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Good morning to you. And continuing our coverage of following recovery and relief efforts in Western North Carolina, this morning we've got details on aid. It is now available to homeowners and businesses in Western North Carolina that, of course, suffered so much loss and destruction from Hurricane Helene last September. People whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm may now be eligible to apply for a new program to help them repair or rebuild their homes. Democrat Governor Josh Stein announced yesterday that the state is now accepting applications for the RENUNC Single Family Housing Program.
The program is the first of a series of recovery initiatives to be offered by the North Carolina Commerce Department's Division of Community Revitalization under the program name RENEW and See. The governor saying in a press release yesterday, quote, Helene caused significant damage to thousands of homes across western North Carolina. There is a lot of work to do, and Renew NC Housing Program is the next step in helping Western North Carolinians recover. If your home was damaged by Hurricane Helene, you may be eligible for assistance depending on your income, so I encourage you to apply today. Low to moderate income homeowners from the following eligible counties are going to be eligible.
Alexander, Allegheny, Ashe, Avery, Bunkham, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, and Mecklenburg, and a plethora of other counties as well that are in this program for low to moderate income households. Later this year, two additional Renew NC housing programs will be offered to address multifamily housing and workforce housing for ownership. Infrastructure and economic revitalization programs are also set to be launched in the coming months. The Renew NC program are being funded through a Community Development Block Disaster Grant, a CDBDDR grant. We've talked about those in the past as well.
These are coming directly from the federal government, specifically the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of the total $1.4 billion in grant funding from HUD that was allocated to the state for Western North Carolina recovery needs, $807 million, a vast majority, is allocated to the Renew NC Single Housing Program. Homeowners can check their eligibility for housing repairs or reconstruction at a brand new website that has been set up. It is renewrenc.org.
That's renewnc.org. You can also, there's a phone number you can call and a lot of other information on that website.
Meanwhile, North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Breiner also announced in a press release yesterday that local governments in the western half of the state have been notified of their approval for the second and final round of interest-free cash flow loans for Hurricane Helene relief. This round of loans use the remaining $34 and almost $34.5 million from the $100 million cash flow. Loan program that was passed out of the North Carolina General Assembly. That was Senate Bill 382, the Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 that did pass in December of last year. Its goal is to help local governments whose communities were devastated by Hurricane Helene while they await federal money to arrive.
The administration of the program was assigned to the state treasurer's office, and more than $73 million was distributed in February in the first round of those loans. Round two of the funds was set aside the same month at the request of local governments who still at the time needed more physically more time to assess damages and make sure that they had all of the paperwork that they needed completed. Many local governments requested additional funding due to the extent of their damage, ongoing cleanup and cash flow needs, all while seeking resources through more traditional means like FEMA.
However, with these cash flow loans from the treasurer's office, they do need to be repaid within five years. Treasurer Brad Bryn says, quote, we have not forgotten about the ongoing needs in western North Carolina. We are pleased to send more help to the communities in need as they are working to get their communities rebuilt. The treasurer has worked with the North Carolina League of Municipalities and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners to administer those loans. Obviously, relief continues to be a very major topic here across the state of North Carolina.
We'll keep you up to date on air and, of course, on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 510, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. We've been tracking a lot of details over the last year or so out of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicle NC DMV, whether that relates to the real ID deadline, some changes in leadership at the DMV, or a report that state auditor Dave Bollock is doing a full audit of the DMV.
However, this morning, we are tracking details out of a new study showing some of the worst DMV offices in the United States. Unfortunately, a couple of those here in Queen City. To get some details on that, Brianna Kramer, CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Brian, I don't know. I don't think many folks would be surprised or shocked if we said DMV offices are having a problem across North Carolina, but boy, Charlotte's got some big problems.
Yes, that's right. A new national analysis of DMV locations across the country ranks Charlotte's DMV locations as some of the worst across America.
So, this study where you're looking at, they examined 140 DMV locations in 30 major U.S. cities, and Charlotte had the worst average DMV experience. And so when we look at that, there are three Charlotte offices, three different Charlotte DMV offices in the top five. What are those locations and how do they rank some of this data? Yeah, so Charlotte's DMV office is consistently ranked near the bottom, with three of the city's locations landing in the five worst nationally.
So the worst one in the whole country, right in Charlotte, is on West Arrowwood Road. That was named the single worst in the U.S., with more than 30% of its reviews categorized as negative. And so then number two was in Memphis, Tennessee, and third, Nashville, Tennessee. And then the fourth worst DMV was in Charlotte again on Executive Circle. And then fifth was also in Charlotte again on Brookshire Boulevard.
