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Granger for the ones who get it done. It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Monday 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've got some great news out of Western North Carolina to kick off this new week.
The town of Lake Lur will begin the process, will begin a phased soft opening of its lake starting today, April the 20th, restoring limited access or limited public access, I should say, after months of storm recovery while maintaining restrictions intended to protect public safety and allow for very long-term ongoing work to continue on the lake. The path to reopening began after Hurricane Helene devastated portions of the area on September the 27th of 2020. Sending millions of gallons of water and debris into Lake Lur from surrounding counties. Large amounts of materials, including debris from the nearby communities such as Chimney Rock along the Broad River, were left submerged in the lake. And that is why those recovery and cleanup efforts have taken so long.
One woman who was a Chimney Rock resident was found dead in the lake after her home was washed away, with the official storm's death total 107, according to state data, including four in Rutherford County. A deceased cow was also found in the waterway, according to officials. Initial cleanup was led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors, who conducted extensive surface and subsurface removal using hydrograph mapping. The effort was later scaled back amid changing FEMA requirements, as well as a major 43-day government shutdown that happened late last year.
After those federal, which caused those federal crews to depart the area. Since then, state and local contractors, including the North Carolina State Mission Assigned Recovery Task Force, also known as SMART, and its emergency management teams, have continued debris removal alongside broader recovery efforts. Infrastructure repairs and installations of a new cell tower are expected to be operational by the end of April, with the lake previously drawn down to support dredging and repairs. While limited rowing activity resumed under special permission as water levels rose over the last couple of months, major projects, including a subaqueous sewer system and dam improvements, remain in development and will likely for quite some time. Town officials approved the reopening plan following steady improvements in water levels, debris removal, and environmental conditions with lake levels approaching full or what they would expect to be full and water quality testing that has remained and continued for months now has continued to show favorable results and improvement.
All of that according to a recent April the 14th town council meeting in Lake Lure. The initial reopening phase will allow some recreational use while preserving operational flexibility for the town and its contractors as they work on long-term recovery efforts. Officials say that the approach reflects an effort to reopen access without disrupting those ongoing efforts or exposing those individuals that will take advantage of Lake Lure to what the town and officials call avoidable risks. During the soft opening, which is expected to last until around Memorial Day, the entire lake will be designated a no-wake zone. That will remain until further notice, a restriction intended to reduce hazards as the lake itself continues to stabilize.
However, local officials note that that rule may be lifted at the discretion of the town manager again as circumstances approve and as this very dynamic situation continues to unfold. All existing lake use regulations remain in effect. Motorized vehicles must be permitted. Operators must hold required safety certifications, and all users must comply with directives from law enforcement and local emergency personnel. For nearly a year, unauthorized use of the lake could result in misdemeanor charges, which uh did cause some uh interesting stir and buzz on social media.
And as it relates to motorized uh any sort of motorized boats, jet skis, anything of that, it is restricted during this initial phase, again, expected to last until around Memorial Day. Public launching from town-owned ramps will not be permitted during phase one, though contractors may continue to use those facilities for approved work that will remain ongoing.
However, it is private property owners that may launch vessels where lawful access does continue to exist. Towing activities such as water skiing, tubing, and wakeboarding are also temporarily prohibited. And in terms of non-motorized use, that will allow things like kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, fishing, and swimming will be allowed at those designated access points, one of which includes the Pool Creek Picnic Park near the town's beach. Officials caution that participants assume risks due to potential for submerged debris and rapidly changing conditions within the lake. And while the reopening restores some level of public use, access remains limited by ongoing construction and those recovery operations.
The wash Burn Marina and Morse Park boat ramp areas will remain closed, as well as the lake's fuel pump, which is not expected to be operational until closer towards the end of phase one near Memorial Day. The marina in Lake Lur had to be completely rebuilt following the storm. Contractors are subject to additional restrictions, including limits on trailer access at those town ramps and some limits on unloading bulk construction material at those locations, which in some cases will now start that soft opening. Officials acknowledge that the combination of permitted use and limited access points are likely to create some level of confusion for the public, particularly as some users return to the water while others encounter some restricted facilities. The town notes that it does not provide towing services for stranded vessels, and officials said that lake operations may be modified or suspended at any point if safety concerns and issues begin to arise.
