It's 5.06 and welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, the relationship between Governor Josh Stein and the Republican-led General Assembly continues to fracture as the governor vetoed three more bills on Wednesday, including one that protects the privacy of those who donate to charities. That's Senate Bill 416. It's named the Personal Privacy Protection Act. It adds civil penalties to current privacy laws for government employees who attempt to pressure nonprofits into handing over their donor lists. The bill would codify existing law prohibiting state and local government agencies from collecting, disclosing or demanding information that identifies a person's association with a nonprofit organization.
Bill sponsors say that the measure is designed to protect the privacy and speech rights of donors who make contributions to charities in either money or goods. The impact of nonprofit organizations on North Carolina's economy is quite significant. It's estimated to be close to $510 billion worth of revenue, with North Carolinians contributing to a wide variety of groups, including the arts, religious groups, volunteer medical providers, youth programs, and social movements. Looking at that legislation, the bill's text reads: A public agency shall not require any entity organized under Section 501C of the Internal Revenue Code to provide the public agency with personnel information except when such disclosure is mandated by federal law, a subpoena, or a court order. The bill also restricts public agencies from releasing donor related information through public records requests, helping prevent breaches of confidentiality.
While critics of the bill have raised concerns about its potential impact on transparency, especially for nonprofits involved in political advocacy, the legislation, as written and sent to the governor's desk, maintains all existing campaign finance disclosure requirements under state and federal law. It does not affect reporting obligations to the Internal Revenue Service or the State Board of Elections. The North Carolina General Assembly did attempt to do this back a couple of years ago. They passed a similar measure in 2021, but it was vetoed by then Democrat Governor Roy Cooper. At the time, the governor claimed that it would shield political, quote, dark money from public disclosure.
However, neither that bill nor Senate Bill 416, which was vetoed by Governor Josh Stein on Wednesday, changes the reporting requirements for political campaigns and could include Including campaign finance disclosure laws. Stein, a Democrat, echoed some of the same of his predecessor and Roy Cooper as to why he vetoed the bill. The governor said in a press release: quote: Our democracy works best when people are well informed. This bill reduces transparency and creates more opportunity for dark money in our politics, especially related to candidates' legal funds.
Furthermore, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the Department of Revenue to identify and crack down on certain types of tax fraud. Supporters of the bill, however, say that donor privacy is critical for free speech, association, and free speech. According to Donald Bryson, the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, he says vetoing the Personal Privacy Protection Act leaves North Carolinians vulnerable to activist state employees and regulators who could pry into private nonprofit donor lists. The bill retained every existing nonprofit reporting requirement, but erected a critical firewall forbidding any public agency staffer from demanding or disclosing personal donor information. Safeguards that are essential to a free democracy because they secure free association, free speech, and limited government.
The legal and cultural foundation for donor privacy in the United States dates all the way back to the civil rights era in a landmark case in 1958 in the NAACP versus Alabama. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the state of Alabama at the time could not compel the NAACP to disclose its membership lists. The court found that such disclosure would expose members and donors to harassments, threats, and potentially violence, thereby violating their First Amendment rights to free speech and association. This rule established a critical precedent. Private support for controversial or minority causes deserves constitutional protection from compelled government disclosure.
More recently, donor privacy gained renewed legal standing back in 2021 with the United States Supreme Court decision in Americans for Prosperity versus Banta. Under a California policy first enforced by then Attorney General Kamala Harris, nonprofits were required to submit their donor lists to the states. Two nonprofit organizations, one Americans for Prosperity, the other the Thomas Moore Law Center, challenged the requirement, arguing it chilled donor participation and posed serious risk for exposure. The nation's highest court in a 6-3 decision struck down California's policy, finding it unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Writing for the majority at the time, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that widespread disclosure of donor information is hardly necessary for regulatory oversight and that the policy placed a heavy burden on individuals' freedoms to support causes anonymously.