So again, three of the top five worst DMV locations across the country located right in the Charlotte area. And this is again according to a study that just looked at Google reviews, really. They went in and they looked at Google reviews that were three stars over. Lower and included negative keywords such as long, slow, crowded, and inefficient. Obviously, the DMV has kind of been getting hit from all angles, especially over the last six months or so.
We've had, of course, this real ID deadline that is now here and gone. That caused there for many months throughout the early part of the year, Brianna, for you not to be able to get a single appointment at a DMV office anywhere in the state of North Carolina.
Some executive leadership changes over there. The state auditor is now investigating an audit expected on that. Hopefully, here in the next couple of weeks, have you had an opportunity to speak to anybody from DMV? Do they have any thoughts on this study or this analysis? Yes, they were able to give us a comment on this study.
So, NCDMV issued a statement where they said, We acknowledge the recent study ranking Charlotte DMV offices as the worst in the nation, and we recognize the challenges our customers have faced. Under new leadership, NCDMV is actively working to transform and improve the customer experience. We have dedicated employees at our Charlotte offices, and they are doing their best with the processes and systems they've been given. We are committed to better supporting them by providing the tools and resources they need to excel in their roles.
So, they did respond to this analysis, and again, they said they are working, of course, to try to better the DMV experience. But again, frustrations have just flooded online all over the state, really. But you hear more predominantly around urban areas where you know a lot. A lot of people are moving to growing population centers. We're just hearing of lots of issues.
And so, of course, DMV has been trying to be proactive and work to better the situation for years now, really, at this point. But so have other state leaders, including members of the General Assembly, the governor, and then, like you said, the state auditors coming out with a report soon on DMV operations.
So, from many angles within the state government, we have different leaders trying in an attempt after years of ongoing failures to remedy this situation. And obviously one of the reasons here that Charlotte is in the limelight, Brandon, you look at some of the details on this study, they did look at more major US cities when conducting this analysis. It's very possible that more DMV offices across the country could have been ranked lower, but it seems like they were highly focused on major US cities, which of course Charlotte would be one of. Yeah, that's right. This study, not a scientific study, but they really were just examining what was publicly available, all the Google reviews, and just kind of combining what they could access from online to break down the best and the worst.
So it was interesting to also learn where the best DMVs are located, which were in Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Seattle. And then, also of note, a few cities saw the biggest declines in satisfaction, and that's Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Nashville. You've got a lot of infographics associated with this story, a lot of nice charts and pictures. Where can folks go and get those details? Yeah, you can head to Carolinajournal.com to read the article and all the state has been doing to fix this situation.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Don't forget that if you miss any of our program live weekday mornings, 5 to 6, right here on WBT, you can check out the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast. It's available in your favorite podcast app. We also stream the show live on YouTube every morning. You can check that out as well.
We are continuing to follow backlash from a story we covered yesterday on the program. The North Carolina Republican Party is now officially calling on a Democrat state lawmaker to resign after she posted an image of a protesting, a protester sign featuring a guillotine and fake severed heads resembling that of President Donald Trump. Jason Simmons, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, issued a statement yesterday calling on State Representative Julia Von Haven to resign from after. Posting the image Saturday as an anti-Trump pro as an anti-Trump protest existed across the country. This, of course, is all in the wake of on early Saturday, a man shot two Minnesota politicians and their spouses, killing the state's former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and Raleigh native Mark Hortman.
According to Simmons, he says, quote, the post from Representative Von Haven that shared does not show the judgment or the temperament of someone to hold public office. For the good of her constituents to have effective representation, she should resign. Von Haven, currently serving a fourth term representing portions of Wake County, didn't specifically mention President Trump in her online postings. The image seen in the now deleted video that was posted shows an unidentified protester holding some sort of pike or spear with two fake heads on it, one of which resembled the president. Her post read as follows.
Amazing turnout all across the triangle today, including this event. Referring to the protests as part of the No Kings Day that took place across the nation on Saturday. She did then go on to delete those social media postings, deleting her ex-account and posting this on Facebook: quote, Let me be clear, I condemn political violence in all forms. My focus remains on bringing people together and fighting for the values that matter to North Carolinians. Like so many others, I was horrified by the violence in Minnesota.
