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 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, a busy night in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as President Donald Trump held the 2026 State of the Union. It was a record-breaking speech in terms of its length, and the president and President Trump now holds the modern era for the record for longest State of the Union address, surpassing Bill Clinton's speech that he gave to a similar joint session of Congress back in the year 2000. For those not familiar with the State of the Union, it is the President's annual address to the joint members of Congress and the country, which operates as equal parts, a progress report, and as well as an agenda breakout. Blueprint and political messaging and measuring for what is to come next.
The president, as was discussed in the weeks leading up to the State of the Union, heavily focused on the economy and ushering in the golden age of America. The speech ultimately ran for an hour and 48 minutes, holding that new record. And the president touched on a bunch of major topics that we have been talking about in recent weeks and months here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. One of the main topics from the president, again, was the economy. He talked about tariffs, which is something that has recently been in the news.
A major 6-3 decision by the United States Supreme Court on Friday, ruling that the president's use of IEPA emergency tariff policies were not constitutional.
However, the president during the State of the Union indicated he was not backing down on his tariff pressure. One of the primary reasons for our country's Stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history where the Dow Jones broke 50,000 four years ahead of schedule. And the SNP hit 7,000. where it wasn't supposed to do it for many years. We're tariffs.
I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars to make great deals for our country. both economically and on a national Security basis. Everything was working well. Countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars. They were ripping us so badly, you all know that.
Everybody knows it. Even the Democrats know it, they just don't want to say it. And yet these countries are now happy And so are we. We made deals. The deals are all done.
And they're happy. They're not making money like they used to, but we're making a lot of money. There was no inflation, tremendous growth. And the big story was how Donald Trump called the economy correctly, and 22 Nobel Prize winners in economics didn't. They got it totally wrong.
They got it really wrong. And then just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down. It came down. Very unfortunate ruling.
But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal. that they already made. Right, Scott? knowing that the legal power that I as President have to make a new deal, could be far worse for them. And therefore, they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before.
Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement.
So despite the disappointing ruling, He's powerful. Country saving. It's saving our country, the kind of money we're taking in. peace protecting Many of the wars I settled was because of the threat of tariffs. I wouldn't have been able to settle them without.
Will remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes. And they have been tested for a long time. They're a little more complex, but they're actually probably better. leading to a solution. That will be even stronger.
than before. Congressional action will not be necessary. It's already time-tested and approved. And as time goes by, I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, Substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love. That is the president Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., during the State of the Union.
One of his longest single comments without a large break for applause in between some of the applause you heard there after the president highlighted that the Supreme Court did strike down some of those, or not some of the IEPA tariffs on Friday was from Democrats in the crowd. We've recently talked about this here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, a story actually just this week, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is known as the BEA, the 2025 trade deficit was down to $901.5 billion, down slightly from where it was in 2024 at $918.4 billion. Experts recently revealed that the impact of trade patterns stemming from the deficit across major industries, including agriculture and pharmaceuticals, which are the two, some of the The largest industries here in North Carolina. In 2025, the goods and services deficit decreased by 2.1 billion or 0.2% from 2024.
According to that same data from the feds, exports went up by $119.8 billion or 6.2% from 2024, while imports increased by 4.8% or just shy of $200 billion. Data from the BEA indicates that in December, the deficit was $70.3 billion up from $50.3 billion in November, a whopping 32.5% increase as this discussion over the last year continued to play out here, not only across the United States, but here in North Carolina. Despite being one of the state's largest economies, North Carolina saw a year-over-year decline in tobacco production. That is according to data from the BEA report. Report, unmanufactured tobacco fell year over year by $218 million in 2025, with manufactured tobacco actually increasing by $328 million in 2024 compared to 2025.
North Carolina is the nation's leading tobacco producer, with the state producing some 260.1 million pounds of tobacco annually. You can read some more information on the trade deficit, many of which those discussions are the impetus for some of these tariffs put in by the Trump administration. Those details are over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, tariffs leave North Carolina's trade deficit largely unmoved. In some other comments from President Donald Trump, he also talked about AI data centers.
This has been a major topic of discussion in recent months, as well as major tech companies build these massive compute factories essentially across the United States.