The court ruled that any government imposed donor disclosure must be narrowly tailored and serve a compelling interest. California, it found, failed to prove that its broad donor reporting requirement was necessary or effective. This piece of legislation in Senate Bill 416 was vetoed by Governor Josh Stein. We'll track its progress as it now makes its way back to the General Assembly. With that, he did veto two other pieces of legislation: House Bill 192, that's the Firearm Law Revisions Act, which would allow employees and volunteers at non-public schools to carry weapons on school property if authorized by school officials.
It would also allow a person to carry a concealed handgun on property shared by a school and a place of worship during regular services or functions. With that legislation, the penalties for assaulting or threatening an executive, legislative court, or local official are increased.
However, the governor says he vetoed the bill because it makes children less safe. In his veto press release, the governor writes, Just as we should not allow guns in the General Assembly, we should keep them out of our schools unless they are in the possession of law enforcement. Law enforcement officers receive more than 800 hours of public safety education, including firearm training. On top of that, school resource officers receive additional training to know how to respond to a crisis and how to de-escalate conflicts, a requirement that I supported when I was Attorney General. We cannot substitute the protection offered by well-trained law enforcement officers by asking teachers and school volunteers to step in and respond to crises while armed.
The governor said that last year an employee at a religious school in Goldsboro left a gun in a bathroom that was later found by an elementary school student.
However, he did say that he was supportive of the provisions in the legislation to better protect local elected officials from threats to their safety and urges the General Assembly to send him, quote, a clean bill with those protections so that he can sign them. He also vetoed House Bill 96. That was the expedited removal of unauthorized persons. That is because of an added provision, according to the governor. He said, quote, this legislation originally addressed squatters, and I supported it.
At the last moment, however, an unrelated amendment was added that prohibits local governments from regulating pet stores. This bill would facilitate inhumane puppy mills in North Carolina. Without this provision, I would sign this legislation. With it, I cannot support it. With those three veto overrides on those three vetoes on Wednesday, the veto override count is now up to 14 for the North Carolina General Assembly to deal with as they head back to Raleigh at the end of this month.
We will keep an eye on that relationship between Governor Stein, the Republican-led General Assembly. And how they'd attempt to deal with some of these vetoes from the governor. Continued coverage and analysis right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, and of course on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:23. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 11:10-993WBT.
The city of Mebane is facing unprecedented times after Tropical Storm Chantal dropped more than 10 inches of rain on Sunday. The city is currently under a stage five water restriction plan, which means that all industries, businesses, and offices must close unless they are a grocery store, healthcare facility, or drugstore. All residents who use city water must not use any water unless for limited drinking, only if they have no access to bottled water, and as well as limited restroom usage. These restrictions will remain in place until the Graham-Bobain water treatment plant is operating properly again. The city, as it stands this morning, has no current timeline for those repairs.
The Orange Alamance water system attempted to supply water to the municipal water system, but had problems in establishing a connector between the two systems. On Wednesday, Mobain City Councilman Sean E-Wing was at the Arts and Community Center collecting cases of bottled water alongside the fire department and public works employees. He said, I'm proud of the fire department, businesses, and residents for coming together. That's why people are coming here. We stick together.
Residents in the town. Are being instructed to go to the Arts and Community Center for cases of water, and those with extra cases are encouraged to donate them. The local Sheets gas station delivered a truckload of bottled water to help with the efforts, and other local businesses are also collecting water through the city. Councilman E-Wing went on to explain that only one water pump is currently working and warned that it would be disastrous if that last one failed. The city currently has less than two days of portable drinking water at normal usage levels, which is why those level five water restrictions were put in place.
The mayor, Ed Hooks, and other city officials held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to address the water issue and explain the restrictions. They unfortunately had no updates as to when those water pumps will be fixed.
Some more rain went through that area last night, and it is expected in the coming days as well. Residents are urged to stay alert and follow updates from the city as we Continue to track and continue our coverage of what seemed to be to many a regular run-of-the-mill tropical storm, at least in the eastern half of the state. It is a tropical, it was a tropical storm, and when it hit the central Piedmont area of the state, tropical depression, Chantel sparking some warnings about increased inland flooding during tropical storms. You know, we look at many folks focus on the category of the storm, focus on the strength, the wind speed in the eastern half of the state. But unfortunately, as we have seen over the last 20 years or so, many of these storms can cause very devastating inland flooding.
