Podcasts Archives • NC Newsline

Sen. Lisa Grafstein (Photo: NCGA)

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

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

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

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

North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) holds a press conference on Senate Republicans' budget proposal on Monday, April 14, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

There are many shortcomings in the new proposed state budget approved by the North Carolina Senate last week – the inadequate pay raises for teachers and state employees, the failure to invest in numerous core public services that have been reeling from staffing shortages, the giveaways to unaccountable special interests.

But if there’s an overarching flaw that lies at the heart of the proposal, it is the...

A display of banned books (Photo courtesy of San Jose Public Library via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0/The Daily Montanan).

Sometimes, you have to wonder what century it is that some of our state lawmakers inhabit.

For a classic example of how detached from reality some have become, check out a new proposal advancing in the legislature to establish censorship boards in every school district charged with banning books that quote “include descriptions of sexual activity” or are quote “pervasively vulgar.”

First of all, the definitions are impossibly vague and will invite all kinds of...

A crowd gathered outside U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday, April 10, 2025, to protest the government's erroneous deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national, to a mega-prison in the Central American country. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Americans have many big and important differences these days, but if we can’t come together to agree on a handful of fundamental ideals and human rights that have been baked into our Constitution and way of life for over two centuries, we’re in big trouble.

And one of those...

NC Supreme Court (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

It’s been almost six months since state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin narrowly lost last year’s election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. Two recounts confirmed the result.

Unfortunately, Griffin’s effort to overturn the election based on the farfetched theory that thousands of registered voters should have their ballots thrown out continues.

And last week, four Republican state Supreme Court justices endorsed the scheme — ruling that the votes of numerous military and overseas voters will be trashed unless they can somehow provide a photo ID...

(Getty Images)

Today is Tax Day – the day the political right – lazily and predictably – likes to use as a crutch for blasting government.

What all of us would do well to recall today, however, is where we would be without taxes and the essential services they provide that make civilized society possible.

And we should also remember two huge failings of the North Carolina tax system that are the handiwork of political conservatives:

First, is the regressive nature of our state tax structure – a system in which the wealthy pay vastl...

State Rep. Maria Cervania (Photo: NCGA)

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

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

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

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

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

Journalist Kevin Hardy (Courtesy photo)

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

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