However, one of the main concerns in recent analysis and reporting is that due to the amount of power draw needed for these supercomputer facilities to operate, it is putting an incredible amount of stress and load on the power utility grid. We'll get to the comments from President Trump on those AI data centers coming up here in just a couple of minutes. You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. It's so weird. This app shows that my credit score is pretty good, but I couldn't get the car loan.
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Get the scores, lenders, you. Get the right FICO credit score for your credit goal, including your FICO scores used for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. Visit myFICO.com or download the MyFICO app to get started today. Uh It's 519. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT as we continue our coverage of the 2026 State of the Union happening Tuesday night in Washington, D.C.
The address, the longest in modern U.S. history, just shy of an hour and 50 minutes for President Donald Trump shattering the record that was previously held by Bill Clinton back in the year, or President Bill Clinton, I should say, back in the year 2000. Continuing with the coverage of that, as I mentioned before the break, President Donald Trump talking about something that has grown in popularity in terms of news over the last couple of months, the impact that AI data centers have on local communities and more accurately, utility bills. Here was the president in Washington, D.C. Many Americans are also concerned that Energy demand from AI data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills.
Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new Rate Payer Protection Pledge. You know what that is. We're telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs. They can build their own power plants as part of their. Factory.
so that no one's prices will go up. And in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community and very substantially down. This is a unique strategy never used in this country before. We have an old grid, it could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that's needed.
So I'm telling them they can build their own plant, they're going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company's ability to get electricity while at the same time lowering prices of electricity for you. And it could be very substantial for all of you cities and towns. You're going to see some good things happen over the next number of years. That lines up very accurately with a recent letter that we saw sent from Democrat Governor Josh Stein and other bipartisan governors across the country to a group known as the PGM Intraconnect, which is the largest power electrical intraconnect in the country, serving states such as Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, and portions of Northeast North Carolina.
The governor said in signing that letter back in January: I am committed to keeping electricity costs as low as possible for families. That means making sure data centers pay their fair share for the electricity that they require to be generated. I applaud the United States Department of Energy for this initiative and remain committed to making sure life is as affordable as possible for every North Carolinian. That was the quote there from Governor Josh Stein. John Sanders, who is the director of the Center for Food, Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, also highlighted this issue, saying, Data centers and their power needs are a real problem for electricity grids and electricity consumers in the short term.
While the centers will pay for the electricity that they consume in the amount in various amounts of time, their very presence requires building more power plants whose expenses get appropriated out to other consumer bills as well. And that is the problem that the governors and the Trump administration are trying to interject address with the PGM intraconnect. The president Also highlighted this at the 2026 World Economic Forum, which happened in Davos back in January. The president said, just as he said during the State of the Union, we're leading the world in AI by a lot. We're leading China by a lot.
That is in part because I'm going to allow these big companies building these massive buildings to build their own electrical capacity. They're building their own power plants, which when added up will be more than any other country. Sanders also echoed some of those statements from the president, highlighting the importance of reducing some of the regulation as it relates to these major tech companies building these huge data farms, saying if the fact if the facilities are able to build their own power generators, that would be the best solution for other consumers. Unfortunately, permitting delays make it difficult to get power plants built quickly and adds to their expense. Plus, natural gas supplies, the could help the power of the data centers themselves have been constrained in the mid-Atlantic owing to pipeline permitting delays, denials, lawsuits, and other political obstructions.
It was announced just in June of last year that Amazon would be investing some $10 billion to launch a new high-tech cloud computing and AI innovation campus in Richmond County, North Carolina. With recent analysis from Bloomberg showing that wholesale electricity prices in many parts of the United States have surged dramatically since the year 2020 with many of the areas near where large AI data center hubs are propping up and are being built with electrical costs rising as much as 267% to where some of those rates were just five or six years ago. You can read some additional coverage on that story. We've got it over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Search for the story with the headline, bipartisan state and federal pressures on grid operators to lower costs.
Again, those details at CarolinaJournal.com. North Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the nation, seeing a lot of exodus from cities like New York and the Northeast, California, and other states out west. Many of those individuals deciding to call North Carolina home. That has caused some major concerns as it relates to the housing demand here in North Carolina and many other states that have seen a large influx of individuals moving in over the last five or ten years. Other states like Texas also on the mind.
