Podcasts Archives • NC Newsline

Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) (Photo: NCGA)

State Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham County is one of the many experts who’ve expressed concerns about how the state budget debate played out.  While she’s happy about raises that some teachers will get, she’s concerned about those teachers and state employees who will receive a relative pittance.

And as Morey also pointed out to Newline during an extended conversation this past week, there were a lot of other very important (and in some instances deeply concerning) provisions in the budget – some of which have only...

SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins (Courtesy photo)

Despite listing many concerns, Gov. Josh Stein signed the $34 billion state budget bill into law on July 7. One high-profile area that state employees and teachers felt didn’t go far enough was in compensation for those who keep North Carolina’s public structures and services up and running. While the budget does include decent, if long overdue, raises for some, for most it’s a paltry 3% that fails to keep up with inflation and rising health premiums. Newsline sat down with Ardis Watkins, the executive director of the State Employees Associ...

NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

North Carolina’s new state budget runs more than 600 pages and includes dozens of other law changes unrelated to spending – many of which are only slowly coming to light and public awareness. NC Newsline state government reporter Brandon Kingdollar followed the twists and turns of the budget making process and recently joined us to discuss some of the controversial pieces of legislation included in the $34 billion spending package.

In Part Two of our discussion, we turned our attention to legislative efforts to ban hemp products and to alte...

Catawba College political scientist and pollster Michael Bitzer

There’s a longstanding pattern in American politics that in most off-year elections, the party of the president tends to lose support and right now, that’s looking more and more like what we’ll see this fall in North Carolina. According to new polling from the Catawba College YouGov Survey, support for President Trump, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley, and other GOP candidates generally has waned significantly – especially among unaffiliated voters.

So, what’s driving this shift and how significant is it? Recentl...

North Carolina Black Alliance Director Marcus Bass (Photo: Claire Michal/NC Newsline)

Republican leaders at the North Carolina General Assembly have pursued few objectives with more zeal than their crusade to overhaul state elections. Repeatedly, GOP leaders have advanced new laws that make voting more difficult and the oversight of elections more partisan. A new omnibus bill that sprang up at the legislature in recent weeks doubles down on that strategy. To get a better idea of what’s been going on and what’s at stake, NC Newsline sat down for an extended conversation with the exec...

Documentary producer Cristin Severance (Courtesy: WRAL.com)

News deserts. At first blush, it seems like strange term in an era in which most people are regularly inundated on their devices with boatloads of emails and other messages about developments in the world around them. Unfortunately, as even a cursory look at the news landscape across the United States right now quickly reveals, vast swaths of the country – including many parts of North Carolina – are today totally bereft of local newspapers and trained journalists dedicated to carefully watching and reporting on their communities.

And as Ne...

Rep. Deb Butler (Photo: NCGA)

After more than a year of waiting, it appears the North Carolina General Assembly will vote later this week on a comprehensive budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

Newline recently sat down for an extended conversation with New Hanover County State Representative Deb Butler to discuss the lack of open debate in crafting the final spending plan and the public’s right to know.

In part two of our chat, we turned our attention to some other matters of controversy in Raleigh right now...

Sen. Lisa Grafstein (Photo: NCGA)

With a new state government fiscal year set to commence on July first, North Carolina state legislators have still yet to pass a budget for
the year that’s coming to an end on June 30th. We’re the only state in the union in which this is the case.

While the state has continued to function at a basic level, the lack of funding certainty, and even minimal raises for teachers and other state employees, has caused enormous hardship. Meanwhile, even as the budget and the negot...

Will Scott, North Carolina Policy Director (Photo: Courtesy EDF)

When a utility company like Duke Energy plans for the future, it tries to predict how much electricity its customers will need a decade from now. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, much of that process amounts to a guessing game in which utility company profits often play a much bigger role than keeping ratepayer bills low or protecting our natural environment.

And right now, this appears to be very much the case at the state Utilities Commission as it reviews Duke’s latest carbon plan for...

Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson (Courtesy photo)

As the effects of climate change continue to grow and spread at an alarming rate, it can be easy to become overwhelmed.

But as author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson documents and explains in her new book, “Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home,” the keys to tackling and adapting to climate change are, despite the recent national policy reversals, there for individuals and communities to embrace — and fast becoming so obvious and cost-effective that no amount of cynical politics will likely be able to derail them. R...

Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson (Courtesy photo)

As the effects of climate change continue to grow and spread at an alarming rate, it can be easy to become overwhelmed.

