It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. As we round out the month of July, major political news expected across North Carolina today as former NCGOP chairman, current head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Watley is expected to officially announce his plans to run for North Carolina's open United States Senate seat coming up a little bit later on today. The announcement is expected to be made in Gastonia, just west of Charlotte, where he lives and has lived for quite some time as the race continues to heat up.
Earlier this week, of course, former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper made it official on Monday, releasing a campaign video, launching a campaign website in his attempt to take over the what will now be open United States Senate seat as a as a current Congress or current senator from the state of North Carolina, Tom Tillis, has announced that happened about a month ago, almost to the day, that he would not seek re-election after serving two terms in the United States Senate. Democrats attempting to flip one of four seats in the 2026 general election as they try and gain control of the United States Senate as they head out of the midterm elections next year. In terms of Michael Watley, if he were to win the GOP primary, which from all of our analysis and all of the great guests we've talked to here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, it will be a face-off between Watley and Cooper. As we learned yesterday morning, that U.S. Representative Wiley Nicol, a former Democrat congressman, has suspended his campaign.
Both Watley and Cooper are seen as primary clearing candidates and not much of a primary, which will be heading our way coming up in March of this year. We will, of course, march of next. Year, I should say. We'll be keeping an eye on all of those details throughout the day today. Breaking news coverage of that announcement as it unfolds over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
And of course, we'll have the latest coming up for you right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's now 508, News Talk 1110, 993, WBT. It has been 10 months since Hurricane Helene ravaged the western half of North Carolina, dumping dozens of inches of rain, causing mass mudslides and road washouts all over the western half of North Carolina. This week in the North Carolina General Assembly, lawmakers met with Will Ray, the head of emergency management, as well as officials from GROW NC, which is an entity set up by Governor Josh Stein to manage the recovery of western North Carolina. To walk us through that committee meeting, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour.
Teresa, it wasn't a super long meeting.
Some interesting information coming out. Give us the top rundown of what you made of this meeting. Sure. Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so this is about the second meeting that the subcommittee has had. They had their first one on Halleen Recovery back in March. At this one, we had Representative Carl Gillespie of Macon County and Senator Ralph Heiss of Mitchell County co-chairing the hearing. Basically, they were talking with North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray and the director of the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, Groen C. Matt Calabria, about recovery efforts surrounding debris removal and also anything to do with house repairs, building of houses, things of that nature.
They, you know, Calabria and Ray went over specifics about 15 million tons of dry debris, or they equate that to 14 million cubic yards, have been removed from roads and waterways and municipalities, things like that. But there's There's still much more to do. They said that the FEMA process that they have to follow is exact, going a little further, explaining this at the moment, and gave a brief overview of what needs to be done. But aside from that, there was definitely some frustration in the air with some of the legislators, particularly one, which we can go into. Yeah, let's talk about that.
Representative Mark Pless, he is the representative out of Haywood County. His area, like many other representatives out west, were slammed by this storm late last year. He was pro I would probably argue, Teresa, the most hostile individual in the committee hearing, and he had some pretty point questions that he asked. Yes, you're right. Yeah, about the only one.
They were all pretty much, you know. Complimentary toward Array and Calabria. But Representative Pless asked Calabria how many homes have been built with the $120 million the General Assembly had sent to them. And Collia replied that the funds have not yet been converted into actual construction activities because by statute it needs to be reimbursable by the federal government and it's got to go into a HUD program that's the CDBGDR, which is community development block grant program. And HUD is always slow at that.
So they're kind of like he was trying to explain away why things were taking such a long time. PLESS kept going and said the GROW NC website said it spent $81 million. What's going on with that? Collaborate replied back, you know, with the division of community revitalizations running the program. And it's typical in these scenarios for them to say, well, they've got this money set aside, but they actually haven't provided it.
You know, and PLESS was. Growing more and more frustrated. And it said, you know, the process is so slow. Then, this is his quote: I think you're misleading the public to believe that there are funds being spent in a way that's helping folks in Western North Carolina. But those folks are calling me and they're saying, When can I get something done?
