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I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, unfortunately this morning, the city of Charlotte and the light rail system are once again back in the news after an individual was seriously injured in a stabbing that happened on the Blue Line Friday afternoon into Friday evening. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police said on Friday, that was December the 5th, around 4:50 p.m. They responded to a stabbing near the light rail station on 25th Street and North Brevard Street. When they arrived, they found one person with stab wounds, and that person was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. In the period of time immediately after that stabbing, as you can imagine, law enforcement conducted an investigation to try and figure out exactly what went on.
And Charlotte Mecklenburg police have identified the suspect that is in custody this morning, 33-year-old Oscar Solenzaro Garcia. Officers arrested him shortly after the stabbing, and he now faces charges, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury, as well as breaking and entering a motor vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon, and being intoxicated and disruptive.
Now, here's where the story takes a twist. Court records indicate that the 33-year-old Garcia is illegally in the United States and had previously been deported. As of this morning, he has not been released from jail and is currently being held on no bond. Bill Melusian, who covers a lot of immigration-related stories for Fox News, put out a post on social media confirming some information from the Department of Homeland Security. He writes: DHS confirms to Fox News that the suspect accused of stabbing a man in Charlotte in the Charlotte light rail is a two-time previously deported Honduran illegal alien with a lengthy criminal record history in the United States.
He was deported by the Trump administration in 2018 on a deportation order. He then illegally re-entered the United States at the Texas border in 2021. He was deported a second time by the Biden administration, according to Bill Melusian in Fox News, and illegally re-entered the United States after that at an unknown time and location as a gotaway. If you remember back in the final years of the Biden administration, there was a lot of national discussion about gotaways. These are individuals that did not pass through a legal port of entry, whether we're talking about the southern or northern or any other border.
These individuals were able to work past customs and border protection and other law enforcement that are stationed at those legal ports of entry. And according to the Department of Homeland Security, Oscar Salenzaro Garcia was one of those individuals, one of the gotaways, in which there are reports that could potentially have been millions of individuals that entered the United States that would fall under those gotaway categories. He also has previous convictions in the United States for robbery, illegal re-entry, and has prior arrest. for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, resisting arrests, and false ID. He is now charged with attempted murder for this stabbing, and important to note, ICE, that's immigration and customs enforcement, has placed a detainer on him with local law enforcement in Charlotte.
And as I just mentioned, he has not been released from jail and is currently being held on no bond. This stabbing happened less than three months after 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zaruska was stabbed to death on the Charlotte light rail, which prompted outrage over soft-on crime policies in Democrat-run cities like Charlotte. The Zaruska story gained international attention back in the month of August. With news outlets from literally all across the globe covering that story. We continue to track the details here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
And this most recent incident has once again gained some pretty significant attention, with President Donald Trump commenting on it on a Truth Social post over the weekend saying: another stabbing by an illegal migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. What is going on in Charlotte? Democrats are destroying it like everything else, piece by piece. Signed President DJT. Governor Josh Sign, the Democrat governor here in North Carolina, also took to social media after the incident, calling the situation horrific, writing in part on social media, I just spoke with Chief Patterson about the horrific stabbing on the light rail this evening.
Please join me in praying for the full recovery of the victim. I am pleased that Chief Patterson was already surging law enforcement through Charlotte with Operation Safe Season. And I am grateful to state law enforcement agencies that are assisting the operation. Public safety is a top priority for all of us. Similar comments echoed by Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, who had a pretty handed election victory back just last month, almost a little over one month ago.
She put in a post on a press release statement, I should say: Everyone deserves to be and feel safe in our city. and there is no room for violence in our community. We invest heavily in increasing security on our transit system, and CMPD has been proactive in increasing its presence across the city. including announcing a new multi-agency effort this week. There are several aspects of public safety that are outside of the city's jurisdictions, including immigration policy and enforcement.
