It's 505 and welcome into a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. As we approach the initial peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Aaron formed in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday. That's according to the National Hurricane Center out of Miami, Florida.
As of right now, the storm sits some 3,000 miles away from the coast of North Carolina as of the most recent update, which was actually just about five minutes ago, out of the National Hurricane Center. The storm continues moving west, or excuse me, due west at 22 miles an hour with its maximum sustained winds at 45, which has it at that tropical storm category as of right now. As of the latest prediction from the National Hurricane Center, this storm is expected to transition into a hurricane sometime between Wednesday and Thursday, ahead of it being classified as a major hurricane, which is a category three or stronger as we head into the latter parts of this upcoming weekend. Will this This storm affect North Carolina. It is still very far out to know that.
Most of the models, at least at this point, show this storm curving before it meets anywhere on the continental United States, looking to split the gap between the United States and Bermuda.
However, as we do head into what is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, which is typically around the middle of September, the possibility of tropical storm and hurricane activity here across the eastern seaboard, both North and South Carolina, does remain at risk. We'll continue to track those details as they are relevant to our folks here across North and South Carolina right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now 5.07, News Talk 1110, 993, WBT. Back in 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law banning transgender surgery for minors across the state of North Carolina. As you can imagine, immediately lawsuits followed that decision. And since then, the legal process has been unfolding.
However, as of late, there's been an ask for a pause from both parties in this case to walk us through some of the details this morning on why this is going on. Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, lawsuits happen pretty regularly, especially on hot-button political topics like transition surgery and things of that nature. But it looks like both parties are maybe asking the break to be tapped a little bit. What's going on there?
Yes, and the reason is because the U.S. Supreme Court recently dealt with a similar Parties are saying that it's time to kind of take a pause until some of these issues are worked out. You referenced the fact that in 2023, the General Assembly passed House Bill 808, which banned transgender surgeries for minors. Almost immediately, a lawsuit called Vo v. Mansfield was filed in federal court, and the case has been playing out over the past couple of years.
But now, the parties in the suit, both the plaintiffs who are challenging the law and the state general assembly, which is defending the law, have asked for a pause because of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in a case called Skirmetti out of Tennessee.
Now, in that case, the Supreme Court in a split party. Party line vote, you could say party line, the conservatives on one side, the liberals on the other, said that Tennessee's law, which banned puberty blockers and hormone therapies for minors, could stand. In the wake of that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court then said to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: We're going to throw out your ruling in a different case, a case involving North Carolina's state health plan and whether it's going to cover medical procedures that are typically pursued by transgender patients.
The Fourth Circuit had thrown out the law saying the state health plan would not cover those procedures and ordered the state health plan to cover them. But now that decision was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court said to the Fourth Circuit, re-evaluate your decision in that state health plan case based on what we said in the Tennessee Skirmetti case.
So now the people in the Vox v. Mansfield case are saying, wait a minute, we shouldn't do anything until we find out what the Fourth Circuit says in the state health plan case. And once the state health plan case is resolved, then we can go back and decide what to do with the Vox v. Mansfield case. I think all parties are saying to the judge in the Vox v.
Mansfield case, it wouldn't make sense for us to proceed, for there to be decisions, and then all of a sudden those get thrown out by what the Fourth Circuit or eventually the Supreme Court decides in this other case. Let's just pause, wait to see how the rest of the cases are resolved. And then we can go back and decide what, if anything, needs to happen with this case dealing with the House Bill 808 and the ban on transgender surgeries for minors in North Carolina.
So, Mitch, there's a lot of moving pieces and parts here. You've got court cases from other states having a potential impact here on North Carolina. The thing I find interesting about it is you have multiple states, North Carolina and Tennessee, the two examples that we're talking about here, that have gone forward and passed a variety of state laws and put things in place only down the line for the court system to catch up in it. I know dozens of other states have passed similar legislation and regulations surrounding this same issue. It's an interesting legal process to watch unfold as the General Assembly here in North Carolina seemingly was a couple of years ahead of the curve on what is now a much more larger national issue that is now being dealt with by the United States Supreme Court.
A number of states have been dealing with this issue over the years. And basically, what you're seeing is as these laws are passed, almost immediately lawsuits follow. And it takes a while for these suits to get to higher stages of court. And depending on where these cases take place, various Courts of appeals, along with district courts, of course, may have different opinions. In the Fourth Circuit, what happened was in a very interesting split where the whole circuit participated in a rare en banc hearing.
