Podcasts Archives • NC Newsline

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...

N.C. Budget & Tax Center policy analyst Alex Campbell

As the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians are well aware, the economic news of late remains a mix of good and bad news. On the hopeful side, the official unemployment rate remains comparatively low. What’s more, there are some important ways in which our state remains better situated than many others. On the other hand, however, there are several areas in which things are trending in a negative direction.

Perhaps most notable here, is the ongoing affordability crisis that continues to keep prices for...

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

How is North Carolina doing in building a workforce with the necessary degrees and job credentials for the 21st Century economy?

While the challenges here are huge, this is one area in which state policymakers have created a nonprofit that’s charged with monitoring our progress and, where it can, helping to move things in a positive direction. The group is called myFutureNC, and recently it released its latest update on the headway we’re making. And earlier this month, NC Newsline caught up with...

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper

An especially noteworthy 2026 primary election has come and gone, and there were a lot of important and high-profile outcomes – some expected and some surprising.

Topping the list of predicted results were the outcomes in the Democratic and Republican U.S. Senate primaries, where former Gov. Roy Cooper and GOP party official Michael Whatley cruised to easy wins and are now set for what all expect to be an expensive November showdown.

Interestingly, however, despite its national importance, the Senate primaries were partially overshadowed by a Re...

Abigail M. Hatcher, PhD (Photo: UNC.edu)

Among the many controversial actions taken by North Carolina public university leaders since Republicans at the state legislature took control of the system and campus boards, few have provoked greater concern than a recent announcement that administrators at UNC Chapel Hill would begin secretly recording classroom lectures and discussions.

In addition to their concerns about the basic and creepy Big Brother aspects of such a proposal, faculty members in Chapel Hill pushed back forcefully against the plan as an unwarranted move that would stifle learning and f...

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy

There’s been no bigger or more controversial national news story in recent weeks than the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown. All across the country – and perhaps most notably in Minnesota – federal immigration officers have employed an array harsh and often discriminatory and violent tactics to round up people suspected of being undocumented – many of them U.S. citizens.

And of course, the massive sweep has created a need for places to house detainees – at least temporarily – and so it is that we’re now learning of plans to create a vast...

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

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the first several weeks of 2026 have featured a large complement of wintry and bitterly cold weather and that’s something that’s sure to drive up the electric bills that will soon hit thousands of residential ratepayers. And while there’s nothing that can be done to control the weather, there are steps energy providers and elected officials can take to help minimize electricity rates – most notably, working to shift as quickly as possible to sustainable sources of energy with predictable costs like solar...

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

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the first several weeks of 2026 have featured a large complement of wintry and bitterly cold weather and that’s something that’s sure to drive up the electric bills that will soon hit thousands of residential ratepayers. And while there’s nothing that can be done to control the weather, there are steps energy providers and elected officials can take to help minimize electricity rates – most notably, working to shift as quickly as possible to sustainable sources of energy with predictable costs like solar...

Meech Carter (Photo: NCLCV)

If there’s a most egregious disconnect right now between state and national policy and what reams of scientific evidence and countless common-sense observations tell us about the world around us, it’s clearly in the realm of environmental protection and, in particular, climate change. As has been repeatedly and thoroughly documented, our planet currently faces an existential crisis that demands an urgent, all-hands-on-deck response from government at all levels, the private and nonprofit sectors, scientists, and average citizens.

Unfortunately, as Newsline learned recently in an extended conversation with North...

NC Newsline investigative reporter Lynn Bonner

Early voting is already well underway in this year’s primary election that concludes on March 3, but even as this process plays out, conservative activists and self-described “election integrity experts” are renewing their longstanding campaign to purge registered voters from the rolls in groups and geographic areas that generally tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

The latest effort: a recent offer from a group of conservative activists to provide North Carolina’s Republican dominated Board of Elections with new computer software that they claim will identify fraudulent voters.<...

Dr. Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history and director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service

During his 2024 campaign to return to the White House, President Trump promised American voters that he would almost immediately deliver a new era of
peace and prosperity. Today, a little over a year since his return to office, it’s increasingly clear that most Americans do not believe he has delivered.

In addition to a string of losses for Trump allies in a series of special elections, several new opinion surveys indicate that mos...

North Carolina mall business owners Abigail Helberg-Moffitt and Sam Ratto (Courtesy photos)

If you celebrated Valentine’s Day over the weekend, chances are you noted that tariffs are driving up the cost of flowers, chocolates, and many other items associated with the holiday.

Many of the products that define Valentine’s rely heavily on imports. The United States imports nearly all the cacao used to make chocolate, primarily from West Africa, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. About 80 percent of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are also imported.

To get a bet...

Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Courtesy photo)

For those who had hoped the New Year would return a modicum and calm and normalcy to the nation, the past several weeks have been a profound disappointment. Between the Trump administration’s continued war on basic government services, rogue foreign policy threats, destructive and frequently lawless attacks on immigrant communities, and failure to address the affordability crisis afflicting millions of Americans, the first few weeks of 2026 have looked distressingly similar to 2025. Most recently, with the President’s brazen proposals to seize oversight of elections from the states, the nation seems head...

Dr. Mennicke is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work (Photo: Charlotte.edu)

For close to 90 years, most American universities and their faculty members have operated under a popular, useful and commonly understood definition of academic freedom – that is the notion that a free search for the truth and its exposition (one not beholden to politicians or the whims of public opinion) is at the heart of higher education’s mission. Indeed, throughout this period, a national organization known as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has made championing such a definition its g...

Shannon Schumacher (Courtesy photo)

The nation’s persistent affordability crisis continues to leave large majorities of Americans deeply concerned about the state of the country and dissatisfied with national political leaders and, as Newsline learned in a recent conversation with KFF senior survey polling analyst Dr. Shannon Schumacher, nowhere is this better evidenced than in the field of health care.

As Schumacher told us in a recent conversation, new KFF polling finds that the combination of soaring costs and frayed and uncertain insurance coverage has left millions of people worse off than they wer...

Dr. Arthur Lavin with the organization Grandparents for Vaccines.

One of the most worrisome trends impacting our nation’s public health right now is the spread of misinformation about the risks and benefits of vaccines. Tragically, this sobering development is on display right now in our state where multiple outbreaks of measles – a dangerous and sometimes deadly and debilitating illness – have emerged thanks to the failure of parents to secure vaccination for their children.

And it’s in light of developments like this that an array of experts and average citizens are pushing back with...

Veteran political consultant Thomas Mills

North Carolina primary election is just weeks away, and it looks like our state will play host to one of the nation’s most expensive and important U.S. Senate races as former Democratic governor Roy Cooper heads toward a fall clash with one of three candidates seeking the Republican nomination.
Of course, all of this comes at a time of profound national division and turmoil as President Trump continues to pursue an agenda that polls say most Americans view as reckless and unattuned to their needs. At such a moment, it...

Sailor Jones, Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director (Courtesy photo)

Few organizations have had a larger impact on the honesty, transparency and overall health of North Carolina’s government over the few decades than the state chapter of the national nonprofit advocacy organization Common Cause. Recently, the group’s longtime executive director Bob Phillips moved on to retirement, turning over the reins to the longtime organizational deputy director Sailor Jones.

NC Newsline recently sat down with Jones to discuss why he’s already redoubling the group’s efforts to resist assaults on fair elections...

Raul Pinto, Deputy Legal Director at the American Immigration Council

All across the country, ICE and Border Patrol agents have conducted police-state-style raids and other actions that have terrorized communities and raised constitutional issues of profound importance.

At the same time, numerous changes to immigration policy – many of them adopted without public knowledge or input – have made an already complex system more opaque and confusing than ever.

At such a challenging moment, the nation is blessed to have a small and courageous cadre of nonprofit advocates who work each day to monit...

Meredith College pollster Professor David McLennan (Courtesy photo)

The headlines are making clear, big and important debates and actions – especially several controversial actions of the Trump administration and its allies — have continued to roil American policy and politics in the New Year. From the health care wars to the widespread immigration crackdowns to a bevy of contentious foreign policy moves, Americans are concerned about the present and future and, in many instances, deeply divided.

It’s the kind of moment that keeps political scientists and pollsters busy as they work to assess the state o...

Bishop William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)

Commemorative services are planned across the state Monday as the nation pauses for a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. MLK Day is a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.

Bishop William Barber – president of Repairers of the Breach and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement – will mark the day with a series of speeches encou...

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee

For those who had hoped the New Year might usher in a period of renewed calm in American policy and politics, this first week has been yet another profound disappointment. Topping the list of worrisome developments was President Donald Trump’s decision to use U.S. military personnel to arrest the president of Venezuela Niclas Maduro and his wife.

Trump’s action to decapitate the leadership of a sovereign nation and quote “run” the oil rich country going forward has prompted protests and deep concern across the nation and the world abo...

Reporter Lisa Sorg (File photo)

As we commence the New Year, few if any subjects raise greater concerns for the wellbeing of Americans than the ongoing global environmental crisis. From climate change to the growing and widespread prevalence of toxic chemicals, to the Trump administration’s ongoing war against environmental protection regulations, this past year has been another deeply worrisome one for the health of our planet.

And while it will clearly be difficult to effect the public policy turnaround that’s so urgently needed anytime very soon, one predicate that will be absol...

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...