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Well, we are expecting a busy day in Charlotte on Thursday, specifically in the court system, the judicial system, due to the fact that a petition to withdraw and remove Sheriff Gary McFadden from office did make its way in front of a courtroom at 10 o'clock.
However, it wasn't very long before a Superior Court judge dismissed the petition to remove the Mecklenburg County Sheriff. The decision arrived at a hearing held 10 days after McFadden critics filed the legally binding petition that was filed here in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, a state legislative hearing targeting McFadden's record in office is scheduled to be taking place. Coming up here in just a couple of weeks on January the 29th. Judge Stuart Albright wrote in a one-page order on Thursday: the court, having considered the record petitioner's verified petition and the motion, the legal authorities, and arguments of the attorneys, and having heard from the elected Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer B. Merriweather, who has declined to approve the verified petition, and hearing from the Mecklenburg County Attorney Tyrone Wade, who has also declined to approve the verified petition, it is the opinion that the respondents' motion should be granted for lack of jurisdiction. Meaning, the motion to dismiss was granted again due to lack of jurisdiction.
Albright indicated in court earlier in the morning that he could not move forward without the petition having been approved from either the district attorney in Mecklenburg or the county attorney in Mecklenburg.
However, it is important to note that the judge dismissed the petition without prejudice. meaning that McFadden critics could try again with a new complaint as long as five verified electors, aka voters, as the state law reads, would bring this forward. It could be filed once again.
However, it would appear, at least according to the opinion of Judge Stewart Albright, that the DA or county attorney would have to approve the removal petition. The State House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform had scheduled a January the 22nd meeting to question McFadden about his record in office.
However, that was recently moved to January the 29th with McFadden, Meriwether, Charlotte Mayer, Vi Lyles, and others all invited to attend that committee meeting and talk to lawmakers about ongoing pressure, frustration, and concerns growing in Mecklenburg County about out-of-control crime. The North Carolina House government ops X account, which is tied to the Oversight Committee, responded Thursday to the petition's dismissal saying, quote, the evidence Evidence against McFadden is stacking up, and his removal petition was dismissed. Don't worry, accountability is coming on January the 29th. Representative Brendan Jones, who is the Republican from Columbus County and is the co-chair of the Oversight Committee, said due to gross mismanagement within the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Department, not to mention its blatant disregard for the state law, the House Oversight Committee has invited Sheriff Gary McFadden to testify on his department's failures. State Representative Carla Cunningham was one of five petitioners seeking McFadden's removal from office.
Important to note that both McFadden and Cunningham are both Democrats, so this is somewhat of an intra-party conflict going on right now. The petition filed January the 5th sought McFadden's removal for attempted extortion and corruption, as well as willful misconduct and maladministration in office, alongside willful and habitual refusal to perform the duties of his office. Under North Carolina law, an elected sheriff can, in fact, be removed only through a court process. And if allegations are proven, that filing arrived the same month that Governor Josh Stein backed Carla Cunningham's primary opponent, another Democrat named Rodney Sadler, in the Democrat primary election. We are continuing to track the progress on this.
Again, the big story that we are tracking this morning as it relates to Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, the petition to remove him from office was almost immediately dismissed due to the fact that the Mecklenburg County District Attorney and the county attorney did not approve of the petition. That the five electors or five voters, which I'll include, it does include former members of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Department, including the current chiefs, former chief deputy, and Democrat Representative Carla Cunningham. We will keep an eye on this, see what happens moving forward, and bring you any of the latest details. Details as soon as we get it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. In some other statewide news this morning, a bipartisan task force chaired by Democrat Lieutenant Governor Rachel Hunt and Republican Senator Jim Bergen of Harnett County have released its 2025 year-end report outlining six recommendations aimed at increasing access to childcare across the state of North Carolina.
The end-of-the-year report drops as the state's childcare system faces mounting pressure, according to new data from a report. By the group, the North Carolina Task Force on Child Care and Early Education, 280 licensed child care providers closed between January and October of 2025.