It was an interesting split where the Democratic-appointed justices on one side, who make up the majority, ruled one way, while the Republican-appointed judges on the other side ruled another way. And because the Democrats outnumber, Democratic-appointed judges outnumber the Republican-appointed judges on the Fourth Circuit, it was the Democratic position that ruled, that is, that the state health plan had to cover these procedures that are covered by that are that are sought by transgender patients.
So that case was appealed by the state treasurer's office because the treasurer's office oversees the health plan. That was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court basically just sat on that case for a while.
Then, once it came out with this decision, In Tennessee, went back to the Fourth Circuit and said, We're vacating what you did before.
Now you have to reevaluate it based on what we just said in the Tennessee case. And then it has a domino effect on these other cases, like the one that we're talking about now, on the ban on transgender surgeries for minors. I think what impresses me most about this is that both sides in the case realize that they should. Have the case paused at this point, that other cases are going to help decide whether this case can move forward. And it makes sense from the idea of judicial economy, saving time and money and expense of having all kinds of witnesses and depositions, just to wait and see how all of the rest of this plays out in the courts before deciding what to do next with this case.
Yeah, no question about it. That domino effect is interesting and it's likely to come up in other cases in the state of North Carolina over a variety of other hot-button political issues that are seemingly rising to the top over the last couple of months. We'll keep an eye on this and all of those other cases. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. You're listening to Leaf Filter Radio, and the guru of gutter protection himself, Chris Koonahan, is here to take your most pressing leaf-related questions.
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Last week, we spent some time talking about certificate of need. We are learning this morning that the full 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals will not hold a rehearing in a certificate of need dispute involving a magnetic resonating image machine in northeastern North Carolina. We talked about this story back a couple of months ago. A Virginia-based company known as Chesapeake Diagnostic Image Centers sought the rehearing after a three-judge appellate panel ruled against them in July of this year. That was last month.
And a court order Friday indicated that no appeals court judge voted to grant a new en banc hearing, which would be the entire bench with all 15 members of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The court initially rejected Chesapeake's Complaint over which healthcare provider would get state permission to add a new MRI scanner to serve four northeastern North Carolina counties. Chesapeake had sued state regulators over the decision to award the new MRI scanner to a different company known as Sotera Advanced Image Solutions. The state selected them over Chesapeake for a government-mandated certificate of need. Chesapeake challenged the con decision on the grounds that the state allowed Sentera to maintain a monopoly on MRI services provided in four northeastern counties, including Curratuck County in North Carolina.
The lawsuit labeled the state's decision a case of, quote, agency error that caused substantial prejudice against Chesapeake's interests. An administrative law judge upheld the state's regulation decision, and a unanimous appeals court panel affirmed. The ALJ's ruling and for this certificate of need debate in the northeast half of the state over MRI machines.
Well, that is not going to come to fruition. It does not appear that there will be any additional court hearings on this, as that full 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals panel has ruled that they will not get involved, they will not re-hear the case over certificate of need. If you missed any of our coverage on that last week, I'd encourage you to check out our podcast or visit our Carolina Journal YouTube channel. As certificate of need continues to be a major struggle for health care providers across North Carolina, has a major impact on citizens across the state, as it no doubt about it, causes higher prices across the health care industry as supply and demand continues to be a problem in especially more rural areas of North Carolina. We do have the latest details on this case, a full rundown on everything that's gone on over.
The last couple of months. Over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, the headline: Full Appeals Court will not rehear Northeast NCCON, that certificate of need case, that's available over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 523, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. United States Senator Tom Tillis, of course, has been in the national spotlight a lot over the last couple of weeks with his announcement that he is not running for re-election.
However, in the meantime, he is still a sitting member of the United States Senate and has said he will continue to work not only for people of North Carolina, but the country as a whole. We are tracking some details this morning from Senator Tillis and a litany of other lawmakers up in Washington, D.C., dealing with housing supplies and high costs in home ownership. To get some details on that, Teresa Opeka, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour.
Some pretty bad figures here, Teresa. Home sales dropping to their lowest level in nine months. That's not the sign of a good economy moving forward. No, no, no, it's not, Nick. Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah, took a look at this, that Senator Tillis. Issued a press release recently about bipartisan legislation that he and his fellow senators hope will increase the housing supply and reduce costs. Yeah, and getting back to what you just said, home sales dropping to their lowest level, they're also on track to me being the worst in 30 years.
