News & Views

NC Conservation Network's Grady McCallie and Luna Homsi (Courtesy photos)

Few issues on the public policy agenda in 2025 are more urgently important than the health of the environment. Whether it’s global challenges like climate change and the rise in weather disasters or hyperlocal matters like land use planning and access to clean drinking water, elected leaders undoubtedly have their work cut out for them.

Fortunately, thanks to the hard work of experts at the North Carolina Conservation Network, we now have a wonderfully comprehensive and data rich report that details exactly where thi...

quality North Carolina executive director Eliazar Posada (Courtesy photo)

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has helped give rise to many disturbing trends in merican politics and policy in recent months, and one of the most troubling has been the crusade to marginalize and revive discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans.

Both in Washington and Raleigh, conservative politicians and their appointees have been working hard to roll back hard won victories that allowed LGBTQ+ people to live normal lives free from harassment and even to, quite literally, deny their existence.

Thankfully, a cadre of...

Sen. Graig Meyer (Courtesy photo)

Members of the North Carolina General Assembly took a post-Easter break last week as they prepared for what promises to be the busiest period of the 2025 session in May and June, but prior to that, Republican leaders in the state Senate unveiled and quickly approved their version of a new two-year state budget.

The proposal attracted sharp criticism from Democratic senators who blasted the tiny pay raises allotted to teachers and state employees, as well as the decision to double down on regressive corporate tax cuts at a t...

Common Cause of North Carolina Policy Director Ann Webb (Courtesy photo)

It’s hard to believe, but it’s now been nearly six months since the November 2024 election and one race remains officially undecided – the contest for an associate justice seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Two recounts have confirmed that incumbent Justice Allison Riggs was the narrow victor, but remarkably, challenger Jefferson Griffin refuses to concede and continues to pursue the audacious strategy of seeking to have thousands of ballots – ballots cast according to the rules in effect on Election Day – thrown out.

The c...

Meredith College pollster Professor David McLennan (Courtesy photo)

We’re now more than three months into the second Trump administration and to say that it’s been a tumultuous period would be a vast understatement. From the precipitous economic decline, to the mass firings of federal workers, to the rise of an immigrant deportation program that has cast aside traditional norms of due process, the national news has been chockful of unprecedented and highly controversial actions.

So how has this drumbeat of controversy impacted the views of North Carolina voters? A new public opinion survey from...

Sen. Lisa Grafstein (Photo: NCGA)

After several weeks of conducting business at a steady, manageable pace, the North Carolina General Assembly suddenly shifted into high gear. This past week, legislative committees rapidly considered and okayed scores of brand new, never before-heard bills on an array of topics, while at the same time Senate Republicans were unveiling and advancing their proposed version of a new two-year state budget.

So, what is the average lawmaker to do at such a time – especially if you’re not a member of the majority party? For Wake County state...

Former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-North Carolina) speaks at Wake Technical Community College in Wendell, North Carolina.

We’re now three months into the second Trump administration and, as so many experts had feared and warned, the chaos – in the global economy, in the federal government, in our courts, and on the ground in scores of communities across the nation – is palpable. Between the seemingly random economic tariffs, massive and crude cuts to public services, and cruel and unlawful treatment of lawfully present immigrants, the national mess is already looking as if will be bigger...

State Rep. Maria Cervania (Photo: NCGA)

It’s been more than six months now since Hurricane Helene devastated much of western North Carolina, and while there’s been a great deal of heroic recovery and rebuilding effort at all levels of government since then, recent actions in Washington are raising red flags in many corners.

At the North Carolina General Assembly, for example, lawmakers like Wake County state Rep. Maria Cervania have expressed deep concern that big Trump administration budget and staffing cuts to federal agencies, along with big price hikes caused by new T...

NC State Professor of Political Science Steven Greene (Photo: NCSU)

The Trump administration continues to enact, retreat from, and then renew dozens of norm-shattering policies that threaten to alter and undermine the fundamentals of our economy and even American democracy itself. From the massive and unilaterally imposed budget and staffing cuts to key federal agencies, to the on-again-off-again economic tariffs, to the unprecedented and deeply disturbing disappearances of immigrants, Trump has unleashed a fusillade of controversial actions.

So, what does it all mean and where might it all lead? Recently, NC Newsline’s Rob...

Journalist Kevin Hardy (Courtesy photo)

Recent federal government budget and staffing cuts imposed by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are having devastating impacts in dozens of areas, but one that’s received less attention than it probably deserves is agriculture. As journalist Kevin Hardy of the national news outlet Stateline reported recently, the administration has yanked funding for programs that allowed schools and food banks to buy fresh products from small farms.

