It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Tuesday 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.
Well, and coming up or actually happening last week, there was a debate in the first congressional district, that is in northeastern North Carolina, up in areas towards the Virginia border. It was held by WNCT Television, and the discussion of tariffs now made more relevant by the United States' major 6-3 decision on Friday to strike down President Trump's emergency authority to implement them took center stage. Of the five candidates vying to challenge Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Don Davis in the general election, four of them, Laurie Buckout, a former Army colonel, Asa Buck, the Carteret County Sheriff, Eric Rouse, who is a Lenore County Commissioner, and State Senator Bobby Hoenig of Currituck County, all participated in the debate. There is a fifth candidate running attorney, Ashley Nicole Russell, who was in the race but did not participate in the debate held on February the 19th.
The debate began with questions on how candidates would respond to farmers who say that tariffs are hurting their businesses. Lori Buckout, if that name sounds familiar to you, she won the Republican primary for the same district in 2024, ran a very competitive general election race that year. And she kicked off the discussion saying, I think that tariffs are a temporary measure to address a trade imbalance that previous Democrat presidents have been putting into practice that have put us in a really terrible position in terms of tariffing our goods at ridiculous rates while allowing other nations to pour their cheap, untariffed products into America. It's time that we level the playing field, and I know that President Trump is doing that, and it will take some time to level the playing field. We've been playing at a disadvantage for so long.
Buck out praised Trump's success with European countries and Canada, calling him a, quote, master negotiator, with her also emphasizing her belief in staying the course, stating, quote, we are going to come out on top, but it is going to take some time to get there. Asa Buck, who was one of the other candidates in the race there, the current sheriff in Carteret County, said, it's not what I say to farmers, it's what I hear from farmers and what they say to me. The farmers that I have talked to tell me that they understand what the president is doing. It's about leveling the playing field. And folks that I talk to understand that sometimes there has to be some short-term pinches in order to affect a long-term gain and level the overall playing field so we can have equality across our markets with regards to our crops and commodities that are being sold.
Eric Rouse, the current county commissioner in Lenore County, weighed in as well, saying, well, it's absolutely hurting their livelihood. That goes without saying. But as we talk about this with Trump, he knows what he's doing. China right now imports to us about 63% of their GDP comes here, so we have that advantage. Eric Rouse also said that it will play out in the U.S.'s favor in the long term, saying China loves Eastern North Carolina's flu-cured tobacco, and I think it's just a matter of time before it hits, and we're all in good shape again.
Current member of the North Carolina General Assembly, Republican Bobby Hoenig, the fourth candidate in that race, said meeting with these farmers, they understand that we have a short-term pain for a long-term gain. We are presenting them with bridge loans worth about $12 million. There's another one in the pipeline right now, and we will get it through. And get that money where it needs to go. We need to stay the course, and they understand that we need to stay the course as well.
Hoenig argued that in the interim, the solution is to reduce input costs, which are where farmers are being hurt by most of the prices that deals with things like chemicals, pesticides, and seeds, saying, quote, so you're getting that cost down in the interim to get them across to where they need to go. We are going to be on the right track, and they understand that. After the discussing tariffs, which did take up a pretty significant portion of the debate, they moved to the FEMA response to disasters in the state, health care costs, of course, the overall cost of living and whether the district is attracting businesses, the federal government shut down in a litany of other topics, then moving to simple yes or no questions. We've got a full link to this debate as the pretty contentious and heated Republican primary continues in the first congressional district. You can read those details by visiting our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
You can also watch the Video. We've got it embedded on our website. The headline: tariffs take center stage at first district GOP primary debate. In some other statewide news this morning, North Carolina residents experienced a slightly lower inflation rate in January of 2026 compared to the national average. This is according to the latest data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics that were released back on February the 13th.