So, yeah, this is why this bill was so important at a time like now.
So, it's called the Housing Supply Expansion Act of 2025. Basically, what it does, it modernizes the federal definition of manufactured housing. That could be, you know, any kind of like a. The housing you would see, maybe even like a trailer or something like a modular, it's a better word for it, where it would include modular or prefabricated houses built without a permanent chassis.
So, what right now the chassis has to stay on these types of houses.
So, they that this would be Mm. Get it removed so it has a better chance of being approved. There's also local zoning laws that don't allow certain ones like this.
So they introduced this bill to hopefully get the ball rolling so that more people can buy more houses, have more choices. I think also accessory dwelling units is another type of housing that this would fall under as well. Yeah, and you talk about that litany of senators that have signed on to this bill all across the country from California all the way here to North Carolina. But specifically, honing in on our state this morning, Teresa, this is a major issue, especially in our larger metropolitan areas. You look at the Charlotte area, the Raleigh area, out towards Asheville, of course, other situations affecting homeownership out west from Hurricane Helene and then to the eastern half of the state down in southeastern North Carolina.
This has been a big-time issue for quite some time now. It has. And you said even before Helene struck, we're looking at the Asheville area, a new there was a housing market tracker. It was from American Enterprise Institute said Asheville's housing shortage is about A little almost 5,000 units or 10% of the city's existing units. That's the shortage.
That's how much they need. And you go down the line, you mentioned Charlotte, that's at 5.2%. Raleigh is at 5.2%. And you go over to Fayetteville, like going to the southern half, it's a little less. It's 0.9%.
But a lot of these areas are up. Wilmington, too, is at 6%.
So yeah, and the median home price in North Carolina is a little over $467,000. And that's with uh Basically, $139,000 the income needed to qualify for a home at that price. I mean, and a lot of people they're not making that.
So it's very hard, and it's very hard in the state to get really good housing at a good rate. And yeah, we're the interest rates have been stuck for so long. A lot of people were lucky, lucked out at two percent, three percent. Of course, that all went up. And now we're stuck at around seven percent or maybe a little bit under, it fluctuates.
So hopefully, Maybe, you know, President Trump We were talking about this pushes or nudges Jerome Powell to maybe cut some of those interest rates to help people along. Yeah, the president continues to pressure the Federal Reserve Chairman pretty heavily on that. And Teresa, you look at that new median home price. That's up significantly from where that was just about five years ago, which happens to also coincide with the same time that interest rates for mortgages jumped from that 2.5%, 3% where they were 2020 into the early parts of 2021 to where they are right now. It's completely unaffordable for the vast majority of folks across North Carolina.
It is, it is. I mean, you're seeing houses move, of course. It depends what bracket. I know, basically, it looks like maybe there are people who. Really don't have to worry about money million dollar houses, two million dollars.
I mean, obviously, they're still selling. But you look at houses maybe that are under 300,000, you know, in that price range right now. That is the new starter range, if you want to get down to it. I mean, there are some houses that are at a lower rate, but a lot of them also are still sitting now. They're sitting longer than they were.
Going back to Realtor.com, they had their housing forecast mid-year update. They said this year's housing market is going to look similar to last year's, with affordability concerns weighing heavily on sales volume and national home prices growing at a sluggish pace. And everybody's moving to the state at a rapid pace. But of course, things have slowed down. In that study or in that update, it said Raleigh had the 10th slowest market.
But the home staying on the market 10 days or longer than last year. And that's a long, this doesn't sound long, but we remember 2022 when we're coming out of the pandemic. And prices jumped. People are paying like, oh, it was $100,000 over asking price, sight on scene, no inspections. Those days are gone.
So we'll just have to keep an eye on that. It's a great update this morning. We appreciate the details. Teresa Opaca from CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:36.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993 WBT. On Monday, Attorney Ellis Boyle was installed as the new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, taking over one of the busiest federal prosecutorial offices in the country. The oath was administered by his father, United States District Judge Terrence Boyle, at the Terry Sanford Courthouse in Raleigh.