There is no place for this kind of extremism in our democracy, no matter the target, no matter the party. On social media, Republicans called on the North Carol North Carolina Democrats to join them in denouncing the social media posts. House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, posted on his ex account that he has launched discussions with legislative attorneys to, quote, ensure that this behavior does not continue. He continued his commentary by saying her disgraceful behavior fails to meet the standards expected from House members and sets a dangerous precedent in an already volatile political climate. In an email to legislators on Monday, General Assembly Police Chief Martin Brock cited the shooting in Minnesota and said that he is, quote, working on enhanced security plans for the legislative complex in downtown Raleigh.
Last month, an Asheboro woman was charged after trying to bring a firearm through security and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
Now, first security-wise, leaders of the House and the Senate do travel with a relatively small but still a security detail.
However, the rest of the 168 members of the General Assembly do not travel with any sort of security from the state. This post obviously did receive some major national attention not only because of its timing, as it was the same day as the Minnesota shooting, but the ongoing political climate and situation in North Carolina.
Now, Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democrat Party, did, in fact, release a statement yesterday where she accused the state Republican Party of grandstanding. She said that the state Republican Party last year supported candidates who had documented history of using violent rhetoric. The statement from the chair of the Democrat Party in North Carolina said, This manufactured outrage over the photo in a reel on Instagram to take advantage of a recent tragedy in Minnesota rings incredibly hollow and is a desperate attempt to change the narrative after tens of thousands of North Carolinians took to the streets this weekend to denounce their agenda. Unfortunately, violent rhetoric has become a lot more common in recent years, and it's not necessarily the first time that it has been promoted and has been used here in North Carolina as well.
So with that, in March of this year, State lawmakers began debating new proposals to make threatening local officials, such as school board members or county commissioners, a felony, just as it's already a felony to threaten state officials. Representative Keith Kidwell, the Republican out of Beaufort County, has been leading the charge on that bill on behalf of one of his local county commissioners, who reported being threatened during the 2024 election cycle. That bill did meet the crossover deadline, so it could be acted on, and it is now currently sitting in the North Carolina Senate. A large majority of the state's registered voters were bracing for some sort of politically motivated violence after the 2024 election. Unfortunately, polling from Elon University last year showed that more than one-third, 34% of North Carolinians, said that if elected officials can't protect democracy or Americans, that political violence is justified.
That's according to some of the information out of that poll last year. This is going to likely continue to be an ongoing discussion. The North Carolina General Assembly is fully back in Raleigh today. A plethora of committee hearings for both the House and the Senate. Not exactly sure if we're going to see any commentary from the House Speaker or other leadership, but expecting a lot of members in Raleigh today.
We'll keep an eye on those details. You can see the post in its entirety, as well as read some of the reaction by heading on over to our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com, the headline, Democrat. Democrat State Representative faces backlash over a social media post. You can read those details on our website, or it's now 529, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. Hello, it is Ryan, and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com.
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It's 536. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, New Stock 1110-993 WBT. A new national analysis of DMV locations across the nation is ranking Charlotte at the bottom of the country's DMVs in terms of customer satisfaction. The study examined Google reviews that were three stars or lower and included negative keywords such as long, slow, crowded, or insufficient. Charlotte's DMV offices consistently ranked near the bottom with three of the city's locations landing in the first five worst offices nationally across the entire United States.
Looking at the details from the chart, the Charlotte DMV office at West Arrowwood Road had a more than 30% frequency of negative reviews. At the office, there are one in three of those coming in negative. The fourth worst office in the country was on executive circle. That had about a 25.5% negative review ratio. And the fifth office off Berkshire Boulevard had a 24.5% negative review as well.
So three in the top five. Another Charlotte office making its way into the top 15 is sitting in 13th place. Is another Charlotte DMV office off of Wilkinson Boulevard, which had some high negative review ratios as well.
So five, you know, in total, four offices in the top 15 across the nation. A spokesperson for the North Carolina DMV responded to a request for comment from Carolina Journal and said, We acknowledge the recent study ranking Charlotte DMV offices as the worst in the nation, and we recognize the challenges that our customers have faced. Under new leadership, NC DMV is. Actively working to transform and improve the customer experience. We have dedicated employees at our Charlotte offices, and they are doing their best with the processes and systems that they've been given.
We are committed to better supporting them by providing them tools and resources that they need to excel in their roles. Additionally, the DMV said that it is working to foster a positive culture change within the organization and that they've received enthusiastic responses from the Charlotte staff who are embracing some of these efforts. The poor ranking for North Carolina DMV offices come as the North Carolina General Assembly continues to push for a variety of reforms. The North Carolina House's proposed budget includes a provision that would begin the process of privatizing DMV services by creating a new pilot program to allow third-party vendors to handle driver's license renewals, a function that has only been solely managed by the state in years past.