You know, I've applied, I haven't heard anything. I'm trying to move forward. I can't. The folks who have funds to do this aren't calling me, but this is for lower-income, middle-income people who have no other options except us. And he said, We've promised them we're going to help them in this storm.
Governor's office also promised them they're going to help them. And so far, that hasn't happened. You know, so he was really, really upset about all of this. Which, I mean, yeah, we're 10 months out, and there's not a lot of recovery work as far as home building at this point.
Well, and I kept kind of going back to this same thing, Teresa, that we're waiting on FEMA, we're waiting for reimbursement from the federal government. And I understand that point. If the state can get reimbursed at either 40, 50, 90, the numbers are all over the place, depending on the project. Get that reimbursement from the federal government. You can definitely see why they would want to maybe slow things down a little bit to potentially tap into tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars that could be available.
But at the same time, those comments there from Representative Pless, people in my district, lower middle income that do not have extra money aside to do these repairs themselves, I guess they're just supposed to sit and wait. That doesn't seem like a good solution either. No, no, you are correct. You're saying, you know, we're waiting on FEMA money. Get that completely, but the legislature has appropriated so many.
What billions? They have billions of dollars, millions of dollars, you know, for certain areas. And why isn't anything being done with that? You know, while they're waiting for FEMA funding, of course, I think they did go through the hearing and say, well, you know, the legislature can also give us some more funding while we're waiting for more FEMA money. But of course, that likens are harkens back to NCORE hearings, which I've covered a ton of those for Hurricanes Florence and Matthew in Eastern North Carolina.
Well, if you give us more money, we can get more things done. It's like, but what are you doing with the money we already gave you? Why should we give you more?
Now, they didn't say that today, but that's kind of throwing me back to those hearings that I covered. And it's just like, yeah, you know, people sum it up at the end of the meeting. You know, Gillespie had an important point. He says, keep the survivors in mind. You've got to remember this: folks in Western North Carolina, they don't care what we're talking about about FEMA funding or requirements or this, that, or the other.
They care about somebody showing up in the drive. Driveway and helping them right now. I mean, it's 10 months out. There has been some progress. Yes, let's not say there hasn't been, with everything, with the businesses, with getting roads open.
98% of the roads that were closed after the storm were partially or fully reopened. That's awesome. That's great. But there's much more to be done. And the question really is: well, why isn't more being done with the money the legislature has given for Helene recovery?
And this maybe goes into a larger discussion that we'll likely have sometime later this year, Teresa, but there's been a lot of criticism from the current administration in Washington, D.C. over FEMA and its lack of response to natural disasters. It wasn't said by either of the individuals in the hearing earlier this week, but I think the point could be made, well, if this is being slowed down by FEMA, then maybe some changes need to be made there, which President Trump has already hinted at coming up later this year. Oh, yes. Right.
You're correct. You're right again with that. That's what that was what was said. And you wait and see what's going to come of that. But absolutely.
So as we watch this process continue to unfold, as you noted, the General Assembly has already allocated some $2 billion for hurricane relief. Again, a lot of that seemingly kind of in a holding or a waiting pattern right now as lawmakers wait for some of that federal reimbursement.
However, Teresa, the General Assembly, at least from all accounts, is pretty much done for the rest of the year. Yes, there are a couple of dates where they can come back. There may be another committee hearing or two, but things are going to get pretty dark in Raleigh over the next couple of months as lawmakers head back to their districts.
So it's probably going to be some time before we hear from this entity again, would be my guess. I would think so. I know that Representative Jake Johnson of Polk County, who he represents the Lake Lurchime Rock area, says they may have Some more funds appropriated maybe later this year, early next year. He wasn't too specific, but he did mention that something might happen later in the year. But you're right, we're winding down, getting maybe hopefully a mini budget, getting all this stuff situated now.
Things are slowing greatly in Raleigh at this point.
So we're just going to have to wait and see. Hopefully, they will come back and pass some more appropriations out there. But hopefully, also, some more things will be done to help alleviate some of the housing issues. That obviously there's a lot of things Representative Moffat said this is going to continue for some time. And I definitely agree with him on that.