And the president brought up a point that he has continued to harp on in recent weeks, making sure that large investment firms, either private equity or other sorts of large investment firms, are not purchasing single-family homes across the nation. Another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is home ownership. With us tonight is Race O'Wiggins, a mom of two from Houston. She placed bids on 20 homes and lost all of those bids to gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her. American Dreams.
She was devastated. Stories like this are why last month I signed executive order to ban large Wall Street investment firms from buying up in the thousands single family homes. And now I'm asking Congress to make that ban permanent because home is for. people Really, that's what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations.
Corporations are doing just fine. Rayselle, thank you very much. Good luck with your home. You'll get one soon. Recent analysis that we have over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com from U-Haul.
Everybody is familiar with U-Haul placed North Carolina third on a list of top states for movers in the year 2025, trailing only Texas and Florida as the most popular destinations for relocation. For the sixth consecutive year, California ranked last with the largest move-out or out-of-state migration. The growth index from U-Haul ranks states, metropolitan areas, and cities by their net gain of one-way trucks, trailers, and U-box container rentals arriving in cities versus leaving them during the 2025 calendar year. The data is compiled from more than 2.5 million transactions that U-Haul does on a yearly basis in both the United States and Canada. On a narrower list of metro regions that were analyzed by U-Haul, Charlotte ranked fourth, Raleigh ranked eighth.
With Charlotte's placement a slight decline from 2024, when the Queen City ranked second in the nation in terms of some of that inbound migration, with Raleigh dropping one spot from seventh, where that number was in 2024. According to Matthew Burgess, who is the U-Haul company of Raleigh president, he told the Carolina Journal back last month, the number of jobs in the triangle is unrivaled to other areas. Because of this, we've seen so many professionals moving into this area. I am not surprised that Raleigh remains in the top 10 metros because of how much construction I'm seeing. Everywhere I go, there's new housing developments or new skyscrapers being built.
They are also expanding our highway system to accommodate some of that growth. With that, the state of North Carolina remains multiple years the number one state for business from CNBC and other major business and news publications. All of that influx is driving a shortage as it relates to the supply of homes. And as you just heard from the President during the State of the Union Tuesday night, he is asking Congress to codify legislation that would ban large investment firms from purchasing those single-family homes, paying cash for them, and immediately flipping them into rentals. We will see if Congress has the appetite to do that and what its impacts could be on North Carolina.
We'll keep you up to date with it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Coming up here in just a couple of minutes, the president did talk about Irina Zarutska during the 2026 State of the Union, calling out her brutal murder on the Charlotte Lightrail. We'll get to his comments coming up here in just a couple of minutes as the Carolina Journal News Hour continues. At Verbo, we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support, so we plan for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our Verbo care guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start.
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Good Wednesday morning to you on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT as we continue our coverage of President Donald Trump's 2026 State of the Union. You'll remember, of course, back in late August of 2025, North Carolina, more accurately, the city of Charlotte, rose to international attention after 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zarutska was brutally murdered on the Charlotte light rail by DeCarlos Brown Jr. And if you were keeping track of the state of the union last night, well, the president highlighted Irina Zarutska by name and actually had her mother in the audience. This was the moment as it unfolded in the U.S. Capitol Tuesday night.
Above all, unleashing America's promise requires keeping our communities safe. We have made incredible strides, yet dangerous repeat offenders continue to be released by pro-crime Democrat politicians again and again. We are honored to be joined tonight by A woman who's been through hell, Anya Zuretska. In 2022, she and her beautiful daughter, so beautiful, what a beautiful young woman. Irena fled.
War turned. War torn Ukraine to live with relatives near Charlotte. North Carolina, and by the way, what's going on with Charlotte? Last summer, 23-year-old Irena was riding home on the train when a deranged monster Who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail. stood up and viciously slashed a knife.
through her neck and body. No one will ever forget there were people On that train No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life. She died instantly. She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal, set free to kill, and America came in through open borders. Mrs.
Zaretzka, tonight I promise you we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter. Bye, Reading. Irina's mother, as you can imagine, very emotional during the State of the Union. One thing that the president said during his comments is that DeCarlos Brown Jr., who is the individual charged with Irina's murder, he's got both federal and state charges levied above his head. He made the comment about coming in illegally.
That is not the case with DeCarlos Brown Jr.