However, the privatization proposal does raise questions as license plate agencies have been privatized but have also received negative attention as well. Legislators recently criticized a Charlotte license plate agency after it announced a week-long closure due to quote vacation. House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, publicly condemned the closure and called on DMV's new leadership to ensure better oversight. A different Charlotte license plate agency announced that it was closed in a post yesterday, though it did not disclose the reason. DMV also added in their statement: In recent weeks, we have been piloting operational changes at select locations, which are showing promising results.
These improvements will soon be scaled statewide to increase efficiency and reduce wait times.
Furthermore, recent enhancements to our website have led to significant increases in the use of online services, allowing more customers to complete transactions conveniently from home. We are committed to continued progress and appreciate the patience of North Carolinians as we work to deliver a more efficient and customer-focused DMV experience. You can read some additional details on this study over on our website this morning. The headline, Charlotte DMV, worst in the nation. You can find that over at CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 540.
News Talk 1110-993 WBT. A federal trial kicked off yesterday in Winston-Salem as it relates to both congressional and state legislative maps here in North Carolina. To get some details, Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, for a long time, political observers redrawing maps and gerrymandering some of these other terms have been in the lexicon of North Carolina politics a lot over the last couple of years. What are you watching this morning in Winston-Salem?
Well, these are cases that Predate the 2024 elections, you might remember that as soon as the General Assembly finalized new congressional and legislative election maps in 2023, they faced a number of lawsuits trying to block those maps from being used in the 2024 elections. The lawsuits were unsuccessful, so the districts that were drawn for 2023 were used for last year's congressional and legislative elections, but some of these suits still linger on past that election date. And two of those suits have been consolidated into one case that's at trial in Winston-Salem during the course of this week and may actually extend into the early days of July. It's not going to go all the way between now and July, but it may last past this week and into a couple of days in July when the three-judge panel reconvenes. And basically, the idea is behind these lawsuits, one of which was filed by The NAACP and Common Cause, and the other one was filed by a bunch of individual voters working with Democratic operative Mark Elias' law firm.
The idea is that these election maps violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on racial gerrymandering. The racial gerrymandering piece of it is important because those are the only types of gerrymandering suits that can move forward now, either in federal court or in state court. Both the U.S. Supreme Court and the North Carolina Supreme Court have said in recent years that they will not deal with any cases with so-called partisan gerrymandering, gerrymandering done for political gain.
So the only way a lawsuit dealing with gerrymandering can succeed is if the plaintiffs can prove that there was some sort of racial animus or racial bias that was behind the effort to draw the lines one way or the other.
So the argument that's before the judges in Winston-Salem basically says that some state house districts, some state senate districts, some congressional districts were drawn with a racial bias. That's what the plaintiffs are contending. The legislative defendants are responding that no, there is no racial bias. There's no proof of it. Anything that was done was done for partisan and political benefit.
And basically, the plaintiffs are just trying to disguise a partisan gerrymandering claim as a racial gerrymandering claim, just as the U.S. Supreme Court predicted that partisans might do after they threw out partisan gerrymandering cases.
So it's going to be very interesting to see where this thing goes forward. For those who like to keep track of who the judges are, in case that gives them a sense of how things will resolve themselves, this is a three-judge panel. Two U.S. district judges from North Carolina and one judge from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
All three of them were appointed by Republican presidents.
So you're not going to have a situation where you've got Democratic judges who are going to be inclined to go along with Democrat and left-of-center political arguments. That doesn't mean they're going to lose, but it certainly means they don't have the built-in home field advantage that they might have with Democratic judges. The other thing that's interesting to note about the judges is, other than one judge who was the initial judge to hear at least one of these cases, the other two were appointed to this panel by the chief judge in the Fourth Circuit who was appointed by Barack Obama.
So if there was any gamesmanship to be done, it might have been done in the Fourth Circuit. But Chief Judge Albert Diaz didn't do that. He didn't put two Democrats on the panel to stack the deck against the Republican General Assembly. He appointed To Republicans. And one of the names involved in the judges should be familiar to anyone who's been following election-related cases in recent years because Richard Myers is one of the judges in this panel.