Environmental measures including a sediment removal, water quality monitoring, and the installation of fish habitat structures aimed at long-term health of the lake. And obviously, those long-term recovery efforts will continue. The phased reopening is expected to have immediate economic implications and impacts for Lake Lore and the surrounding area, where tourism and recreation are central to local business activity by allowing and by allowing that limited use of the lake while maintaining restrictions. The town is reopening access to a key economic access without fully halting construction and those ongoing recovery operations. Business dependent on lake activity, including lodging providers, restaurants, and recreational services, are expected to see what the town is calling a gradual increase in visitors as that access extends.
Emergency personnel and law enforcement will Remain a presence on the lake to monitor compliance and respond to any incidents as needed.
So, it has obviously been a long road to recovery, but some phenomenal news to pass along to you here this morning. The soft opening, phase one of Lake Lure officially expected to begin today, April the 20th. I'm sure there will be some news in the coming weeks as we approach and get closer to Memorial Day. We'll bring you the latest as soon as we get it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Speaking of Western North Carolina recovery, today as well, applications will open for the Timber Loss Relief Program known as the TLRP, which is the fourth and final category of Hurricane Helene assistance as part of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's $221 million block grant received by the state of North Carolina. Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a recent press release, a Significant share of the more than 822,000 acres of damaged timber left behind after Hurricane Helene belongs to private landowner, the majority stakeholders of forest resources in the state of North Carolina. While we know that TLRP funding will not make those landowners financially whole, we are hopeful that it will recover from what was an unprecedented storm. The North Carolina Forest Service will administer the TLRP program, which is designed to particularly compensate private landowners with at least 10 congruent acres of moderate to catastrophic timber loss, according to an official press release. The portion of the block grant applies to eligible timber owners in 39 counties that were federally declared disaster areas following Hurricane Helene.
That deadline is set to apply for that assistance will be June the 12th, and the submission deadline for Associated timber damage assessment reports will be July the 10th.
So we'll see that play out over the next couple of months. Applications for the remaining three categories did open on March the 30th with the deadline to apply for those May the 15th. An application is required for each category, which includes farm infrastructure, future economic loss, and market loss assistance for commodities and value-added products. Disaster assistance will only cover losses from Hurricane Helene that any other USDA program has not and will not cover. Additionally, some producers may be required to obtain and maintain USDA risk management coverage for two years following application and successful approval within any of the programs.
Landowners interested in learning more about the TLRP program, we've got more information this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story. $221 million from USDA Helene Timber Relief Program available on April 20th. Again, those details over at CarolinaJournal.com. It's 522.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, we are expecting a busy week in Raleigh as the North Carolina legislature is expected to gavel in for its short session coming up on tomorrow, Tuesday, April the 21st. Just ahead of that, we received a published column from Senate leader Phil Berger, publishing it over on his Medium platform when he writes in part: the 2026 short session brings an opportunity to continue North Carolina's economic progress. From the day that voters gave Republicans control of the General Assembly after over a century of Democratic rule, we've made progress on numerous fronts: tax cuts, regulatory reform, restrained spending, K-12 education reforms. Parental choice expansion, transforming university stewardship, and more.
Our state is the national leader in smart conservative governance. All Republican legislators elected in 2010 and since share credit for that success. Let's not lose sight of this progress on major issues made during the 2025 long session. Working together, the North Carolina House and Senate enacted reforms to make our communities safer, take important strides towards energy affordability and availability, protecting women's sports, defining two sexes in state law, and imposing accountability for those who commit serious crimes. Yes, there were matters, primarily those dealing with spending and taxation, on which progress was elusive.
In some other respects, that should not be surprising. The Republican caucus approaches issues independently and policy differences do exist. That reflects the diversity of thought and firmly held beliefs within our own party. And even though those disagreements can sometimes be heated, I remain convinced that most of us see the opportunities for mutual respected debate and principled solutions. Today, North Carolina is at a critical inflection point, and we need to come together for some good for our state and to continue the progress made over the last decade and a half, wrote Senate leader Phil Berger.
President Trump and Republicans at the federal level are implementing a national vision that is largely aligned with what we have instituted in North Carolina. With that, new opportunities are now presented for positive improvements in power generation and affordability, healthcare affordability through free market reforms, and to limit fraud in safety net programs so that these programs can help citizens that are truly in need. And yes, circumstances do exist for us to reach an agreement on a comprehensive state budget. In crafting the state spending plan, we must recognize that the seeds for today's success being the number one state for business, Republican voters now outreaching Democrats. And continued legislative majorities were planted 15 years ago.
