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I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. 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. We start off with some statewide news as federal authorities are charging a 36-year-old Wilmington man with illegally registering to vote and voting in 2024 and 2026, despite serving on super uh being on supervised release for a felony child porn conviction.
The FBI arrested James Osborne based on a criminal complaint that was signed last week, March 23rd, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Jones. This is according to a news release that came out Monday from U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle's office. Osborne attracted attention when media outlets revealed that he lived with New Hanover County school board candidate Rick Sutherland.
Sutherland won in the March the 3rd primary and just days after winning, being one of four candidates getting through the primary, dropped out of the school board race due to mounting pressure over his association with Osborne. Osborne is charged with one count of making false statements on a voter registration and one count of making false statements on a voter ballot. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge if convicted, again, according to the news release. The FBI special agent in charge in North Carolina, Reed Davis, said, quote, This case is an example of the FBI's commitment to election security and serves as a warning that we will arrest and prosecute anyone who illegally participates in our democratic process. A little background as to how we got here.
Osborne was found guilty of possession of child pornography in Virginia in a federal court back in 2021. According to the criminal complaint, he was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, which is ongoing right now. His supervised release moved from Virginia to North Carolina in December of 2023. As part of the supervised release, he was scheduled to remain in place, which is scheduled to remain in place, I should say, all the way through January of 2038. Osborne voted in the November 2024 election at Belleville Elementary School polling site in Leland.
As a result, Osborne knowingly and willfully deprived, defrauded, or attempted to deprive or defraud the residents of the state of North Carolinas of a fair and impartial conducted election process. By casting a ballot that was known by Osborne to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under North Carolina state law, reads the violation. Osborne later then moved his voter registration from Brunswick County to New Hanover County in November of twenty twenty five and cast an early voting ballot there in February of twenty twenty six, according to the complaint. This reads as follows, saying, based upon the information provided above, there is probable cause to believe that on or about November 5th, 2024, November 4th, 2025, and February 5th, 2026, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, James Osborne committed, among other numerous offenses, false statements on a voter registration or ballot in violation of Title 52, United States Code, Section 20511, as well as other codes according to the complaint. Osborne is expected to appear in federal court coming up a little bit later on this morning.
He has a 9.30 a.m. hearing in Wilmington where this case is being prosecuted. This is the second time, if this sounds not familiar, but if this is sounding interesting, this is the second time over the last couple of months that we have talked about individuals in southeastern North Carolina casting ballots in elections. Where they were not eligible to do so. We covered a story over and have covered a story over the last couple of months as it related to a Canadian national.
Who had legally been in the United States going back to, I believe, the 1970s here in the United States under a green card, which is law-abiding status.
However, with a green card, you are not eligible to vote as you are not a U.S. citizen. An individual by the name of Dennis Bouchard has been in the news over the last couple of months as federal authorities prosecute that case as well. We will keep an eye on these details. As I mentioned, a federal hearing coming up a little bit later on today.
We will keep you up to date with the latest and bring it to you right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Taking a look at some other statewide news today, a lot going on across the state of North Carolina as we continue to look at some details. A federal judge has rejected Left of Center Group's challenge of a North Carolina law linked to same-day voter registration rules. A group called Democracy. North Carolina, the North Carolina Black Alliance, and the League of Women Voters in North Carolina all challenged a section of the 2023 Senate Bill 747.
Which was called undeliverable mail provision. It changed the rules related to verifying same-day voter eligibility to cast ballots in North Carolina elections. Two other lawsuits targeting the same provision have already ended in settlements, but the plaintiffs led by Democracy NC decided to not settle and take their case to trial last October.
Now, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder has ruled in favor of the North Carolina State Board of Elections and top legislative leaders defending the law. According to Sam Hayes, who is the executive director of the State Board of Elections, he said in a statement with the decision, quote, this decision affirms that same-day registration safeguards are constitutional and serve an important role in ensuring that registrants are who they say they are. We are pleased with the court's ruling and appreciate its thorough review of the matter. Schroeder wrote in his 108-page order that was issued late last week, quote, plaintiff's challenge of Senate Bill 747's modification of the prior two-card verification process, where a registration card is mailed by the County Board of Elections to verify the registrant's address returned undeliverable will not result in registration being denied until a second card is similarly returned.
