Podcasts Archives • NC Newsline

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...

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 pr...

Jessica Burroughs, Moms Rising (Courtesy photo)

One of the most controversial bills to win approval by the North Carolina legislature during the 2025 session was a bill (SB 50) to allow any person 18 or older to carry a loaded concealed weapon without any kind of permit or background check. Gov. Josh Stein vetoed the measure, but the question of whether that veto will be overridden hinges on just a tiny margin of votes in the state House.

And recently we got a chance to learn more about the bill and the concerns anti-gun violence advocates a...

Patricia Stottlemyer (Courtesy photo)

Another Labor Day is upon us and in anticipation of that, Oxfam, the global nonprofit that works to fight inequality and end poverty and injustice, has released the seventh edition of its Best States to Work Index. The index tracks 27 policies across three dimensions—wages, worker protections, and rights to organize—that support low-wage workers and working families, and as has been the case for some time now, the index reports that North Carolina ranks among the worst states for all workers (and women workers in particular). And recently Newsline caught up wi...

Lynn Bonner (File photo)

After several months of uncertainty and waiting, the State Health Plan board finally made some decisions recently about how it will deal with the half-billion-dollar shortfall it’s been running. And topping the list, as had been expected, will be some new and not insignificant premium hikes for state employees. The increases – especially when paired with the state legislature’s failure to reach agreement on a new state budget (and the freeze that’s effectively placed on employee salaries) – is causing a lot of heartburn for teachers and state employees and recently to...

NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly (Courtesy photo)

The recent action of the State Health Plan Board to raise employee premiums at a time in which teacher and state employee salaries remain stagnant is causing great concern in many circles – especially among the employees who will see their take-home pay decline even further.

Indeed, as became clear in a recent conversation with the President of the North Carolina Association of Educators, Tamika Walker Kelly, these developments can be seen, especially when combined with recent actions in Washington, as just the latest in what amounts to...

Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications manager Sue Sturgis.

Duke Energy. Most households in North Carolina pay their electric bill each month to the Charlotte-based energy giant. What many may not realize, however, is that there are two Duke Energies — Duke Energy Carolinas in the west and Duke Energy Progress in the east. And now, thirteen years after they first got together, the two have filed documents with state and federal regulators to complete their merger into one giant utility provider. So, what does this mean, what is Duke saying and what happens next? And...

North Carolina Health News founder and editor Rose Hoban (Courtesy photo)

It’s been six weeks now since President Donald Trump signed the so-called one big, beautiful bill act into law and as you’ve no doubt heard, the new law will soon bring massive funding cuts and policy changes to core safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food benefits. Meanwhile, here in North Carolina, state lawmakers have passed a so-called mini-budget that, while vastly smaller in scale and scope, will still have significant impacts on health policy.

So, what do these chang...

David Daley (Courtesy photo)

Gerrymandering. Most Americans have come to be familiar with this phenomenon in which politicians rig electoral maps and elections for partisan purposes, but unless you’re a serious political observer, you may not be up to speed on just how far out of control this destructive practice has gotten of late or, indeed, how unless something is done soon, it might well spiral out of control.

Fortunately, a handful of experts have been monitoring and chronicling the gerrymandering mess for some time and one of the most knowledgeable is aut...

Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline

Two decades ago, the leaders of Capitol Broadcasting Company had a bold and courageous idea: to devote one minute each night after the simulcast of the WRAL News on Mix 101.5 to a no-holds-barred commentary from veteran journalist and political observer, Chris Fitzsimon.

For more than a decade, Fitzsimon held forth on scores of vitally important and frequently controversial issues with insightful takes that spoke truth to power and championed the rights of average North Carolinians.

In 2017, I was fortunate enough to inherit that role and since t...

