Mask mandates are stripping away across the state as school districts vote to end nearly two-year requirements that students in grades K through 12 remain masked for up to eight hours a day. As of Monday Feb 21, 2022, fewer than 50 school systems in North Carolina currently have mask mandates standing and this week even more are eliminating the requirement them, according to the N.C. School Board’s Association.
The N.C. General Assembly voted along party lines Wednesday to move the 2022 primary election back three weeks from May 17 to June 7.
Some laws turn out to be unconstitutional. It’s usually up to the courts to make that determination.
A Wake County Superior Court Judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that was filed against the state’s election redistricting process. The suit alleged that the General Assembly violated previous court precedents governing how election maps should be drawn.
The N.C. General Assembly will begin votes Tuesday on the newly-released 2021-23 conference budget. The 2021-22 budget plan of $25.9 billion represents a 4.3% increase over the previous plan. The fiscal 2022-23 portion of the biennial plan is $27 billion, and the state’s rainy day fund grows to $4.25 billion by the end of the biennium.
A retired Union County judge is trying to leapfrog the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly by ordering a $1.7 billion transfer from the state’s coffers to fund public education.
The North Carolina General Assembly is slated to give final approval to the state’s new congressional and legislative district maps on Thursday. The three proposal boundary maps moved quickly through committees and floor votes this week. During Thursday’s sessions the House is slated to pass the map for U.S. congressional seats in North Carolina, and the map for N.C. Senate districts. The Senates will consider the N.C. House district map.
As the North Carolina General Assembly plans for the first votes on new legislative and congressional district maps this week, interest groups have already filed lawsuits to block them. The maps are still in development with several map proposals having been presented to the public in recent hearings.
Members of the N.C. House Freedom Caucus said that they plan to inspect voting machines in Durham County to check for an internet connection, which could make them vulnerable to fraud.
From the coast to the mountains, communities across North Carolina face flooding challenges year in and year out. Our state experienced more than $22 billion in damage just from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence alone.
The N.C. prison system, comprising 55 facilities and employing roughly 16,000 staff, is one of the largest agencies in the state. That might surprise some, as prisons, from the real estate they occupy, to the critical role they play in governance, are not foremost in our minds when it comes to policy.
The N.C. General Assembly kicked off a month-long series of 13 public redistricting hearings held across the state. State legislative and congressional districts are redrawn every ten years using new data from the U.S. Census report. This year, the data was delayed due to difficulties collecting it during the COVID pandemic. Still, results showed that N.C. has growing by 9.5 percent in the past decade, faster than the national average of 7.4 percent. The results give N.C. a 14th congressional seat.