Meanwhile, federal and state-level child care subsidy grants ended in March, and in August, more licensed child care providers closed than opened across the state of North Carolina. These are some eye-popping figures. The average monthly cost for infant child care in North Carolina is over $1,000 a month, $1,021 a month, while child care for a four-year-old averages $850.
So, some very significant amounts of money for childcare here in North Carolina. The issue has been gaining national attention in recent weeks after the Trump administration froze federal child care subsidy fundings for five states and is now requiring more verification from all. 50 states. This, of course, came following investigations into Minnesota's childcare programs. As independent journalist Nick Shirley, right around Christmas, kind of blew the lid off potential scams taking place within the state of Minnesota with illegitimate childcare operations sucking down millions of dollars a year as a mix of state and federal taxpayer dollars.
Governor Josh Stein said in a recent statement: too many families in our state can't afford to work because childcare is expensive and in short supply. I look forward to working with the leaders in the government and in the private sector to turn these recommendations into results. Doing so represents a win-win-win. It gets parents the freedom to work, kids the safe start they need, and employers the workforce necessary to keep North Carolina's economy thriving. Brian Balfour, who is the senior vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, cautioned that government involvement in a program often leads to some of those cost increases.
As I just mentioned, more than $1,000 to put a toddler in daycare here across North Carolina. Balfour told the CJ.com: the surest way to make the price of a good or service skyrocket is a government program to make it, quote, affordable. When government interferes the most is where price rises the fastest. We see it in healthcare, college tuition, housing, and childhood. care.
Instead of throwing more taxpayer subsidies at the problem, this committee should be examining how to unravel the government intervention that makes it so expensive in the first place. Mountains of regulation and red tape restrict the supply while government subsidies inflate the demand, while it is a recipe for unaffordability. Stein established the task force through an executive order in March of last year, not long after he got into his position as governor. And in June, the task force issued six recommendations, which include setting a statewide child care subsidy reimbursement rate floor, developing an approach to offer non-salary benefits to child care professionals, exploring continued partnerships with the UNC system and the North Carolina Community College system, exploring subsidized or free child care for teachers, linking existing workforce compensation and support programs for early. Childhood professionals in a cohesive set of supports, and finally, exploring the creation of a child care endowment or essentially a slush fund to fund child care needs.
Working groups within the task force will continue to develop action plans for the various process recommendations. Their focus will now be on how to best allocate existing funding, identifying some private sector options and public-private partnerships, as well as reviewing the North Carolina Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program. Additionally, the task force intends to advocate for legislative investment in child care and early education during the upcoming short session. You can read some additional details about this story by visiting our website this morning. CarolinaJournal.com, the story's headline: NC Child Care Task Force Eyes Workforce Affordability.
Again, those details at CarolinaJournal.com. 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. 20 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT.
I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Some more good news for Western North Carolina that we're tracking this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. More relief continuing to flow from the federal government to help the folks in the western half of our state recover from the unimaginable devastation and destruction from Hurricane Helene in September of 2024. To walk us through those details this morning, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, hard to imagine and hard to believe that that storm affected our state so long ago.
However, there's been a lot of criticism over the last year and a half or so overfunding, how quickly things are moving. What's the latest that you're tracking out of DC? Sure. Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so some definite good news for those affected by Helene in September of 2024. DHS Secretary Christy Noam announced that more than $72 million in public assistance grant program reimbursements and $44.6 million in hazard mitigation grant program funds for Hurricane Helene recovery projects are on the way for Western North Carolina, which is some really, really good news.
Some of the public assistance grants, just to touch on a couple of those, going to NCDOT for road and bridge repairs at more than 300 sites. That is 34.7 million. That's in Allegheny, Ash, Avery, Buncombe, Caldwell, Henderson, Mitchell, Surrey, and Watauga counties. And also, we've got 10.5 million to Asheville for portable water distribution, the repair or replacement of more than 100 fleet vehicles for the DeBruel water treatment. Plant repairs and also road repairs.