But as author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson documents and explains in her new book, “Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home,” the keys to tackling and adapting to climate change are, despite the recent national policy reversals, there for individuals and communities to embrace — and fast becoming so obvious and cost-effective that no amount of cynical politics will likely be able to derail them. R...

Dr. Hope Thompson is an expert on climate adaptation policy, comprehensive risk management, and equitable disaster resilience. (Courtesy photo: NRDC)

One of the most expensive and worrisome immediate impacts of climate change and the weather disasters it spawns is the fast-rising cost of homeowners insurance. Here in North Carolina and in many parts of the country, these soaring costs are a big contributor to the housing affordability crisis that plagues so many communities.

As Newsline learned in a recent conversation with Natural Resources Defense Council climate adaptation expert, Dr. Hope Thompson, there are several practical...

States Newsroom national democracy reporter Jonathan Shorman

Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, hardly a day goes by in which there is not some brazen, precedent shattering action by the president or his allies.

Indeed, the orders, directives, proposals and court rulings are coming at such a rapid pace that it’s easy to become numb to them and what they might portend for our country.

Fortunately, many excellent journalists continue to chronicle and analyze these developments. One of the best is States Newsroom Democracy Reporter Jonathan Shorman. And r...

Amy Beros, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina

Genuine food insecurity in which people don’t know where their next meal is coming from is a subject that merits a lot of attention. By any fair assessment the fact that literally millions of North Carolinians – a large percentage of them children – go to bed hungry in the world’s richest nation is, or at least ought to be, a gigantic scandal.

As grim as some of these numbers are, recent actions in Washington – most notably big cuts to fed...

Brooks Fuller (Courtesy photo)

Ever since Republicans captured control of the state legislature at the outset of the last decade, North Carolinians have been witness to a steady stream of proposals designed to make voting harder and more complicated and make the day-to-day oversight and regulation of elections more partisan. And now, with yet another national election of great importance just over five months away, new proposals are being introduced.

One such measure in the state Senate would reduce the state’s early voting period from 17 days to 10 despite the enormous bipartisan popularity of...

NC Newsline government and politics reporter Brandon Kingdollar.

North Carolina state lawmakers are in the midst of the 2026 legislative session and, as had been expected, several important proposals are advancing that could impact everything from alcohol sales to the state constitution.
On the alcohol front, it appears that the recent ongoing trend to move the state away from longstanding blue laws continues as the demands of retailers and producers seem to slowly be overcoming the objections of religious conservatives and other alcohol opponents. And recently, as part of a wide-ranging two-part conversation with NC Newsline government...

Alexandra Sirota (Photo: NC Budget & Tax Center)

Republican state legislative leaders made headlines in recent days by announcing that they have finally reached agreement on a new state budget. But even as that long overdue news was being made, the lawmakers also moved to advance a series of state constitutional amendments that would, if enacted, have massive implications for future state budgets and core public services.
Topping the list: a proposal to slash the already existing cap on state income taxes and another to cap local property taxes — moves that would almost certainly further evi...

Jackson Ewing (Photo: Courtesy Duke University)

Earlier this month, regulatory commissions in North and South Carolina approved a merger between the two energy monopolies that dominate electricity production and distribution in our state: Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress. The merger comes at a time of rapid consolidation in the energy industry. Indeed, even as the merger of the two Duke entities is moving forward, Florida-based NextEra announced that it is acquiring Dominion Energy, which serves part or northeastern North Carolina.

So, what does all of this mean? What do the companies s...

Wake County State Rep. Phil Rubin

It appears that, finally, after a year-long delay that has left North Carolina the only state in the union without a budget for the current fiscal year, Republican state legislative leaders may soon give final approval to a comprehensive budget plan and send it to Gov. Josh Stein.

Of course, as is usually the case, funding for public education was and remains one of the most hotly debated budget items. And while it appears that teachers will finally receive some long overdue but still modest raises, as we learned...

NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan (Courtesy photo)

When it comes to politics and policymaking, the present era is among the most divided and rancorous in modern American history. At the national level, the U.S. seems as if it’s more divided than ever on a host of basic issues. But is this really the case?

CEO of the national nonprofit, the NewDEAL Forum, Debbie Cox Bultan, says when you dig a little past the surface, it becomes evident that, in many ways, Americans are not as divided as it might seem. Especially at the st...

Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton (Courtesy photo)

One of the greatest achievements of the American Civil Rights movement was the enactment more than 60 years ago of a law known as the Voting Rights Act. Though it had several provisions, the basic objective of the law was simple – it was to eliminate centuries of deep-seated racial discrimination that had infected and polluted U.S. elections by assuring that all the nation’s citizens had an opportunity to be full participants in our democracy.

Unfortunately, despite the progress the law has helpe...

Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline

Last week was national Teacher Appreciation Week, a time to celebrate educators who show up for their students every day. Unfortunately, for many of the teachers in North Carolina, underappreciated – especially from state lawmakers – is the main thing they’re experiencing these days.

On May 1st, thousands of educators, advocates and allies converged on Halifax Mall behind the state Legislative Building in Raleigh to protest the lack of a state budget and scheduled corporate tax cuts that may leave school districts with even less money next year.

NC Newsli...

Justin Parmenter (Courtesy photo)

Thousands of North Carolina public school teachers and their supporters converged on Raleigh this past Friday to demand that state lawmakers end their chronic lack of support for public schools. That the participants in the “Kids over Corporations” rally had a strong case to make is hard to deny. Their event took place just days after a new report placed North Carolina 46th in the nation for teacher pay for the current school year — down three spots from last year — and 39th in the nation for per pupil spending.

One exper...

State Rep. Renee Price (Photo: NCGA)

One especially vexing public health issue that continues to plague North Carolina is the persistent crisis in the wellbeing of Black mothers and other moms of color. Time and again, statistics show that women of color face scandalous mortality rates that are far out of proportion with the general population.

Fortunately, studies and real-world experience confirm that there are many relatively simple and effective policy solutions that can make a big difference in combating the problem and recently NC Newsline caught up with a state lawmaker – Orange and...

Keith Poston, Wake Ed Partnership (Courtesy photo)

With the North Carolina General Assembly back in Raleigh for the 2026 session, the state of our public schools is once again at the top of the public policy agenda. Unfortunately, despite the talk we often hear from legislative leaders, the hard truth is that our schools are and have been struggling mightily for several years thanks to a chronic lack of funding.

What’s more, as Newsline was reminded in a conversation this past week with the President of the nonprofit Wake Ed Partnership, Keith Po...

NIEER Senior Director and Founder Steve Barnett and the lead author of The State of Preschool Yearbook, Associate Research Professor Allison Friedman-Krauss. (Courtesy photos)

State support for preschool education hit record highs for enrollment, quality, and funding in the 2024-2025 school year, according to a new report entitled “The State of Preschool 2025” from the National Institute for Early Education Research. That said, some states advanced more than others. This year’s report brings to the forefront for the first time one state that excels at both access and quality standards: Georgia.

Unfortu...

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s been 20 years now since North Carolina started its state lottery and with only a very few exceptions, state lotteries are now an almost universal phenomenon. Interestingly, however, the rise of lotteries has coincided with the massive growth of legalized private gambling, and this has posed challenges for state officials to keep their lotteries relevant and revenue producing.

Recently, to gauge how these efforts are faring, Robbie Sequeira, a reporter for the national news outlet Stateline, took a look at the state of U.S. lotteries and last week he wa...

Sally Hodges-Copple (Courtesy photo)

As state lawmakers return to Raleigh this week for their 2026 legislative short session, there’s one issue that looms as the most important and most challenging: the state budget. Thanks to a long series of personal and corporate income tax cuts (and more that are scheduled to take place), the state will soon face a massive new budget shortfall that will endanger an array of core public systems and services that are already being run on shoestring.

Now add to this that House and Senate Republicans haven’t even been...

Public School Forum’s Lauren Fox (Courtesy photo)

The state of North Carolina finds itself in a fiscal policy mess thanks to a series of regressive income tax cuts, there’s no larger or more important public function that will be adversely impacted than public education. For many years now, thanks to the decisions of Republican legislative leaders, North Carolina public schools have listed along near the bottom of national rankings in a host of important funding categories.

A landmark lawsuit – the Leandro case — sought to alter this situation by establishing that all schoolchi...

New York Times reporter Eduardo Medina (Courtesy photo)

The biggest story in North Carolina politics right now – indeed, it’s a big national story – is the recent primary election defeat of longtime state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. The veteran Rockingham County Republican lawmaker lost to his local sheriff, Sam Page, by just 23 votes.