But we will continue to focus on public safety and ensuring a safe and vibrant community. You'll remember back just a few weeks ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted Operation Charlotte's Web in the Queen City. As the Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles highlights some of the things that are, in fact, outside of the city's jurisdiction, which immigration law would absolutely fall under that category. With the CBP operation over the last couple of weeks, more than 425 individuals were arrested.
That's according to the Department of Homeland Security, as that operation wrapped up just a couple of weeks ago. Gregory Bovino, who is the commander-at-large for Customs and Border Protection, who oversaw those operations in Charlotte as part of Charlotte's Web, had some harsh words for Governor Josh Stein over the weekend, saying, Governor, you made zero mention of the fact that the perpetrator was an illegal alien. The blood of the innocent is on you. You've shown and told for weeks now, yet you continue to choose illegal aliens over Ma and Pa Americans. How much more, Governor?
How much more? That was the commentary from Gregory Bovino in the immediate aftermath of this stabbing on the Charlotte light rail. That took place on Friday. The interim CEO of CATS, that's the Charlotte Area Transportation System, which is the entity responsible for operating the Charlotte Light Rail and many other public transportation systems throughout Charlotte. His name is Brent Cagle, and he commented on this, saying, We are disappointed that a verbal altercation escalated to the point of a stabbing incident on the Blue Line train Friday evening.
through close collaboration with CATS private security teams and CMPD, that's the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, a suspect was apprehended swiftly following the incident. Since August, that's when Rina Zaruska was brutally murdered on the light rail, CATS together with our partners have taken a proactive and robust approach to keep employees and passengers as safe as possible by deploying additional off-duty CMPD officers, private security personnel, new technology, and safety reporting tools. Violence has no place in our community, including on public transit. Individuals who believe in public transit can be used as an area to settle grievances through violent altercations. Those are not welcome on our system.
We will continue to work with our partners at CMPD as well as our private security team to ensure everyone rides appropriately on public transit. We will not compromise on the safety of our customers and our employees. This is once again the second high-profile, serious situation. One back in August leading to the death of Irina Zaruska.
Now we are learning information about a critical stabbing that took place Friday on the Charlotte Blue Line as the city of Charlotte and policies that are being pinned on the Democrat Party, as President Donald Trump noted, are continuing to be in the national spotlight this morning. I will note that this situation did happen right before 5. p.m. on Friday and so kind of end of the day on Friday and over the weekend it's going to be very interesting to see what the news cycle looks like as we head throughout the day today the individual in this case again 33 year old A 33-year-old Honduran immigrant by the name of Oscar Salenzaro Garcia is in custody this morning. He will be making a court appearance this morning in Charlotte.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ICE does have a detainer over his head as well. We will likely see some pretty significant updates in this story this week. As soon as we get them, we'll pass them along to you right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and keep you up to date around the clock over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Deck your home with plans.com.com. TIY or LET US Install.com.
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Rules and restrictions may apply. This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Hey, Bowen, it's gift season. Ugh, stressing me out.
Why are the people I love so hard to shop for? Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired. Except for the guide we made. In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts! With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto, or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have.
Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at Marshalls. It's 21 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993WBT. This morning, we're tracking a letter that was sent by the North Carolina State Board of Elections and their executive director, Sam Hayes. That was a second letter that was sent to the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles and the commissioner there, Paul Tyne, requesting the social security numbers of DMV customers who are also registered voters.
Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina's state senators Brad Overkash, he's the Republican from Gaston. Ralph Heiss, he's the Republican from Mitchell, as well as Warren Daniel, the Republican from Burke.
Some other individuals include Representatives Hugh Blackwell from Burke County, Sarah Stevens from Surrey County, as well as copied on the letter. He first requested this information. Information in a letter back in September saying that the information would allow election officials to match voter records more precisely against other government databases, identifying duplicate registrations and verifying voter eligibility. Hayes said that the request is becoming increasingly important as the board prepares for the 2026 midterm elections. In a press release, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said: accurate voter rolls are essential to both voter access and election integrity.
