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Book in minutes at vaccassist.com. Sponsored by Pfizer. It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
We are going to be keeping a very close eye on a legal proceeding happening Thursday morning in Mecklenburg County as Sheriff Gary McFadden is facing a petition to recall him from his position as the elected sheriff of Mecklenburg County to walk us through what we can expect Thursday morning in that courtroom. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, before we get into what we're going to expect Thursday morning, How did we get to the point where you've got a duly elected sheriff that's facing a legal reason? This is not a change.org petition, Mitch. This is a legally binding petition to potentially remove him from his post.
This is a pretty serious situation. It is a serious situation, and it's not something we see very often. But five people signed on to a petition filed in. Mecklenburg County Superior Court asking for the removal. Of Sheriff Gary McFadden.
One, of course, is a current Democratic state lawmaker. McFadden is also a Democrat, so this is not a partisan affair. Carla Cunningham, state representative who represents part of Mecklenburg County, accuses McFadden of threats in this petition. She says that they have locked horns on some issues, including the fact that Cunningham supported legislation that would force sheriffs like McFadden to cooperate with ICE. McFadden was against that idea.
Cunningham voted for it, even though almost every Democrat voted against it. But she sided with the Republicans and said that she thinks law enforcement should be cooperating with ICE. McFadden and Cunningham had phone conversations about this, and Cunningham said she felt that she was being threatened and extorted by these phone calls, part of the information that's in the petition. We also heard in that petition from the former chief deputy. Four, Gary McFadden, who had worked for him for nine months and then left after having repeated clashes, talked about some of the things that he saw that didn't believe were above board, like trying to have some staff members fired, even though they didn't do anything wrong.
Another person who was involved in the petition was a former employee of the sheriff's office who had worked in the jail. He said that there were a number of occasions in which Policies that were spelled out for the jail and for the department weren't followed. And the sheriff would tell prison or jail inmates one thing that went against the jail's policies. And so the other staff would catch heck from the inmates when they said, Well, no, that's not what we do. This is what the policy says.
The same employee said that she was stabbed in the neck. By an inmate, and that McFadden blamed her for the incident rather than the inmate.
So, lots of serious accusations in this petition. And once the petition is filed for removal, then it's heard by a court, by a judge. And so this petition was filed on the 5th of January. And the hearing is basically taking place 10 days later.
So While we don't know all of the details of what's going to happen, I think you could be pretty well certain that there would not be some sort of final determination on this 10 days after that petition was filed without having any. court filings from the sheriff himself. Or any type of discovery that you would see in a legal proceeding, meaning, interviews of witnesses, compilation of documents, that sort of thing. My guess is, since I have not seen this type of procedure play out very often, that what would happen is the judge. We'll look at the petition if there is any.
Court filing by that point from the sheriff. He would look at that as well, and then kind of set out a process. For how to deal with this, one of the things that's indicated in the court records is that they'll have a status conference. And usually, what is meant by a status conference in a legal proceeding is. Both sides get together with the judge, kind of describe where things stand with the case at the point, what happens next.
Do they have points of agreement on a future schedule? If not, The judge will say, Well, you know, come up with your alternate plans, send them to me, and then I'll come up with a schedule.
So, my guess is that's going to be a lot of what this is about. You may hear some of the details of the accusations. and some of the details of the response. But not a full-fledged trial, not a full-fledged two-hour hearing on what would be the equivalent of a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment. More likely, Here's what the petition says.
Here's what the process calls for.
Now let's set a schedule how we're going to deal with it. And that's likely what's going to come out of the hearing that has been scheduled in this case. And, Mitch, obviously, as you just kind of mentioned, we don't exactly know how this process is going to play out. This is something that is pretty rare that we see unfolding here in North Carolina. But, however, would it be accurate to say you wouldn't expect this to be like some of the other lengthy legal processes that we've talked about, where things can drag on for years on end and are jumping all over the court systems?
You would imagine because you're dealing with an elected official who, by the way, has an election coming up soon, that something like this has to be dealt in some level of an expeditious manner. One would expect that that would be true, but that's not necessarily how it would play out. Depending on what happens, it's something that could drag out in the legal system for a while. If the petition is denied, Then you might see some sort of appeal, but while the appeal is taking place, the sheriff would still be working, and so there wouldn't be any impact there. But if the petition is actually accepted and Sheriff McFadden is removed from office, one would expect that.