Yeah, no question about that. Teresa, we didn't have a chance to get into everything. You've got a very detailed and lengthy piece this morning that has got quotes and pictures of various reports and PowerPoint presentations. Where can folks get those details? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com.
It's a great update this morning. We appreciate the time. Teresa Opaca from CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. For the ones who get it done, the most important part is the one you need now, and the best partner is the one who can deliver. That's why millions of maintenance and repair pros trust Granger, because we have professional grade supplies for every industry, even hard to find products, and we have same-day pickup and next day delivery on most orders.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WVT continuing our coverage of what has been a very busy week in the North Carolina General Assembly. Lawmakers meeting once again on Wednesday to potentially deal with more veto overrides. There were six on the calendar for Wednesday, one of them probably getting the most coverage across the state. That's Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, also known as constitutional carry, which would allow permitless concealed carry of handguns for adults ages 18 and over.
It successfully passed the Senate earlier this year. It did receive a Senate veto override earlier in the week. But as the House worked through some business yesterday, Senate Bill 50 did not come up for a veto override. Many folks frustrated by that on social media. Media, and it really just comes down to the math.
Republican lawmakers in the North Carolina House are one Democrat vote shy of that supermajority. Meaning, if every Republican votes in favor of a veto override, one Democrat would have to cross the aisle. And based on the fact that that did not come up Wednesday morning in the General Assembly, it indicates that no Democrats are on board for supporting Senate Bill 50. It does remain on the calendar. It has still not been voted either up or down, meaning that sometime potentially later this year it could come back.
But as we chat about that this morning, no indication that it's set to be taken up anytime soon.
So it would appear once again for another session that constitutional carry is essentially dead in the water as it stands right now.
However, we'll keep an eye on that. A couple of other pieces of legislation that did not receive a vote, including Senate Bill 277 and Senate Bill 558. Both of these bills do similar things. They eliminate DEI in both K through 12 public education, as well as eliminating DEI in public higher education, which would be the UNC system and community colleges. With lawmakers saying that both pieces of these legislations prohibiting DEI offices and diversity training programs in K-12 and public higher education, neither of those receiving a vote either on Wednesday.
Also, House Bill 171, equality in state agencies, also prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion, similar to the couple of other pieces of legislation, it bans diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in state government agencies. No House Democrats originally supported the bill earlier this year, and that probably likely explains why it was not taken up by lawmakers. Again, all six of the bills do sit, continue to sit on the House calendar. I know that. That they've got some other voting sessions coming up in later August, or potential voting sessions, I should say, in the latter parts of August and September.
So there is the brief possibility that it comes back, but it seems like those pieces of legislation will not move forward this session.
However, again, that door is still slightly cracked open. We'll keep an eye on the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com and right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. One of the pieces of legislation that did receive a vote yesterday and now is facing a threat of a likely veto is a measure that would create a new school choice program in North Carolina, clearing a final vote in the North Carolina General Assembly back on July the 30th. It now heads to the desk of Governor Josh Stein. It's House Bill 87, the Educational Choice for Children Act, passed the House in a 69 to 47 vote.
With two Democrats, Representative Carla Cunningham from Mecklenburg County and Representative Willingham, all joining the Republicans in voting in favor of that legislation. Democrats in the House spoke against the idea, with Representative Julie Von Haifen from Wake County saying, We have an opportunity right now today to raise teacher pay, fund classroom resources, and repair crumbling school buildings. But instead, we're using our political capital and backdoor voucher schemes that provide primarily benefit to wealthy donors seeking tax advantages. Representative Brian Biggs, the Republican from Randolph County, responded by pointing to a version of the state budget approved earlier this year that contained tremendous teacher raises. Saying, quote, I do want to make sure that we're getting the point out that we're framing this argument the right way.
