It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We continue our top story this week, which is ongoing customs and border protection operations under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security across the state of North Carolina, our two largest cities, Charlotte and Raleigh, both dealing with operations being conducted by customs and border protections. As federal immigration agents have arrested more than 200 immigrants over the last couple of days in the Charlotte area, according to the latest information from DHS.
The department has said that all of them were in the country illegally, and 44 of them have violent criminal records. What we know so far is of the 200 arrests in Charlotte, the Department of Homeland Security has been putting out news releases with photos highlighting certain individuals, as they tend to call the most violent or dangerous in those, highlighting members of the 18th Street Gang, MS-13 members, those being charged with aggravated assault, assault with a dangerous weapon, driving while intoxicated, felony larceny charges, a whole bunch of other litany of charges for a variety of individuals in Operation Charlotte Web, Charlotte's Web, which kicked off a Saturday across the Queen City. We then turn our attention to Raleigh, where on Monday we learned that immigration officials would in fact be making their way to the state capitol, and that did in fact happen yesterday. It's not immediately clear exactly. How many arrests were made in the Raleigh or Triangle area, as there were some reports that this was a kind of a spread out operation in and around the triangle.
However, we do know that those officials, it's not clear whether it was crews immediately from the Charlotte area that made their way there, or if it was additional customs and border protection forces wrapping up operations in Chicago over the last couple of weeks that made their way to Raleigh as we continue to watch the impact on North Carolina. There's been an interesting trend growing with these customs and border protection operations, and that is mass callouts at school districts, both in Charlotte and in Wake County. The most recent information that we are tracking this morning is that over 30,000 Charlotte Mecklenburg school students were absent Monday, according to officials with CMS. That is an increase of almost 10,000 from what was originally. reported.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools said on Tuesday that 30,399 students were absent from school on Monday after officials originally reported a little over 20,000 being absent on the first full day of first full weekday of these operations. According to the district, the numbers of absences was updated overnight Monday into Tuesday, and that number is now well over 30,000. Students also have conducted walkouts at some schools across Mecklenburg County and in Wake County as well, as there have been protests in both areas over the customs and border protection operations that have been ongoing, at least in Charlotte since Saturday started on Tuesday in Raleigh. Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff for the president of the United States, commented on the massive amount of absences at schools, prominently in Mecklenburg County, saying, So a conservative estimate is that one-seventh of a major southern public school district is here illegally. He was, quote, tweeting a post from Joe Bruno of WSOC television that was highlighting that original 20,000 students that were not in class on Monday.
As I just mentioned, that number has now jumped to, that number did, in fact, jump to well over 30,000 students.
So that has been the only White House reaction that we've seen, or close to the White House reaction. Stephen Miller, the chief of staff for President Donald Trump, highlighting about with all of these individuals being absent, what exactly is going on with the legal immigration status of 30,000 students within 60 years. CMS. Interesting perspective there. The latest that we are continuing to track across the state again is that the operations are continuing in both of our large cities here, our two major cities across the state of North Carolina.
Really, the unanswered question this morning is how much longer these operations will take place. We do believe and have some pretty strong information that Customs and Border Protection will be conducting a much smaller operation in the Durham-Raleigh Triangle area than compared to the operations taking place in Charlotte.
So we would presume, again, presume that at this point the operations in that area will be a lot shorter timeframe, maybe just a day or two. And from early on, reports last week when we first learned about customs and border protection making their way to the streets of Mecklenburg County, the city of. Charlotte, that it would not be a long-term operation like we've seen in places like Chicago or Los Angeles. The question, of course, is how exactly long is short in that definition.
So we are, of course, keeping an eye on that. The commander of these operations, Commander Gregory Bavino, highlighted some of the rhetoric from Democrat officials, specifically calling out Democrat Governor Josh Stein on social media yesterday as individuals have been posting videos to TikTok and Instagram, other social media platforms threatening the lives of custom and border protection agents or other federal immigration agents. The commander of these operations said, quote, Governor Stein, you caused this. Let me say this again, Governor. When you spout lies about lawful law enforcement operations, you speak something into weaker-minded people like this who may act upon your direction.
You need to check yourself. I can't play the video for you. Unfortunately, it's laden with profanity as a woman driving her car says that she wishes that she could be pulled over. She hopes that she gets pulled over by ICE or customs and border protection and says that she'd love to stick a screwdriver in the neck of anybody that pulled her over. That is the video in which the commander of these operations commented, lambasting Democrat officials like Governor Stein, former Governor Roy Cooper, and others that have claimed that these operations are being, in some cases, illegally done across the state of North Carolina, ratcheting up the political pressure as customs and border protection or ICE immigration and customs enforcement does their work and enforces federal immigration law.