The Consumer Price Index, you've probably heard that acronym before, CPI for the southern region, which does include the state of North Carolina, increased by 1.9% over the past 12 months, ending in January of this year, just last month. This is in contrast with the 2.4% CPI that was recorded for the United States overall during that same period. The CPI measures the average change over time in prices. Paid by consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. The South's performance on the CPI was significantly better than that of the Northeast at 2.8%, the West at 2.7%, and this region here in the South even outperformed the Midwest, whose CPI was 2.4%.
According to Joseph Harris, who is a fiscal policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, he said the latest CPI data shows that inflation in the South is running below the national rate over the past year. both overall and on a core basis. A steeper decline in gasoline prices than the national average helped pull the region's overall rate lower. That said, households are still feeling pressure from higher electricity, natural gas, and food prices, even as overall inflation continues to moderate. Breaking down the data, all of the items less than the Food and Energy Indexed, often referred to as core inflation, which strips out some of those more volatile food and energy prices, also showed a more favorable trend for that region, which again includes North Carolina.
Nationwide, core inflation was up to 2.5% over the past 12 months, but for the South, that figure was pinned at 2% even. The more moderate trend in the South compared to other regions as it relates to that core inflation, the Midwest, Northeast, and West all saw core inflations at 2.7%.
So the southern region and the overall region lower than that. Energy was a significant contributing factor to the South's lower cost of living. While the National Energy Index decreased a slight 0.1% over the past year, January of 25 to January of 26, the South region experienced a larger decline of a full percentage point. That was largely driven by a more substantial dip in gasoline prices in the South, which fell 9% over the last 12-month period compared to only 7.5% in terms of a decline nationally. Despite the regional advantages, some energy costs still climbed, however.
Electricity rose by 6.4% in the South, matching, nearly matching, I should say, the national average at 6.3%, while prices for natural gas edged up 9.5% compared to a national average of 9.8%. Food price increases were largely consistent with the national trends as well. The food index for this region here, including North Carolina, rose 2.8 percent over the past 12 months. Once again, very close to that national average at 2.9 percent in terms of an increase. Shelter costs, which are a major component of a household budget, also contributed to the south's overall comparatively lower inflation.
The shelter index increased by 2.6 percent in the southern region over the last year, which was slightly less than a 3 percent recorded nationally.
So, all things considered, while yes, the economy has improved in some sectors and some areas over the last 12 months. Certain regions of the state due to some of the natural advantages obviously took place here. You can read some additional coverage on the Accora Consumer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index, the CPI. We've got all those details, all the percentages, all the comparisons over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Just search for the story with the headline: cost of living rises slower in North Carolina than national pace.
It's 20 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
One of the major selling points for the wide-sweeping tariffs that President Donald Trump enacted back in Liberation Day in April of 2025 was dealing with the trade deficit that many countries in the United States have. Obviously, a major decision from the United States Supreme Court on Friday, a 6-3 decision to rule that the president can no longer use those emergency powers under IEPA to levy some of those wide-sweeping tariffs.
So the main question would be, had any of those trade deficits been dealt with? To talk through some of that this morning, it's my pleasure to welcome Katie Zender from CarolinaJournal.com back to the news hour this morning. Katie, million-dollar question. Has North Carolina's trade deficit helped and moved in any significant way in almost the last year since these tariffs were officially enacted by the Trump administration? I mean, good morning, Nick.
Thank you so much for having me on. I mean, yeah, it has fallen slightly. The trade deficit is down just a tiny bit from 2024. But overall, when we look at it, the experts that we're talking to and looking at here, you know, we're kind of 24-0 on the tariffs here because they're not really doing what Trump promised that they would do. He promised to bring down the trade deficit and to bring jobs and manufacturing back to America.
And that's not really what we're seeing happen, Nick. And we'll get into that more. But it is down slightly. In 2024, it was $918.4 billion. It is down to $901.5 billion.
But he brought up the Supreme Court decision, which was obviously very important here concerning tariffs. But the night before that decision came down, there was a Republican primary for NCO1, which is one of the most hotly contested congressional districts in this primary and this upcoming general election in the fall. It's Don Davis's current seat. And so there's a lot of Republicans that are challenging him for that. seat.
