It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. As President Donald Trump's tariff plans near activation on August 1st, many North Carolina business owners have been stocking up on imported products to prepare for a period of fluctuating prices and even interruptions in access to certain foreign-made goods. Questions over the extent and of uncertainty for businesses, including many of those here in North Carolina.
They have started stockpiling goods and supplies in anticipation of future price increases. Brian Balfour, the vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, noted U.S. firms and consumers heavily front-loaded orders of imports following Trump's Liberation Day in April. Additionally, many imports currently being received at US ports are from orders locked in at prices previous to many of the tariff announcements. It will, at a minimum, take several months after the tariffs are fully implemented to gauge a clearer picture of their impact on the economy.
North Carolina businesses across several industries, including transportation, food service, and retail, have taken many of these precautionary measures to frontload some of these costs. North Carolina imports have already risen by 39.8% year to date in the calendar year 2025, which is significantly larger than we've seen in some of the previous years, where North Carolina imports only grew 11% in 2023 and 9.5% in 2024.
So that 40% increase, in some cases, more than quadrupling what we've seen over the last couple of years. Among the largest import increases are pharmaceutical products. They're up 148 plus percent. Inorganic chemicals up 247 percent. Slash ash and ores 272 percent.
And a plethora of other industries. We've got those percentages, including electronic machinery, iron and steel, paper and paper products, all of those up anywhere between 8 and 15 percent. You can check out that full list on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. As businesses throughout the state have been anticipating those rises in prices, demand increase for goods in fifty two out of ninety eight import commodity groups are up year to date. The total year to date North Carolina imports have amounted to more than forty seven billion dollars as of May.
Of course, looking back at DC, the administration has continued to push back its tariff deadline as few trading partners have agreed on full trade deals with the United States with full implementation, at least as of right now, scheduled for august first. On july the fourteenth, Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, discussed the President's economic plan on CNBC's squawk box news program. Part of the discussion focused on potential downwards of the administration's comprehensive tariff policy, which have been front and center since Liberation Day. Hassett expressed optimism about the future economic conditions, citing the president's background as a seasoned dealmaker, telling the panel on CNBC: quote, We've got a guy who's the best dealmaker in history, who has made billions of dollars, by the way, squeezing everything out of deals. We've got a deadline, and we'll see how things land.
but I know that they're going to land in favor of the American people. When asked why inflation nor the labor market seem to be reacting aversely to some of these tariff policies, Hassett attributed this to a combination of lower import prices and economic patriotism, telling the group, Americans, because of Donald Trump's leadership, have recognized that when they buy an American product, they not only get perhaps a better product, certainly a better product most of the time, but they're also making their communities stronger. And so I think there's a lot of patriot data. Other economists and policymakers in opposition to the President's tariff policies have contended that while prices aren't rising now, they will do so soon once these new tariffs kick in. According to Brian Balfour of the John Locke Foundation, he says with the majority of Trump's tariffs being delayed until August the 1st, it's very premature to make any conclusions about the tariff impacts on the prices of imported or impacted goods.
You can check out some additional details on this story this morning over on our website. It's over at CarolinaJournal.com. Turning our attention to some statewide news this morning, leader Phil Berger, the Republican out of Rockingham County, has raised over $1.7 million. According to his mid-year campaign finance report, more than $1.69 million was raised through individual contributions, making up the bulk of the receipts, bulk of the donations to his campaign committee, while another $44,000 came from other committees. As of June the 30th, which was the reporting deadline, the Senate leader closed out the period with a hefty $1.8 million cash on hand.
Phil Berger is not on a ballot this year. He will have a primary election in March and will be on a ballot in November of 2026. One of the likely reasons for those surges in donations is a looming primary challenge from Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, who announced his bid for Berger's seat back in February of this year. Page's entry into the race has injected a rare note of uncertainty into a long-term considered safe seat for Senator Berger, who has led the North Carolina Senate going all the way back to 2011. Andy Jackson, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, said, quote, Berger had raised three hundred seventy six thousand dollars at this same point in twenty twenty three.
The question is whether he is raising more money or just money earlier. Berger's strong fundraising isn't just vital for his own reelection, but has been critically important for Senate Republicans overall. His financial support helped colleagues in far more competitive races and districts, playing a key role in maintaining the GOP supermajority in the North Carolina Senate after the 2024 election. Andy Jackson says, quote, a concern for Republicans is that they will have to spend money on his primary. Other Republicans win their Senate races.
