senate Bill 266 would do away with the state’s 70% interim carbon-reduction goal, and make it easier for Duke Energy to incorporate the cost of building new power plants into its rates...

By Ray Gronberg

June 12, 2025

House Reg Reform backs revised housing bill

Acknowledging that it remains controversial, members of a House committee have advanced a bill that would revamp state zoning policy in hopes of making it easier to build more homes. The rewritten version of Senate Bill 205 got through the House Regulatory Reform committee on a split vote. It faces a Rule...

By Ray Gronberg

June 12, 2025

Mecklenburg sales tax transit bill clears first hurdle in NC House

Mecklenburg County’s drive for permission to hold a referendum on raising its local-option sales tax to pay for more transit and road construction has cleared its first legislative hurdle. Wednesday saw House Transportation committee members endorse, without dissent, the latest version of House Bill 948, which would allow the county to...

By Ray Gronberg

June 12, 2025

Help for distillers?

The House’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee has advanced a bill that would make it easier for distillers to share premises and sell each other’s wares. Senate Bill 664 would extend to distillers a bit of regulatory forbearance that’s already available to brewers, said Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson. It legalizes for them so-called “alternating...

By Ray Gronberg

June 11, 2025

Senators contemplate PFAS compensation

It appears the Senate could take up a House bill that’s designed to force Chemours to compensate the public water systems that have spent big bucks to install additional filters to get PFAS out of their raw water. The Senate’s Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday opened discussion on House Bill 569,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 11, 2025

Zoning overhaul stalls, but key changes resurface in revised bill

A major zoning-policy revamp, House Bill 765, has probably reached the end of the road for this session, even if some of its ideas go forward in another bill, its lead sponsor says. Rep. Jeff Zenger’s bill is parked in House Finance, and on Tuesday morning, he told the Trib he doesn’t see...

By Ray Gronberg

June 11, 2025

A Diamond Heels polar what-if

Finally, a fun little item for the baseball fans amongst us: New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso says he wanted to be a Tar Heel. “Originally, for the longest time I wanted to go to UNC,” Alonso said during a recent podcast when another of the sport’s biggest stars, L.A. Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 10, 2025

More on that shower in Swannanoa

Gov. Josh Stein and other executive-branch officials are pushing back on State Auditor Dave Boliek’s report that said the state had spent $27.4 million keeping a “community care center” in Swannanoa running after Hurricane Helene. The chief criticism, voiced by GROW NC Director Matt Calabria and other officials, is that the auditor’s...

By Ray Gronberg

June 10, 2025

Helene-recovery advisory group wants additional money to fund landslide-hazard mapping

Gov. Josh Stein’s Helene-recovery advisory group wants legislators to put some money into the budget to fund additional landslide-hazard mapping and the creation of a landslide early warning system. Members of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Western North Carolina Recovery approved the request Monday. They understood that it might be a struggle to...

By Ray Gronberg

June 10, 2025