You look at hurricanes Florence and Matthew, very strong storms in the east causing significant flooding. Then, of course, turn your attention last year to the western half of the state and the absolute devastation and destruction left behind. With the hurricanes in that area causing massive landslides, cutting off many communities from the rest of the state. The threat of inland flooding continues to be a major topic of discussion. According to various individuals in the weather services and in emergency management, they continue to stress that no matter how strong a storm is, what the winds look like, or even what its classification is, that threat of heavy rain and devastating flash flooding is possible from any sort of tropical storm.
This is something that we did hear from Governor Josh Stein when he was out in the central part of the state earlier this week, Tuesday afternoon, surveying some of that damage, taking a look at what some of those recovery efforts are going to look like and trying to help the people of that area get back to some semblance of normalcy after that storm. Again, Dumped 10 plus inches of rain. That was Tropical Storm Chantal. Nearly 10 inches of rain in some areas, causing historic levels of flash flooding in the central Piedmont region of North Carolina. As I've mentioned before, I'll continue to harp it.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs all the way until the end of November. If you do not already have a hurricane kit or some other sort of preparedness kit ready to go, now is the time to do so. Again, even a small tropical storm in the grand scheme of things can leave some incredible devastation behind. We'll continue to track the progress and recovery right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:35.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Stock 1110, 99.3 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Last week, the United States Department of Justice announced the results of what it describes as the largest ever national health care fraud takedown in history. Of more than 324 individuals charged with fraud allegations, 14 of them were either from or associated with illegal activity in North Carolina. Nine of those 14 were charged within the state, while the remaining individuals were charged in other jurisdictions. The coordinated nationwide takedown found the accused illegally distributing over 15 million pills with $14.6 billion in intended losses. That's more than double the amount of the previous record of $6 billion.
Authorities seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, and other assets, according to the DOJ's press release. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated the federal government's commitment to appropriately prosecuting those who commit health care fraud. She said in a press release, today's record-setting healthcare fraud takedown sends a crystal-clear message to criminal actors, both foreign and domestic. Intent upon preying upon our most vulnerable citizens and stealing from hardworking American taxpayers, we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
Attorney General Pam Bondi noted that the effects of these schemes may have on taxpaying citizens, saying, Make no mistake, this administration will not tolerate criminals who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars while endangering the health and safety of our community. State and federal officials, including North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, announced the indictments at a press briefing. Jackson pointed to a Charlotte resident by the name of Crystal Sheryl Jackson, who allegedly submitted more than $1.9 million in fraudulent claims to North Carolina Medicaid. The DOJ reports that Jackson billed for psychotherapy and drug testing services that were either never rendered or deemed medically unnecessary. Additionally, many of the Medicaid identification numbers used in Jackson's scheme belonged to individuals who were either deceased or incarcerated at the time of billing.
According to Attorney General Jeff Jackson, she falsely claimed to be a licensed health care provider. Elsewhere across the state in Kinston, a substance abuse treatment company known as Lifetouch LLC allegedly conducted a scheme involving over a million dollars in illegal gift card payments to patients. These indictments allegedly resulted in more than $25 million in Medicaid payments, which staff also received kickbacks from drug testing labs deceiving auditors. Two of the defendants also face tax-related charges, and authorities have seized over $6 million in assets. Attorney General Jeff Jackson said at a press briefing: here's what I want folks who provide Medicare services to know.
We have never had more forensic tools for detecting fraud. If you are committing fraud as a Medicaid provider, you have never been more vulnerable to exposure, and we are going to find you. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Russ Ferguson referred to the high costs of health care in the country, noting that each year the United States spends more than $5 trillion on health care. Ferguson also referenced the importance of partnerships with many agencies involved in the investigation, thanking each official for their individual efforts, noting we're all here with one goal, and that is to eradicate health care fraud.