Also, those hazard mitigation funds are going to include acquiring flood-prone properties in Buncombe County at the cost of $14.2 million and elevating 14 homes and approximately 2.5 million.
So, yeah, there's been more information in our article, but that is some definite good news for Western North Carolina. Things are heading in the right direction. But, of course, you know, much more is still needed. Yeah, we did get some immediate reaction to this news, including that from United States Senator Ted Budd saying that, yeah, Theresa, everything is moving in the right direction and it's good that money continues to flow, but still questioning how quickly it's happening and why really it's not happening more in a more expeditious manner. Right.
He even mentioned that in a press release that he sent out. He said he's been engaging in recent months with Homeland Security, FEMA, regarding those applications for the hazard mitigation grant program to buy out these properties that were flooded. People can't rebuild their homes. They're now in a floodplain. It's beyond repair.
So he says while he is glad that that money is coming, there are many more families still awaiting buyouts for their damaged and destroyed properties. And he's going to continue to work closely with all federal, state, and local leaders to get more reimbursements, to get more dollars flowing into Western North Carolina communities.
Well, you talk about the senator working with state leaders. We did also hear some commentary Thursday from Governor Josh Stein. He seems to be in agreement with Senator Budd that things need to continue to move forward. Right. In fact, he even gave an example from a meeting they held last Friday.
It was the governor's advisory committee on Western North Carolina Recovery. They held that meeting in Rutherford County in Spindale.
So a woman came up and said, you know, from Suananoa in Boncombe County. She came all the way out there and said, you know, she's still waiting for help. Her house was destroyed to the point where it's uninhabitable. She can't live there, but she's still paying a mortgage on that property and she just can't do anything with it. She can't sell it, can't rebuild it.
She's just spending money and she was just begging, please take it from me. Take my property, you know, please pay for it, you know, and give me the funding because she just simply can't do anything with it.
So, what Governor Stein says, after the buyouts take place, that space becomes a green space forever.
So, no one else will experience any of that pain in future flooding. And she's not alone. There's over 560 other homeowners who applied that are still waiting for help from the federal government. That's why, you know, he and Ted Budd and others say it's so imperative. Time is of the essence for these people.
I mean, it's been way over a year now, and they're still waiting for that funding to come in. The governor was also in Washington, D.C. this week. He continues to request more money from the federal government. What did you learn from his travels up to D.C.?
Sure. So, yeah, he requested an additional $13.5 billion in funding for Western North Carolina. He met with members of the North Carolina congressional delegation, including Bud and U.S. Senator Tom Tillis. I also see Representative Deborah Ross and others that were there as well meeting with them.
And some of the figures broken down include $1.77 billion for DOT for road repairs, also a little over $8 billion from HUD for more homeowners' repairs and rebuilding of their homes, and also for some forgivable loans. That's almost $2 billion, and $540 million from the EPA to restore water infrastructure systems.
So he said, you know, in a press release that the federal government has committed just over $7 billion towards Western North Carolina's recovery since Hurricane Helene. And while they are grateful, it only represents Represents about 12% of the storm's total damage. Typically, the federal government contributes about 50% of damage to the impacted state. He did say, and we've been saying this before as well: the longer the delay in federal funding and getting programs up and running, the worse it's going to be for recovery for those people and communities in Western North Carolina because things become more expensive for repairing and rebuilding homes, bridges, water systems, small businesses. It's just the delay is just not, you know, it's going to be harder for people to get back up on their feet.
Yeah, and you know, the governor put out a post on social media this week as well, highlighting that 12% number currently for Helene and did compare it to some other storms in which the federal government did cover upwards as much as 70, almost 80% of the funding. I think it is important to note, Teresa, some of the storms that the governor highlights, including Hurricane Sandy, Katrina, Matthew, those storms are well in the rearview mirror at this point. Matthew was a decade ago, Katrina 2005, Hurricane Sandy 2012.