Full cooperation between our agencies will help ensure that only eligible voters are on the rolls with reducing the risk of false matches that can undermine public trust. At its November the 25th meeting, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted to initiate the process of entering into a memorandum of agreement with the United States Department of Homeland Security to use its systematic alien verification for entitlements known as SAVE database. Which will allow the board to compare North Carolina's voter rolls to that saved database and again. Go through the process of verifying correct matches with identities, making sure that duplicate voters are not existing on the rolls. Hayes said that it is one of the few tools available that is able to verify citizenship status and uphold the constitutional requirement that only U.S.
citizens can vote in North Carolina. He also stated during the meeting that Ferguson had written to Tyne regarding a number of non-citizens who had been processed through the DMV and voter and motor vehicle registration system. He wrote and he said during the meeting, Commissioner Tyne says that the problem is fixed. That has never been a satisfactory answer on how the issue was fixed. These people were just waved through the system and many, I believe, without their knowledge.
They may have been an English proficiency issue there as well.
So I believe that the problem still exists, and so does the United States Attorney. In the December the 4th letter, this is the most recent letter, Hayes says that while he understands that the data sharing request is still undergoing legal review within NCDMV, two months have passed since his initial request. The letter stresses in part, as we approach the 2026 midterm elections, timely cooperation is critical. Full Social Security numbers would significantly improve our ability to remove deceased voters and individuals with disqualifying felony convictions, identify duplicate registrations, and determine whether any non-U.S. citizens have been added, mistakenly or otherwise, to the roles.
Access to this information would also reduce the likelihood of false matches, which is vital for maintaining public confidence. A DMV investigation, quote, did not reveal any systemic issues within their process. Tyne wrote to U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson back on August the 28th. The commissioner highlighted two instances where errors occurred due to an examiner oversight, as Tyne's letter offered specific information about five people that Ferguson cited in his email.
Russ Ferguson responded back on September the 25th that he plans to share that information with the state's other U.S. attorneys, saying, quote, since this seems to be a statewide problem, not limited to just my district. Hayes repeated Ferguson's concerns again in the letter. He underscored that Section 303 of the Help America Vote Act, that's HAVA, which was passed all the way back in 2002, right?
So this is not any. Yeah. New legislation, any sort of new federal standards. HAVA has been federal law now for the better part of 23 years. Part of that, Section 303 requires election officials and motor vehicle agencies to enter into data sharing agreements as needed, and that's the key word, as needed to verify the accuracy of voter registration information.
With the executive director of the State Board of Elections Sam Hayes adding, our request aligns with these requirements and reflects long-standing best practices across the country. He said that he and the board are ready to work closely with Tyne and his team to transfer the information securely and in full compliance with all federal and state laws, saying we will continue to safeguard sensitive data within our election management system as we have done reliably for decades. In an emailed statement to Carolina Journal, a spokesperson for the DMV said, quote, We're aware of the letter and will respond in due course. No, obviously we are about 11 or so, a little less than 11 months or so. Away from the midterm elections in 2026.
However, primaries are pretty close. They're less than 90 days away in early March.
So those are pretty close, right around the corner, as the new group taking over the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Previously, the power of that board, three Democrats, two Republicans, with some changes in state law this year, that is now flipped. It is now three Republicans, two Democrats, with the appointment authority now being at the discretion of the state auditor and Dave Bullock. It used to be under the discretion of the governor. And this is one of many issues that the North Carolina State Board is currently dealing with as they continue to work through a federal lawsuit that was brought by the Department of Justice.
Again, over some issues with HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, with many voters across the state missing either the last four digits of a Social Security number or a full North Carolina driver's license on their voter registration form. Again, Not new law there either. That is all part of HAVA, which passed back in 2002. And now some of these additional requests to DMV to get as much data as possible so that those working on the voter rolls across the state of North Carolina can do a variety of things, as was noted by Sam Hayes, the executive director. Duplicate voter registrations in the system, individuals that have deceased or died.
Those folks obviously need to be removed from the roles. Verifying citizenship status, a lot of data, a lot of information to be passed back and forth. We await a full-on response from the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, DMV. You can read some additional coverage on this story this morning, including the first letter, which was sent by Sam Hayes back in September, and now this most recent letter, all of that available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline: NCSBE urges DMV to release full social security number data in September.
