News & Views

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s common knowledge that the nation’s housing market – especially in growing areas like North Carolina – has become prohibitively expensive for millions of people, and a new report from researchers at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Geospatial Solutions (which is housed at the institute) highlights a major culprit – the rising tide of corporate ownership of the nation’s residential housing stock.

According to the report – which is entitled “Who Owns America,” nearly 9% of residential parcels in 500 U.S. counties are owned by a corporation and the concentrations...

NC State University economist Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

The rising cost of housing continues to be a huge problem for millions of Americans. But, of course, as just about any average person can also confirm, lack of affordability is not just a problem confined to housing – it’s spreading across the U.S. economy in dozens of areas. So, what’s going on here? During the COVID pandemic, we knew precisely what was going on – a huge drop in supply that was giving rise to rapid inflation, and that problem was rapidly and successfully addressed during t...

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

Few areas of modern American popular culture have undergone greater or more rapid changes in recent years that college sports. Thanks to a series of successful legal challenges, the nation’s longstanding practice of treating college athletes as amateurs has been completely upended and, especially at big schools engaged high-profile sports like football and basketball, teams have become professionalized, with many athletes switching schools yearly, and raking in multi-million dollar deals under so-called “name image and likeness.”

In a time of such rapid change and upheaval, it comes as litt...

Sam Hiner, executive director of the Young People’s Alliance (Courtesy photo)

In our fast-changing world, few technological developments of recent years have had a bigger impact on young people than the emergence of instant communication and social media. And while it’s not difficult to identify the positive impacts of these phenomena, the worrisome impacts are also numerous. And this is a trend that seems certain to intensify in years to come with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

Thankfully, many advocates have started to speak out in favor of stronger laws to protect vuln...

Dr. Latonya Agard, NC Coalition to End Homelessness

The affordability crisis plaguing the American economy continues to grow more serious, and if there is a most visible sector of the economy for which soaring prices are causing the most havoc, it has to be housing. Across the country, the skyrocketing cost of housing – both for purchase and rent – is conspiring to swell the ranks of Americans who are inadequately housed, or even completely homeless.

What’s more and quite maddeningly, this disastrous trend is being abetted by the Trump administration and its congressional allies...

Bob Phillips, Common Cause of North Carolina

When veteran journalist and advocate Bob Phillips took over as executive director of Common Cause of North Carolina a quarter century ago, he was the organization’s sole staff member and the work he pursued to fight for fair elections, voting rights and honest government could often be a lonely effort. Today, as he prepares to retire next month, he’s no longer quite so lonely – with a staff of 15 Common Cause North Carolina is now the organization’s largest state affiliate – but many of the battles he fights rema...

Ron Pringle, President and CEO of the Raleigh-based Interfaith Food Shuttle (Courtesy photo)

It continues to be one of the great scandals of modern America that in the world’s richest nation, millions of people – including an especially high percentage of children – suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Here in North Carolina, around one in seven people — including a quarter of our children — are burdened by food insecurity.

And just to make the situation that much more outrageous and inexcusable, recent actions by federal and state elected officials to undermine SNAP food assistance and slash funding for anti-h...

Community organizer Jon Council (Courtesy photo)

It’s now been nearly 15 months since the worst storm in modern times to hit western North Carolina – Hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Helene – inundated numerous mountain communities, killed more than 100 people and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
Unfortunately, as NC Newsline has reported on numerous occasions, especially when it comes to the federal government, the response has been decidedly and often maddeningly inadequate. Despite repeated pleas from Gov. Josh Stein, funding from Washington has been slow and spotty and, thanks to Trump administration bloodletting, federal agencies that sh...

NC State University economist Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

The rising cost of housing continues to be a huge problem for millions of Americans. But, of course, as just about any average person can also confirm, lack of affordability is not just a problem confined to housing – it’s spreading across the U.S. economy in dozens of areas. So, what’s going on here? During the COVID pandemic, we knew precisely what was going on – a huge drop in supply that was giving rise to rapid inflation, and that problem was rapidly and successfu...

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s common knowledge that the nation’s housing market – especially in growing areas like North Carolina – has become prohibitively expensive for millions of people, and a new report from researchers at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Geospatial Solutions (which is housed at the institute) highlights a major culprit – the rising tide of corporate ownership of the nation’s residential housing stock.

According to the report – which is entitled “Who Owns America,” nearly 9% of residential parcels in 500 U.S. counties are owned by a corporation and the...