And what we do today will impact North Carolinians for the next 15 years. Our own policy successes is largely grounded on the continued exercise of discipline on two fronts: tax reductions and spending restraints. Failure to adhere to the fundamentals on either front will thwart sustained progress in our never ending competition with other states for economic growth. job creation and a better future for our people. While the worst of Bidenflation is behind us, North Carolinians still feel the strain of higher prices caused by inflationary policies advanced by Democrats.
Now is the time for relief for working families and small businesses, a time to mitigate higher costs. We can do that in part with the innovation and thoughtful reforms to ever increasing property tax bills at the local level. We will also continue to provide tax relief at the state level, writes Berger. We know from experience that we can have both a well-qualified workforce and a competitive tax and business climate. Our CNBC ranking shows that to be just that case.
We just have to continue carefully avoiding needless ballooning of our state budget. When working towards solutions, it is good to reflect on what we've accomplished together. Our progress has been achieved despite the naysayers, the interest groups, the editorial writers, and of course, the Democrats who have all falsely claimed a fiscally responsible approach to taxes and budget will cause a catastrophe. Proven wrong time and time again, they continue to repeat their same tired and erroneous refrains. History should help guide our steps in those issues, and we should focus on solutions to common challenges.
Crime, poverty, socialism, wasteful bureaucracy, and radical ideologies that prevent everyday North Carolinians from achieving the American dream. None of these policy questions will be resolved by a long message from me. Only time and good faith engagement throughout the The legislative process can do that. But my goal in sharing these thoughts directly and in writing is that we can approach the next few weeks with a clear understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and choices before us, even if we haven't yet found a pathway to successfully resolving the decisions to be made. My hope is to continue our solutions-oriented approach to policy that has made the North Carolina General Assembly the most successful and effective conservative legislative body in the country.
Signed, Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger. As lawmakers are expected to head back to Raleigh for a lengthy legislative short session, I should say, which kicks off officially tomorrow. Voting days, a couple of them as we remained and run through the rest of April, the month of June, voting days, multiple of them, at least three every single day towards the end of June. A similar situation. In the month of May, as well, and just a couple of voting days in July.
So, there's going to be plenty of opportunity for lawmakers to deal with things like Senate leader Phil Berger referenced, a state budget, continued tax reform, dealing with crime and public safety. These are all high-dollar items for Republicans. I will note it is not a problem out of the Senate, but there are currently eight veto overrides that remain on the North Carolina House calendar. That is led by a Republican leader, Destin Hall.
So, it is set to be a busy, I'll call it about three months here in the North Carolina General Assembly. We'll keep you up to date with all the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course, coverage each and every weekday morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mm-hmm. It's 5:37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
Good Monday morning to you. I don't think most people would necessarily be surprised if they saw a drone flowing around their neighborhood or maybe at a park, at a concert event. While I'm not saying that they're common, they have become somewhat normal in society. A lot of consumer drones able to be purchased on Amazon and other websites. That is, that's caused a kind of an interesting situation across the United States about restrictions and licensing around drone and drone operation.
That brings us this morning to a petition in front of the United States Supreme Court from a North Carolina drone operator. It walks through some of those details this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, if we were talking about this maybe 20 years ago, the public opinion and feeling on drones would be vastly different. But for a couple hundred bucks on Amazon, you can purchase a pretty neat and interesting drone.
Take us to what's going on in the United States Supreme Court. Yeah. The store Nick really starts back about a decade ago. In 2016, a fellow named Michael Jones started operating drones. And within a year, he had started his own company, eventually being called 360 Virtual Drone Services, offering a lot of different drone type operations for people who don't operate drones, who would like to hire someone who's an expert in that topic.
Interestingly enough, Jones did not have a college degree, didn't have any background in this. He basically just learned off the internet how you would operate a drone and started his own business based on using the technology of online video.
So a guy using new technology to build his own business, which is the type of thing all of us would like to see, that you don't have to get a credential. You don't have to spend years of your life sitting in a classroom. You can just through your own initiative and going on the internet, learn some things that will help you end up paying your bills.