So, this morning, again, more than 200 arrests in Charlotte. It is not immediately clear. We'll likely learn in the next couple of hours what Tuesday looked like in Raleigh as those small-scale operations took place. And everybody continues to wonder this morning exactly how much longer this will continue to take place with mass call-outs at Charlotte Mecklenburg schools and protests taking place across the state of North Carolina. We will continue our coverage this morning over at CarolinaJournal.com.
We'll keep an eye on exactly the latest numbers, the latest figures that we get from DHS and Customs and Border Protection, and we'll bring the latest to you right there. Save over two hundred dollars when you book weekly stays with Verbo. This winter, if you need to work, why not work from a chalet? If you haven't seen your college besties since, well, college, you need a week to fully catch up in a snowy cabin. And if you have to stay in a remote place with your in laws, you should save over two hundred dollars a week.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WBT. The Guilford County Democrat Party and their executive committee met virtually over the weekend voting to nominate High Point City Councilwoman Amanda Cook to fill the vacant House seat previously held by Representative Cecil Brockman. You'll remember this story back from just a couple of weeks ago. Brockman resigned on October the 31st after being charged with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.
House District 60 includes most of the city of High Point, as well as parts of Jamestown and southwest Greensboro. His term was set to run through January the 1st, 2027. Amanda Cook, the party's nominee to succeed him, is a former public school teacher and founder of a group called Teacher's Edge, which is a nonprofit focused on fostering legal. leadership and creativity in education. She is currently serving on the High Point City Council and is set to move to Raleigh in January to, of course, take over those jobs in the General Assembly.
At that point, she will resign halfway through her municipal term in the city of High Point. According to her campaign website, Cook plans to focus on equal rights, health care access, and public education policy during her time in the General Assembly. Cook said in her remarks during a candidate forum preceding the vote, quote, we have to strengthen year-round economic development here in High Point in order to build the infrastructure for our families.
So my first priority is to make sure that we do not have a city full of Title I schools. Eligible voters for the nomination included Democratic officials who live in House District 60. Those elected leaders, precinct chairs, precinct vice chairs, all within the organized Democrat Party were permitted to vote. After the committee vote, Cook's name was sent to Governor Josh Stein for formal appointment. If he approves, she will be sworn in and will assume the job as a representative for House District 60 in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Cook was one of four candidates seeking appointment for the open seat. The others included Bruce Davis, who received 10 votes, Joseph Alston, who received 26 votes, and Angie Williams McMichael, who received 52 votes. With that, Cook received 55% of the vote with those four candidates overall and did become the nominee. Guilford County Democrat Party chair Kathy Kirpatrick congratulated Cook after the results, saying, We had four excellent candidates, and I am proud for all four who ran. I look forward to having a person in the seat who will vote for her Democratic values.
North Carolina Democrat Party chair Anderson Clayton also praised Cook's nomination in an interview with WRAL News on Saturday, saying, quote, we are excited to have a good public servant in that position to be able to represent the people of Guilford County. Cook also received the endorsement from the Progressive Caucus of North Carolina as the Democrat Party was leading up to their vote.
So that should give you all the information you need to know about her background politically.
Now, the General Assembly was in Raleigh on Monday as we talked about that skeleton session taking place. John Bell, who was presiding over the North Carolina House, did mention that while the new, the soon-to-be representative in Amanda Cook was present in the General Assembly chamber, she was in the visitors gallery when the General Assembly gaveled in at 10 o'clock Monday. Monday morning. They had yet to receive that official letter from Democrat Governor Josh Stein approving her appointment to the North Carolina legislature. He did note that as soon as that letter comes in and the General Assembly is back in Raleigh, they will go through the process of making it official for her to be appointed to that seat.
It could potentially happen tomorrow as the House and Senate are both set to convene once again for a skeleton session. If not, we know that some lawmakers will once again be back on December the 15th.
So we will watch that process unfold as Brockman, again facing some of those very serious charges, having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy. He resigned back on October the 30th. And because he is a registered Democrat and serving as a Democrat, it was the Democrat Party in Guilford County that was responsible for the appointment for to appoint his successor. We will continue to follow Amanda Cook and all of the ongoings in the General Assembly. You can get those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 524, News Talk 1110-993, WBT.
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced some additional relief for farmers across not only the state of North Carolina, but the entire U.S. as it relates to natural disasters. To walk us through some of those details this morning, Katie Zender, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Katie, if my memory serves me correctly, this is phase two of some relief from USDA for farmers across the country. Yeah, so phase one started, I believe, in March of this year.