His campaign raised $3.2 million in the 2024 election, but most of that was sent to the North Carolina Senate Majority Fund. Both candidates have been sparring back and forth on social media over a variety of issues over the last couple of weeks, including school choice, Page's record as a sheriff, and an ongoing investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation, that's the SBI, over missing campaign finance reports. The candidate filing period for the 2026 primary election begins on noon, begins at noon rather, on Monday, December the 1st of this year and ends at noon on Friday, December the 19th. This is going to be likely a very expensive primary race as we watch it on many other very close races in the North Carolina General Assembly, as Republicans, at least in the North Carolina Senate, will do everything in their power to continue to hold a supermajority. Democrats will try and chip away at that.
And looking at the North Carolina House, Republicans will be doing everything they can to pick up one additional seat to get to that supermajority. Threshold, while Democrats, again, similar situation, will try and hold one or two to put themselves in a better position in the chamber in the North Carolina House. We'll track those elections as they get significantly closer coming up later this year. All those details over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. If your job at a healthcare facility includes disinfecting against viruses, you know prevention is the best medicine.
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It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110 99.3 war and the looming threat of heavy tariffs to the USDA is now accepting applications for a trade mission to visit that country coming up in the fall. Trade to Mexico should apply for the November 3rd through 6th trip by July the 31st. As part of the trade mission, U.S.
agribusiness representatives will encrypt from Mexico City in nearby areas through business-to-business meetings, market briefings, site tours, and networking events organized by the Foreign Agriculture City Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs, Michelle Berkering. She noted, strengthening export opportunities for American farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses is a top priority of USDA. This trade mission will connect U.S. producers with key Key buyers in Mexico expanding economic opportunities, support your products globally competitive. In 2024, Mexico emerged as a top export destination for U.S.
agricultural products with sales exceeding more than $30 billion and supporting an estimated 190-plus thousand American jobs. That's according to a USDA press release. The United States-Mexico Trade Agreement, or the USMCA, totaled near $79 billion that year, continuing a steady growing trend that has taken place over the last decade. Steve Troxler, who is the commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told the Carolina Journal, we actively share these valuable USDA trade missions with our agricultural exporters through the International Market Division and its communication channels. We strongly encourage industry members to take advantage of these opportunities when they align with their Mexico is a long-value North Carolina exported more than $241 million worth of agricultural products to Mexico in 2024.
According to data from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, as of May of this year, the export value was $129 million, which is about a 14% increase compared to May of last year. That's calendar year to calendar year. According to the USDA, the growth of U.S. exports to Mexico is driven by factors, including increasingly disposable income among Mexico's upper middle class, widespread recognition of United States food brands and food trends, and a robust demand for premium agricultural products. Consumer-oriented products comprise the largest share of U.S.
agricultural exports to Mexico, growing by more than 75% between the years 2020 and 2024. The USDA expects continued strong export opportunities across a range of product sectors, including things like beef, poultry, and related products, dairy products, seafood, tree nuts, as well as baking and food processing ingredients. Beyond these, there are promising prospects for United States exporters of animal feed, rice pulses, seed, potatoes, and livestock genetics. Those interested can apply for the trade mission. We've got that link over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
The Mexico trade mission is part of the USDA's broader effort in its promotion of its export strategies. Trade missions to Thailand, Guatemala, Hong Kong, and Peru have recently. Recently, come forward as well, has been very successful for some U.S. exporters.
So, as we continue to discuss tariffs, ongoing questions over trade, there are a couple of those meetings scheduled those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Turning our attention back to the state this morning, the North Carolina Department of Commerce released a report earlier this month on the labor market challenges faced by recent college graduates, suggesting despite a widespread labor shortage, many young workers are having trouble finding appropriate work. College remains a worthwhile investment for most students. Recent college graduates are confronting a more difficult labor market than in previous years as they navigate technological changes and the ups and downs of the post-COVID economy. And the nation's unemployment rates have been below 5% for the past three years, which is generally described as full employment.
And the Federal Reserve has identified present labor market conditions as solid. Recent college graduates are faced with more difficult labor market conditions past. The department's economists have found that companies are just as reluctant to let go of their current employees as they are to take on new workers. Hiring rates in North Carolina have reached their lowest levels in 10 years as a result. Data collected from NC Tower, that's the North Carolina reporting, indicated that the weakening labor market has been especially unfavorable to recent bachelor degree recipients from the University of North Carolina system.
Those would be UNC graduates. Graduates across majors as diverse as business, engineering, and social sciences have seen wage cuts. Postgraduate earnings for computer and information science majors dipped by the most. That was a 22% decrease, while the average decrease among all subject areas was around 4%. Conversely, earnings for health related majors increased by two percent, which the department attributes to the growing demand for health care due to the aging population in some area of North Carolina.