Senator Natalie Murdock

The record federal government shutdown may be over, but the dysfunction to which it gave rise and helped spur continues to plague North Carolina. Here in our state alone, millions of average people who have long relied upon government structures and services to help make basics like health care and access to food more affordable are suddenly confronting dire situations.

Whether it’s Medicaid, Affordable Care Act Marketplace health insurance policies or SNAP food assistance, recent actions of the Trump administration and its congressional allies are causing havoc for people liv...

Andrew Willis Garcés of Siembra NC

One of the top news items at the start of the holiday season here in North Carolina has been the Trump administration’s latest anti-immigrant crackdown. The mass border patrol enforcement action has spurred chaos in several communities with tens of thousands of students skipping school, workers afraid to report to their jobs, and business owners shuttering their doors as masked individuals rounded up people with the use of highly questionable tactics.

Not surprisingly, as in many other parts of the country, thousands of North Carolinians are...

NC Newsline reporter Brandon Kingdollar

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is causing heartache and consternation for thousands upon thousands of North Carolinians. What’s more it’s not just people lacking proper documentation who are being negatively impacted. As NC Newsline journalist Brandon Kingdollar recently reported, in many instances, it’s American citizens and lawful residents who are being wrongfully targeted and harmed, and recently, we caught up with Brandon to learn more. We also got a chance to ask him about another controversial federal law enforcement initiative – this one targeting a product that millions of...

Reporter Greg Childress

Affordable housing remains one of the most vexing problems in North Carolina and around the country. What’s more, as we were reminded in a conversation this past week with NC Newsline poverty and housing reporter Greg Chidress, it’s a challenge that’s only been made worse by real and threatened federal funding cuts and the uncertainty those cuts are driving amongst the heroic service providers here and elsewhere who do their best to help the unhoused and expand the housing stock.

Happily, the story is not exclusively bleak. As Childress remind...

Gene Nichol (File photo)

One of the most visible and prolific voices for progressive policy change in 21st Century North Carolina is UNC Professor of Law Gene Nichol. Since taking up residence here three decades ago, Prof. Nichol has taught, written and advocated with remarkable energy and clarity for public policies that promote economic, social and political justice. He established a center at UNC that worked to document and combat poverty and inequality, and he’s long served as one of the state’s toughest and most unapologetic public critics of the conservative politicians who’ve domi...

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

Few national policy changes of the past year have drawn more attention or caused more controversy that President Trump’s on-again off-again economic tariffs. But when it comes to lasting global impacts, it’s all but certain that tariffs will pale in comparison to another controversial policy shift – the Trump administration decision to abandon our nation’s commitment to combating climate change.

This past week, representatives from around the world convened in Brazil for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30 — a key opportunity to check in on...

Mary Carroll Dodd is the owner of Red Scout Farm near Black Mountain

One of the most visible and controversial economic policy shifts to be implemented during the first year of the second Trump administration has been the return of big economic tariffs (that is, federal taxes) on foreign imports. The President claims that tariffs will boost domestic businesses, but results thus far – especially given the on-again-off-again way in which they’ve been applied and removed — have been, at the very best, mixed.

One North Carolina businessperson who can testify to the challenging ways in...

NC Newsline political reporter Galen Bacharier

The federal government shutdown continued to have an array of devastating impacts in recent days and, by any fair estimate, one of the most harmful has been the shutoff in SNAP food assistance. While a pair of federal court rulings appear to have forced the Trump administration to restart benefits for the millions of families who rely upon them, at last report, those benefits will be at just half of previous levels – a change that will guarantee a spike in hunger and suffering.

So how is this pla...

Rebecca Cerese (Courtesy photo)

The government shutdown and its devastating impact on millions of federal workers and average citizens is not the only dysfunction emanating from Washington these days. Thanks to the refusal of Congress and the Trump administration to extend health insurance tax credits enacted during the Biden years, millions of Americans are facing astronomical price spikes for Affordable Care Act health insurance policies for the New Year.

So, how bad is the situation and what can average North Carolinians do – both to urge Congress to act and to learn about how to...

Melissa McDonald

Amid the federal government shutdown and the pause in SNAP benefits, a growing number of groups and individuals are coming together and collaborating to promote the success and well-being of students and their families.

One such group in our state is the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition – a nonprofit that’s working hard to promote a model across the state in which traditional public schools become the hubs of their communities – not just for K-12 education, but for an array of core public services and structures – something that’s especially important at a time l...