But yeah, so on Monday, Nick, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the second phase of federal funding for farmers that have been affected by natural disasters in 2003 and 2004.
So that's going to include, of course, Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Chantal, and any other natural disasters that occurred in the last couple of years. And so our Secretary Brooke Rawlins said, President Trump continues to put farmers first and provide relief to American farmers reeling from the devastating natural disasters that struck across the United States. And then she goes on, you can read the rest of her comment in the article. But yeah, so this started back in March and about $16 billion have been congressionally approved through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, which falls under the American Relief Act that was passed back in the early part of 2025. This money is also in addition to $9.3 billion that was allocated to the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, which benefits more than 500,000 row crop farmers, and an additional $705 million in the Emergency Livestock Relief Program, which will support more than 200,000 ranchers.
So, you know, all of these different programs and the money that falls under them fall under the USDA. But phase two is supposed to cover eligible crop, tree, bush, and vine losses that were not covered under phase one provisions. And it includes non-indemnified, which means a shallow loss of uncovered and quality losses.
So farmers and ranchers have up until April 30th of 2026 to apply for both phase one and phase two assistance.
So they still can apply for phase one assistance if they haven't yet. And to date, About $5.7 billion in SDRP payments, which is the supplemental disaster relief, have been paid out so far. And Katie, this, of course, affects the entire United States of America, but we're obviously looking at this in the relevance and impact here in North Carolina because, contrary to all of the news we hear about businesses starting up, businesses moving, agriculture still remains the number one sector in North Carolina. It is a major, major part of our state's economy. That's exactly right, Nick.
It's the number one industry here in North Carolina.
So, about $16 billion total have been allocated to this disaster relief fund between phase one and phase two. And then, in addition to that, there's the milk loss program, which is essentially the same thing. It's for dairy ranchers, and it's been allocated up to $1.65 million in payments to eligible dairy operations for milk that was either dumped or removed from the commercial market without being compensated. And again, that's because of a natural disaster in 2023 and/or 2024.
So, if any dairy ranchers were not paid for milk that was dumped or removed from the market due to a natural disaster, they can apply for the milk loss program and be compensated for that. And, Katie, I would imagine that this is incredibly relevant, especially for these smaller family farms or even maybe medium to small size farms that are maybe even a little bit more corporate across the state of North Carolina and the U.S. As you've walked us through with the variety of agricultural stories in the past, these are very low-margin industries. There's a lot of planning that goes into this. They've been hit and hammered really hard with tariffs and some of these trade deals across the country.
I would imagine some of these farmers are just barely hanging on right now. This has got to be some much-needed relief for them. That's exactly right, Nick. You know, agriculture and farming is a tough industry under, you know, quote unquote normal circumstances, but they're kind of being hit from all sides here the last couple of years between, you know, tariffs and the different natural disasters that we've had.
So, you know, and in North Carolina especially, a lot of these farms aren't big producers. They're small to mid-sized farms. And so, you know, they're really going to benefit from these relief programs. And Katie, let's talk about some of the federal emphasis that is being put on the state of North Carolina from the USDA. You walked us through a story a couple of months ago that USDA was beginning the process of shifting a lot of their employees out of Washington, D.C., getting them out of the district and into places across the United States.
There is going to be some expansion of a USDA hub in our state's capital. That's exactly right, Nick. So, yeah, so the U.S. Department of Agriculture is relocating the majority of their employees out of the DC metro area to five USD hubs across the nation. That was announced earlier this year.
And so, Raleigh is going to be the future home of one of those five hubs. As I mentioned earlier, Nick, agriculture is the number one industry here in North Carolina. And so, it's super important to have federal officials that really can connect with state officials, people that work with farmers on an everyday basis, like NC Farm Bureau and different organizations like that. And so, those federal officials are going to be relocating here probably over the next couple of years. But, one of the reasons that Raleigh was picked.
As a location for one of these hubs, not just because it's the capital, that's obviously an important reason, but it's also affordability. You know, a lot of DC, there's a few USDA members that work here already, and so they actually relocated here because of affordability and because of the commute time. And so when we compare Raleigh to Washington, D.C. the cost of living and the commute time is almost half of what it is in DC, especially for those people that want to have, you know, they want to have a yard, they want to have a house, they want to have kids, they want to have, you know, the American dream, if you will. For those people that want that, you know, the cost of it and the, you know, commute.
If they're living in DC, they're going to have an hour commute probably minimum every single day if they want the house and the yard and all those things. You know, in Raleigh, it's probably going to be 20 to 30 minutes. And then, you know, according to Forbes cost of living calculator, the cost of living in Raleigh is about 45% lower than it is in DC.