Some of them were the same people that ran in 2024, including Laurie Buckhout, who won the primary actually for that in 2024. But during that debate, all of the candidates, which includes State Senator Bobby Hannock, so it's Lori Buckhout, Bonnie Hannock, Bobby Hannock, Eric Rouse, and Asa Buck, who is the sheriff for Carteret County. But pretty much the consensus between the Republican candidates during this debate was that according to what they're hearing from farmers, is that farmers are understanding that tariffs are a short-term pain for a long-term gain. And so there really wasn't a lot of disagreement between the Republican candidates on this issue of tariffs. They say that the farmers they're talking to understand, you know, it's short-term pain for a long-term gain.
And another thing that I noticed is several of the candidates, especially when talking about tariffs, but also when talking about other issues as well, referred to Trump as a master negotiator. It almost made me feel like they coordinated their Their comments like ahead of time, which I don't think is true, but it almost felt like that because more than one of them referred to him as a master negotiator on multiple topics that they discussed, not just tariffs.
So, that is something really important, I think, really interesting to bring up: is that the Republican candidates don't really seem to differ much on this issue of tariffs.
Now, I'm not sure what farmers they're talking to because the ones that I've been talking to are not telling me what they're what they're hearing.
So that is interesting. But it is important to note that I think that the Republican candidates seem to be more or less in agreement on the issue of tariffs, Nick.
Well, Katie, you just teed up my next question here. You have run and talked to a couple of farmers as of late. We've had those stories over at Carolinajournal.com. We've talked about them here on the news hour. That is not what they are hearing, not what they are feeling.
And as you and I have talked about, I don't even know how many times now, Katie, 30, 40 times agriculture farming does remain the largest sector in North Carolina.
So when we're talking about some of the issues as it relates to tariffs on the agricultural industry, we're talking about a very large portion of North Carolina's overall economy. That's exactly right, Nick. And most of the farmers that I have talked to have told me pretty much the opposite of what these Republican candidates are claiming: that tariffs are hurting them. It may not be hurting them directly, but it's hurting them indirectly in manufacturing costs, in chemical costs, in pesticide costs, in the costs for parts of Farming equipment and things like that, in tech, in those kind of things, because those kind of things all come from China. Those are not things that we manufacture here.
So those are things that are brought in and imported in. And so maybe they need a part for their tractor or a part for a piece of farming equipment. And those things are tariffed.
So that is something that's really, really affecting farmers here in North Carolina. And one of the going back to the trade deficit, Nick, one of the two largest commodities that was hit here in North Carolina, it really, we saw a big hit, I think, well, not a big hit, but we saw a big impact on two of our largest commodities here in the state. One is being tobacco. And tobacco is one of our number one commodities here in North Carolina. And we've actually seen a year over year decline according to that data from the U.S.
Department of or Bureau of Economic Analysis. And so there's been a year over year decline in unmanufactured tobacco from It's fallen by about $218 million from 2024. In 2024, it was $1,059 million. And in 2025, it's down to $841 million in unmanufactured tobacco.
So that's a pretty significant decline for one of the state's top commodities. North Carolina is the nation's leading producer of tobacco. We produce about 260.1 million pounds of tobacco annually, or about 60% of U.S. tobacco production. I think last year in 2025, early in 2025, we put out a tobacco report.
North Carolina has 822 tobacco farms, which generate about $557 million in revenue and add about $197 million to the state GDP.
So it's a huge industry here in North Carolina, and that's something that's really been impacted by the tariffs.
However, on the other side of that, manufactured tobacco has increased a little bit. It's up by $328 million from 529 million in 2024 to 867 million in 2025.
So the unmanufactured tobacco. Down, the manufactured tobacco is up. But that's very significant here, too. You know, one of the number one industries in the state, and the state's leading producer for tobacco. Yeah, great information there on tobacco.