Senate Bill 747 eliminated the second verification card. And directed that ballots cast be retrieved from the count upon return of the first card. The process in which this plays out is pretty simple. For those that are not already registered voters in the state of North Carolina, if during the early voting period, if you are not registered, you can do what is called a same-day registration. You show up, you provide information to the local county board of election in which you are casting a ballot.
You are then given a ballot to, in fact, vote. And on the back end, in the days and weeks that follow, individuals that work at the local county board of election go through the process of verifying all of that information. Part of that process includes a mail verification card that is sent to the address that you gave election officials. If that card is returned back to the state board of elections as undeliverable, as in the address in which you listed, does not exist or there is no mailbox or a litany of different reasons in which mail could be dete uh deemed or determined undeliverable, the uh ballot that wi then in which you cast during that early voting period will be retrieved from the count. Schroeder went on to explain in his opinion: plaintiffs claim that this change, considered alongside the consequential potential denial of ballots for affected voters, constitutes an undue burden on the fundamental right to vote in violation of the 1st and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution and is the product of intentional discrimination against young voters in violation of the 26th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Defendants contend, however, that the change is a valid response to the fact that the close proximity of the early voting period to Election Day and the resulting county canvas process leaves insufficient time for a second verification card to be returned. As a result, ballots are counted for individuals who fail the registration process after canvas. The court concludes that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that the law changes are unconstitutional. The three lawsuits filed against the challenged provisions of Senate Bill 747 did prompt Judge Schroeder to issue an injunction during the 2024 election cycle. The state board responded with a new notice and cure process that added more safeguards for voters who initial addressed verification cards but were returned as undeliverable.
Schroeder's order detailed the legislative history of Senate Bill 747, including lobbying by election integrity activists Cleta Mitchell and James Womack alongside the North Carolina election integrity team, with Schroeder writing in the opinion, having carefully considered all the evidence, this court finds that the General Assembly did not deviate from the ordinary legislative process in passing Senate Bill 747. It followed normal order and held the proper number of hearings, including one that was extended.
So as it stands right now, Now, this provision of Senate Bill 747, which was a much larger omnibus election bill, does stay in place as now three different lawsuits, two of them settled. The other that we're just talking about right now essentially rejected by a federal judge who has ruled on this case and has said that the General Assembly, the Republican-led GA, was in their right to pass Senate Bill 747, and that will remain the law of the land as it stands right now across the state of North Carolina. We've got some additional details on this story. You can view those over at our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, Federal Judge Upholds NC Law Changing Same Day Voter Rules.
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Store it instead. Shop IKEA Bedroom Storage today at ikea.us slash bedroomstorage. It's 5:21. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT. I'm Nick Craig.
Good morning to you. The North Carolina State Board of Elections has received quite a few comments on its adoption of a rule as it relates to non-citizen list maintenance across the Tar Hill State. Walks through those details this morning. Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, maybe my intro a little bit inaccurate there.
What is this? 15,000 comments that the state board received? What are you tracking here? Yeah, good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
Now, that is correct. They have about 15,000 comments they have to go through before they make a decision on this, which I don't envy them one bit. Uh So, the Board of Elections got those comments on the adoption of permanent rules for non-citizen list maintenance since that request was made for comment at their December meeting.
So, they've gotten all these comments from a combination of emails, website submissions, mail, and also at a recent public comment hearing. Back in November, they voted along party lines three to two in favor of using a federal immigration verification system to help identify non-citizens on the state's voter rolls. That's known as SAVE. It's a little different than what's going through right now, which we explain a little bit later what the talk in Washington is about. This stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, better known as SAVE, administered by a Department of Homeland Security.
It's used by the federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies to verify immigration status and citizenship of applicants seeking benefits like Medicaid or licenses.