So that's almost half.
So there's a lot of different reasons for relocating USDA officials and employees here, but that is one of the big motivators for people. We'll, of course, keep an eye on that USDA transition to those five hubs across the United States, one of those being here in Raleigh and some of the additional relief for farmers across the United States as well. Katie, where can folks go and read some more details this morning? Right, they can read all the articles with the quotes and the numbers and everything at CarolinaJournal dot com. Katie Zender joins us this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Granger, for the ones who get it done. It's 5:38. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Stalk 1110-993 WBT. Certificate of Need or CON CON is an interesting discussion taking place across the state of North Carolina. It is highly prominent in the medical industry for providers that want to bring, for example, a new MRI machine online.
They have to go to the state and get, well, a certificate of need to purchase that equipment and make it operational. That has been the subject of a lot of litigation over the last couple of years in North Carolina. We have an update this morning from Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation on an interesting lawsuit that's taking place in the state. Mitch, that could have some pretty big ramifications depending on how this shakes out. You were in Raleigh earlier this week in the court system going through this.
What's the latest that you're learning? Yeah, this suit is unique among con litigation because it's actually challenging the certificate of need law itself. There is always Litigation moving through the North Carolina court system dealing with certificate of need. And usually the cases are. One provider suing another over a certificate of need because the only way you get to open a hospital, add hospital beds, add any other kind of major medical facility, or even large pieces of medical equipment is to get this certificate, basically a permission slip from the government.
And so once the government has hands out one of these slips. Bunch of people could compete for them, and those who don't win will sue.
So that's what usually happens with con cases that move through the state courts. This one's different. This is a newborn eye surgeon, Dr. Jay Singleton, who is challenging the con law itself. He owns what's called the Singleton Vision Center in New Bern.
He has a room within that center that he says is fully equipped, fully licensed, to be able to perform all of the surgeries that an ophthalmologist can perform. But he can't do it, he says, because the state requires him to have a certificate of need to have an operating room. It won't provide him the con. The only certificate of need in the three-county region of Craven, Pamlico, and Jones counties is held by a competing hospital just down the road from him.
So he has to send his patients to that hospital at much more time expense and money expense to have their surgeries there. He's saying that this is a violation of his state constitutional rights, and he's been pursuing this lawsuit for five years.
Now, last October, meaning October of 2024, the state Supreme Court ruled that this case could go forward. It basically said that there was a sufficient claim here that there might be constitutional rights violated. And the state Supreme Court ordered this case sent back to a trial court.
Well, today was, or on Tuesday, was the hearing in the trial court, a three-judge panel hearing a couple of different things. One was state government's motion to dismiss the case. And on the other side, the motion from Dr. Jay Singleton to have summary judgment in his favor, ruling the con law unconstitutional. Summary judgment would mean you would make that ruling without there ever having to be a trial.
He's saying it's completely a legal issue. You don't need to go through discovery, interviewing witnesses, taking all of that. It's something that the judges should be able to decide just based on the law.
So there are two and a half hours of hearing on this issue. We heard about the state's arguments. We heard Dr. Singleton's arguments. A lot of questions from the judges.
And no announcement about when a decision will be made. And Mitch, you point out the pretty big and significant difference in this case, which normally is two different medical systems, two different hospitals kind of arguing over the physical certificate itself, saying, no, I'm better at producing this service than you are, so on and so forth. It sounds like what you're describing here could potentially draw a complete end to certificate of need, depending on how the state's highest court comes down. Yeah, that's true. And it eventually would probably get back to the state's highest court right now.
It's in front of a three-judge trial court panel. And that court will have to decide, as I said, a couple of things. First, it could decide just to dismiss the case, saying that the state has made arguments that this is not a case that should go forward. But it could also rule for Dr. Singleton that the state con law is unconstitutional.
And if it is, that would throw the whole apparatus into question. Obviously, a decision from a trial court panel of that sort would be appealed, and it eventually would probably make its way back up to the state Supreme Court where there would be a final ruling. Interestingly enough, one of the key pieces of this argument is that the state Supreme Court already has struck down con. It struck down the earlier certificate of need law that was adopted in 1971 in a case that's called Aston Park in 1973. The state Supreme Court ruled the con law unconstitutional.
So the General Assembly came back in 1977 and adopted a new certificate of need law, including a bunch of findings of fact about why it was needed, how it was going to help control health care costs and help with access to health care. And so one of the arguments from the state is this is a different con law than the one that was struck down before, and you have to take the General Assembly's findings as true. One of the arguments that was actually made was: even if these facts of finding aren't true, You can't rule against the General Assembly because the General Assembly believed they were true when this was adopted. And of course, one of the things that one of the judges said that was interesting was: well, how do you get around this fact that you're saying? Less service means lower costs.