Well, Mitch, before you keep going with that, you note something there important. Going back to 2016, we're still talking about at that point, still the consumer side of it, still relatively expensive. We've seen those prices come down over the last 10 years, but 2016, you were kind of on the cutting edge of when this technology really started getting into place. Great context there. Yeah, that's right.
And this was a guy who was on the early edge of this, saying, look, this is going to be something that's going to be useful. I can make some money and have a livelihood out of this. And so he started his business in 2017. Where he ran into trouble was one of the things that he offered his clients was aerial mapping services. And so he said, you know, not only are we going to take you pictures, it'll look good, but we're going to show you through the use of this drone and its technology, a way to kind of map the area that you have.
And in 2018, he heard from state regulators who said, you know, this is a problem because you don't have a license to do surveying. And it sounds a lot like you're offering surveying services.
So Jones, when he got the initial. I brought the Complaint from folks who are state regulators in North Carolina. He added a disclaimer on his website saying, Nothing that we're offering here is surveying. If you are required to get a surveying work done, this is not going to substitute for that. We're going to give you helpful information, but if you have to hire a surveyor, you're still going to have to hire a surveyor.
You can't use this as an alternative. But still, that wasn't enough. And the regulators told him in 2019 that he was likely breaking state law.
So he went to court and said, look, this is. Not surveying work. There's no reason why I should have to get a license to do this. And was challenging that state restriction. By the time, and courts have ruled against him.
So he has taken this case up various levels. And by late 2024, the fall of 2024, he filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the high court to take his case.
Now, Thousands of petitions go to the U.S. Supreme Court every year, and almost all of them are thrown out. The court generally takes. dozens of cases out of the thousands that are submitted. But interestingly enough, this case has been kind of percolating in the background of the Supreme Court ever since late 2024.
To decide whether to take a case, the U.S. Supreme Court holds a conference behind closed doors. This is not something that anyone other than the justices look at. And they look at these cases and decide which of these cases they're going to take. This case.
Has appeared on the schedule for the Supreme Court's conference a total of seven times. And the latest was Friday morning. It was scheduled to be on the court's schedule for its conference. And that is the first time anything has happened in this case since late December. What happened in December that was interesting and that could pique the court's interest is that Jones and his lawyers put forward a new court filing saying, look, since we first petitioned the court, we have seen several other of the circuit courts of appeals have come out with different rulings on this.
Now, why that's important is the U.S. Supreme Court will often take a case. when the the courts of appeals have Reached different conclusions about an issue, and it's called a circuit split. The circuits come up with different answers to the same legal question, and so the plaintiff or the defendant, whoever is lost in the case, will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case to resolve a circuit split.
And basically, that's what Jones' lawyers said in December: that, look, several. Circuits now have weighed in on this issue and they've come to different conclusions.
So it's time for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. What Jones is saying is that this regulation is really stomping on his First Amendment right to provide in free speech this type of service, that this is not something that needs to be regulated by the state. Basically, he is just providing images, he's providing mapping services. That's all part of his constitutional right to speak about various issues.
Now, your constitutional right to free speech. Will get different sorts of protection depending on the type of speech. The least amount of protection tends to go to something like this, which is commercial speech because he's making money off of doing this. That's different than political speech. If you say something about a political candidate or about a political issue, that tends to get the most amount of protection.
Commercial speech tends to get less. But still, the argument is that what Michael Jones and his company are doing is something that is speech. It's not the type of conduct that needs to be regulated by the state and different. Courts of appeals have ruled differently about this type of speech and whether it is the type that can be regulated by a state government. And so it's going to be very interesting to see whether the Supreme Court decides to take the case.
The fact that it has lingered so long. more than a year, getting close to a year and a half, suggests that there are at least some people on the court who have some sort of interest in this case. And my guess is that either in the ruling that comes out later, Or in the not too distant future, the court will either decide, yes, we're going to take this case or no, it's been on our docket long enough or we're going to throw it out.
Some great information there, Mitch. Let's take a couple of steps back from this case in particular and maybe broaden the discussion a little bit. This is something that we've covered a lot over at the John Locke Foundation. And I would argue, a pretty major conversation across the United States as it relates to occupational licensing, which is kind of paramount to what we're talking about here in states like North Carolina to do what I think a lot of folks would describe as pretty basic things like cutting somebody's hair. There is stringent government regulation involved in that.