However, that is the case with another violent incident that happened on the Charlotte Light Rail a few months later, back in December of last year, where an individual from Guatemala was illegally in the United States and did stab somebody, fortunately, not killing them on the Charlotte light rail. As I mentioned, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee had only been in the United States a relatively short amount of time when she was heading home on the night of August the 22nd, 2025, shortly before 10 p.m. on the aboard the Charlotte Lynx Blue Line when she was stabbed and brutally murdered. Murdered by DeCarlos Brown Jr. The president also highlighted the picture and video now that many have seen across the nation of Arena riding on the light rail, minding her own business with some earbuds in, and the horrific look on her face when DeCarlos Brown Jr.
lunges from behind her, stabbing her in the neck multiple times. DeCarlos Brown Jr., who is 34 years old, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and he has a lengthy criminal rap sheet, several prior convictions, including armed robbery, felony, larceny, breaking, and entering, and shoplifting. That same light rail murder was the premise behind a major hearing that was conducted by members of Congress last year as well, a remote meeting of members of Congress in Charlotte discussing violent crime by repeat offenders in the United States. That hearing did receive some national attention as well last year, and most recently. A hearing in front of the North Carolina General Assembly, where local elected officials from the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County made their way to our state capitol to be grilled by state lawmakers over some of these policies.
The most contentious part of it was between state lawmakers and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, who had very little, if any, answers for state lawmakers as they questioned him on policies within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. There was some discussion of bail reform. The state of North Carolina, the General Assembly, last year also worked on legislation to try and prevent a similar situation from happening across the state. That legislation, now known as ARENA's Law, has been passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, signed into law by Governor Josh Stein. It adds additional Requirements for magistrates and judges who are determining whether individuals will be receiving any bail or bond.
It requires them to look at the full history, full criminal history, I should say, of an individual before determining what their bail parameters will be. And for judges or magistrates that do not follow this new procedure as it is now laid out in general statute, enshrined in law here across the state of North Carolina, they face the potential of removal by the judicial system here in North Carolina. If they refuse to follow that, it ends things like cashless bail and strengthens some of those pretrial release structures that are in place. As this is not only a discussion here in North Carolina, obviously, the Irina Zarutska murder happening here in Charlotte, but a larger, a much broader discussion in recent years across the United States on soft-on-crime policies. As President Donald Trump knows, typically, Noted, typically being pushed by Democrat politicians in blue cities across the United States.
That conversation has reached a fever pitch across the nation as well. As Arita Zarutska's mother was in attendance for the 2026 State of the Union, the discussion and conversation does continue here across the state of North Carolina as the alleged killer in this situation, DeCarlos Brown Jr., faces federal and both state and federal charges. Statewide, it's a murder charge on his head. On the federal side, committing an act of violence on public transportation as the Charlotte Light Rail operated by CATS, the Charlotte area transportation system, like many other transportation systems, does receive a pretty significant portion of funding from the federal government, which is why there are those two simultaneous legal battles taking place against the 34-year-old who was seen on CATS survey. Surveillance video brutally murdering Irina Zarutska.
The president also highlighted another major topic in recent months as well: illegal CDLs. CDL stands for commercial driver's license. It is what you need to operate big rigs, 18-wheelers, and other sort of heavy and large equipment on roadways across the United States. President did not hold back on that either. Isla Coldman was only five years old in June.
2024, when a 18-wheel tractor trailer plowed into her stopped car, traveling at 60 miles an hour or more. The driver was an illegal alien led in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver's license by open borders politicians. California. Doctors said Delilah would never be able to walk or talk. Have a good life.
She wouldn't even be able to eat again. But against all odds, she is now in the first grade learning to walk. And she's here this evening with her dad, Marcus, a fantastic man. Delilah, please, you are a great inspiration. Please stand up.
Thank you, Dalella. Many, if not most, illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs as to direction, speed, danger. or location. That's why tonight I'm calling on Congress to pass what we will call the Delilah Law. barring any state from granting commercial driver's licenses to illegal airlining.