Jared Bernstein (Courtesy photo)

Over the last couple of decades, few if any American economists have played a more prominent role in the national debate over the economy or in actually crafting economic policy than Jared Bernstein. Bernstein served as chair of the national Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden and is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

And recently Bernstein was kind enough to join NC Newsline for a conversation about the current state o...

Senator DeAndrea Salvador (Photo: NCGA)

It’s almost impossible to turn on one’s computer, phone or TV these days without hearing about or, indeed, experiencing the impact of AI – artificial intelligence. The rapid rise of this remarkable technology is reshaping our world in many important ways – some that provide grounds for great hope and others that give rise to profound concerns.

Not surprisingly, AI’s rapid rise is also spurring discussion of a raft of ethical and public policy issues – from questions of privacy and consumer protection to the need to regulate so-called dee...

Samuel Gunter, executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition.

North Carolina faces a dire shortage of affordable housing. One need merely talk to friends and family members – even those with middle class incomes – to understand just how difficult it is to find affordable rental housing, much less homeownership opportunities.

That said, the numbers are bleak. The National Low Income Housing Coalition released a report this past summer entitled “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing” which showed how the wages that millions of hourly workers are earning don’t come close to what’s n...

Amy Beros (Photo: Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC)

In 34 central and eastern North Carolina counties, one-in-five people – that’s well over half-a-million men, women and children – suffers from food insecurity.

And sadly, things aren’t going to get better any time soon. Indeed, thanks to recent acts of Congress and the state legislature, SNAP food assistance and other parts of our already threadbare and inadequate anti-hunger system are experiencing new, big and devastating cuts that are sure to worsen the problem. Not surprisingly, anti-hunger advocates are speaking up and demanding better and back...

Pollster Jason Husser

Few areas of modern American popular culture have undergone greater or more rapid changes in recent years that college sports. Thanks to a series of successful legal challenges, the nation’s longstanding practice of treating college athletes as amateurs has been completely upended and, especially at big schools engaged high-profile sports like football and basketball, teams have become professionalized, with many athletes switching schools yearly, and raking in multi-million dollar deals under so-called “name image and likeness.”

In a time of such rapid change and upheaval, it comes as little surpris...

Attorneys Sara Harrington and Holly Stiles

Over the last several decades, much of the world has made significant progress in how it views and responds to the affliction we’ve come to refer to as substance use disorder. Whereas people who once struggled with the misuse of and addiction to drugs and alcohol were once dismissed as weak and flawed, we’ve learned that substance use disorder is an illness not unlike many others that can and should give rise to treatment rather than judgment and ostracization.

A recent lawsuit settlement should help advan...

Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina

If there’s a single factor that’s playing the largest role in spurring the dysfunction and divisiveness that plague modern American politics, gerrymandering – the intentional rigging of electoral districts for partisan purposes – is it. With the assistance of digital technology and recent judicial rulings that have given them complete carte blanche, state legislatures across the country are making a mockery of fair elections by drawing and redrawing electoral districts to assure partisan electoral outcomes even before the candidates are selected.

And sadly, one of the na...

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

Despite the fact that they have yet to adopt a budget for the state fiscal year that commenced July 1, and are scheduled to return to Raleigh a couple more times this year, it appears that state lawmakers have wrapped up most of their action for the 2025 legislative session. And if that is in fact the case, one of the biggest losers in the Raleigh policy battles this year will have been our natural environment.

In addition to passing new laws to we...

Rep. Carolyn Logan of Mecklenburg County (Photo: NCGA)

State lawmakers returned to Raleigh in late September for a brief stay, and in the aftermath of a horrific killing that had occurred just weeks before on a Charlotte commuter train, legislative leaders made criminal justice and their stated intention of “getting tough on crime” the central focus. Among the law changes sent to Gov. Stein for his review were provisions that would make it easier to hold people accused of crimes without bail pending trial and jumpstart the state’s death penalty law.

Despite its rap...

Jake Sussman

The North Carolina General Assembly was back in Raleigh in late September to enact legislation that leaders say will quote “get tough on crime” by limiting access to bail and pre-trial release for more criminal defendants and jump-starting the state’s long un-used death penalty.

Shortly after lawmakers departed the capital, Newsline caught up with an attorney who has studied this kind of legislation and its impact on crime in several states — the Chief Counsel of the Justice System Reform team at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Jake Sussman. And sadly, Su...