And Richard Myers, of course, was at the center of all of the legal action at the federal level dealing with the Jefferson Griffin Allison Riggs drama and saga. You know, Mitch, as I've followed this redistricting saga that has taken place many times over the last decade or so here in North Carolina, really the only thing that I've ever heard from legislative leaders and lawmakers that are tasked with these maps is really the only thing that they look at is there is some legal requirement that the population within all of the districts for things like the General Assembly and for congressional races, they've got to be within like 2.5%. That's the margin of error for those various seats in various districts being drawn. As I understand it, that's really the only requirement as it relates to those districts.
Well, there are a number of requirements. You mentioned one of the important ones, and I'm glad you brought it up because one of the claims that was brought in in these suits that are now at trial was that some of these districts suffered from malapportionment, which is the official word for when a district has too few or too many people, and so that the one person, one vote standard isn't met. All of that was thrown out before it even got to trial.
So there's no longer any claim of malapportionment that this three-judge panel will have to deal with. But yes, that's one of the key ones. When it comes to Congress, in recent years, our General Assembly has drawn districts so that each congressional district has the exact same number of people. It might vary in one district by one person, but otherwise they use the census data and try to split it up so that the exact same number of people are in all of the congressional districts. When it comes to state house and senate districts, They get about a 5% leeway one way or the other.
But that is done so you comply with federal court's one-person, one-vote standards. But there are some other things that need to come into play. And certainly, when it comes to legislative districts, one of the most important ones that North Carolina has that you don't necessarily have in other states that deal with this issue is the whole county provision, which means you're not supposed to split counties any more than you have to. That's why, when you see some districts in North Carolina that might strike you as a little bit odd, it's because county lines kind of look odd and you're not supposed to split counties. And if you have a portion that doesn't really match up with a population that doesn't really match up with county lines, you have to group counties together.
And so, in the northeastern part of the state, you get a bunch of counties lumped together to form two districts. And whatever way you slice it, the districts are going to look kind of funny.
So, when there are arguments from plaintiffs saying, look at the These districts they look strange and they stretch from Virginia to the coast. The response is: well, that's the way it's spelled out in this whole county provision. We have to follow not only the law about apportionment, making sure that you have the right number of people in these districts, but also you have to follow some of the earlier court rulings, including upholding this whole county provision. It's obviously going to be a very interesting legal battle to continue to watch unfold. We'll keep you up to date on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Good Tuesday morning to you. More aid is now available to homeowners and businesses in western North Carolina that suffered losses from Hurricane Helene last September. Individuals whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm may now be eligible to apply for a new grant program to help them repair or rebuild their homes. Democrat Governor Josh Stein announced the details yesterday that the state is now accepting applications for the Renew NC Single Family Housing Program. The program is the first of a series of recovery initiatives and services that are slated to be offered by the North Carolina Commerce Department's Division of Community Revitalization under the program name RENEWNC.
The governor said in a press release, quote, Helene caused significant damage to thousands of homes across western North Carolina. There is a lot of work to do, and the Renew NC Housing Program is the next step in helping Western North Carolinians recover. If your home was damaged by Hurricane Helene, you may be eligible for assistance depending on your income.
So I encourage you to apply today. Low to moderate income homeowners from a vast majority of counties in Western North Carolina are eligible for the program. We've got a full list over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We'll note it does include Mecklenburg County as well. Later this year, two additional Renew NC housing programs will be offered to address multifamily housing units as well as workforce housing for ownership.
Infrastructure and economic revitalization programs will also be launched in the coming months as well. The Renew NC program is being funded by the federal government. It's part of a community development block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That's HUD.
The state did receive $1.4 billion in funding from HUD that was allocated to the state for recovery. And out of that $1.4 billion, $807 million is being allocated to the Renew NC Single Family Housing Program. Homeowners can check their eligibility and apply for housing repair or reconstruction. The state has got a brand new website set up at renewnc.org.org. That's re-e-n-e-w-n-c.org, or there is a phone number that you can call.
As well, and a whole lot more information available on the renewnc.org website, their application link, and all of the counties and areas that are eligible and meeting the various lists of qualifications that the state has put together. Of course, we have seen in the past the state attempts to rebuild houses and single-family homes has been a big-time problem for the state of North Carolina, continuing to follow the saga known as NCORE, the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. Almost a decade later, homeowners in North Carolina still waiting to have their homes rebuilt under this NCORE program. We are, of course, hoping that that is not the same case as it applies to this Renew NC program.
However, we'll continue to track the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour.
Well, that's going to do it for a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News. News is next followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT. Step into the world of power.
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