That has been an interesting discussion here in North Carolina as well. Back about a month and a half ago, it was a new report came out from federal officials, the Federal Transportation Safety Administration, that some major issues were potentially ongoing within North Carolina's commercial driver's license program. In an official warning letter set back in early January, federal auditors reported that a review of 50 sampled commercial driver's licenses issued here in North Carolina, the report and auditors found that 27 were issued illegally. While in eight of the cases, the state, quote, could not provide any evidence that it verified the driver's lawful presence with an unexpired EAD or unexpired foreign passport or a Form I-94, which documents the driver's most recent admittance into the United States prior to issuing. The letter from the Department of Transportation says that serious deficiencies in North Carolina's CDL program could result in the loss of tens of millions of dollars in federal highway funding and the possibility of decertification of the state's authority to issue CDLs.
The letter, which was sent back on January the 8th to Governor Josh Stein, the North Carolina Department of Transportation Commissioner Paul Tyne, Derek Barr, who is the administrator of the federal motor carrier safety administration, issued a preliminary determination of substantial noncompliance across the Tar Heel State following that comprehensive audit of the state's commercial driver's license program. focusing specifically on the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses. Those non-domiciled CDLs means that the licenses were issued to someone not permanently residing in the United States, typically a foreign national that has work authorization in the country. The letter explained that the audit was conducted to ensure that states, all, not just North Carolina, but all states are meeting federal standards as it relates to its CDL issuance, testing, and verification requirements under federal law. According to the agency, failure to meet those standards places the state at risk of federal sanctions.
With the letter saying, making a final determination of substantial noncompliance, this entity may initiate the withholding of certain federal aid highway funds and may decertify the state's CDL program, which would mean that North Carolina would not have the ability to issue, renew, or operate a commercial driver's license program here in North Carolina.
So another topic that has propped up in recent months here across North Carolina, making its appearance at the 2026 State of the Union, by the way, with this, the state potentially risks losing nearly $50 million if the federal government did go through with withholding some of those federal highway safety funds. We'll keep an eye on those details as well. You can read this story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline, NC could lose $48.7 million after CDL is flagged by federal government. Good morning again.
It's 553. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT, a busy Wednesday morning here as we walked through some of the pertinent details from President Donald Trump's State of the Union, some of the more recent discussions and conversations we've had here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, including the discussion over tariffs and the trade deficit here in the United States, the major stress that AI data centers and other major companies are putting on utility grids, causing prices to soar for consumers here across the United States, the discussion over the murder of Arena Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail, housing shortages in some part caused by large investment firms purchasing large amounts of single-family homes and other issues. Again, we'll have the links to all of those stories over on our website. CarolinaJournal.com. In some other statewide news this morning, the city of Concord, that is in Cabarris County, just north of Charlotte, is among 21 cities according to the United States, in the United States, rather, according to the Department of Homeland Security, where they have either bought or planned to buy a warehouse to convert into an immigration and customs enforcement detention center or ICE detention center, which would be used in large part to house illegal immigrants.
The proposed warehouse site is northeast of Charlotte and would have room for about 1,500 beds, according to property records and DHS documents that were published by the New York Times late last week. On Friday, city officials posted on X that the city was aware of the rumors of a proposed detention facility, but noted that it had yet to have been contacted by immigration and customs enforcement or were aware of any plans for one to take place. Earlier this This month, there was a report that the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, received documents through a Freedom of Information Act request indicating that an ICE detention facility would be housing. Would be housed at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina. That's in Guilford County, but neither the city of Greensboro nor Guilford County had received any such notification.
That facility was previously supposed to be used to house Western North Carolina families displaced by Hurricane Helene in September of 2024. Reports state that the United States Department of Health and Human Services terminated its lease on that facility on April the 1st of 2025.
So it's not immediately clear exactly what that FOIA request was laying out, but it also showed that ICE was planning to convert facilities in Hertford County, North Carolina, in the town of Winton into a detention facility, and also highlighting some of this potential purchase of property or leasing of property in Cabarris County in the city of Concord as well.
So that is something that we are keeping an eye on. You can read more details on that. Story this morning as well. Over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, we've got the story's headline, Concord among 21 cities eyed for ICE detention site.
Well, the early voting period does continue across the state of North Carolina, Election Day. Less than one week away, early voting runs in the state through Saturday until 3 p.m. Tomorrow morning, we will be catching up with Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation. He will bring us the latest early voting numbers.
We'll look at trends, voter turnouts, and some of those percentages as we approach the March the 3rd primary election.
Well, that's going to do it for a busy Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. 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.