While the North Carolina Department of Commerce has emphasized that this data does not refute the value of college as an investment for most students, it has expressed worries that such labor market challenges might be premature in nature as college wage premiums have continued to level off. The department's economists admit that the source of these labor demands and wage declines is debated and may be attributed to one or more of a combination of the following factors, three that they laid out in their report. The first one, periodic downturns that are part of an economy's cycle of expansion and recession, and other labor-saving technology reducing the amount of labor needed for businesses to operate, and the third, changes an employer's perception of a college degree and its value. Economists are also unsure whether these changes represent a temporary setback or will be a more permanent feature of the evolved job market. You can read more details on this report from the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
It's very interesting. Those details are available on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline: despite labor shortages, NC College graduates face employment headwinds. Again, that's available over at CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:36.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Monday morning to you. We're going to battle that could have major implications for law enforcement practices across can rely on the smell of marijuana combined with a so-called cover scent like cologne as probable cause for a vehicle search to walk us through this very interesting legal challenge this morning. Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mitch, this is an interesting situation unfolding across North Carolina. It really is. And this dates back, Nick, to the time when North Carolina made hemp legal. And so one of the things that has cropped up since then is that those who advocate for clients who've been charged based on marijuana since have said, look, a vehicle that's based or a residence based on the odor of marijuana that law enforcement detects before conducting this search, that that is unconstitutional because they may be violating people's rights who didn't have it. And so the courts in North Carolina have struck down this argument that the odor of marijuana can no longer be used as a basis for probable cause for a search.
But this latest case that comes out of Greensboro has an interesting twist because the officers in this case stopped a car and then searched the car because not only did they detect marijuana, But they also detected a very strong scent of cologne, or at least one officer described it as a strong fruity smell. And so the cologne combined with the marijuana, they said the cologne was a cover scent. And so, as this case has gone through the courts, the defendant, who was eventually charged with a gun crime because of the search, said that, wait a minute, my Fourth Amendment rights were violated because they had this hemp, not marijuana, legal hemp and the legal cologne. The officers put those two things together and came up with what the lawyers in this case described as an unconstitutional double odor rule.
Now, the courts so far at the trial court level and the state court of appeals in a unanimous decision struck this down, saying no, the officers proceeded in the proper way. They looked at what they call the totality of the circumstances before deciding to engage in. This search. And because of that, what was revealed in the search was able to be used in court. And that's why, after they found this defendant, whose name was Taman charged him with a gun crime, that is able to stand.
What's interesting is that though the state court of appeals ruled unanimously against Dobson, the state Supreme Court has agreed to take the case. It agreed earlier this year to take it up. And the latest development is that the statewide groups that deal with district attorneys. Sheriffs in North Carolina and chief this week supporting the law enforcement stance in this case, saying that, look, this is not a case of some sort of unconstitutional violation of Fourth Amendment rights. The officers in this case were engaging in common sense law enforcement.
They smelled this cologne, which could have been a cover scent. Those two factors, combined with everything else that their law enforcement training prepares them for, said that this is a vehicle that needs to be searched. And of course, after they had the search, they found additional drugs and they found the gun on this suspect Dobson, who eventually was charged and convicted.
So it'll be very interesting to see what the state Supreme Court does with this case now. The state Supreme Court didn't need to take the case because there was a unanimous decision from the Court of Appeals, but the state Supreme Court has decided to review this issue.
Now, all of these big law enforcement groups for the DAs, and the police chiefs, are all saying, look, you should allow this and the conviction that came out of it to stand. Before we get into some more pertinent details about this case itself, I want to go back to what you just mentioned there. And a unanimous Court of Appeals had already ruled on this. Mitch, reading the teams, why do you think the Supreme Court would take something like this up? Is there anything that you can gather in that?
Well, one clue that you might get is from the way that the Supreme Court decided to handle this case. When the appeal was made to the Supreme Court, the lawyers basically said here are two options for why the state Supreme Court might take the case. The first option was the idea that smelling marijuana means you could be smelling hemp, which is legal and so constitutional. The Supreme Court rejected that. And I think partly that's because the courts in North Carolina have already dealt with this issue.
I don't believe that it's gone to the state Supreme Court yet, but the Court of Appeals has, on multiple occasions, said that this is not a reason to throw out a search. But the second item that was put forward was this notion that the courts have sanctioned an unconstitutional majority of the state Supreme Court of the number of justices they need, they're going to hear the case, was something that they wanted to address, whether this idea of having the The marijuana smell and the cologne smell together came up with some sort of new double odor rule that would be unconstitutional. I think they decided that they're going to take that up either to say that no, you can't use these two things in concert with each other as the only factors to have a law enforcement search, or on the other hand, they decided that let's just settle this for good and say that. The marijuana smell is still good, and having the cologne smell with it is not going to be something that's going to distract from this other factor. My guess is the state Supreme Court really just wanted to say, let's settle this once and for all, or at least as one to do that.
