Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Local

There’s another new consultancy in town

A Tennessee-based political consultancy, the Poplar Group, has added a North Carolina arm by bringing a Triangle-based communications professional on board. Crystal Feldman Lorbacher, once press secretary to former Gov. Pat McCrory, has joined the firm as a partner. She is a Durham native and Jordan High School grad who went...

By Ray Gronberg

February 12, 2025

Helene aid

Tuesday’s markup of the House’s latest hurricane recovery package underscored the continuing difference between the parties on how best to help small businesses in western North Carolina keep their doors open. Among the amendments to House Bill 47 approved in committee is one that reallocates $60 million away from repairing...

By Ray Gronberg

February 12, 2025

Stein team refines Helene housing-rebuild strategy

Monday’s meeting of Gov. Stein’s hurricane-recovery panel also yielded new information about the state’s intended approach to using about $1.4 billion that will be coming its way from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The “action plan” Stein’s aides are drafting for the use of Helene-related CDBG disaster...

By Ray Gronberg

February 11, 2025

Hurricane strategy

Senate Deputy President Pro Tem Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, confirmed Monday that his chamber will draft its own next-steps hurricane relief bill instead of merely adopting the one the House is working on. Speaking to Gov. Josh Stein’s advisory panel on Helene recovery on Monday, Hise said he believes the Senate...

By Ray Gronberg

February 11, 2025

Repair money for Helene-damaged prisons on table

Gov. Josh Stein and House leaders both are proposing to spend money to repair two state prisons in western North Carolina closed after Hurricane Helene, but the situation’s not as simple as either suggests. The Department of Adult Correction had to evacuate five prisons after Helene because they lacked power,...

By Ray Gronberg

February 10, 2025

Rabon proposes new brooms for DMV

Senate Rules chair Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, and 11 of his GOP caucus colleagues have put forward a plan to reorganize the Division of Motor Vehicles. Rabon’s Senate Bill 63 would set up a new Board of Motor Vehicles to supervise DMV, supplanting existing law that puts the division under the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 10, 2025

Couch rolls out first project for de-annexed land

Business North Carolina’s Chris Burritt reports that developer David Couch selected nearly 80 acres near northwestern Greensboro’s watershed as the location for his first mixed-use project on nearly 1,000 acres de-annexed from the town of Summerfield. Christopher Village is the first of 11 neighborhoods the CEO of High Point-based Blue...

By Ray Gronberg

February 7, 2025

Housing study findings

It’s not news that North Carolina has a housing shortage, but the NC Chamber, the N.C. Home Builders Association and the NC Realtors have a new study out that tries to put some numbers on just how deep the problem goes. Their report estimates that from 2024 to 2029, the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 7, 2025

Toyota factory ready to start deliveries

Toyota’s $13.9 billion battery factory near Liberty will start shipping product in April, company CFO Yoichi Miyazaki said Wednesday as he and other executives reported on Toyota’s third-quarter earnings. The factory “has finished preparations for production,” Miyazaki said, making an announcement somewhat overshadowed by another move Toyota unveiled during as...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2025

A bacon, egg and cheese to go, please

When I go home to Los Angeles, one of the very first things I do is go to In-N-Out for a burger. When I vacationed in New York City last summer, a visit to a bagel shop was high on the agenda. When in Rome, as they say. Soon enough,...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2025

Herding senators

Judging from Tuesday morning, it’s easier to herd cats than to herd senators. Every biennium, legislative staff have to refresh the official portrait of each House and Senate member. This task is underway, and in key points throughout the capitol, there are posters urging the elected to cooperate by presenting...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2025

More bad luck for Henderson County

Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, reports that his county’s already hurricane-battered agriculture sector took another blow on Jan. 31 when Apple Wedge Packers & Cider burned down. Henderson County is the center of apple production in North Carolina, accounting for about 85% of the state’s crop, County Extension Director Terry Kelley...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2025

Another Helene relief bill in the works

House members are preparing what would become the fourth hurricane-relief bill legislators have considered since Hurricane Helene laid waste to western North Carolina last Sept. 27. House Bill 47 would move another $500 million into the state’s Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery Fund, the account legislators use to stockpile aid money...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2025

Stein’s hurricane request

Gov. Josh Stein asked legislators to release $1.1 billion from the state’s reserves to fund an assortment of hurricane-relief efforts in western North Carolina through the summer. Stein said the state faces “dire and immediate” recovery needs that can’t wait on larger flows of federal aid to begin arriving. “We...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2025

NC Chamber staying neutral in tariff battle

The NC Chamber isn’t joining its national counterpart in condemning the federal government’s prospective deployment of new tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China. “Like the rest of the country, our membership includes varying perspectives on tariffs,” NC Chamber President Gary Salamido said Monday. “One thing is certain though. People are...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2025