Originally funded under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, the U.S. Department of Agri...

Leighton Ku, lead author and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and professor of health policy and management at GWU’s Milken Institute School of Public Health (Courtesy photo)

As NC Newsline has reported at length recently, Republicans in Congress are seeking to enact massive and unprecedented cuts to two of the nation’s core social safety net programs — Medicaid and SNAP food assistance. And while it’s not hard to show how such cuts will impact the people in need who depend on those programs, a new report from the Commonwealth Fund and The G...

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

As has been well-documented in recent weeks, the Trump administration is implementing a massive and chaotic bloodletting of the federal government. From the attempted elimination of the Department of Education to the evisceration of several other key departments — including the National Weather Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs — President Trump and Elon Musk have moved, without legislative authorization, to end or dramatically reduce funding for a host of programs and initiatives.

So how is this playing with North Carolina voters? According to new survey data released by the E...

Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe Co.)

It was six months ago that Hurricane Helene devastated much of western North Carolina with record-breaking rainfall and flooding. Since that time, federal, state and local officials have worked in determined — often heroic — fashion to help communities recover.
Today, however, the situation is best described as mixed. As NC Newsline learned in a conversation with Buncombe County State Representative Lindsey Prather, while much of the region is back up and running, the situation varies widely from place to place. While most roads are clear and many homes and businesses back...

Journalist Sara Murphy (Courtesy photo)

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina six months ago was, in many communities, enormous. Few aspects of normal life escaped being upended, and one very important such area was child care.

As journalist Sara Murphy detailed in a recent report published by NC Newsline and the national news site, the Hechinger Report, six months after the storm, many young children and their families are still struggling with the disaster’s consequences. At least 55 early child care centers were damaged in the storm, and several rem...

Duke University Sanford School Emeritus Professor of Public Policy Phil Cook (Photo: Sanford School of Public Policy)

Across the United States, gun violence continues to be an ever-more-serious national plague. According to the latest mortality data from the CDC, firearm-related deaths among children and teenagers in the United States have soared by 50% since 2019. In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among American youth for the third year in a row.

So what impact is this having on the attitudes of average Americans? A new report published in the Proceedings of the National A...

Photo: Environmental Defense Fund

The challenge posed by carbon emissions that drive climate change is one of the most important issues facing humanity. If ever a matter required everyone’s best efforts and collaboration — elected officials, regulators, providers, consumers — this is it.

Unfortunately, many important Republican legislative leaders in Raleigh disagree. They’re sponsoring a bill this year that was written in secret and repeals a painstakingly negotiated law which requires Duke Energy to cut carbon emissions by 2030. As usual, the excuse for the bill is cost. Proponents say the bill will save ratepayers money. As NC Ne...

Economist Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

Over the past few decades, one of North Carolina’s best known and most prolific economists has been Prof. Mike Walden. Walden, the Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at NC State University, is an outspoken champion of free markets and a longtime regular contributor to the pages of the conservative John Locke Foundation.

As with a lot of traditional economic conservatives, however, Walden is not necessarily a cheerleader for the roller-coaster economic policies that President Trump has pursued since his return to off...

Elizabeth Barber - Photo: ACLU of NC

It’s been nearly a decade and a half now since Republicans legislators took control of the North Carolina General Assembly and commenced an aggressive campaign to consolidate their complete control of state government, while at the same time, rolling back much of the progress that had been achieved in previous years to expand civil rights and civil liberties.

After such an extended period of almost total political dominance, you’d think that GOP leaders might have completed their to-do list, but unfortunately, that’s not the cas...

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee

The initial weeks of the second Trump administration have been — to say the least — chaotic. Between the slash and burn firings and funding cuts Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has sought to impose on everything from Medicaid and other safety net programs to the Department of Education to veterans services to support for university research, numerous vitally important public services have been placed in jeopardy.

Thankfully, some elected officials are not standing idly by but instead speaking out and pushing back against the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg, and recently Newslin...

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen (Courtesy photo)

The second Trump administration is well underway and already bringing a healthy measure of chaos and controversy to the political scene. So, what are North Carolina voters thinking about all this? Are they supportive of what President Trump and Elon Musk are doing, or do they have concerns?

And what about North Carolina politicians? How are they faring in the new environment? North Carolina’s senior U.S. senator, Thom Tillis, is expected to be at the top of the Republican ballot in 2026 and what are his prospects fo...