And that is a major topic for groups like the John Locke Foundation and many other think tanks, not only just across the U.S., but a variety of different states. Yeah, you know, occupational licensing is a double-edged sword in the sense that almost all of us want the people who are providing services for us to have some sort of training and to be good at what they do. But the big question is. What is the government's proper role in this? Does the government need to step in and say, you need to take Hundreds or thousands of hours of instruction, get a particular degree, spend all kinds of time and money to get some sort of certificate?
Or is it something that could be left to the market? And maybe there is some outside group that is experts that can give you a certificate. And if you have the certificate, the customer may say, okay, well, that shows that they've taken some time, but. You wouldn't necessarily have to get the certificate. You could actually offer this service without having any.
Government backing or this outside group. And the customer could decide: do I want to get someone who has gone through a program? Run by the private sector that shows that they know what they're doing? Or do I take my chances and it'll likely be a less expensive option? In this case, which is a little bit separate from someone saying, I want to be a surveyor and I should just be able to be a surveyor without having to get a license.
In this case, We're talking about someone who's not even doing surveying. And he explicitly says on his website, I'm not providing surveying. I'm providing the type of aerial mapping service you can get from a drone. And this should be helpful to you, but it's not going to take the place of surveying.
So it is a step away from occupational licensing, but you're exactly right that that is an issue that's of concern, especially in a state like North Carolina that tends to have licensing for more occupations than some other states. One of the things that the John Locke Foundation has recommended in occupational licensing is that take a look at all of the occupations that are licensed in North Carolina. And get rid of the licenses for those where people have been able to operate without licenses in other states, because presumably. People haven't died. They haven't had major losses because the folks in these other states haven't been licensed.
And so that probably would be the same case here in North Carolina. And if you did that, you would cut down substantially on the number of occupations that have to be licensed. They would probably be ones that we would all expect, like doctors and other practitioners where if someone gets it wrong, it's life or death. But not the types of things like hair braiding or one of the things that we've seen lately is the fairy hair where someone gets little strands of stuff that you stick in someone's hair. And basically, all it requires is tying pieces of this fake hair to real hair.
And some of the folks who were doing that in North Carolina are running afoul of the occupational licensing police. And so that's the type of thing. that this case is somewhat tied into is that regulation and licensing have become such a thing that it is stopping people from being able to earn a living in a way that doesn't require them to spend tons of money and tons of time getting a credential when it's the type of job that they could really do without that sort of thing. Yeah, and Mitch, we've seen other legal challenges, not the ones that we're talking about here today, but other legal challenges where the state has been sued over similar things, claiming, hey, you're completely infringing on my right to make a living and provide for my family. And we've talked about some of those stories in the past.
All right, back to the Supreme Court. This petition taking place on Friday. Mitch, any idea how quickly we could potentially learn whether the United States Supreme Court is either going to take, I guess there's three options, take the case, don't take the case, or just kind of leave it sitting in this limbo? Yeah, the earliest we would know something is later this morning. The court will release its latest orders list, and that will have orders for cases that are already on the docket, but it'll also tell you whether it's going to take new cases or deny the petitions.
So the options are that the order list comes out and the Supreme Court decides to take this case out of North Carolina. A second option is that we learn that it's not going to take the case. And then the third option is that the orders list on Monday says nothing and this case kind of remains in limbo for a while, which is what has happened really since late 2024. This case has been on the calendar for the Supreme Court to consider more than a half dozen times. And every time that that has happened, There's been nothing in the next orders list.
So I could see any one of those three options being likely to happen. And Mitch will be keeping a close eye on that. He'll join us again as there's more relevant and pertinent information as it relates to this case. You can read a lot more. Mitch's got a whole backstory over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
We appreciate the information. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again. It's 5:56. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
As we were mentioning earlier in the program this morning, we are expecting continued activity in the North Carolina legislature as the short session is officially set to kick off this week, according to a calendar released by the Speaker of the House in Destin Hall. Voting days for this week are Tuesday and Wednesday. That's the 21st and 22nd. Two more voting days next week as well, the 28th and 29th, throughout the first few weeks of May of voting as well, voting every single day, at least multiple days every single week in the month of June. And lawmakers, again, according to the House calendar from Speaker Destin Hall, is set to wrap sometime around Tuesday, July the 2nd.
There is a lot that remains on the priority for lawmakers. We'll be keeping a very close eye on Ron. And the legislature over the next two and a half months right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. That's going to do it for a Monday 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. Oh.