Alex Campbell

North Carolina is now into the second year of Hurricane Helene recovery and as we discussed in a special edition of News & Views last week, while there have been many encouraging and inspiring aspects to this story, the hard truth is that we have a very long way to go. And as Newsline learned recently in a conversation with policy analyst Alex Campbell of the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, the main reason for the slow pace of the recovery is funding – or more precisely, the lack of it from both the fed...

Matt Calabria (Courtesy photo)

This past week marked the one-year anniversary of Helene – a deadly hurricane-turned tropical-storm that wreaked unprecedented havoc in western North Carolina. Helene caused widespread and massive flooding that killed scores of people and caused more than $60 billion dollars in damage to North Carolina’s mountain west.

In the year since, clean-up and recovery have been ongoing – sometimes seemingly never-ending — tasks for the communities affected and state leaders. Indeed, since he took office just a few months after Helene, Gov. Josh Stein has made Helene recovery his administration’s top priority an...

Chris Joyell (Courtesy photo)

As with virtually all natural disasters, public funds and programs are at the heart of the ongoing recovery effort from Hurricane Helene. That said, federal relief from the Trump administration has been maddeningly minimal and slow, and that hard reality has helped force local private actors to display unusual resiliency and creativity in helping to keep the recovery up and running.

One group that’s been making a real impact is a nonprofit known as Mountain True. Not only have Mountain True staff and volunteers played an important role in...

Matt Raker (Courtesy photo)

If western North Carolina is going to fully rebuild and recapture the economic vitality it enjoyed prior to Helene, small businesses will be at the heart of the effort. And make no mistake, the challenges are enormous.

Surveys show that 96% of small businesses in the region were impacted by the storm, and while the majority have reopened, revenue for most is still more than 20% below pre-Helene levels.

Fortunately, some smart and energetic nonprofits are working energetically and successfully to help revive small business and one such group i...

Jared Bernstein (Courtesy photo)

Over the last couple of decades, few if any American economists have played a more prominent role in the national debate over the economy or in actually crafting economic policy than Jared Bernstein. Bernstein served as chair of the national Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden and is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

And recently Bernstein was kind enough to join NC Newsline for a conversation about the current state o...

Senator DeAndrea Salvador (Photo: NCGA)

It’s almost impossible to turn on one’s computer, phone or TV these days without hearing about or, indeed, experiencing the impact of AI – artificial intelligence. The rapid rise of this remarkable technology is reshaping our world in many important ways – some that provide grounds for great hope and others that give rise to profound concerns.

Not surprisingly, AI’s rapid rise is also spurring discussion of a raft of ethical and public policy issues – from questions of privacy and consumer protection to the need to regulate so-called deepfakes, to the very...

Rep. Pricey Harrison (Photo: NCGA)

North Carolina state government continues to operate without a budget for the fiscal year that commenced July 1. Thanks largely to a disagreement between Republican leaders of the House and Senate over whether the state should plow ahead with a series of scheduled tax cuts – even as fiscal analysts warn of big impending budget shortfalls – the state is operating on a makeshift continuation budget that’s leaving a host of core public services inadequately funded.

What’s really behind this stalemate and what are some of the impacts it’s producing...

Kris Nordstrom (Courtesy photo)

It’s an interesting fact that while North Carolina’s population continues to steadily increase, enrollment in public schools is trending in the opposite direction. Part of the explanation for this is to be found in demographic shifts, but as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with veteran education policy analyst Kris Nordstrom of the North Carolina Justice Center, there are other factors involved as well – things like the state legislature’s ongoing expansion of private school options and its failure to adequately fund traditional public schools.

Nordstrom has authored...

Jennifer Rublin (Courtesy photo)

The 2026 midterm elections are still a long way off, but that isn’t keeping debates over voting rights and election laws off the front page. Indeed, both here in North Carolina and around the country, Republican politicians and their appointees are continuing to aggressively pursue policy changes that will – according to an array of critics — makes voting rules more complex and burdensome and elections less fair.

And one of the groups that’s been most outspoken in its criticism of these changes — whether it’s new requirements on voters to provide detailed per...

Infectious diseases professor Dr. David Wohl (Screengrab from Newsline interview)

Ever since the world was overtaken by the COVID-19 pandemic, public health policy and vaccine policy have been front and center in the national political debate. And tragically, despite a longstanding and overwhelming consensus among public health experts across the globe about the efficacy of vaccines and their vital importance in protecting human health and wellbeing, a small group of naysayers and conspiracy theorists have managed to hijack the debate and, in some instances, ascend to positions of power and influence.

And right n...