States Newsroom national technology reporter Paige Gross (Courtesy photo)

Cryptocurrency. The topic is much in the news these days, but as with so many topics related to financial and economic policy, it’s an area in which opinions are plentiful, but genuine knowledge is sometimes rather scarce. Fortunately for NC Newsline readers, a recent report by States Newsroom national technology reporter Paige Gross does a great job of explaining the subject and making sense of the policy debates that surround it, and recently, Gross was kind enough to join NC Newsline to review some of her...

Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover)

North Carolina Republicans have enjoyed large majorities in the General Assembly for nearly 15 years, and during that period, Democrats have often done a poor job of crafting and communicating a coherent alternative vision to the GOP’s hard right policy agenda. Recently, however, progressive Democratic legislators have come together to change that situation.

This year, as state lawmakers gather in Raleigh, Democrats are not merely opposing Republican priorities on everything from taxes and education to immigration and reproductive freedom, they’re introducing an ambitious slate of proposals of their...

Courtesy photo

Few domestic policy issues have proved more vexing to elected leaders in recent years than the nation’s affordable housing shortage. And while there are several obvious causes for the problem — most notably in recent years, the pandemic — it was an issue on which the Biden administration was making some real headway through its support for public programs designed to expedite housing construction and aid renters and first time homebuyers.

Unfortunately, as NC Newsline learned in a recent conversation with the former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Daniel Hornung, the new...

Scott Peoples (Courtesy photo)

No single issue of national policy is capturing more public attention six weeks into the new Trump administration, than the president’s shocking — many would say shameful — embrace of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

And among the thousands of voices that have risen up in recent days to decry what they see as Trump’s abandonment of America’s commitment to support democracy and combat tyranny, one of the most eloquent is a retired U.S. Army 82nd Airborne captain named Scott Peoples. Peoples is a North Carolinian who helps lead the gr...

Cecelia Holden, president and CEO of myFutureNC (Courtesy photo)

In 2019, with bipartisan support in the General Assembly and a signature from then-Governor Roy Cooper, North Carolina adopted one of the nation’s most ambitious education goals–to have two-million residents aged 25-44 with a postsecondary degree or industry-valued credential by 2030. The idea was and is that boosting these numbers will foster upward mobility and greater economic prosperity while meeting business and industry’s current and future workforce needs.

Since that time, the state has made some important and impressive progress in achieving the objecti...

Pete Smith, Center for Responsible Lending (Courtesy photo)

Car title lending. Thankfully, a lot of North Carolinians have never heard of this particular business because it’s long been prohibited under state law. Unfortunately, many residents of other states are all too familiar with these frequently predatory loans in which borrowers sometimes pay interest rates of as high as 300% and face repossession of their vehicle if they miss a payment.

What’s more, as a new report from senior researcher Pete Smith of the Center for Responsible Lending documents in painful detail, surveys indic...

Professor David McLennan (Photo: Meredith College)

A narrow majority of North Carolina voters supported Donald Trump in last November’s presidential election, but just weeks into his second term in office, large majorities oppose some of his highest profile policy ideas and initiatives, according to the latest Meredith College Poll.

Meredith pollsters asked likely voters for their views on an array of policy matters— both foreign and domestic — as well as a handful of North Carolina-specific issues. And while results varied somewhat depending upon the political party, race and gender of the voters surveye...

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (Photo: NCGA)

We’re now a month into the 2025 state legislative session and lawmakers have begun the process of crafting what’s always the most important legislation of the year — a new state budget. This year, thanks to the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene and growing softness in state revenue forecasts after years of regressive tax cuts, that work comes with some extra challenges.

Recently, in order to get a gauge on where things stand, NC Newsline caught up with Senate Democratic Whip Jay Chaudhuri of Wake County. And as Senator...

NCAE president Tamika Walker Kelly (Courtesy photo)

Among the many deeply controversial proposals emanating from Washington these days is the Trump administration’s announced plan to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Though details remain extremely sketchy at this point, it doesn’t take a PhD to grasp that such a plan would have devastating impacts across the country — from kindergarten through college — given the millions of students who depend on federal education funding and programming.

Not surprisingly, the proposal has sparked outrage and spirited opposition from thousands of teachers, and recently we caught...

Gunther Peck (Photo: Duke.edu)

The biggest story in North Carolina politics right now remains the unsettled race for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Although multiple recounts show incumbent Democratic Justice Allision Riggs as the winner, Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin is seeking to have more than 60,000 ballots cast by registered voters thrown out based on technicalities — most notably that many voters’ records lack a Social Security or driver’s license number.

While the case remains tied up in litigation, that hasn’t stopped a lot of groups and individuals from examining and challenging Griffin’...