Pharmaceuticals was also another area that you looked at in the story over at CarolinaJournal.com. Katie, what's going on in that industry, which is in some cases relatively new and booming right now? We know that tobacco obviously was a lot more popular in years past when many more individuals were smoking on a more regular basis. That has at least trended downwards in the United States. Pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, that is an industry that is currently going through some record levels of growth and expectations.
That's exactly right, Nick. So yeah, pharmaceuticals was the other major industry that was impacted by the trade deficit and by the tariffs. It's one of the number one, again, one of the number one commodities here in North Carolina. Pharmaceutical preparation exports increased by about 1.3 billion in December and imports decreased by 4.6 billion according to the data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Pharmaceuticals was the top trade commodity in North Carolina for 2025, and that's according to data from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.
So that year-to-date data from the EDPNC, pharmaceutical exports were at $8.6 billion year-to-date through August of 2025. And then on the import side of that, pharmaceuticals generated $19.6 billion year-to-date through August. Whereas compared to the previous year, exports are up by 13.3% and imports are up by 74.2%.
So, pharmaceuticals is actually holding strong and really kind of holding steady despite the trade deficit and despite the tariffs. And I had a chance to speak a little bit with Brian Balfour. He's the VP of research at the John Locke Foundation. And what he said was, we were promised two main things from Trump's tariff regime: more manufacturing jobs and a major decrease in the trade deficit. And he said, so far we are 0 for 2.
Manufacturing jobs have fallen since Trump's Liberation Day, both nationally and in North Carolina, despite overall growth. And the latest data confirms that the trade deficit has not been reduced. And Nick, even the New York Times is backing this up. They're saying that despite Trump's promises that tariffs would reduce the deficit and bring back manufacturing to America, tariffs have not only increased the deficit, but also led American manufacturers to cut more than 80,000 jobs last year. It obviously remains a very dynamic and very interesting discussion.
The President will host his State of the Union coming up a little bit later on tonight. That is taking place here in Washington, D.C.
So we'll see what he has to say as it relates to some of this continued discussion on tariffs, some of these trade imbalances. Katie, you went through a lot of numbers and stats and figures. Maybe folks that want to visualize that this morning, where can they go and get that done? Sure, they can read the full article with all the quotes and all the data broken down at CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning.
Katie Zender joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:37. A good Tuesday morning to you. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. I'm Nick Craig.
Since Po Hall was shut down in 2023, there have been a couple of legal challenges filed against NC State University by both individuals that were attending as students and those that worked within the facilities to walk us through the latest legal challenge just filed a couple of months ago. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, for frequent readers over at CarolinaJournal.com or those that have been listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour over the last couple of years, we've talked about a couple of these different legal challenges. You've got one that was just filed last month in January. Before we get to that, can you kind of walk us through what exactly was going on at Poe Hall and what is the reason behind all of these legal issues?
Sure, certainly. Poe Hall opened in 1971 and it served as the education building, also dealing with other departments within the campus and was used quite a bit. It was a center for students to congregate, especially students who were in education at NC State University. And so, for a number of decades, it was a major piece of the North Carolina State University campus. But the building shut down in 2023 after university officials confirmed in testing that building materials had PCBs, very harmful.
And eventually, there was some suggestion that Poe Hall had contributed to health problems. There was an initial legal action by a former staffer/slash faculty member who was trying to stop NC State from taking any steps that would prevent evidence from coming out about the PCBs in Poe Hall. That actually ended up being successful. But then in January, a group of a dozen plaintiffs, nine living former staff and faculty and student members, but also the estates of three people who had died, all filed suit against Etsy State University, basically using what's called a quorum claim. And that's something that comes out of the early 1990s when a plaintiff can file suit against a government agency saying their constitutional rights under the North Carolina Constitution have been violated and trying to collect damages for that violation.