You know, looking at these two scenarios that you let probable cause obviously is a very important part of law enforcement, and this would have an impact across the entire state of North Carolina. Mitch, you can imagine a situation if the Supreme Court comes down on this and says, oh, that additional odor of a heavy cologne or some other smell throws out probable cause. That would put law enforcement probably in a pretty tricky and tough situation. Yeah, it really could. And I think that's one of the reasons why those very law enforcement groups with the DAs, the sheriffs, and the police chiefs wanted to weigh in on this case.
Basically, their argument is these law enforcement officers are using their training and using common sense to decide when to search a vehicle. An officer smells marijuana. That in and of itself is a good basis for a search, and courts have said that. They also smell the cologne. That's something that can be used to try to cover up marijuana sentence.
So that's another reason that would factor in to a law enforcement decision that a particular vehicle or a particular residence is liable for a search.
Now, of course, it is important to want to protect Fourth Amendment rights. You don't decide, I'm going to search anyone I want for any reason. There needs to be a good, legitimate, probable cause. And I think this case has at least. The potential to set some good guidelines on what is appropriate and what is inappropriate when law enforcement wants to search a vehicle or a residence without having a warrant.
We've got a lot more interesting details on that case this morning. You can read those over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Mitch Pokey from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5.52.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Donald Trump's tariffs plan near activation on July the 4 or August the 1st, rather. Many North Carolina business owners have been stocking up on imported products to prepare fluctuating prices and even interruption in some access to certain foreign-made goods. Questions over the extent and the timeframe of tariff implementation have created a large amount of uncertainty for businesses. Many of those here stockpile goods and supplies in anticipation of future price increases.
Brian Balfour, the vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, notes, U.S. firms and consumers heavily front-loaded orders of imports following Trump's Liberation Day back in April. Many of the imports currently being received at U.S. ports are from orders locked in at prices that are previous to many of the tariff announcements. It will at a minimum take several months after the tariffs are fully implemented to gauge a clear picture of their impact.
North Carolina businesses across several industries, including transportation, food service and retail, have taken such or have already risen year to date 39.8% for the calendar year in 2025. This is significantly larger than what we've seen in years past. We're sent in 2023 and 9.5%. Those are yearly increases in 2024.
So you're looking at more than TREF from 2023 and well more than that number in 2024. Among the largest import increases are in pharmaceutical products where they're up 148.5%. Inorganic chemicals, 247 plus percent, as well as other industries, including electronic machinery that includes sound equipment, television equipment and parts, 14% increase there. Paper and payment percent, toys, games, and sporting equipment, 11.6%. As businesses throughout the state have in prices, demand has increased for goods in 52 out of the 98 import commodity groups year to date, with the total year to date North Carolina imports amounting to more than $47.3 billion.
However, that number's all the way back from May. The administration has continued to push back on its tariff deadline as very few trading partners up until this point have agreed on a full trade deal with the United States with its full implementation expected here in just a couple of weeks on August the 1st. Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, was on CNBC's SquawkBox last week and expressed optimism about future economic conditions. He's in DealMaker, telling the panel, quote, We've got a guy who's the very best dealmaker in history, who's made billions of dollars by squeezing every dollar out of deals. But I know that they're going to land in a favorable way for people.
When asked why neither inflation nor labor markets seem to be reaching reacting rather adversely to some of these tariff policies, at least the ones that are in place right now, Kevin Hassett attributed that to a combination of lower import prices and economic patriotism. Telling the panel, Americans, because of President Trump's leadership, have recognized that when they buy an American product, they not only get perhaps a better product, but certainly a better product most of the time. And they're also making their communities stronger.
So I think there's a lot of patriotism in this data. Other economists and policymakers in opposition to the President's tariff policies have contended that while prices are not yet rising, they will do so very shortly once those tariffs kick in. Brian Balfour of the John Locke Foundation notes: With the majority of Trump's tariffs being delayed until August 1st, it is very premature to make any conclusion about the tariffs' impacts on the prices of impacted goods. We, of course, have been looking at tariffs and the impacts on a variety of industries across the state of North Carolina, particularly those in the agricultural business, which is the largest in our state. You can find details on all of those stories site this morning.
That's CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Monday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 11.10 and 99.3, WBT.