We've got some additional details on this story over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com, the headline, nine charged in NC after historic health care fraud bust. Again, you can read that story at CarolinaJournal.com or it's now 540, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. Week, the North Carolina Council of State met in Raleigh. It is an opportunity for various elected officials across the state to provide an update as to what is going on in their various agencies. One of the stories we've been tracking for quite some time on the Carolina Journal News Hour is deficiencies at the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicle.
State Auditor Dave Bullock, who has been leading that investigation, did provide the council with an update to walk us through those details. Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us. Teresa, we've been patiently awaiting this DMV audit. What's the latest from State Auditor Dave Bullock? Good morning, Nick.
Thanks for having me.
Well, you're going to have to wait a little more longer, a little more patiently, as Auditor Bollock gave an update to say his department is days to weeks away from releasing that audit on the DMV. He said those words at Tuesday's Council of State meeting. He says, I know this is a hot topic for everybody, and we have completed about three parts of the original audit. He says they have a few more to go through, but the first three parts of the audit Take a look at the budget financing of the DMV, also look at their information systems and look at efficiencies, processes, and procedures for obtaining a license or an ID. And he said that audit is now in the hands of DMV Commissioner Paul Tyne and DOT Secretary Joey Hopkins.
And hopefully, they are reviewing it and getting that done quickly as part of the audit process. He says he hopes to meet with them soon and release that to the public.
Now, back a couple of weeks ago, the auditor's office did release a preliminary report. That came out in the latter parts of June, and that tended to look at predominantly staffing as one of the big issues with the DMV across the state. Obviously, that's a more public-facing situation with staffing. What did we learn out of that preliminary report? Sure, sure.
And it's no surprise, right, that they need more staff at the center.
So the report came up with that they need additional driver's license examiners to meet the public demand and reduce the wait times at the driver's license offices across the state. Also, flexibility in current personnel rules is necessary for the DMV to hire and retain more staff effectively, and effective strategies are also necessary to fill vacancies. He did stress to Auditor Bullock that the DMV's current reliance on temporary positions creates some challenges because they're harder to fill and also offer fewer benefits and result in additional training costs due to the high turnover. Of the DMV's 142 temporary examiner positions, 97 or 68 percent remain vacant. That is according to that report.
So, I guess nothing, not any big news there, but he did want to give a little sneak peek at what they were taking a look at and what he could release at that point. I know, you know, also waiting on the budget from the General Assembly is also, you know, something that all these departments, including the DMV, are patiently awaiting themselves to see if they can fill more. More vacancies. You know, some of these backlogs and some of this lack of ability to get an appointment, which back just a couple of months ago, Therese, or even a couple of weeks ago, you could not get a single DMV appointment anywhere across the state. A lot of that was due in part to the real ID implementation that went into effect in May, which said that you could no longer use your standard driver's license, for example, to get into a federal building or to fly on a traditional airline, even domestic flights.
The DMV has already made a change, and state law, as it's written right now, does allow people to drive, just drive, however, with an expired license for up to two years.
So, hopefully, that will help some of the congestion and backlog that DMV deals with right now. Yes, hopefully that will ease it a little bit, give some breathing room, as you will, into that situation.
So yes, that's actually a good thing. It's a little more of a bandaid, but at least it's something for the moment.
Now, as we look at where we go forward with this, the audit is, as you mentioned, as State Auditor Dave Bollock mentioned at the Council of State meeting earlier this week, providing that to Joey Hopkins and the new Commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, or motor vehicle, I should say, Paul Tyne. We're expecting that, you said between, what, days and weeks before that's released to the public? Yeah, those were his words exactly, Auditor Bullock's words. It's days two weeks to anticipate that audit being released.
So it's a little bit of a wait, if you will. I think originally they were talking about maybe early July, so it's been pushed back a little bit. But I imagine, as we know how much of a mess this has been for the last few years, and especially this year, that it's taking a little extra time, more time than he thought. But yeah, it should be in the next days two weeks, according to Auditor Bullock. Obviously, this is a major story that continues to have big-time impacts on residents all across the state of North Carolina.