So that suit was filed, and then later, the same group of plaintiffs filed suit against Monsanto. A company that was alleged to have been involved in the building materials that included the PCBs. Interestingly enough, North Carolina State University has also filed suit against Monsanto, claiming that the company bears some responsibility for this. But the latest development in the suit that was filed by a dozen plaintiffs against NC State is that the university has filed a motion to dismiss the case. And basically, the argument from the university is that the plaintiffs did not follow the proper procedure in how they should attack this case, that they filed a lawsuit in superior court, and that is not something that NC State is subject to have to deal with.
If they really wanted to pursue claims against NC State for its role, they either had to file a tort claim or a worker's compensation claim, depending on whether they were a student or an employee. And both of those would have had to go. through the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
So basically, the university is saying, no, you can't file a quorum claim against this because you had another opportunity to file an action. And either action that you could have filed has to go through the Industrial Commission, not through Superior Court. And so the court should throw this case out. Mitch, you follow a lot of legal cases and challenges that we talk about here in North Carolina and your understanding, and obviously every case is unique, every case has different factors, based on what you understand with all of the various elements of this case, do you think NC State's got any standing on this? Or is this, as we see many a times, pretty much any effort, any ability to dismiss a case really before it gets off the ground?
Well, you're right that in almost all lawsuits, unless the defendant decides, yeah, I'm liable, I've got to settle, they'll file a motion to dismiss on one of a number of different grounds.
Sometimes it's that the plaintiffs lack standing or that they're asking to failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted, meaning you filed suit, but you're not really asking for something that a court can address. In this case, it's not really the standing or failure to state a claim, but not following the proper procedure. And NC State University being part of state government and being a government entity, there may be some cause to say that this is something that the university can win on. That if a former student Wanted to hold NC State accountable for what happened at Pohal, that the proper thing to do would be to file a tort claim under the Industrial Commission, or if a former employee Or even a current employee wanted to file an action that that would be a workers' compensation claim within the Industrial Commission. And then, because those two different avenues take away some of the sovereign immunity that NC State University has, you could pursue a claim that way.
But the university says it does not give up its sovereign immunity for an action that's filed directly in superior court. And another piece of this whole thing that is a quorum claim, which actually comes out from a case from the early 1990s that was filed against the University of North Carolina.
So NC State's chief rival was the basis of this court case that now is the basis for what NC State, the plaintiffs, are asking for against NC State. You can only file a quorum claim. If There's no other avenue. For you to get the relief that you're looking for. And NC State is saying that's not the case here.
They can file something with the Industrial Commission and try to get a ruling there. They can't just say, my constitutional rights have been violated. You've got to pay me some damages because there is another avenue for them to pursue. It remains to be seen whether the courts will respond to that favorably, or if the plaintiffs could say, look, what we're asking for in this quorum claim is different than what we would ask for in an Industrial Commission filing.
So we'll have to wait and see what the ultimate result is. But certainly NC State is making its case that this is not the proper avenue for these plaintiffs to have pursued when they're suing a government entity like the university. Mitch, is there an added level of complexity to this case? The fact that NC State already has an ongoing lawsuit against Monsanto, who they claim produced some of the materials that now here we are this many, you know, 30 years, 40 years down the line are being linked to some of these PCBs, linked to lingering health effects, things like cancer and that nature. Does that add a level of complexity to a case like this?
It certainly does add complexity to the overall situation because not only is NC State suing Monsanto, but the exact same plaintiffs that are suing NC State are also suing Monsanto. And so they will be on the same side, certainly, in that litigation. But I think one of the things that's going to be interesting to see how the courts resolve is what sort of liability does NC State University have? For the fact that back in the early 1970s, before PCBs were banned, that building materials had these PCBs. One of the arguments that's going to be made against NC State is that it was before 2023, and some may even say long before 2023, that they actually learned that there were PCBs.