He would appeal and would probably try to get the judge, whoever the judge is overseeing at that point in the case, to stay the decision until an appeal is finalized. And then that's the type of thing that, because there would be an appeal, could last for months or even years. Because the appellate process, you could never predict how long that's going to take. We've seen some court cases when there have been oral arguments and you don't see a ruling for two or more years afterward.
So it's entirely possible. That the initial decision in this dispute could. Take place in a matter of weeks or months, but then if there are appeals from one side or the other, it's something that could stretch for years. Mitch, you walked through some of the details in the complaint, and that's obviously the stuff that is legally bound and is part of the reason that this petition even exists and why we're talking about it this morning. Then on the flip side, you've also got kind of the public sentiment.
You've had a couple of pretty horrific high-profile situations in the city of Charlotte over the last six or eight months. The top being, of course, the brutal murder of Irina Zarutska in late August of 2025. Just in the last couple of months, another stabbing on the Charlotte light rail by an illegal immigrant who had been banned from the system. There seems to be growing concern from citizens in Mecklenburg County in and across the greater Charlotte area that maybe law enforcement is not doing the best job that they possibly could. And of course, you look at the top man who is the sheriff.
Yeah, certainly in the court of public opinion, there have been a lot of questions recently about Sheriff Gary McFadden. There's also outside of this process, a process playing out in the General Assembly. One week after the hearing in this case, McFadden has been invited, and the invitation was not a friendly one, but invited to speak before an oversight committee at the General Assembly. And in announcing that this letter had been sent to the sheriff to participate in this hearing, Brendan Jones, one of the top leaders in the North Carolina House of Representatives, talked about blatant disregard for state law, gross mismanagement, and said that he's calling on the sheriff to discuss his failures.
So obviously, we know where Brendan Jones is coming from on this.
So it's obviously not just something that's taking place in Mecklenburg County, but officials in the North Carolina General Assembly are also looking at Sheriff Gary McFadden. And one of the things that could take place as well is a drumbeat. For the sheriff to step down. I mean, I think the petition's calling for him to be removed from office, but I think a number of his critics would probably be happy if he just sort of looked at it and said, This is more trouble than it's worth, and stepped down, which would get them to the same place that they're going for with the petition. The petition process itself, as we explained, it's a court process, so it will go on the court schedule, which is not always predictable.
And that's the type of thing that could drag on in the North Carolina courts through appeals for a number of years. But the other thing that will happen, as you alluded to earlier, is another election at the ballot box. And it would not surprise anyone if a lot of this stuff is happening now in preparation for the next election with a mind to convince voters that, hey, this guy that we're hearing about in the news, do we really want him to have another term as sheriff? I would be shocked. If political calculations didn't play a role into both the petition and the hearing that's scheduled before the House Oversight Committee.
Yes. And then, of course, on top of that, as you just mentioned, the public outcry and some of the public pressure as well, kind of getting hit from all angles. We'll continue to attract the details out of Mecklenburg County as it relates to Sheriff Gary McFadden. You can read some additional coverage on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the information this morning.
Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. One, oh. Let's go! You're still grooving, still connecting, still loving, still turning up, still thriving. You still got it, but your immune system, it weakens as you age.
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Granger for the ones who get it done. It's 22 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. A new report out this week examines the potential economic effects of tariffs implemented during the Trump administration, estimating how they could lead to nearly $700 million in losses, as well as approximately 8,000 jobs being affected in North Carolina's very prominent agricultural sector, which I'll remind you is the state's largest industry, contributing nearly more than $111 billion to the state's economy each and every year. The report is titled How Tariffs Threaten North Carolina's Agriculture.
It is published by the apparent organization of the Carolina Journal, the John Locke Foundation, and found potential losses of up to $695 million to the state's farming industry. Industry representing approximately one-third of the average net farm income in the state. Economic losses in the state resulting from trade policy retaliation have the potential to exceed some $1.9 billion, or potentially as much as 2% of the state's GDP. Donald Bryson, who is the president and CEO of the John Locke Foundation, said, quote, when agriculture is targeted in international trade disputes, North Carolina is especially vulnerable. This report shows that the costs are not abstract.
They mean a lot of lost farm income, loss of jobs, and real harm to rural communities. The report analyzes North Carolina's major commodities and their likelihoods of being exported. And while North Carolina's major commodities do not perfectly align with some of the top U.S. exports, a decline in major U.S. exports is still likely to impact the state's agricultural industry.