So, yes, accurate numbers for right now, but there's no indication that the federal government is done and is not going to appropriate any more dollars moving forward. Yeah, and that is correct. I mean, you know, obviously. This is recent, you know, and it may not seem recent for the people who obviously have suffered through and not make an excuse for that. But as you mentioned, you know, going back to Sandy 2012, that was well over, you know, 10 years going on 15 years ago.
So, yeah, when you're taking a look at this, it's still recent in the federal government's eyes. Things unfortunately move slowly when it comes to the federal government. But Bud and Stein and others are right to push for it, to keep pushing it, to have that at the forefront of the federal government and their minds down there to help people in Western North Carolina who still desperately need that help at this point. Yeah. And I mean, we're here in January right now, but it won't be long, Teresa, before we're talking about the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season.
Fortunately, 2025, for the most part, there was a couple of tropical storms and some other tropical weather that did affect the state, but nothing major, nothing widespread. You know, we could be potentially, and hopefully not, but could be potentially. Looking at another major hurricane as we get into the spring and summer months, and even early fall here across the state. Yeah, that's right. And so we want to make sure that the funding for this gets taken care of because, well, we've also seen there are people still.
Still picking up the pieces, or still trying to get a home in eastern North Carolina from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. More than a decade later. And that includes a lot of the burden is shifted to the state, you know, under former Governor Roy Cooper's You know, under NCOR, the agency that he started, there's people still living. To this day, in hotel rooms or other forms of lodging, they're not back in their homes.
So, I guess that is the onus is the quicker the better. You want to help people because you just don't know what's coming down the pike. Last year was quiet for a hurricane season, but who knows what lies ahead this year.
So, yeah, the quicker the better for these people who are affected by all of this. Teresa, you've got some photos from the governor's visit that he's published on social media, plus some of those additional quotes, not only from Stein, but from U.S. Senator Ted Budd as well. Where can people go and get those details this morning? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com.
We appreciate the Western North Carolina update. Teresa Opaca 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.
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It's 537. Good Friday morning to you. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Continuing our coverage of legal proceedings against DeCarlos Brown Jr., he is the man that is accused of murdering 22-year-old Arina Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail in late August of 2025. We've had a couple of pretty substantial updates over the last couple of weeks to walk us through the latest this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, a couple of things we've been covering, video being released to the media, then not being released to the media. What are you tracking now as it relates to some internal investigations and continued documents from law enforcement in and around the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area?
Well, the latest really has to do, Nick, with what's happening in the General Assembly related to Arena Zarutska and looking into the facts and circumstances surrounding that case. We know that the House's Oversight Committee is interested in talking to some law enforcement and legal officials in the Charlotte area about what happened in connection with the Zarutska case and another stabbing that took place in December on the Charlotte Light Rail system. And so, how this relates to DeCarlos Brown is that Brown and his lawyers learned on Wednesday that the DA, Spencer Merriweather, had agreed to turn over some information to lawmakers about the Zarutska case. And so DeCarlos Brown's lawyers immediately went to federal court and asked for an emergency protective order that would prevent the release or disclosure of any of the criminal investigators. To file in this case.
Basically, they're saying that the DA is turning this over to the legislators, and the court filing suggested that that might have already happened. And they said, we want to make sure that none of this information could get out because it could prejudice to Carlos Brown's trial. Interestingly enough, as with the law enforcement recordings case, the U.S. attorney who is prosecuting Brown on a federal charge that could open him up to the death penalty agreed with Brown that this information should not be disclosed.
So Brown went to court, asked for his emergency protective order, and then within a matter of hours, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed its own document saying, yes, we agree with the defendant, DeCarlos Brown, this information should not be turned over. And so not terribly long afterward, within a day of that request coming out, the magistrate judge who's been overseeing this, David Kiesler, entered what he called. Called a sort of a temporary order that said, yes, none of this is going to be turned over. We already had an order related to video and law enforcement recordings that blocked any release to members of the media.
To the extent that any other records are outside of what's covered by that initial order, they will also be blocked from being released by either Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department or by any legislators or legislative staff who have come into contact with any of this.