This is bringing no new cost to our state. These are federal dollars and these are independent private sponsors. This is not any new cost to our state in any way. The measure would enable North Carolina to take part in a federal tax credit program authorized under President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful bill. The program would be associated with contributions made by individuals to designated scholarship granting organizations or SSOs, which in turn issue stipends to students for private school expenses, including tutoring and other allowable costs.
A key feature of the legislation is that donors receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction in their income taxes, effectively making the donation cost-free, with taxpayers allowed to donate up to $1,700 per year.
Now, it's not starting immediately. The program is set to begin in 2027, and it will allow families earning up to Three times the median income for their area to qualify for a scholarship. While the legislation provides significant funding estimated to cost nearly $26 billion through 2034, its implementation largely depends on whether individual states and their governors opt into the program, which North Carolina is on the way to do so. School choice advocates were quick to praise passage of the measure through the North Carolina General Assembly. Ryan Cantrell, chief strategy officer at the American Federation for Children, said in a press release, quote, North Carolina has been a trailblazer in expanding education options for families, and we're excited to see the North Carolina General Assembly leading once again as they seek to opt into the newly created federal scholarship tax credit signed into law by President Trump on July the 4th in the One Big Beautiful bill.
We commend Senate Leader Phil Berger, Speaker Destin Hall, and legislative leaders for for their commitment to school choice. Having championed expansion of the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program and ESA Plus program, and now being the nation's first movers in seeking participation in the National School Choice Tax Credit, every state will have school choice soon. Mike Long, who is the president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, also expressed enthusiasm, noting, quote, despite the uphill battle to bring federal school choice programs to fruition, we are fortunate to have a school choice-friendly legislature and bold and transformative leadership, including Senator Phil Berger. In fact, we are watching Senator Berger's legacy being solidified in real time. He is opening the door to a new era of educational reform.
This bill encourages philanthropy to fuel education opportunities and empower parents with the freedom to choose their environment where their children learn best. Anyone who puts students first and values their success will support this bill as well. It has now moved through both the Senate and the House.
However, there is a very strong likelihood that Democrat Governor Josh Stein will veto that legislation. That could pull lawmakers back to Raleigh sometime later this year. It's House Bill 87, the Educational Choice for Children Act. We'll keep an eye on the details on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 538.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WBT, a busy day expected across North Carolina today as Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Watley is expected to officially launch his campaign for North Carolina's open United States Senate seat coming up later today in Gastonia. His campaign committee has already registered with the FEC, that's the federal election committee, signaling his immediate announcement into the race to succeed retiring Senator Tom Tillis. A former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Watley is seen as the clear GOP frontrunner, already receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump. If he wins the GOP nomination, Watley is likely to face off against Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, who recently entered the race that happened earlier this week and quickly raised a record-breaking $2.6 million in the first 24 hours.
The 2026 Senate contest is projected to be the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history with control of the chamber at stake in the final two years of the Trump administration. The math on the Senate races next year are interesting. Democrats have to flip four currently held GOP Senate seats to have a one-vote majority. North Carolina is one of the races that they believe they can do that in.
And that's why many folks are indicating, and rumor has it, that it will be that expensive of a race as Democrats see it as one of really the only GOP seats that they have a shot at flipping.
So we'll, of course, keep an eye on that. More than a year away from now, we'll keep an eye on the announcement later today and provide you later. Than the latest analysis and breaking news of that over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now 5:39, News Talk 11:10-993, WBT. We are well past July 1, which was the start of the fiscal year in North Carolina. And as we've been covering on the Carolina Journal News Hour, we do not, as it stands right now, have a full budget in place for the biennium.
However, state government does continue to operate. And as lawmakers continue with their busy week in Raleigh, a mini-budget has passed both chambers of the General Assembly. To walk us through some of those details and explain how this whole process works, Brian Balfour of the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Brian, it's well past July 1st at this point, yet state government continues to operate. Before we get into some of these details, can you explain how this process kind of plays out in North Carolina?
Yeah, so several years ago in North Carolina, we passed a law for this kind of situation, specifically for when we enter a new fiscal year, as you mentioned, which started July 1st.