Ellis Boyle, who practiced law at Warden Smith and served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Harrison District, facing a significant number of cases involving violent crime, gang violence, drug trafficking, and white-collar fraud. Its sprawling jurisdiction covers 44 counties across the eastern third of North Carolina. From the Virginia border down to the South Carolina line, stretching from the coastal plains all the way to the sandhills. Boyle told the Carolina Journal yesterday afternoon: It's an incredible responsibility and honor and privilege to have this position, and I will take it very seriously and commit myself to keeping the good citizens of the United States and North Carolina, the Eastern District in particular, safe and get rid of crime.
Boyle replaces Michael Easley, Junior, who stepped down in early February after more than three years in the role. Easley had expanded the staff and implemented programs to combat violent crime throughout the eastern half of North Carolina. Boyle comes in as the White House and Attorney General Pam Bondi roll out Operation Take Back America, which is a multi-agency initiative to stop illegal immigration, eliminate cartels, and combat human and drug trafficking across the U.S. Bondi appointed Boyle as the interim U.S. Attorney on August the 7th.
with Boyle noting, quote, President Trump and Attorney General Bondi have given directions to the United States Attorneys and the Department of Justice to participate in take back America, and we will do so in the Eastern District of North Carolina with diligence and vigor. Boyle's appointment brings unique complications. His father is one of the most senior judges in the district and has served on the federal bench since 1984. With his son now leading the office that prosecutes cases in his courtroom, Judge Boyle, his father, might have to recuse himself from a share of cases on his criminal docket. Ellis Boyle is from northeastern North Carolina, born and raised in Edenton.
He earned a degree in history from Davidson College. After graduating, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Army, where he served as an infantry officer for four years, eventually rising to the rank of captain. Following his time in the Army, Ellis Boyle earned a law degree from Wake Forest University's Law School. After graduating, he spent a year as a law clerk for the U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia before going into private practices.
He is now officially assumed the post and was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, a wide area, 44 counties here in North Carolina. That is a very busy courtroom. A lot goes on in the Eastern District. We'll continue to track what comes out of the Eastern District over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now 5:40, News Talk 11:10-993-WBT.
School choice and education freedom have been major topics, not only across the state of North Carolina, but nationally over the last couple of years. We've got a new opinion piece over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline, North Carolina has the chance to double down on education freedom. The author of that, Donna King, the editor-in-chief over at CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour this morning. Donna, tell us a little bit about this piece that you've got up this morning and why it's such an important issue for North Carolina families.
Sure. Hi, Nick. It is interesting.
So, this tax credit was in the one big beautiful bill.
So, there's been a lot of focus about all the different elements of the bill, certainly when it was passed and signed.
Now, the pieces are starting to gel, and we're seeing now that this tax credit is interesting because it's really the first federal-level tax credit for school choice families. And, you know, that could be a double-edged sword for a lot of families. They maybe, you know, want the idea of more tax credits, more support for the school of their choice, but they also don't want the strings that could come with government money for education.
So, it is interesting to see and what it looks like. We're not really sure because the implementation hasn't started yet. But for the top lines, it's a federal measure that offers a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $1,700 for individuals who donate to what they call an SGO, a scholarship-granting organization. are nonprofits that can use that money to help families go to the school of their choice for tuition, tutoring, you know, that kind of thing, school-related expenses.
So it's really an incentive-driven model and it lets it empowers taxpayers to give to these student SGOs, these scholarship-granting organizations, and it could really just bust wide open access to private school or homeschool or other things that families who just can't afford a private school and aren't happy with their local public school or need something different, this could really expand the opportunities that they have. You touched on something pretty important. You talked about, you know, again, federal government program potential strings being attached. That's the biggest issue, or one of the biggest issues with public schools right now. A lot of mandates coming out of the Department of Education are being shoved down the throat of not only folks at the statewide level, but Donna in all of our 100 counties, local Board of Education, to keep all of that federal money that's funding things like free breakfast and after-school programs, all of those things that are tied to a lot of red tape up at the federal level.
Well, I think that's the concern. And we don't know what it's going to look like yet. And certainly, if North Carolina decides to opt in, what kind of rules will we put on that money? And what would happen with those tax credits? But a dollar-for-dollar tax credit is really something we have to look at.
You mentioned this, you know, the Reason Foundation has a really interesting column about this and saying, look, a federally run tax program could really become a vehicle for national mandates, testing requirements, curriculum constraints, admission standards, all these other sort of intrusive things that raise red flags for families who are really interested in school choice and why they want to leave public schools in the first place.