So, yeah, they've got a little bit of a ways to go as far as getting through all those comments. You know, Teresa, I'm remember reminding back to a story that we had over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We've had a couple of stories here on the Carolina Journal News Hour about it of non-citizens voting in North Carolina elections. The most recent story: an individual from Canada who was legally in the United States on a green card since the 1970s. Over the last couple of months, there's been federal charges put against that individual pleading guilty to that as he was voting in elections while he was not a legal U.S.
resident or citizen, I should say, here across the United States. Correct, correct. Yeah, that was a case that came up, and it also was spoken about. At the March 9th hearing that they had for comment, we should note that the John Locke Foundation's Dr. Andy Jackson spoke at that hearing and referenced that conviction of Canadian citizen Dennis Bouchard.
And basically, what Dr. Jackson said is government data on register voter citizenship status becomes more widely available. They need to process, have a process in place rather, to thoroughly vet voter roles using that data while protecting citizens' voting rights. Yeah, I mean, 100% that if something like that can happen, that's a clear example that they really need to be careful about who is voting in the elections. And, you know, Teresa, one of the interesting things about that story, and obviously we'll get back to these 15,000 public comments, is if it weren't for somebody reaching out to the State Board of Elections and following this process and saying, hey, I know of an individual who is, again, in the United States with a green card legally here, but not a citizen voting in elections.
I'm not sure they ever would have known about that. And without a system like this, presumably that individual could have continued to vote for the rest of their lives unless somebody essentially turned them in. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, when you take a look at that, that most definitely can happen. There are a number of people in the country with a green card, and that's fine, but obviously you have to be a citizen to vote.
And this could keep going on for years and years unless somebody knows about it and actually, you know. speaks up about it.
So yeah, it it definitely can go on.
So the system, the save system, would definitely be a help to the state election board here in North Carolina and any other state that would use it. Let's go back to this meeting that you are covering in these public comments and this process that again, as you noted, originally started back in late November with that three, two party line vote. What are some of the other details that you're learning? Sure.
So basically, there's different rules that. Need to be codified in a state law. I won't go through all of those, but we did find out about those rules late last year. One, just as an example, is a definitions rule spells out certain terms that are highlighted. Throughout highlighting certain terms used throughout rules.
So they have to talk about that. That's what the comments were made about. And there were also different identity questions. This includes felon removal process, jury excusal process. There's a bunch of different questions that go through that save system.
So they were talking about that earlier, actually late last year. But what Adam Steele, who is the assistant counsel at the State Board of Elections, talked about at the meeting earlier this month, all those comments do need to be reviewed and considered. And after that, the board can adopt the rules as originally proposed. There also could be revisions proposed by staff based on those comments or from the board. Or they could choose not to proceed with those rules.
Now, the board was set to vote on them, but he advised postponing any action for at least about a month until they can go through all those comments. And one board member, Siobhan Millen, agreed with the process should be slowed down. She commented about didn't know how reliable saved data would be. And said there shouldn't be a rush into it. But this was an important point, as we were mentioning earlier.
She stressed the SAVE system is different than the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or SAVE Act, which you've been hearing about in the news in the last month or so, that requires individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. It does not look good that that's going to pass. Actually, now, I guess Congress is on a break for a while. It was expected to fail due to Democratic opposition.
So actually, now, if the rules are adopted before April 20th, they will take effect by June 1st, provided they are approved by the Rules Review Commission.
So that's the latest on this, and then they would be used probably for the general election if that does happen. Yeah, great point there, Teresa, about the difference here between this SAVE system as it goes and relates to eligibility for things like Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare and things of that nature versus the SAVE Act, which is that debate, as you noted, remains ongoing in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to get into that this morning. But I do want to go back to the comments there from board member Millen about the reliability of the data. I mean, Teresa, if that was the case, I think we'd be having a much larger discussion about federal benefits and state benefits going out to dozens of entities that already use this system for processing a whole bunch of different things, cross-checking various databases to make sure that somebody is truly eligible to receive what they're applying for or signing up for.