Second request. This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bo and Yang from Los Culturalistos with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Hey, Boen, it's gift season. Oh, stressing me out.
Why are the people I love so hard to shop for? Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired. Except for the guide we made. In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts. With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto.
Or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have. Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at Marshalls. It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 11:10-993 WBT. Recapping our big breaking news this morning: the city of Charlotte and the light rail system back in the news after an individual was seriously injured in a stabbing that happened on the blue line Friday night.
According to CMPD, around 4:50 p.m. on Friday, that was December the 5th. They responded to a stabbing near the light rail station on 25th Street and North Brevard Street. When they arrived, they found one person with stab wounds. That individual was rushed to the hospital and was noted in a serious condition or critical condition at that time.
CMPD have identified the suspect that is in custody this morning, 33-year-old Oscar Solenzaro Garcia. Officers arrested him after the stabbing, and he faces several charges this morning, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury, breaking and entering a motor vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon, and being intoxicated and disruptive. Court records, as well as information from Bill Melusian at Fox News, confirmed from the Department of Homeland Security that the individual arrested in this case is illegally here in the United States and had been deported at least two previous times. He was deported by the Trump administration in 2018 on a deportation order. He illegally re-entered the United States in March of 2021 and was deported a second time by the Biden administration.
And sometime after that second deportation, once again, illegally re-entered the United States, according to DHC. And Bill Meluj and Fox News at an unknown time and location, he re-entered the United States as a gotaway. This is prompting, as you can imagine, some additional outrage in Charlotte, the Queen City, as this stabbing happened less than three months after 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zaruska was stabbed to death in the neck on the light rail that prompted national outrage over Democrat cities like Charlotte and their soft-on-crime policies. President Donald Trump commenting on the situation over the weekend saying, Another stabbing by an illegal migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. What's going on in Charlotte?
Democrats are destroying it like everything else, piece by piece. We will have continued coverage throughout the day right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT, where it's now 539. You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. There is an entity in North Carolina called NCORE. That's the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency.
It was spawned after Hurricanes Matthew and Florence left a pretty big swath of destruction in the eastern half of North Carolina. And over the last eight or nine years, it has been nothing but a complete and total mess in terms of the state agency. To walk us through some new details this morning on a new report out from state auditor Dave Bollock's office and a recent hearing with the North Carolina General Assembly, Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Teresa, we've talked about NCOR in the past. This is not, unfortunately, a new story that we're passing along to our audience this morning.
However, we have some more insight now as to what went wrong multiple years ago in the state of North Carolina. What's the latest that you're following? Yeah, good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me. It's definitely nothing new.
going over some of the you know from what we've already heard over the past few years with different hearings that have come up on ENCORE. But State Auditor Dave Bollock did release a report on Wednesday and appeared at a A General Assembly hearing on Thursday to outline the report. And talk about what went wrong, also, some recommendations as well. Basically, You know, this all occurred from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence 2016, 2018, and CORE was created in 2018 by former Governor Roy Cooper to help with the rebuilding process from those hurricanes and what Auditor Bollock called, you know, those were disasters, and NCOR was a third disaster. He beat no bones about that during the hearing.
And also said this has been a logistical nightmare for all the families that are involved. I mean, there's people. Still Who do not have a home nearly a decade later? It's getting better, but there's still many who do not have a home. In fact, we found out on Thursday that Representative Carl Gillespie of Macon County said there are still 328 families in the program.
And 74 of those homes will most likely not be completed by the end of the year, despite a promise from NCOR's new director, Prior Gibson. He became director at the end of last year.
So, still waiting on the completion, things have gotten better, but. it's still it's still kind of a a mess at this point. I mean, Teresa, you would almost have to suspend reality to get yourself into the mindset that almost 10 years after Hurricane Matthew affected portions of eastern North Carolina, people who have been living in hotel rooms or rental houses being shuffled back and forth. I mean, there's no other way to describe this, but an abysmal failure of state government. Oh, most definitely.