Gretchen Engel (Courtesy photo)

Two of the most hotly debated topics in law and policy — racial justice and the death penalty — have been on trial in a high-profile criminal case in Johnston County over the last year. In the case, a man named Hasson Bacote challenged the death sentence he received in a murder trial based on his contention that race, and racism played a role in the sentence he received — something that was prohibited at one point in our state under a law known as the Racial Justice Act.

Last week, in what is...

Chad Martin and Karida Giddings of the North Carolina Black Alliance (Courtesy photos)

While no one these days is safe from the destructive impacts of climate change and the pollution that plagues our fragile environment, poor people and people of color are disproportionately at-risk, as it’s their communities and neighborhoods that most frequently lie in flood plains, close to sources of toxic pollution, or in otherwise hazardous areas.

It’s this hard truth that gave rise several years ago to the environmental justice movement — a cause that seeks to shine a light on at-r...

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Photo: House.gov)

Whether it was his intention or not, Donald Trump has undoubtedly caused more havoc in the first few weeks of his second administration than any president in U.S. history. The sheer volume of orders, directives, memos, and PR stunts — many of them contradictory and half-baked — has given rise to an atmosphere of widespread fear and anxiety.

Fortunately, a large and fast growing group of advocates and elected leaders is pushing back. And one of the most thoughtful and articulate members of that g...

Deborah Dicks Maxwell (Photo courtesy of the NC NAACP)

Few political controversies in North Carolina loom larger right now than the effort of Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin to overturn the election he lost last fall to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs.

Griffin still wants the ballots of more than 60,000 disproportionately Black and young voters thrown out on technical grounds and recently, in response, Deborah Dicks Maxwell, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, penned a power essay condemning the purge idea as a dangerous ploy that threatens lasting damage to our s...

Lauren Fox, Senior Director, Policy & Research, Public School Forum (Photo: ncforum.org)

At the start of the 2025 state legislative session, few needs in our state stand out as more obvious and dire than the ones we see in our public schools. From teacher pay to facilities to student well-being to the way we track performance in and demand accountability from the schools we fund, public education in our state continues to reel from almost a decade and a half of legislative neglect.

And while Republican legislative leaders continue to display little interest in r...

File photo of Lynn Bonner/ Photo of State Supreme Court signage by Clayton Henkel

The big political story in North Carolina right now continues to revolve around the unsettled election for a seat on state Supreme Court. Multiple recounts confirmed that the incumbent justice, Democrat Allison Riggs, was the narrow winner over Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, but nearly three months after Election Day, Griffin has yet to concede. Instead, he’s gone to court in an effort to have the ballots cast by more than 60,000 registered voters thrown out on a variety of technical grounds, in...

Drew Ball, Natural Resources Defense Council (Photo: Screengrab from NC Newsline interview)

Wind energy. Whether it’s offshore or on land, wind energy is a booming and enormously promising industry that can play a big role in ending our heroin-like addiction to fossil fuels. What’s more, because of its geography, North Carolina is extremely well-positioned to benefit from its growth.
Tragically and bizarrely, however, the Trump administration is trying to halt wind energy development and recently, Newsline got a chance to learn how and what it will mean if they’re successful in a conversation with t...

Sen. Sydney Batch (Photo: NCGA)

As the North Carolina General Assembly prepares to begin its 2025 session in earnest this week, Senate Democrats have a new leader. After several years at the helm, veteran Raleigh lawmaker and former state House Speaker Dan Blue recently turned over the reins to another member of the Wake County delegation — State Senator Sydney Batch.

Batch, an accomplished attorney who lives in Apex, is the first woman of color to serve as a party leader in the legislature, and as quickly became obvious during a recent conversation we had, she...

WCU political scientist Chris Cooper (Screengrab from News & Views interview)

As everyone knows by now, Donald Trump is president of the United States again. And while there are obviously many Americans who welcome this news and see Trump as a victim, a hero, and someone who will somehow restore “greatness” to the nation, for millions of others, the chief emotions that Trump’s return has spurred are fear and anxiety over what the country might come to resemble under a president who embraces a brand authoritarian rule the nation has never before experienced.

And yet, despit...

Duke Health OB/GYN Dr. Beverly Gray (Photo: Courtesy of Scholars@Duke)

Few policy debates received more attention in last November’s election than reproductive freedom. Strangely, however, despite widespread evidence that significant majorities favor abortion rights and the right to contraception — see for example the results of numerous ballot initiatives — Republicans opposed to reproductive freedom managed to win the presidency and control of the new Congress and to maintain control of the North Carolina legislature.

So, what does all this mean? How are women and the physicians who hope to serve them faring in the st...