We appreciate the update this morning. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again. It's 5:51. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 11:10, 993 WBT.
Well, it would appear that the honeymoon period between Democrat Governor Josh Stein and the Republican-led legislature is over, as the governor vetoed three additional bills Wednesday, including one that protects the privacy of those who donate to charities. This now brings the veto count in this legislative session up to 14 that the governor has officially vetoed. This morning, we're talking about Senate Bill 416. That's the Personal Privacy Protection Act, which adds civil penalties to current privacy laws for government employees who attempt to pressure nonprofits into handing over their donor lists.
Now, according to details out of the legislation that aimed to strengthen some of those protections, the bill. Would prohibit either state or local agencies from collecting or disclosing donor information with exemptions for court orders or federal mandates. It also sought to prevent donor data from being released through public record requests. Supporters of the legislation argue that the bill was necessary to protect free speech and association rights, citing past Supreme Court rulings, including a 1958 case known as NAACP versus Alabama and a much more recent case, 2021, Americans for Prosperity versus Bonta, that took place in the state of California, which upheld donor anonymity all throughout both of those cases. On the supporting side of it, Donald Bryson, the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, says vetoing the Personal Privacy Protection Act leaves North Carolinians vulnerable to activist state employees and regulators who could pry into private nonprofit donor lists.
This bill retained every existing nonprofit reporting requirement. But erected a critical firewall forbidding any public agency or staffer from demanding or disclosing personal donor information. Safeguards that are essential to a free democracy because they secure free association, free speech, and limited government. On the other side of the aisle, those that are against this legislation warned that the bill could reduce transparency and open the door for untraceable dark money, especially in politically active nonprofits. In signing the veto, Governor Josh Stein echoed former Governor Roy Cooper's 2021 veto of similar legislation, saying that the bill would hinder transparency and complicate tax enforcement.
All of that, despite maintaining all current campaign finance disclosure rules, the bill's opponents argue that it could shield political activity from scrutiny. With that, in the official veto message, Governor Stein writes: Just as we should not allow guns, or excuse me, he says. Vetoing the Personal Privacy Protection Act is important. Our democracy works the best when people are well informed. This bill reduces transparency and creates more opportunity for dark money in our politics, especially related to candidates' legal funds.
Furthermore, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the Department of Revenue to identify and crack down on certain types of fraud.
So that is Senate Bill 416 vetoed by Governor Stein yesterday. In some other legislation, he also vetoed House Bill 192. That's the firearm law revision bill, which would allow employees and volunteers at non-public schools to carry weapons on school property if authorized by school officials. It would also allow a person to carry a concealed handgun on the property shared by a school and a place of worship during religious services or functions. Also, penalties for assaulting or threatening executive, legislative, court, or local officials were included.
Increased in that bill.
However, the governor says he vetoed it because it makes children less safe. The governor writes: just as we should not allow guns in the General Assembly, we should keep them out of our schools unless they are in the possession of law enforcement. Law enforcement officers receive more than 800 hours of public safety education, including firearm training. On top of that, school resource officers receive additional training to know how to respond to crises and how to de-escalate conflicts, a requirement that I supported when I was Attorney General. We cannot substitute the protection offered by well-trained law enforcement officers by asking teachers and school volunteers to step in and respond to crises while armed.
The governor also vetoed one more piece of legislation out of the General Assembly yesterday, House Bill 96. That was an ex that was called the expedited removal of unauthorized persons. That was dealing with squatters, which has become a growing trend across the country. The governor said, however, while he supported the expedited removal of unauthorized persons, some last-minute changes to the bill that made some changes to regulating pet stores was too much for the governor to sign the bill into law. He did veto House Bill 96.
As I mentioned, that brings the current veto count up to 14. Members of the General Assembly are slated to be back in Raleigh at the General Assembly in a couple of weeks, the end of this month, and they are going to have now 14 veto overrides to potentially deal with in the General Assembly. We'll keep you up to date with the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mm-hmm. That's going to do it for a Thursday edition.
WBT News is next. Followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5-6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