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a "Fighting Oligarchy" tour in Asheville on August 10, 2025. (Screengrab You Tube livestream)

He may now be 83, but few if any American political leaders do a better job of truth-telling and connecting with young people than Vermont’s sagacious Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders was in Asheville this week as part of a national “Fight the Oligarchy” tour and as NC Newsline’s Clayton Henkel reported, the senator pulled no punches in blasting the ruthless and un-American authoritarianism that President Trump and his minions are seeking to inflict on the natio...

Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. to demand fair districting maps. (NC Newsline file photo)

Gerrymandering. Most Americans are familiar with this phenomenon in which politicians rig electoral maps and elections for partisan purposes. But unless you’re a serious political observer, you may not be up to speed on just how far out of control this practice has gotten of late or, indeed, how unless something is done soon, it could spiral out of control.

And make no mistake: the threat is real. Right now, in Tex...

A state flag flies outside the North Carolina Legislative Building on May 8, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

As has so often been the case with a legislature that refuses to work and negotiate in good faith, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein had little choice last week but to sign the so-called mini-budget that state lawmakers approved a few days earlier.

With the new fiscal year already well-underway and numerous vital public programs and services in jeopardy, Stein understandably had no appetite for provoking a crisis by vetoing what he rightfully described as a “Ban...

Sally Hodges-Copple (Courtesy photo)

It’s been 16 years since the federal government raised the national minimum wage – a fact that continues to worsen the nation’s soaring income inequality. Interestingly, in recent months, rather than proposing to make the minimum wage a living wage, some politicians – including President Trump – have championed the idea of ending taxes on the tips. Indeed, it’s a change that was included in the so-called big, beautiful bill Trump recently signed into law.

Unfortunately, while it’s an idea that may have superficial appeal in some circles, as researchers at the North Caro...

Matt Calabria (left), who leads the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, and Will Ray, director of Emergency Management

It’s hard to believe, but we’re fast-approaching the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene and the devastation it wreaked in western North Carolina, and it seems appropriate to check in on the state of the recovery. Last week, we learned from a legislative oversight hearing on hurricane response and recovery that the process has been moving forward, albeit slower than most would like.

Today we’ll hear excerpts from that hearing in which state la...

Photo: Getty Images

The next time someone tries tell you that the North Carolinians with Medicaid health insurance are lazy slackers who participate in a wasteful program that warrants the massive bloodletting President Trump just approved, tell them talk to an actual frightened person who depends on the program.

Someone like Maddie Wertenberg. She’s a Wake County mom who had private health insurance, but who still only avoided being stuck with life-altering hospital bills for the care of her premature baby, because he was so tiny he qualified for Medicaid.

Or...

Children engaged in sensory exercises, often used in special education classrooms. (Photo by Getty Images)

Early childhood education. Across much of the rest of the world, free, public early childhood education is a basic right.

At a time in which it’s necessary for almost all parents to work in order to make ends meet, these nations have long recognized that there’s no good reason to hold off on providing free public education until children enter Kindergarten.

If it hopes to continue to compete and advance, at some point, the U.S...

An incarcerated person working at a North Carolina prison. As a workaround to a labor shortage, North Carolina is relying on some of its incarcerated workforce to install air conditioning in prisons. (Photo from the Department of Adult Correction website.)

There are many things that have changed for the better in North Carolina prisons over the last century.

That said, it’s also true that North Carolina summers have always been miserably hot and that commercial air conditioning was first introduced nearly a century ago — facts that render the lack of air conditioning in ma...

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

You don’t have to be policy wonk with an affinity for crunching numbers to understand that 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 that the picture is bleak when it comes to finding affordable rental housing, much less homeownership opportunities.

That said, the numbers are bleak. The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently released a report entitled “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing” and it dem...

Dr. Arthur Lavin

Among the most disastrous public health development to afflict the United States in recent years has been the rise of the so-called anti-vax movement. Thanks to the unfortunate rise of misinformation, disinformation and misguided parental anxiety, millions of people – especially children – are being placed at serious and unnecessary risk of grave illness and death from diseases that once had been largely conquered.