You know, I mean, going through some of the things that Auditor Bullock had in the report. Um Basically, nearly $785 million was paid to vendors without any reconciliation or oversight. Uh And also NCORE spent more of course, we're going to the top line figure, more than a billion of taxpayer money. That included seven hundred nine million from CDBG money from the federal government and also two hundred ninety seven million from state appropriations. And the money, you know, that, well, not money, the process for people when they went through was an eight-page process.
Step. Like people had to fill out eight pages, jump through hoops to get all this stuff done. Each step, he said, took a minimum of 100 days. Grant determination took another two and a half years. And then finally, it was four years before anybody started work on a house.
Four years after that process. It's just an unbelievable situation. We've heard a lot. I said information before, but there's been new information like this being revealed during the hearing and the press conference he had on Wednesday. Just unbelievable.
Yeah, and the report is very lengthy, Teresa. And again, as you noted, we have gotten some little sneak peeks into what's been going on behind the scenes at ENCORE. But this new audit from Dave Bollock's office, it's 509 pages, I think, is the exact number on it. It is a very lengthy report, and it walks through essentially step by step how we got into this issue. One of the things that I found almost unbelievable was that the state and NCORE spent $25 million getting an instance of Salesforce set up.
Teresa, once they set that up, they still weren't tracking payments correctly. Mismanagement of funds all over the place. Remarkable that you could spend that much money setting up a piece of software and then just frankly not use it. And as state auditor Bollock noted in a Wednesday press conference, never bothered training anybody how to use it either. What a waste of money.
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. But he says, you know, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think that's the old saying, you know, it's a good program. It just wasn't used correctly.
And he said, actually, that's the equivalent to almost how much his office gets on a yearly basis for appropriations.
So imagine 25 million.
So, yeah, just a waste of money. And they had two other programs as well. I want to backtrack on one thing, talking about the families and all the process they were going through. They spent nearly $75 million on temporary housing for these families. That's an average of $230,000 per household.
That could have built a house for somebody. You know, and that was brought up in the hearing on Wednesday by Senator Buck Newton of Wilson County. He basically said the same thing. You could build houses for that amount of money.
So you got Salesforce, you got the temporary housing money that was used. Again, it's just, you want to call it a train wreck. It was really a train wreck.
Well, and not only if Tracy, could you have used that money to rebuild houses? I mean, the state could have just cut these people checks and said, go buy a brand new house. You know, for you know, at the time before the housing market got so inflated, and many of these rural eastern North Carolina counties, where a lot of those 328 homes that still need to be repaired, I would imagine those are probably in more rural areas of eastern North Carolina. These individuals could have just bought houses. The state could have cut them checks, and we would have been done with this seven years ago.
But here we are. And as you just reported, the idea that some of these individuals still will not be back in either their original homes that have been rehabilitated or brand new homes when the calendar flips over to 2026 is a miserable situation. Yeah, it most definitely is. I know Prior Gibson did also testify at Thursday's hearing, said that they are hopeful, this is stressing hopeful, that they will have all of this completed by next October before the end of the next legislative session. That is what that's coming from him.
So stay tuned for that. But yeah, I mean, At this point, people should all be back in their homes or or new homes at this point. We'll continue the conversation with Teresa Opeka from CarolinaJournal.com coming up after this. You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistos with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
This is Bo and Yang from Los Culturistos with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Hey, Boen, it's gift season. Stressing me out. Why are the people I love so hard to shop for? Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired.
Except for the guide we made. In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts! With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto, or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have. Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at Marshalls. Good morning again.
It's 5:51. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. We are continuing our coverage this morning of a brand new audit out from state auditor Dave Bollick's office looking at NCORE. That's the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. Teresa Opaca from CarolinaJournal.com joins us.
Teresa, this is of course incredibly relevant. You know, it's important to, of course, look at the past, look at what happened, and try and highlight some of this information. Absolutely. But we then flip over to the other side of the state. We've got Western North Carolina a little more than a year ago, absolutely obliterated by Hurricane Helene.