So there's no kind of panic or government shutdown. What happens is this law kicks in, and what basically happens is there's a continuation of state spending at the previous year's fiscal year. level and it just kind of continues into the new year until either a full budget is passed or some of these like we're about to discuss in a minute some of these mini budgets are passed that address more specific spending items for the year.
So there's no threat of shutdown or anything like that. Government is still functioning, but just is kind of continuing right now at the same levels as it has been for the previous twelve months in the last fiscal year. And then we'll see what kind of changes come in this mini budget and see if there's more mini budgets to come soon. Before we get into the details of the mini budget, some folks may be scratching their head wondering and saying, well, Nick and Brian, there's Republicans in the Senate, Republicans controlling the House. Why are we at this stalemate?
That's unfortunately been a problem that a Republican-led legislature has dealt with over the past couple of bienniums, an inability to get both chambers together and actually agree upon a full budget. Yeah, yeah, absolutely right. And the biggest seemed to be the biggest point of contention this year, anyways, between the two, the House and the Senate, has to do with their approach on taxes. The Senate was much more aggressive in terms of wanting to see continued tax reductions, particularly with the personal income tax. The House, on the other side, was much more cautious, if you will, even increasing some of the Some of the triggers, the revenue triggers to allow already scheduled income tax reductions to take place.
So they're pretty significantly far apart on what they wanted to do there. And so that just has been a sticking point. And that's something that's not addressed in this mini budget, I might want to say upfront as well.
So that's still something that's going to be put off for another day.
So let's dive into the details. It was a busy week of veto overrides in Raleigh. Late in the day on Tuesday, the North Carolina Senate moved forward with the mini budget. And then as we headed into Wednesday morning, the North Carolina House concurred and agreed with that. I'll note, for the most part, pretty bipartisan in both houses.
What are some of the details that you're learning out of this mini budget that is now sitting on Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk? Yeah, absolutely.
So I can hit on a few of the highlights and some of the big ticket items in this mini budget. For example, we can start with about a they're assigning about a billion dollars in revenue from the state lottery. That's obviously going to go towards education, public education in North Carolina. A lot of that money going towards specific school programs and a lot of that money going to non-instruction. Non-instructional personnel, I should say.
Another one is about $823 million being allocated out of the state's capital and infrastructure fund. That's going to address a lot of capital construction needs, along with some repair and renovations for capital across the state. And also, kind of interesting to note, there's $600 million they're allocating for what's called the Medicaid rebase, which is basically kind of saying, hey, we're looking at projections of what our Medicaid system is going to look like this fiscal year based on enrollment and various needs and the The population of enrollees, and that's $600 million in additional funds that they're allocating for Medicaid. Interestingly, there's nothing, there's no real response in this mini budget regarding Medicaid and the federal Big Beautiful bill and how any sort of how that might impact Medicaid in North Carolina.
So, I think there's kind of a wait-and-see approach on that with regards to Medicaid. And also, I think interesting to note, we've heard about the big deal for North Carolina landing this company Jet Zero, this airplane manufacturer.
So, this mini budget allocates about $450 million over the next four years, specifically to Guilford County to help prepare site preparation for this coming plant.
So, that's another big ticket item in this mini budget. Yeah, we've talked a little bit about Jet Zero and their plans to build a massive facility here in North Carolina. Brian, one of the things I didn't hear you mention, and this is one of the larger issues that many people talk about with these budgets, understanding that this is a mini budget.
However, teacher pay increases, salary increases for state employees, is any of that stuff in there? No, there's no addressing across the board salary increases for teachers, state employees, as you mentioned. There is a provision in there to specify that teachers and state employees, they get to progress to that next step in their salary scale, but no adjustments at this time to the salaries themselves.
So, as we look at the timeline on all of this, again, it's on Governor Josh Stein's desk. It's not immediately clear whether he will sign or veto this. Again, it did have pretty bipartisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly. As we look at the calendar, the General Assembly is not expected to be back in Raleigh a whole lot through the rest of the year.