So, what happened and why and is Berger’s defeat indicative of a pattern that reaches beyond the borders of North Carolina? Last week, Newsline caught up with the Durham-based New York Times reporter who covers the politics and cultu...

Jason Husser (Photo: Elon.edu)

No world news development of the past few weeks has commanded more attention or spurred greater controversy than President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. And while, at this point, the ultimate outcome of the war remains very much in question, the war is drawing very high degrees of skepticism from North Carolinians of all political persuasions – especially independents and Democratic voters.

Now add to this the largely negative view that most North Carolinians hold right now about the economy and the president’s perform...

State Senator Graig Meyer (D-Orange) holds a copy of the draft budget that was not passed in the 2025 session. After 12 years in the General Assembly, Meyer will resign to become the next executive director of the N.C. Justice Center. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)

Over the last few years, we’ve had several opportunities to chat with former state lawmaker Graig Meyer of Orange County during the four terms he served in the state House and two in the state Senate. Recently, however, Meyer decided to leave elected office to become the executive director of...

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

Even before his fateful and thus far largely unpopular decision to go to war with Iran in late February, both President Donald Trump and his party had been encountering some significant political headwinds as a result of an array of controversial policy actions. Now, with the war dragging on without much explanation or any clear plan for a conclusion, and rising prices for fuel and related items hitting Americans in their pocketbooks, standard political wisdom would predict a good chance of big Republican electoral defeats t...

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

Despite its many benefits, few technological developments of the 21st Century have had a larger negative impact on the overall mental health and wellbeing of American young people than the rise of social media. And while no one can imagine putting the social media genie back in the bottle from which it came, a growing chorus of parents, educators, mental health professionals and advocates is calling for better and tougher regulation of the giant corporations that dominate this field.

And it’s in...

Kris Nordstrom (Courtesy photo)

One of the most remarkable, and in the minds of many, most shameful, developments in North Carolina public policy over the last three decades has been the failure of state leaders of both parties to fulfill their constitutional duty to provide all children in the state with access to a sound basic education. It’s now been over thirty years since the state Supreme Court clearly established the existence of such a right in the landmark Leandro case, but since then, elected leaders have found one excuse after another for ignoring it...

University of North Carolina law professor Marcus Gadson (Photo: UNC.edu)

Unlike many others, North Carolina is not a “ballot initiative” state in which citizens can place constitutional amendments on the ballot by gathering enough signatures. Here, the power to advance constitutional amendments resides exclusively with the state legislature and right now, Republican lawmakers are proposing to do just that this fall with a proposal to limit the ability of local governments to set their property tax rates.

Like all tax cut proposals, this one is being couched as a boon to taxpayers that...

WRAL TV investigative reporter and producer Cristin Severance discusses sports gambling with former Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Aaron Ward. (Photo courtesy of WRAL TV)

It’s been two years now since sports betting became legal in North Carolina, and it’s quickly become one of the most impactful and transformative law changes in state history. In a remarkably short time, sports gambling – and, indeed, all kinds of gambling – have overtaken our society and produced one of the biggest and profitable industries in the nation.

Unfortunately, despite its popularity, rapid growth and sudden omnipresence, gambling...

Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications manager Sue Sturgis.

If you’re like most average consumers, you’re acutely aware of how your monthly energy bill has been rising steadily in recent years. And a new report from the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute shines a bright light on one big factor behind those hikes that turns out to be very much in the utility companies’ control – profits.

The report is entitled “Paying for Their Profits: How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits” and it finds that big investor-owned utilities like Duke Ene...

Kimberly S. Jones, 2023 NC Teacher of the Year (Photo: NCDPI)

If there’s a core public service in North Carolina that’s found itself most consistently in the crosshairs of hostile politicians the last several years, it’s public education. Thanks to the repeated enactment of budgets that have underfunded everything from teacher salaries to facilities to the number of administrators, nurses, and counselors, North Carolina’s public schools have fallen among the lowest funded in the nation.

Despite this trend, thousands of dedicated educators are hanging in there and continuing to advocate for a tim...

Scott Peoples (Courtesy photo)

As the U.S. rapidly moves toward the one-month mark in President Trump’s highly controversial war with Iran, the costs – both in human lives and dollars and cents — continue to mount rapidly. And these costs are impacting virtually all Americans. Not only are direct expenditures on the war impacting the U.S. Treasury and the government’s ability to fund core public services, the economic impacts – most notably in the form of soaring fuel prices – are taking a toll on millions of average consumers.

And it’s in light of these...