The state has a new entity set up called Grow NC. I would imagine a lot of folks are wondering. Seven, eight, nine, 10 years from right now, are we going to be having these same conversations about the failure of this entity? The state does not have a good track record with these programs. No, it most definitely doesn't.
And that's what Auditor Bolick talked about. He did say, you know, he did talk about Grow NC a little bit, you know, saying they still need some time to actually go through the process and see how they're going to be doing before he was going to take a look at it. I think they also have had some hearings in the legislature about it. But he said, you know, we had the one entity, NCOR, now you've got GROW NC. And if we have another disaster come up in the future, are you going to have a third entity?
He said, that would be ridiculous, but you're right. We see how this they're going to be doing out there in Western North Carolina. Maybe lessons learned from the mess here in eastern North Carolina with NCOR. Yeah, so it's the old-time will tell thing, but hopefully. People have heard enough about this in the last few years and have learned a few lessons from it.
Well, and the other reason that this is incredibly relevant is earlier this year, we heard some rumblings up in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. that the Trump administration might look at essentially dissolving FEMA and turning it into nothing but a grant writing facility, meaning that there would be no FEMA employees that are on the ground in the immediate aftermath of a storm. It would be state or local officials with funding from the federal government. Teresa, if you set up that situation in North Carolina right now, I don't think folks would have a lot of confidence that the state could handle something like that. You're right.
I don't think they would either. Just like you just said, the track record that the state has. And I believe that the one who was overseeing FEMA at the moment, he quit this week or last week in D.C.
So, yeah, but to leave it to North Carolina to handle all on its own at this point, I don't think that, I really don't think the state's ready. I think they're, you know, all of this is good. These are all positive steps. And that's what Auditor Bollock said, too. He says, you know, this is an all-pointing fingers.
He says he wants to be proactive and get things moving in the right direction so we don't have another problem like this in the future. But at this point, I don't think the state is 100% on board to handle this themselves. And, you know, people do want the backing from the federal government when it comes to things like this. I mean, it's just, yeah, right now it would not be a good situation for the state to take all this on on its own. And Teresa, I think it is important to note, however, that other states have been able to manage this.
Now, of course, geography is very different. Florida would, of course, be the example that you would look at. Florida has more hurricanes more often than North Carolina does. And so they're obviously a little bit more adept at dealing with that. But even just to our south, in South Carolina, they dealt with very similar impacts from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
Teresa, these same issues are not happening in the Palmetto State this morning. Yeah. No, they're not. In fact, it did a story last year. It was a two-part series or earlier this year about how other states compare to North Carolina for a hurricane recovery.
We did spotlight South Carolina and Florida, and they've done phenomenal jobs. There was somebody who was, I think it was Colonel Sanderson. He was part of a project in South Carolina, testified early on at one of these NCOR hearings and said what NCOR was doing wrong and what they did right. Not being obnoxious about it, but just giving proactive steps to say, you know, this is what you could do. I think they get some guidance from him later on.
We talked to a professional in Florida about what they have done for, you know, he helped out with Hurricane Katrina, a lot of lessons learned from that. And, you know, all the different steps that could be taken. Even in this article that we have this morning on Carolinajournal.com, we went back for an article we had previously, how many times that there was help being given to NCORE and they were. Refused to listen or refuse to take any suggestions.
So, yeah, other states have done a really good job with it. This is obviously going to continue to be a major situation to follow, not only the folks in the East that are still the 328 individual households that are still waiting to get back on their feet and get back into their homes, but as we watch some of the recovery and relief efforts out in western North Carolina, Teresa, thanks for all the information and insight this morning. We greatly appreciate it. You can get additional coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Where it is already shaping up to be another busy week across the state of North Carolina. Don't forget to stay up to date with breaking news and statewide stories and national politics and more around the clock by visiting our website this morning. All of those details, all the stories and coverage this morning, again, over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Monday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