The author of the report, Dr. Jeffrey Dofman, who is a professor of agriculture and resource economics at NC State University, said if experts were to fall, then they would leave more supply in America's domestic market, which would mean lower prices for all producers or affected economies, whether they are things that are commodities that are exported or not. Additionally, the report analyzes North Carolina's major commodities, which include things like soybeans, corn, and wheat, that would be at risk if retaliatory trade policies are implemented. In terms of annual production value, all are essential commodities to the state of North Carolina with significant export values and major export to countries that could potentially retaliate against the United States in response to recent changes in trade policy. They are also commodities for which a high dollar value of North Carolina production is exported.
These commodities are most at risk from the rapidly evolving and uncertain future world trade policies currently have. The report goes on to say they are all important agricultural commodities to the state in terms of annual production value, and they have a significant dollar value of exports. They feature major exports to countries that have or might plausibly retaliate against the United States in response to recent changes in trade policy. Noting that these high-dollar commodities Here in North Carolina, it could potentially have a major impact if some of those retaliatory tariffs are put in place. The report also examines both historical examples and academic literature to predict the price sensitivity of specific commodities and assess the economic impact of retaliatory tariffs.
The report references a 2018 trade dispute in which China boycotted U.S.
soybean, which fortunately was rerun, or unfortunately, was rerun in 2025. Dorfman wrote in the report: it suggests that even though North Carolina farmers are partially shielded from the damage due to their soybeans, having a strong local market of demand from in-state livestock producers, with annual production in North Carolina of about 60 million bushels, such a decline would yield an estimate of nearly $90 million being at risk. Tobacco and sweet potatoes are also two of North Carolina's. Carolina's largest crops. Prices dropped 5% to 10% per pound for American tobacco when China stopped buying that between 2019 and 2022.
That resulted in a loss of approximately $30 million to North Carolina's tobacco growers, or about a 5% reduction in normal gross sales. The most recent upheaval for sweet potato farmers occurred in 2019. That was following a poor crop in 2018, which left very few sweet potatoes in the U.S. available for export. This resulted in a price drop of approximately 10%, with annual production exceeding some $300 million on average in North Carolina.
Sweet potato farmers across the Tarheel State could easily lose upwards of $30 million if those export markets were lost or severely damaged. Cotton is also another major crop in the state. If China and Mexico retaliate and purchase just 10% less, Cotton from the United States, prices would be expected to drop by some 60% according to the report. As recently as 2009 and 2001, there have been periods of time where prices have dropped below 40 cents per pound. Based on some of this academic analysis, pork is also one of North Carolina's largest commodities, resulting in a conservative estimate of $430 million in loss for pork producers.
Additionally, cotton growers could lose $125 million, tobacco growers could lose $90 million, and sweet potato growers could be on the hook for nearly $50 million. If export markets are closed to a North Carolina farmers, Dorfman found that production would be would be reduced to minimize some of those losses, which would mean fewer workers would be needed. In the in the estimates in the report, They're looking at potential losses of about 3.5% of the state's farm output would be concentrated on that. All things said, it would account for nearly 8,000 jobs being lost, 3,000 in agricultural production, and some 5,000 in food processing, as well as cigarette fiber and forestry, as well as some of that other product manufacturing as well. This is a very insightful report that we've got from our parent organization, the John Locke Foundation.
The title of that, How Tariffs Threaten North Carolina's Agriculture. You can read our story on it and get a full link to the report by visiting our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That headline story: report warns tariffs could cost North Carolina farmers $700 million and nearly 8,000 jobs. Let's go! You're still grooving, still connecting, still loving, still turning up, still thriving.
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Sponsored by Pfizer. Uh It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Mick Craig. Good Wednesday morning to you.
When you register to vote across the state of North Carolina, you are going to be asked for your address. That could be your house, an apartment, a condo, a place where you reside, a place where you lay your head at night.
However, some folks across the state are actually using their residential address as a P.O. box. That is creating some issues across elections here in North Carolina. To walk us through some details this morning, Teresa Opeka, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, I guess unless you're living inside of a PO box in a UPS store or a federal mailing facility, you're probably not laying your head down at night on those very shiny shipping counters inside of a mail room.
What's going on with this story you're tracking out of the auditor's office? Yeah, that'd be very uncomfortable. Thanks so much for having me tonight. I appreciate it. Yeah, so State Outer Bolick, he has sent a letter to the State Board of Elections requesting an investigation into voter registrations that are listing those non-residential addresses, as you mentioned, PO boxes.
Maybe there's some college students that have just using the university's address as their residential address.