Fortunately, a lot of smart, caring and thinking people are working hard to reverse this dangerous trend and many are associating themselves with a new national nonprofit called Grand...

Photo: Getty Images

Ever since North Carolina legislators established the so-called “Opportunity Scholarships” school voucher program, sponsors and proponents have pitched it as a means of helping low-income students escape struggling public schools.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, a new report from the Department of Public Instruction shows that this was all baloney. The DPI researchers found that just sixty-seven hundred of the state’s eighty-thousand-plus vouchers in the current school year went to students who had attended a North Carolina public school in the prior year.

And while the data for kinderg...

North Carolina Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg) speaks on the House floor on July 29, 2025. Cunningham voted to override on Gov. Josh Stein's vetoes, breaking with her Democratic Party colleagues. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

It’s no surprise that State Rep. Carla Cunningham – a Democrat from Mecklenburg County — declined to speak with reporters this week after helping to override Gov. Stein’s veto of a mean-spirited and ill-conceived anti-immigrant bill.

That’s what often happens when a politician puts their foot in their mouth.

House Bill 318 will force local sheriffs – even when it makes thei...

A woman cries after her husband is detained by federal agents during a mandatory immigration check-in in June in New York City. The Trump administration’s arrests have been catching a smaller share of criminals overall, and a smaller share of people convicted of violent and drug crimes, than the Biden administration did in the same time frame last year. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

New research from the national news organization Stateline highlights some of the big flaws in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

While the administration has made...

Technologists say the hazy definition of “artificial intelligence” leaves a wide opening for companies to over-promise or over-market the capabilities of their products – or even render “AI” more of a marketing gimmick than a real technology. (Photo illustration by tolgart/Getty Images)

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has the potential to spur amazing advances in human society that are definitely worth pursuing.

That said, AI also has the potential to do dreadful harm that we must guard against.

As one of the nation’s tech leaders, OpenAI’s Sam Hartman, explained recen...

A photograph of US President Donald Trump and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is displayed after being unofficially installed in a bus shelter on July 17 in London, England. The president is facing criticism from his usually loyal Republican “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) supporters over suggestions that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the high profile figures he associated with, which included Trump (Leon Neal/Getty Images).

Twenty years ago, investigative reporter Barry Levine started covering a wealthy socialite named Jeffrey Epstein. Five years ago, after he was convicted of sex...

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-02)

We’re now six months into the second Trump administration and recent weeks, in particular, have been filled all kinds momentous and often disturbing news from Washington. Topping the list, of course, is the massive new budget reconciliation package – what supporters dubbed the “one, big, beautiful bill” that the president signed into law on July 4th.

Unfortunately, as recent reports and analyses from an array of nonpartisan experts have made clear, the impacts from the bill will be anything but beautiful. Among other things, the new law promises to end life...

Zahava Stadler Project Director, Education Funding Equity Initiative (Courtesy photo)

One of the most disturbing hallmarks of the Trump administration has been its relentless effort to defund public education – an effort that hit a new low earlier this month when Trump’s Department of Education announced suddenly and without warning that it would be freezing billions of dollars in essential funds – funds that Congress already appropriated and for which school districts had already budgeted.

Recently, in order to learn even more about this troubling action, Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with a national...

Governor Josh Stein applies his veto stamp to a bill on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (Screenshot from Governor’s Office X video.)

Like the rest of the nation, North Carolina faces some enormous policy challenges these days. Thanks to sustained disinvestments in an array of core public services, our state is fast becoming coarser, less healthy and more divided.

Unfortunately, Republican legislative leaders seem unconcerned. Rather than working with Governor Josh Stein to tackle our numerous outsized problems, they spent the recent legislative session advancing divisive culture war bills and failing even to pass a new...

Photo: Clayton Henkel

Over the last 87 years – particularly during the 20th Century – few innovations in the American economy have done more to lift up average people than the minimum wage.