And if NC State had shut the building down as soon as they knew that this banned substance was in the building materials, that probably would have helped the university. But the fact that the shutdown of the building didn't happen until 2023, long after people knew PCBs were a problem, and according to the plaintiffs, and I think according to Monsanto in its response to the lawsuit against it, the fact that NC State may have known about the presence of PCBs long before the building was shut down, that could be something that hurts the university.
Now, this is, of course, something that's A claim that's made in the lawsuits, NC State may come back and deny that it actually had any knowledge of PCBs before 2023. But that will be a major source of the litigation.
Well, and Mitch, I can kind of see an interesting situation here. There was a lot of growth and development throughout the state of North Carolina in the 60s and 70s when a lot of these materials were being used. You can imagine, depending on how something like this plays out, other situations popping up with county buildings, school buildings all across the state of North Carolina, with unfortunately having a lot of these building materials be very prominent, not just here across the state, but across the nation as we went through the 60s and 70s. You would imagine that maybe something like this, depending on how it shakes out, could potentially affect cases that we're talking about 20 or 30 years from now as some of these lingering health effects continue to pop up. That's true.
That's something that could crop up. This building, as we said, was put up in the early 1970s, and this was before the ban on PCBs.
So, one of the things I wondered as this case came forward was: are there any other buildings on the NC State campus that have similar situations? Or because NC State is part of a University of North Carolina system, were there other buildings built around the same time at other university campuses that have the same sort of issues?
Now, one would think that after all this time, that if you saw a building that seemed to be linked in some way to a bunch of other health issues, cases of cancer, alleged cases of cancer, that you probably would have seen this by now in other buildings. But that's not necessarily true. It may crop up in other settings. And of course, one of the wrinkles here that's interesting that would be different from a building. erected on a in a private sector is NC State has as a government agency some sort of immunity from many lawsuits.
And that's one of the things that's being claimed here is that If the plaintiffs go forward in the Industrial Commission, some of that immunity goes away. But trying to sue directly in Superior Court, the sovereign immunity remains. And I think that's going to be something that's going to be very interesting to watch, not only in this case, but how this case is resolved. Could help determine what happens if there are other cases in the scenario that you point out, that other buildings built around the same time show that they have similar health issues. How the Poe Hall litigation plays out could impact how other cases turn out as well.
We will be keeping a close eye on this story. Mitch will join us as we continue to get updates with that. You can read some additional coverage over 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.
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It's 555. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. In 2025, the film and TV production industry spent an estimated $185.5 million in direct in-state spending in North Carolina. This is the fourth highest year-end total since the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant program went into effect more than a decade ago, back in 2015. And the expenditures reflect investments that included featured films, streaming and television series, reality programs, commercials, and independent projects.
The governor Judge Stein said in a recent press release, film production is important to North Carolina, generating economic activity and supporting more than 7,000 jobs across the state last year. Producers know when they choose North Carolina, they'll find a supportive environment with an experienced workforce that understands and meets their needs. 38 productions were filmed across 45 counties in the state, creating more than 7,000 jobs for crews, talent, and background extras.
Some of the highlights included season two of Beast Games, that's hosted by Mr. Beast, who is from the Greenville area originally, top chef, season 23 of that program, and plenty of other shows and mini-series as well. According to Renee Almost, who is a video producer for the State Policy Network, he told the Carolina Journal: Times have changed. Never before have we had access to virtually unlimited audiences like we do today through YouTube and other social media platforms. The reality has become especially clear to me while working with Mr.
Beast on a Feastables commercial. He started as an independent creator and rose to the highest levels of entertainment without Hollywood. While Mr. Beast, a Greenville native, built his brand organically in broadcast. Broad strokes across the United States without state incentives or money from Hollywood.
He did receive a $15 million grant for season two of his television program known as the Beast Games, which runs on Amazon under the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant program.
Some national commercials filmed here in North Carolina. We've got some more details on what was filmed here, what some of the incentives look like from the state, all of those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Tuesday 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 WBT.
