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JMACs and tire makers

The Senate’s Commerce and Insurance committee has endorsed a bill that’s designed to give a couple of tire manufacturers a bit of flexibility in meeting the terms of their state business incentive deals. Senate Bill 664 would change the existing law that governs the state’s Job Maintenance and Capital Development...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2025

Friendship with trade-war targets?

Just in time for a global trade war, House members have proposed a pair of resolutions that profess the state’s undying friendship with the United Kingdom and France. House Resolution 777 deals with France, noting that it “provided decisive support” for U.S. independence during the American Revolution. More to the...

By Ray Gronberg

April 8, 2025

“Paper towns”

The “paper towns” debate has reared its head again, thanks to a development-related quarrel in Alexander County. Some residents of the Bethlehem area in the county’s southwest corner want to incorporate a town government to take control of land-use decisions there away from the Alexander County commissioners. The trigger for...

By Ray Gronberg

April 8, 2025

Power lines

The Southeast’s major utilities are lagging when it comes to planning regional transmission lines and connections that could improve the efficiency and reliability of the power grid, a new report argues. A contributing factor to the problem, it says, is that the Southeastern Regional Transmission Planning process does little more...

By Ray Gronberg

April 7, 2025

Dems weigh in on the DAVE Act

Both sides had a bit more to say Thursday about Senate Bill 474, the so-called DAVE Act that would create a new division in State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office to report to legislators about potential efficiency moves. The bill’s lead sponsor, Senate leader Phil Berger, confirmed that the proposal’s going...

By Ray Gronberg

April 4, 2025

Harrigan targets GNC

One of North Carolina’s congressmen wants to ban GNC from operating stores on the country’s military bases. U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-10th, this week filed what he’s calling the “Military Installation Retail Security Act.” It would bar the Pentagon from giving retailers an on-base concession if they’re controlled by adversary...

By Ray Gronberg

April 4, 2025

Tariff talk

Senate leaders from both sides of the aisle agree on thing about the tariff package President Trump announced on Wednesday: Business faces a whole new source of uncertainty. “It has scared the living … fill in the blank … from every business owner I have talked to from last night...

By Ray Gronberg

April 4, 2025

NYC group donates land to the Lumbee

The New York City-based Open Space Institute says it’s acquired a 1,392-acre chunk of Robeson County and donated it to North Carolina’s Lumbee Indians. The transfer of the Camp Island property “represents the first opportunity to establish a large, protected natural area under the stewardship of the” Lumbee, the Open...

By Ray Gronberg

April 3, 2025

Bilfinger and Cargill, in court

A divided state Court of Appeals panel has declined to force a global construction and engineering company into arbitration with Cargill Inc. over a project gone bad in Charlotte. Judges Toby Hampson and Julee Flood sided with Bilfinger Inc., finding that conflicting language in a set of contracts left the...

By Ray Gronberg

April 3, 2025

House votes to ease bidder minimums

House members want to relax the traditional requirement that cities, counties and other arms of the state obtain at least three competing bids for construction contracts worth more than $500,000. Their 115-0 vote went along with Wake County Republican Rep. Erin Paré’s proposal to lower that to a minimum of...

By Ray Gronberg

April 3, 2025

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