RALEIGH — Daimler Truck North America operates some of North Carolina’s largest manufacturing facilities, including a Freightliner truck plant in Mount Holly, a Freightliner and Western Star plant in Cleveland, a components and logistics center in Gastonia, and a Thomas Built Buses plant in High Point. It employs some 6,800 North Carolinians in the Charlotte area alone.
In a small church on the outskirts of Smithfield on a Sunday afternoon, people are comparing light bills. One woman reports that her electrical costs could reach $700 in the summer when she ran the air conditioning; another tells the story of losing power after a hurricane and being unable to afford reconnection fees on her preschool teacher salary.
What’s the hottest political issue right now? According to recent poll results, it’s inflation. Welcome to the 1970s, folks.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday, Jan. 4, said health experts, doctors, and scientists are learning more about COVID-19, and state officials and politicians are using that knowledge to keep schools open and to avoid more onerous shutdowns and suppressions.
That simple statement opens the text of a state law that has helped boost North Carolina’s economic competitiveness for nearly 75 years.
Unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) increased in 77 of North Carolina’s counties in May, decreased in eight, and remained unchanged in 15. Scotland County had the highest unemployment rate at 8.6 percent while Orange County had the lowest at 3.3 percent.