So he has requested that, saying that he wants to strengthen the public confidence in the state's elections. And he said, you know, they've been doing a really good job so far with the bipartisan registration repair project. He says more needs to be done to address election integrity. And he makes mention of North Carolina law. It's clear that, you know, in order for an address to be Complete and accurate, and you know, and legal, it's got to be a residential address.
You can't have a PO box, you can't have what you will get into a UPS store or a FedEx location or whatever the case is. It's someplace where they say you lay your head, you have meals, you do whatever, watch TV, somewhere where you live. That's got to be the address that you are living in order to register to vote in the state of North Carolina. And, Teresa, this is an issue all across the map. And I guess maybe it's important to lay out first.
We're not assuming, and I don't think the auditor is assuming in his letter. I've seen nobody make the assumption here that individuals registering with the P.O. box are committing some sort of mass fraud or mass scams or anything like that. But it is very clear on the form, and those working in local county board of elections, all 100 of them across the state of North Carolina, should understand that for somebody that fills out this voter registration form where it says residential address, if that begins with P.O. box, that is not a valid address.
Teresa, if you pull the data file from any county across the state of North Carolina and search the XL document for PO, in some cases you'll find hundreds of people registered in your county that have a PO box or some sort of other mailbox listed as their residential address. From what I understand, it's actually not legal to register with that here in North Carolina. Correct. And again, you mentioned that we're not saying they're doing anything illegal, anything bad. No, of course not.
There might be some people who make an honest mistake and put that down and don't realize it. But the current voter registration application provides a section for the registrant to put their mailing address as well as their residential address, the physical address where they live.
So it's there, it's in the state statute. It's both. Both are there. PO Box, campus mailbox is said in the story, it's not sufficient. Again, you know, Bullock said they've done such a great job already with that registration repair search tool, but more needs to be done with it.
Again, We just mentioned You put your PO box down, but they definitely want to know where you're living, your residential address, and there is room for it on the application. Teresa, this is obviously we're talking about people voting, but this also becomes an issue when voter becomes candidate. If you are registered in the state of North Carolina, which would be a prerequisite to running as a state or local elected official, you essentially transform that voter registration into you now being a candidate. There's actually a situation ongoing in Mecklenburg County where there are some questions about a candidate who has an address that appears to be linked to, what is it, a UPS store? Yeah, that's correct.
We received a tip about this: that there is a candidate for the U.S. Senate race. The most notable candidates running so far, the Republican, is Michael Watley on the Republican ticket and former Governor Roy Cooper running on the Democrat ticket. But there are a slew of other candidates on both sides running. One in particular, Margot Dupree, a Republican candidate residing in Mecklenburg County, she's registered there, but her registration address is listed as a UPS store.
If you take a look at the address, which we do have screenshots in the story, on the voter search tool on the State Board of Elections website, you'll see her address, and also it matches exactly to the UPS store in Midtown Terrace in Charlotte.
So we did reach out to Ms. Dupree. She said she's done nothing wrong and that she, as required by law, has a valid state recognized street address as a registered voter in North Carolina and is following all applicable state and federal laws and doesn't appreciate someone trying to go out to quote unquote smear me in my campaign efforts by suggesting otherwise. Did reach out also to the director of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. He said he would look into it.
And when I got off the phone with him, he said he would immediately email the state board of elections and as well as contacting Ms. Dupree to ask her for her residential address. And he said this has happened before. In the 26 years he's been with the board, he has seen similar issues beforehand. But again, Mr.
Pree told us that she has done nothing wrong and that it's just all a ploy to maybe just basically cast a bad name for her. She's well within her legal limits of what she has done as registering that's legal address. But again, if you take a look at it, it is a UPS store.
So, you know, and also another interesting fact. Um Michael Dickerson, who is with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections, told me her previous registration was in Idaho. If you look at Ballotpedia, there is another Margot Dupree who was a riding candidate in the 2024 Idaho U.S. House race. That she ran as an independent and lost.
So that was an interesting little side note to that, too. But yeah, it's some questionable. not only for voters, but possibly people who are candidates running in elections as well. Teresa, let's take a couple of steps back from this story, which again, you can read more details at our website, CarolinaJournal.com. This is a growing concern, a growing trend that we have seen with the Board of Elections over the last five or ten years.
You talk about the registration repair project. You and I have done probably half a dozen interviews on that since it began. It off bases around a bad voter registration form that the state board of elections had out for years. The instructions weren't clear. There was a DOJ lawsuit against this, against the state of North Carolina.