So, Brian, are we even looking at a full biennium budget being passed? Or are we just going to continue coasting along on the budget from a couple of years ago? Yeah, with what they did yesterday with this mini budget, that would indicate to me pretty strongly that there's no interest in a full comprehensive budget for this coming fiscal year. We're already pretty much at the end of July, moving into August.
So I think what they're going to do is probably just take the mini budget approach. They'll probably come back, I would suspect, anyways, there's no guarantees, but I would suspect they want to address what we were just talking about: the across the board salaries for teachers and state employees. There's some other issues like potentially maybe some more funding for Hurricane Helene relief, which is not addressed in this specific mini budget bill, so they might address that again in the future. And also, as I mentioned, how they deal with Uh Scheduled tax cuts, whether they are going to allow them to happen with the current revenue triggers or maybe even some additional tax cuts, or as the House wanted to prefer to increase those revenue triggers to make it more difficult for those tax cuts to come into play. It'll be interesting to see if they're able to come to any sort of agreement.
And in many budget bill, again, they were pretty far apart on that before, so that might just be something that. That goes left unaddressed this year.
So it's called a biennium budget, and it typically happens in the long session, which is what we're pretty much right at the tail end of right now. Lawmakers will come back to Raleigh next year ahead of the 2026 general election where all state lawmakers will be on the ballot once again. Do they have the ability to work on some of those finance and budget-related things in what is traditionally called the short session, which would start sometime early next year? Yes, what typically they'll do in the short session is they'll take a look at what they normally do when they have a biennial budget is they'll take a look at the second year of that biennial budget that they had passed. But of course, if we continue on this path and there's no actual biennial budget, Passed then, that will be very interesting.
I don't know if the second year, I don't know if they're going to take continue to take the mini budget and just kind of piecemeal the spending plan for Targeting specific issues, or maybe come up with one kind of comprehensive bill that's basically just the second year of the biennium, just addressing it and have a comprehensive bill like they typically kind of would. Just instead of making adjustments to the second year of a budget already passed, they would be uh basically creating a new one-year budget. uh uh from scratch. We'll of course keep an eye on all of those details as we progress through the end of this year and early next year in the North Carolina General Assembly. We appreciate the details and the updates this morning.
Brian Balfour of the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 554. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-99.3. WBT, frustration and concerns were heard about Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina at a joint legislative government operations subcommittee hearing that took place in Raleigh yesterday.
This was the second hearing on Halleen recovery, the first one occurring in March. North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray and the director of the Governor's Recovery Office of Western North Carolina, also known as GROW NC in Matt Calabria, gave testimony about recovery efforts surrounding debris removal, including from waterways, road repair, and housing repairs and construction. They reported that 15 million tons of dry debris or more than 14 million cubic yards have been removed from roads and waterways, as well as local municipalities beginning the process of clearing debris from other areas, noting that that is an incredible amount of debris to remove from an area of the state, and that's what they've done thus far from Western North Carolina. What is on many people's minds is individuals still without homes. Representative Mark Pless, the Republican out of Hayward County, wasn't complimentary towards Ray and Calabria and asked them a pretty poignant question about how many homes had been built with the more than $120 million that the General Assembly had set aside for home reconstruction.
Calabria replied that those funds have not yet been converted into actual construction activities because home construction reconstruction programs by statute need to be reimbursable through the federal government. Noting, quote, it is virtually unheard of for a CDBGDR-funded program for home rebuilding and reconstruction to have started within one year, but that is still our goal. We know that we can never be moving fast enough, but at the same time, we have made good progress in comparison to our peers in our past. Plus, said that the Grow NC website says that they've already spent more than $81 million and talked about the frustrating process, saying, I think you're misleading the public to believe that these are funds being sent their way right now and that it's helping folks in western North Carolina. But those folks are calling me and they're saying, when can I get something done?
Noting that they've applied and have not yet heard a word back from state leaders in Grow NC and other recovery agencies across North Carolina. We've got a very lengthy post this morning with a lot of great quotes and details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Yeah. That's going to do it for a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning, BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5-6, right here on News Talk 11.10 and 99.3, WBT.