So, what is this going to look like? We don't know yet, but it is really an exciting opportunity to get the chance to double dip, so to speak, on programs like the Opportunity Scholarship. These innovations come from the states. North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship program has been incredibly popular with waiting lists.
So, we need to make sure that those programs like that are still protected because. That kind of innovation needs to come from communities and from the state.
So I'm excited to hear what the federal government has in mind to implement this tax credit and what it would mean for North Carolina families. Donna, would you quickly opine on this national movement of school choice? There's been many think tanks and many activists and third party groups that have been pushing this charge in many states, including North Carolina. It's getting national attention. I'm seeing posts from all over the country on X and Facebook and videos on YouTube about this school choice movement.
It seems to have really picked up some wheels, really, just over the last couple of years. Yeah, I mean, I think really since COVID, I mean, that's really when we saw this just, you know, come onto the scene. School choice homeschooling has been around for a lot of families for decades. But when COVID happened, it became much more prominent, much more to the forefront because parents, one, were very frustrated with the lockdowns, particularly here in North Carolina. And we also have a whole generation of families and parents that for whom technology and choice and all of these things are at their fingertips.
You know, you've got all of the stuff right in your house. You can, you know, order on a website and have a product delivered this afternoon. Why shouldn't education be the same way? And so you have a mindset shift from one generation to the next, and they see education very differently. It used to be a very conservative or Republican even idea.
It's not really anymore. You're seeing a wide spectrum of ideologies, political parties, socioeconomic backgrounds are really embracing the school choice movement because, one, you get one shot at your child's education. It's not a trend that you can fix over 20 years because your child is, nobody wants their child to be the social experiment of a government bureaucrat.
So that is what we're seeing right now. And this kind of tax credit could create SGOs that are able to make those dreams, those ideas of a different kind of education a reality for so many families. Here in North Carolina, we started the OSP program in 2013, incredibly popular. In the last two years, year and a half or so, the North Carolina state legislature has expanded it, lifted caps, has made it available to all families on a sliding scale with the poorest families being served first. That's a great example of how popular this could be in North Carolina.
It's a great opinion piece this morning. Again, the headline is North Carolina has a chance to double down on education freedom. You can read it by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Donna King, the editor in chief of the Carolina Journal, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 554.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WBT. Back-to-school shopping is projected to increase across North Carolina. According to a news study by the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, that's the NCRMA. It was conducted by Appalachian State University Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis.
The forecast included projections for the months of June through September of this year to capture consumers who buy for year-round school and early shoppers. Overall, retail sales in the 2025 back-to-school season are projected to total more than $84.54 billion. That's up almost 3.5 billion or 4.3% from where those numbers were in 2024. Andy Ellen, who is the president and general counsel of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, says, quote, the forecast for the 2025 back-to-school sales season shows the continued volatility of North Carolina's retail industry and the trust that North Carolina consumers have in our retailers to find what they need for their students. We are encouraged by the strong projections as we head towards the fall.
Retail is an integral component of North Carolina's economy, meaning that it is important to all of us that North Carolina retailers have a strong back-to-school season. Economic uncertainty and market volatility remain high as the Trump administration's tariffs continue to kick in. According to Ellen, he says generally retailers order their goods six months in advance, and so some of them have already made purchases for back to school items before tariffs started getting applied. We are seeing projections for items like shoes and clothing, which are often items that often are items bought for back to school, that those will likely be increasing with tariffs as we go forward. And while uncertainty over tariffs remain, falling inflation is welcome news for North Carolina consumers, with Andy Ellen noting this is a win win.
on the inflation dropping on a number of items, noting, I think that you will also see as you've seen reduction in gas prices as well. If you're filling up your tank or you're buying other things for your children, that's a big piece of the economic equation. Over the last couple of weeks, North Carolina's neighbors, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia have all held sales tax holidays, giving shoppers a break on back-to-school essentials. The North Carolina General Assembly's House budget proposal did include reinstating that sales tax holiday for back-to-school, which the state did offer until 2013.
However, as we've been covering over the last couple of months, budget negotiations continue to be stalled in Raleigh as the General Assembly, the House, and Senate cannot get together on final numbers for that budget.
So, as of right now, that budget proposal is not moving forward. You can read some additional details and check out the full study from the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.
