The United States Senate voted 53 to 47 Monday, April 4, to discharge the Senate Judiciary Committee from further consideration of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. This after the committee deadlocked along party lines with a tie vote of 11 to 11.
A Vietnamese automaker has announced plans to build a $4 billion electric-vehicle assembly and battery-manufacturing plant at Triangle Innovation Point in Moncure, about 30 miles west of the Triangle. To attract the newly formed company, the state and Chatham County promise to spend nearly $1.2 billion in incentives over the next 32 years. Meantime, VinFast is working to secure $1 billion in investment money to build the plant.
The Local Government Commission is stepping in to help the town of Spring Lake in Cumberland County. The move by the commission, which voted Wednesday, March 23, will avoid payment processing problems, a news release says.
The Golden LEAF Foundation failed to monitor how $83 million in federal money from the COVID-19 Rapid Recovery Loan Program were used, a new audit finds.
Jennifer Pride, a language arts teacher in the Heritage Middle School, Wake Forest, can’t say enough good things about the WakeEd Partnership’s Tools4Schools store in Cary. “Things that I would normally have to pick up on my own or ask my school for, they are offering it to us free of charge,” she said. “Every teacher I know spends money out of pocket to support their classroom.”
Gov. Roy Cooper said North Carolina's state of emergency will continue, despite declining COVID numbers.
Nearly half a billion dollars in first-time unemployment benefits in North Carolina were not paid out in a timely manner during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s according to an audit released from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office on Monday. The Division of Employment Security didn’t issue $438 million of first unemployment benefit payments during the period of January 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.
The N.C. House on Thursday passed a resolution supporting Ukraine before following the Senate’s lead and voting to adjourn its long-running session.
GOP Senate Banking Committee members, including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., sent a letter to President Biden on Thursday, March 3, with continued concerns of the president's selection of Duke University Law Professor Sarah Bloom Raskin for Fed Reserve Board vice chair of supervision.
Doctors, nurses, and other aid workers from North Carolina's Samaritan’s Purse are lifting off Friday morning from Greensboro headed to Poland to to deploy a field hospital. The humanitarian aid organization based in Boone has been helping in situations like Ukraine for more than 50 years.
Parents across North Carolina want their voices heard on what's best for their children, especially after two years of lockdowns, mask mandates, and changing curriculum.
Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed the Free the Smiles Act. The bipartisan measure would have blocked mandatory mask policies in N.C. schools.
The Wake County Public School Board voted for making masks recommended but not required for athletics immediately. The vote includes extracurricular activities, ending masks requirements on Friday, Feb. 25, and for classes starting March 7.
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.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday, Feb.17, called for an end to local mask mandates for schools and local governments, though state lawmakers are seemingly forcing his hand.
A rally on Tuesday called to end the mask mandate in Wake County schools. More than 100 parents, grandparents, and students held signs and demonstrated in the cold outside Wake public school headquarters in Cary during a school board meeting.
Following the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announcement that North Carolina won’t be ending the mask mandate for public school children, N.C. Speaker of the House, Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, stated that the House would be advancing legislation to give parents the ability to opt-out of the mask requirement. Legislation is expected after redistricting.
Vigilance but not panic is being advised for poultry farms and others with poultry in their backyards after a strain of Avian Flu was recently detected in 65 hunter-harvested wild waterfowl at three sites in North Carolina and other nearby states as of Feb. 4. It’s also the reason why the North Carolina Zoo closed its aviary to the public on Jan. 26.
Catherine Truitt is concerned the state isn't doing enough to prepare students to work if they choose not to go to college after high school. As the state's superintendent of public instruction, Truitt raised her concerns at the Council of State meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 1, saying the DPI is tackling the problem in a project with the N.C. Chamber of Commerce to elevate new K-12 Workforce goals.
The N.C. Commission for Public Health denied a petition from UNC-affiliated universities requesting that all 17-year-old seniors entering the college system be vaccinated against COVID-19. The action occurred at the commission’s Wednesday, Feb. 2 meeting. At the same time, groups called Citizen Advocates for Accountable Government and Moms for Liberty held a protest outside the state Division of Public Health’s building along Six Forks Road in Raleigh.