So it's been an interesting development. Yeah, a little bit like a little bit of a Groundhog's Day situation. We just talked last week about some of those law enforcement recordings, body cam footage, 911 tapes, things of that nature. Mitch, now focusing on this legislative hearing that's going to be taking place on the 29th, I would imagine that lawmakers obviously want to have some of this information available as they have made it abundantly clear, specifically Representative Brendan Jones, who is the House majority leader. He wants to bring officials in from Charlotte, not only the sheriff and Gary McFadden, but other folks within the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County area to try and figure out what is going on within the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
Yeah, and one of the reasons why this latest action happened with DeCarlos Brown is because the DA, Spencer Merriweather, who has been one of the people invited to participate, he filed a court document saying that he was intending to comply with the General Assembly's request and so would be turning over this criminal investigative file and other information.
So that is what prompted the court filing from DeCarlos Brown in federal court and prompted that new federal order. But yes, you're right. The General Assembly has seen some of this activity, the killing on the Charlotte Light Rail line, another stabbing months later that took place, and they're trying to get to the bottom of what's going on in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, and is there anything that needs to happen on a legislative front to deal with it? You referenced Brendan Jones. Jones has already made no bones about the fact that he is.
not pleased with what's been going on and described McFadden's operating of the sheriff's office as a failure, blatant disregard of state law, gross mismanagement. Those are words that Brendan Jones used on social media describing Gary McFadden.
So I don't think anyone should expect that the sheriff is going to get a friendly reception, at least from legislative leaders who are involved in this process. And Mitch, of course, all of this comes as we learned Thursday that a petition to remove McFadden from office would not be moving forward. A judge actually from Guilford County that was overseeing this case in Mecklenburg decided that the petition did not meet, I guess, all of the standards as it's set out in general statute. But regardless, the pressure continues to be turned up on not only the sheriff, but overall, I think, Charlotte and the greater Mecklenburg County area with some of this violent crime. Yeah, that's certainly true.
And we know that the General Assembly is going to make quite a bit out of this at this hearing that is now scheduled for January 29th. They've not only called for McFadden to participate, the sheriff, but also the DA, also the Charlotte Mayor. They've asked for a lot of different people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to participate. And I suspect that this is not going to be one of those hand-holding coup baya type of hearings. This is definitely going to be there's lots of stuff going wrong in your part of the state.
What are you going to do about it? And what do we need to do about it to ensure that you do something about it?
So my guess is there will be a lot of fireworks in the General Assembly when this meeting actually comes to pass. Mitch, one of the things that makes the DeCarlos Brown Jr. case interesting is I think you mentioned at the beginning, there are, in fact, two parallel court cases essentially going on at the same time. You've got state charges that are taking place, and then these federal charges, specifically as it relates to committing a mass act of violence or an act of terrorism on mass transportation here. And it's interesting that we see a lot of these things in the state court kind of immediately leapfrogging to federal court.
We've seen that now with the request to release some video and now with transmitting or the transmittal of some of these records to the General Assembly. It's going to be interesting to see how that plays out as this likely very lengthy legal process continues to unfold. That's true. And one of the things that is interesting is that DeCarlos Brown and his attorneys are really focusing on the federal action as the primary action in this case. That's basically what their court filings have suggested.
Murder is about one of the most serious charges that you could face, and that is a state court case. But the charge that's been filed in the federal courts is basically a murder charge, but a murder that happens in a way that changes jurisdiction from state court to federal court because of the fact that it took place on one of these transit systems that gets federal funding. And that's one of the reasons why the feds got involved. I think they also got involved because this is such a high-profile case and has had national and international attention. And remember that regardless of what happens in the state courts, this federal case, because of the type of crime that it is, could open to Carlos Brown Jr.
up to the possibility of the death penalty, which is another reason why it's interesting that Brown and his attorneys have been so interested in jumping to federal court to get action to block the release of the recordings, to block the release of the criminal investigative file. This is despite the fact that this federal charge that he's facing could open him up to the prospect of the death penalty if he's convicted. And Mitch, one of the arguments that we saw going back to a story we followed last week with WSOC television trying to get access to some of the 911 tapes and some of the potential video cameras or body cams that law enforcement was wearing the night of the murder. They made the argument that what DeCarlis Brown Jr. and his legal team was doing was essentially superseding state court.