Yeah, I mean, you most definitely want to be careful, right? You want to make sure you got your T's crossed and your I's dotted, so to speak, and not rush into anything, of course. But as you mentioned, this has been used and wildly used across the Many states about verification. And it's a good process, and it's something that definitely needs to be looked at and considered. And especially other agencies, other states are using it.
I think it is, this is my opinion, I'm speaking at the moment, a reputable form of verification.
So while I agree that you need to take your time and make sure you don't make any mistakes, I don't think there is a huge problem with the system itself as far as the SAVE Act that's being talked about now in Congress, or not SAVE Act, excuse me. It's early in the morning, right? Talking about the system, the verification that they want to try, and that's what they're voting on. It's the systematic alien verification for entitlement system. For that, again, that is administered by the Department of Homeland Security.
So, yeah, I think that system is a very reputable system. I don't see an issue with it. Yeah, definitely. Calling its reliability into question definitely raises some additional questions as well. Teresa, you're going to be following this process as it continues to unfold, likely over the next couple of months.
Here, we'll chat about those details when we get them. Folks that maybe want to peruse through those public comments and some of the other details, where can they go and do that this morning? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Teresa Opaca from CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Ah! It's 5:37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you.
We've got a brand new op-ed over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, with the headline, What State Government Can Learn from Vegas Casinos? To walk us through some of those details this morning, the Senior Vice President of Research at the John Locke Foundation, Brian Balfour, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Brian, what can we learn? Free drinks at tables, maybe some slot machines in the airport. What can North Carolina truly take away from the incredible business model that these casinos have pulled off over in Las Vegas, Nevada?
Yeah, well, hopefully, North Carolina state government can learn a lesson that other state governments, like New York and California, have not learned from the Vegas Casinos. What happens in the Vegas Casinos, the high net worth, customers they're often referred to as whales They'll roll out the red carpet for these folks. They'll give them freebies, VIP treatment, free rooms, meals, et cetera, because they recognize the value. Of keeping these high net worth individuals in their casinos and keeping them gambling and on net, they're going to generate a lot more for the bottom line. Uh conversely, we see states like uh um New York and California, they treat their high net worth individuals very poorly.
Like they're unwelcome. They impose punitive taxes on them. There's all sorts of regulations and red tape they layer on top of entrepreneurs and business owners and job creators. And so they make the high net worth individuals feel unwelcome in their state. And so what we're seeing in Washington state is another recent example as well, voting in favor of a, I believe it was a millionaire or billionaires tax.
But so what we see then is these high net worth individuals, they're not welcome, don't feel welcome in these states, so they move elsewhere. And guess what? They bring their money, they bring their investments and the job creation.
So, you know, luckily, North Carolina has done a really good job over the last dozen years or so with tax reform and creating a welcoming environment. We want to make sure that North Carolina continues that and doesn't go down the same road as New York and California and Washington. Treating these folks poorly, we want to have a welcoming environment for them.
So they bring their assets, they bring their wealth, and the job creation that comes along with it. I'm so glad you bring up Washington State because this story is relatively new. It's been in the news over the last three or four weeks for folks that keep tuned to national politics. They are in the process of implementing that millionaire's tax. And we've already seen some of these high-net income individuals, like the CEO of Starbucks, which, by the way, is where Starbucks was founded out in Washington State.
The original store is still there in the Seattle area. What a surprise, Brian. He's moving to the state of Florida with zero income tax so he can keep more of his money. I mean, I don't think anybody should be surprised by that. Yeah, absolutely not.
And as I mentioned in the article, too, Tax Foundation has done some research, and unsurprisingly, the data shows that people move to States where their taxes are lower, regulation is lower, it's more inviting for people. People can vote with their feet, especially these high-net worth individuals. They have the resources to move. They can move much more easily because they have the deep pockets and the resources they can do. They can do that much more easily than, say, maybe someone in the working class who's tied to a job and may have fewer opportunities to go somewhere else.