Now we've got these questions from state auditor Bullock about people registered under PO boxes and UPS and FedEx stores. Is this not eventually going to start eroding the public's trust in the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which is largely responsible for conducting elections across the state? Yeah, I would think it would. I mean, if you've been hearing about this for a number of years, like you said, we've talked about this quite a bit, especially in the last year or so. You would start to wonder as a voter how accurate, how How are these being conducted?
How are elections being conducted? And the new board that was installed last year, well, a new makeup of the board. There are still two former state board election members that were on the previous board. Seems like they're trying to also correct that, also with a new executive director, Sam Hayes, with this repair project, registration repair project. But that's, you know, that's why Otter Bolik, who was charged with taking care of appointing different members as far as legislation was enacted by the General Assembly, that's something he wants to get to the bottom of to make sure that this is all being done correctly.
You know, he encourages the state board to work with local and other officials during this investigation because he says ensuring compliance with state and federal election laws reinforces public confidence in North Carolina's elections. And he said, we almost have to always continue. To strive on improving the systems. I mean, if you're going to vote, you want to have confidence your vote's going to count. and that it's that it's being done the right way.
So yeah, I mean, voter confidence can definitely erode. And all you've seen this with the DOJ, with the lawsuit against the board for what you mentioned with the the they meant had that uh Carol Snow was the person who actually originally filed the complaint with the state board. I think a few years ago about that application, it does make a voter start to think, well, Is this all being done the right way? Is my vote going to count? What's going on behind the scenes?
So at least they're trying to be transparent and fixing all of this. And maybe some people aren't going to like that, but then again, it is the right thing to do, and they are following the state law and eventually the federal laws as well. Yeah, I think you get to a point where people ask the question: if you can't figure out how to get addresses put correctly into the system, how can you ensure the security of my vote? And we know for as it relates to voter confidence, having that trust, having that transparency is paramount for voter turnout and everything that's downhill from that. Teresa, you've got a lot of source documentation.
You mentioned some screenshots and some other links. Where can folks go and get those details this morning? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Uh oh. Let's go! You're still grooving, still connecting, still loving, still turning up, still thriving. You still got it. But your immune system, it weakens as you age.
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It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FMWBT. A great event I want to let you know about: the John Locke Foundation. That is the parent organization of CarolinaJournal.com's Carolina Liberty Conference is coming in February of this year. It brings together policymakers, scholars, community leaders, and citizens from across the state of North Carolina to explore the challenges and opportunities of advancing freedom in today's political and cultural climate.
CLC, the Carolina Liberty Conference, will take place February the 27th through 28th at the Starview Hotel in Raleigh. This year's event, there will be a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution with guest speakers like Lord Daniel Hannon, Chief Justice Paul Newby, State Auditor Dave Bollock, and more. Register for CLC 2026 today. At johnlock.org. That's J-O-H-N-L-O-C-K-E.org.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. The North Carolina State Board of Education has recently approved new standards for English classes focused on reading and writing. The new standard is built upon the phonics-based science of reading methodology, which was mandated for elementary schools back in 2021 and for which all elementary school teachers have completed 160 hours of training for by the end of the calendar year 2024. The revised standards will offer teachers greater flexibility in instruction materials. Those educators will now have the option to incorporate a wider variety of texts, including digital media, audio, video, and contemporary literature that may cross traditional genres.
Students will also have more opportunities to engage with different text types such as spoken words. Word as well as speeches under these revised standards. Dr. Bob Lubke, who is the director for the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, noted that much work remains to be done in reading and writing proficiency for North Carolina students. Saying a quote telling a Carolina journal in a quote: EOG test results tell us that 46% of eighth graders in North Carolina, almost half of eighth graders, did not achieve grade proficiency levels in reading.
Declining literary skills is rooted in many changes.
However, a renewed emphasis on phonics and phonics instructions is one of the changes that is sure to improve skills and test scores. We cannot begin this soon enough. Those new standards are set to take effect in the 27-28 school year, with state officials planning to provide training for middle and high school teachers before then through specific state funding for this is not necessarily in place with the Department of Public Instruction exploring some additional options. You can read about these new standards this morning 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 Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. You're still grooving, still connecting, still loving, still turning up, still thriving. You still got it, but your immune system, it weakens as you age. That's where vaccines come in.
They help train and strengthen your immune response to fight off respiratory illnesses like flu, pneumococcal pneumonia, RSV, or COVID-19. Ask your doctor or pharmacist which vaccines you need. Book in minutes at vaxassist.com. Sponsored by Pfizer. Mm-hmm.