They made this argument that there is a separation and there should be between state and federal court. They made that argument then.
Now here we are this week seeing a similar situation taking place as well. Do you think there's any merit in that? And do we see this continued kind of power struggle between these state and federal charges in the weeks and months to come? There's a possibility of that. It is, I wouldn't say unique, but probably an uncommon situation where you have a murder case, which is almost always playing out in a state court, but also having a federal charge that's related to murder taking place in the federal courts.
And so there is. Probably going to be some tug and pull about what's happening in state court versus federal court at the same time. And so you may see some additional friction between the two court systems. You're exactly right that the argument WSOC television made about the access to the recordings was: hey, everyone involved in this, the state and federal lawyers for DeCarlos Brown, were all in this state court hearing. What they should have done from WSOC's perspective was once they didn't like what the judge did there, appeal that order through the state court system because it was a state order and it should have been appealed through the state system.
And WSOC complained that what Brown did instead was immediately jump to federal court to try to get a federal order to block what the state court had done, a very different procedural move. But this is not something that never happens. There are often times when a case is filed in state court, and one of the actors involved who believes they'll have a better hearing at the federal court will then have the case moved to federal court and say this is actually a federal court issue. And then there's a legal fight about whether it should take place in state or federal court.
So it's not as if this is something that never happens, but it is uncommon, especially in a murder case, which usually just plays out entirely in the state courts. Yeah, and it's going to be very interesting to see, as you mentioned, some of this, you know, give and pull and see kind of what happens between these state and federal charges and some of the back and forth there. We continue to have comprehensive coverage of this over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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. It's 554. Good morning to you.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, we've got some really great news to pass along out of western North Carolina this morning. More relief is on the way from Washington, D.C. to the western half of our state. Of course, this all relates to Hurricane Helene, which affected North and South Carolina, many coasts, many states, I should say, up and down the eastern seaboard in September of 2024.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam announced this week that more than $72 million in what are known as public assistance grant program reimbursements and $44.6 million in hazard mitigation grant programs for Hurricane Helene will be distributed to the state of North Carolina. Those funds are aimed at protecting western North Carolina from future flooding and storm damage. U.S. Senator Ted Budd, the Republican from North Carolina who has been clashing with Christy Noam and other individuals within the Trump administration over delays and lack of funding in Western North Carolina, said in a press release, ever since Hurricane Helene devastated the lives of more than half a million North Carolinians, I have been working nonstop to obtain federal approval for federal relief funding necessary to rebuild Western North Carolina. In recent months, I've engaged extensively with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA regarding applications under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
I'm glad today that in addition to another tranche of public assistance funding totaling over $72 million, Secretary Noam has approved $44.6 million in grants for projects under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Senator Budd continued by saying, While this is another promised step in the right direction, there are still families awaiting buyouts from their damaged or destroyed properties. As I have said with the public assistance programs, I pledged that I will continue to work closely with all federal, state, and local leaders to continue to identify projects that qualify for federal reimbursement. And I will be in constant contact with FEMA to get those dollars to Western North Carolina communities. Governor Stein also spent part of the week in Washington, D.C., meeting with portions of North Carolina's congressional delegation, continuing to ask for more money, more public assistance for Western North Carolina, asking for $1.77 billion from the United States Department of Transportation, that's USDOT, for road repairs, $8.37 billion from HUD to support more home ownership and repairing and rebuilding of homes.
$1.99 billion with a B from FEMA in forgivable loans to help local governments stay afloat as recovery continues to be a major financial burden for many of these small governments and $540 million from the EPA to restore water infrastructure systems. In all, that ask is nearly $13.5 billion as we continue to watch money unfortunately trickle in from Washington, D.C. You can read some additional coverage on that this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline story: $116 million in Helene Aid coming. That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour.
WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 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.