So again, just really kind of I just found the dichotomy to be really interesting to see like this is what the Vegas casinos do and big casinos do. They treat these people well, but unfortunately too many state governments are treating these people poorly. And so we see the result is these high net worth people, these high income folks, they move to other states where they're more welcome. Brian, I've got an interesting question for you. I mean, how much longer can something like this continue?
The New York and California model, it's not new. I mean, for anybody that has followed state politics across the nation over the last couple of decades, they didn't just prop up yesterday and say, hey, now we've got these incredibly high taxes for our citizens. This has been a gradual burn in states like New York and California. The thing in Washington, as we just talked about, is relatively new. Just within the last couple of weeks, the legislature in Washington state passed that, set to go into effect in a couple of years.
Brian, this stuff doesn't work. I mean, we've seen this very clearly with mass migration. How much longer can this possibly go on before some of these state leaders wake up and say, this stuff is a disaster for our state's economy? Yeah, I mean we we could be starting to see a tipping point really soon. I mean New York Governor Kathy Hochl, she was recently quoted as saying, hey, let's go down to Florida and try to get these rich people off the beaches of Miami and bring them back to New York because we need them for their tax money.
Again, just the kind of mentality of treating these folks as tax cows to be milked from the state governments is not going to be a very, I don't think too many people are going to move back to New York for that reason. But also, I've written also recently before a lot of other states are being really ambitious with tax cuts.
South Carolina, in particular, Georgia, looking at potentially trying to phase out their income tax.
So, especially in kind of the southeastern region.
So, we're going to be able to see a bigger and bigger contrast between how states treat their people and their workers and especially their high net worth or high income people. And the states that are more welcoming to these people are going to continue to see population gains while there's going to be drains on these other states that treat people much more poorly. Brian, we talked about the CEO of Starbucks. I think that's kind of a different example of an individual. Obviously, he is a very, very high-income individual with his incredibly successful franchise of coffee shops, literally tens of millions or tens of thousands of them across the United States.
But you look at individuals that have high incomes but are still actively working. Maybe they've got a small business where they're generating that income. What is the benefit of luring them to a state like North Carolina and having them move some of their assets here? Yeah, and that's such a great point because a lot of smaller businesses. They don't file as a corporation.
So therefore, they're subject to the state's personal income tax rate.
So like the highest personal income tax rate is often considered or called the small business tax.
So we want to make sure that we keep that in mind as well. And that's something I think these other states are failing to take into consideration. These folks are business owners. They create jobs in the community. They serve the folks in their community and they create.
investment and opportunities for folks. And if they're going to be treated poorly in these other states like Washington and California, they're going to move to states like North Carolina, Florida, Texas, where they're much more welcome. Again, it's very competitive. We are in North Carolina and all these other states, we're all competing with each other. And North Carolina, we want to make sure that we're still on the cutting edge of being one of the most accommodating states in the country for these folks so we can continue to see our economy grow and create more opportunities for the working folks across our state.
Over the last four or five years, CNBC, which I think most folks would acclaim as a reputable source as it relates to business news and various investment and financial information across the media landscape here in the United States, they do a survey every year called The Best State for Business. And the state of North Carolina has won that three out of the last five years. Obviously, former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper taking credit for that in years past. Josh Stein taking credit last year. Brian, a lot of that work is actually really being done by the Republican-led legislature.
And as of right now, it seems to be paying off pretty handsomely for them. Yeah, absolutely. You look at those rankings and you look at how important the state's tax climate plays in those rankings, like the one you mentioned. And the kind of tax cutting and reforms that we're talking about over the last dozen years have been opposed by Democratic governors like Cooper and more recently Stein and really initiated by that conservative leadership in the General Assembly over the last dozen years.
So I think it's a little bit disingenuous for. Specifically, like Roy Cooper, to try to take credit for this when he was really opposing most of the initiatives that really bolstered us in the rankings. Brian, I don't want to get too far down a rabbit hole here. You and I have chatted about the budget in the past, and we will likely begin doing so here over the next couple of weeks as we watch lawmakers head their way back to Raleigh. But this topic that we're discussing here this morning, that is exactly some of the disagreement that is currently going on in the General Assembly, as I understand it.