Doesn't that contradict basic economics? And that's when the lawyer for the state said, hey, you got to accept that the General Assembly believed that this was true and that they had a reasonable basis for this. And if that's so, then the law should stand. It'll be interesting to see whether this panel of judges, and if not this panel, whether the state appeals court or the state supreme court eventually buys that argument. Mitch, we're talking obviously about the legal side of it this morning, but let's take a step back on that for just a couple of minutes.
North Carolina, unfortunately, has found itself over the last couple of years on many surveys, either at the top or very close to the top, of the most expensive medical care anywhere across the United States. Our neighbors in South Carolina repealed Certificate of Need back a couple of years ago. Their prices have plummeted as a result, as you bring up some of the discussion in court over simple, basic supply and demand economics. This is not just for some random eye doctor in New Bern that the vast majority of North Carolina is not going to be going to for issues they might be having with their eyes. I mean, we're talking about some monumental potential changes throughout the Tarheel State.
That's right. It would affect eye surgeons, but it would also affect anyone who has some sort of operating room or procedure room that they would like to open to be outside of a hospital setting to perform these services. It would affect anyone who wants to buy an MRI machine so that there would be more availability of MRI services outside of just the traditional hospital operators. It would probably lead to more smaller medical facilities being opened up across the state of North Carolina and probably at more availability and less cost for the consumers.
So there could be a major impact. It just depends on how the court hearing comes out. When Dr. Singleton originally sued, He called it an as-applied constitutional challenge. He basically said the law was unconstitutional as it applied to him.
When the case got to the state Supreme Court, they said, well, This is not really just an as-applied challenge because if you gave him the relief that he wants, it could actually throw out some, if not all, of the con law, which makes it a facial constitutional challenge. That's why it was before a three-judge panel. And if it does end up being a successful facial constitutional challenge, that could throw out the whole con law. And if it does, that would throw out an entire regulatory regime that's set up with the State Department of Health and Human Services. This Con law is tied to an oversight group based in Raleigh that oversees something called the State Medical Facilities Plan, where the state says you can have this many hospital beds here, you can have this many ambulatory surgery centers here, you can have this many MRI machines here.
And if the state plan doesn't call for it, you can't buy it. You can't set it up. Even if you're taking it as your own expense and just letting the market decide, you can't do that. It's dictated by state governments. government from one plan that's updated once a year.
And Mitch, this is something that the John Locke Foundation has been really rallying against for quite some number of years now and calling on members of the North Carolina General Assembly, who presumably at any point could revoke certificate of need. They've got the majorities to do so. The question would be, would the governor be in favor of it? Has there been any movement on the General Assembly on this? It's not a new story.
As you mentioned earlier, certificate of need lawsuits are not new in North Carolina. We see them seemingly multiple times a year between various hospital systems and medical providers. Have you seen anything over the last couple of months that would make you think maybe the General Assembly is heading in one way or the other? Nothing over the last couple of months.
Now we have seen within this past year some significant movement on this because the state senate included complete repeal of CON within its budget plan. That's something that the state house did not include in its budget plan. And for all reports, the state house isn't interested in getting rid of this. But this is something that's been a priority on the state senate side for a while: getting rid of certificate of need completely. And that actually, regardless of this court case with Dr.
Jay Singleton, would be the easiest, simplest, and best way to get rid of certificate of need is for the General Assembly to decide. It's a bad idea, let's get rid of it. And then all of the litigation would go away because it would be the choice of the representatives of the people to do this rather than a court decision. And of course, that was one of the state's arguments in court: this is a decision for the General Assembly. The court shouldn't step in and make this policy choice for the General Assembly.
It's something for them to do. Back to the substance of your question. Over the past couple of months, haven't seen any action that would suggest there's going to be any resolution on this. The state senate wants to get rid of certificate of need. The state house hasn't shown any interest in getting rid of it.
So, if there's going to be something that kills Khan, at least for now, it looks like it would have to come through the courts. And of course, we've continued to track those back and forth budget negotiations between Republicans in the North Carolina House and Senate. Things have been stalled out now for quite some time. We'll keep an eye on those details. Mitch, thanks for sitting through court Tuesday morning and providing the update and information for us this morning.
You can read some additional coverage by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Oh Busy Wednesday morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. We'll keep you up to date with all of the customs and border protection operations that are taking place across the state in Raleigh and Charlotte. You can get additional coverage and details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
That's going to do it for a Wednesday 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 1110 and 99.3, WBT. Uh