As it was first conceived and applied, the federal minimum wage law assured that a person who worked full-time was paid enough to support their family. And for many decades, the minimum wage actually worked that way.

Unfortunately, in recent decades—thanks to opposition from the political right – the federal minimum wage has remained mired at the absurdly inadequate level of seven dol...

President Donald Trump holds up the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that was signed into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Photo by Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty Images)

There was always something that didn’t quite add up when American conservatives complained about federal budget deficits. Despite their supposed commitment to fiscal discipline, no factor has played a larger role in soaring deficits than Republican tax cuts enacted under presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Photo: Getty Images

When state lawmakers first opened the door to school vouchers in North Carolina, they billed them as quote “opportunity scholarships,” and assured us that their only goal was to help low-income kids escape failing public schools.

Today, more than a decade later, it’s clearer than ever that that explanation was simply part of a deceptive shell game.

As a damning new report from the group Public Schools First highlights, the excuse that vouchers were all about helping poor kids has long been abandoned – along with all income limits on...

(Photo: Clayton Henkel)

North Carolina Republican lawmakers’ mad rush to slash income taxes on corporation and the wealthy in recent years has produced many disastrous impacts. See, for example, our threadbare and crumbling public schools.

But there’s another big and negative impact: the effect on property taxes.

Thanks to fast rising home prices, there’s a growing need to update and raise property tax exemptions for seniors and other homeowners on fixed incomes so they’re not forced out of their homes.

Unfortunately, because of plummeting income tax revenues...

EPI senior economist Ben Zipperer (Courtesy photo)

It’s an article of faith in many conservative circles that the Trump administration’s tough anti-immigrant policies will free up jobs for U.S. born workers. New research from Economic Policy Institute senior economist Ben Zipperer, however, demonstrates conclusively that the opposite is the case. Zipperer’s calculations actually show that the net impact of mass deportation on employment – both for immigrants and U.S. born workers – is decidedly negative.

Indeed, he calculates that the administration’s goal of deporting one-million people per year will lead to a los...

Sen. Sydney Batch (Photo: NCGA)

The North Carolina General Assembly has gone home for the month of July, and perhaps – depending on some of the political machinations between House and Senate Republican leaders – the rest of the summer. But that doesn’t mean there’s a lot to point to in the way of major accomplishments.

Not only have lawmakers yet to pass a new state budget to coincide with the fiscal year that began July 1, but the list of truly significant legislation in other areas – Helene relief, education, infrastructure — was extremely limited.

One of...

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) (Photo: Screen grab from Senate.gov)

After almost 12 years, it’s familiar by now, but sadly, the pattern in which Senator Thom Tillis raises hopes that he’ll act with courage and then backs down at the last minute continues to repeat itself in maddening fashion.

The latest incident: Tillis’s utterly inexcusable vote last week to endorse President Trump’s nomination of an embarrassingly unqualified lawyer named Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment to a federal appeals court. Bove is so unqualified and has committed so many questionable acts that...

Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined other state attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over its unlawful cancellation of millions of dollars in funding for public schools and natural disaster preparedness. (Screengrab from NCAGO press conference)

There are probably plenty of days in which North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson wishes his job duties were similar to those of past AG’s – prosecuting criminals, helping consumers, targeting corruption. Unfortunately, thanks to the relentless illegal acts of the Trump administration, he’s quickly come to have another top job priority – defending North Carolinians against the federal governmen...

The administration’s goal of deporting one-million people per year will disrupt many sectors including the construction industry. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

It’s an article of faith on the political far right that the Trump administration’s mass immigrant deportation policies will be a boon to U.S. born workers.

A new report from economists at the Economic Policy Institute, however, finds the opposite to be true and that the net impact of mass deportation on employment – both for immigrants and U.S. born workers – is decidedly negative.

Indeed, the administration’s goal of dep...