How much further should we continue to cut taxes? Is that still the situation, the gridlock that you're tracking up in Raleigh? Yeah, that still seems to be a main contentious point between the House and the Senate. There were some actually a recent, I think last week, some updated revenue projections coming in, which, in my opinion, bolstered the case for continued tax cuts because revenue is coming in stronger than they had projected previously. But the House still is kind of seeing that differently.
They want to be much more cautious, and they're worried about a quote-unquote fiscal cliff coming in a few years.
So that's still a pretty big sticking point between the two chambers. It's a great op-ed. We encourage our audience to go check it out this morning. You can do so over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, the headline, What State Governments Can Learn from Vegas Casinos? We appreciate the information and the insight this morning.
The Senior Vice President of Research at the John Locke Foundation, Brian Balfour, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:52. Good morning again, and welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. Turning our attention once again this morning to the wildfire risk, which remains across the state. We are tracking seven active burning wildfires this morning, most of them in western North Carolina.
However, there are two in eastern North Carolina that we are keeping an eye on. One in Hyde County, that is as you get towards the Outer Bank, 70 acres there, 0% contained, and a very small active wildfire just south of the Rocky Mountain area, not just miles from Interstate 95.
However, that is a very small over in Edgecombe County. Three acres there, that is 0% contained as of the most recent data from the North Carolina Forest Service.
However, it is a different story out in the western half of the state. The largest wildfire remains burning this morning in. Wilkes County, more than 620 acres. And unfortunately, according to the North Carolina Forest Service, that remains at just 20% contained. Another large fire burning in McDowell County, 185 acres there, 20% containment, according to the Forest Service.
One in Mitchell County, just on the Tennessee border, 350 acres that remains at 80% containment. And another one in Avery County as well, 30 acres there, 95% containment. That is also very close, incredibly close to the Tennessee border. And the final one in Wilkes County, 45 acres and 90% containment. This is relevant as the state of North Carolina has a burn ban across the entirety of North Carolina as wildfires continue to endanger properties and lives, and most prominently in the western half of the state.
That statewide burn ban, as I mentioned, does remain in effect. Due to increased fire danger and dry conditions in the western half of the state, North Carolina has two main wildfire seasons: one in the spring, one in the fall. And while the spring season is here, and for the western half of North Carolina, that is historically the most active wildfire season for the region. And of course, many of these concerns. And many of these fires, unfortunately, being exacerbated by the devastation still in the wake of Hurricane Helene, as many trees were toppled across the western half of the state.
Dead vegetation is the fuel that these wildfires need, unfortunately, to expand and grow across our state.
So, crews with not only local fire departments, but the North Carolina Forest Service, as well as the National Forestry Service as well, continue working at these active scenes with this burn ban. Any state-issued permits beforehand have been temporarily revoked while that ban is in place, as well as any new permits that were pending are also not being approved, as you can imagine. While this burn ban does remain in effect, we continue to follow details on this spring wildfire season, as most of the state of North Carolina, according to the weather predictions. Center does remain in some level of drought. Very soaking rainfall that is needed to help alleviate the risk of some of these fires has not materialized across most of the state.
And looking at the forecasts broadly over the next couple of days, it looks like it will remain that way, causing this risk to continue to increase. Gusty winds, relatively low dew points, as well as, again, all of that debris left on the ground from Hurricane Helene is unfortunately setting up what only can be described as the perfect storm for these fires to not only catch, but then, of course, continue to grow out of control. You are recommended throughout the entirety of North Carolina to be very mindful with what you're doing. If you are burning anything, which you should not be, then you are, of course, warned with that and could be facing some penalties and fines from the state of North Carolina. If you have a trailer and you've got chains, make sure those are not dragging.
On the ground, potentially sparking fires, cigarette butts, anything else that could spark these fires. State officials are warning you to be extra cautious throughout the entirety of the year, but especially now. As some of these conditions across the state are ripe for these wildfires to catch and grow, we will be keeping an eye on this in the coming days as crews continue to fight these fires. We'll bring you the latest right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Well, 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.
