Carolina Journal News Hour

And welcome into the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. The name DeCarlos Brown Jr. has been in the news a lot across the state of North Carolina since last year when surveillance footage showed a gruesome murder on the Charlotte light rail, killing a 22-year-old Ukrainian refugee by the name of Irina Zarutska.

There have been a couple of different trials that we have been tracking over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com and here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, both state and federal charges. And most recently, a lot of the question has been, does DeCarlos Brown Jr. have the mental capacity to stand trial? To get an update on that this morning, Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, a story not only receiving a lot of attention in North Carolina nationally and getting some international coverage as well.

In large part, due to that gruesome surveillance footage that unfortunately I think probably everybody has seen at this point. What's the latest that you're tracking on his mental ability to stand trial? The short answer to your question about his ability to proceed to trial is no, he can't. We already knew about that in the state murder case against him, that back in April, it was found that he was incapable to proceed to trial. And so his case was bumped off by about six months.

And he's next scheduled to come back to a state courtroom on October 27th. It remains to be seen whether that will actually happen or whether there will be some other delay as he undergoes medical treatment. But in the meantime, there is a federal charge against him that's related to a killing taking place on a transportation system because this killing happened on the Charlotte Light Rail line, which gets federal money. And so the request came from DeCarlos Brown's lawyers around a month ago or so to have a competency hearing, and they wanted him to be declared incompetent to stand trial. And the U.S.

attorney Attorney's office, which is prosecuting this case, did not have any objection to having that hearing. The hearing took place, was very short, and U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell ruled fairly quickly that yes, de Carlos Brown is not capable to stay on trial. Later in the day, the judge actually issued a ruling in which he said that he found that by a preponderance of the evidence, the defendant Brown is suffering from a mental disease or defect that renders him unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings or to assist properly in his defense. And when that happens, if you're found to not be able to work with your lawyers, not to be able to understand what's happening, they're not going to move forward with the trial against you.

Now, some people might hear that and say, wait a minute, does this mean he's not going to pay any kind of penalty for this crime? No, that's not what that means. And in fact, in the court filings from the U.S. Attorney's Office and in the order from Judge Bell, it was fairly clear that that is not what happens. He's been in federal custody.

He's going to remain in federal custody and for up to the next four months. The folks with the Federal Bureau of Prisons with their medical treatment facility will treat him, including medication, including the possibility of forced medication. If he doesn't want to take the medication, he will have to to try to get him to a state where he will be competent for trial. And when he comes back before Judge Bell, the judge will either determine that he is now competent to stay on trial, he's not yet competent, but still could benefit from additional treatment, or that they'll determine that he's not going to be competent and never will be. But that remains to be seen.

That's months away.

Now, one of the other things that's interesting to note here is that DeCarlos Brown's lawyers on the day of the hearing also filed information about a statement that came from de Carlos Brown. Basically, the lawyers said that they had met with him repeatedly to try to prepare his defense in getting ready for the hearing. And they say that Mr. Brown insists that he was a very important person. That counsel provides the court with this following information from him.

And the rest of what I'm about to say is a direct quote. Of what DeCarlos Brown Jr. told his lawyers. I would like to tell the court I have a body emergency.

Someone has full access to my body and they are controlling me wrongfully. And law enforcement refuses to investigate it, and it requires for an investigation. When describing the technology someone was using, I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.

So that's the end of the direct quote. And then the rest of the court filing was: when asked what he wants from the court, He advised his counsel that he wants a court order directing law enforcement, and law enforcement was put in quotations, to investigate his body emergency.

So suggestion there from that court filing that DeCarlos Brown Jr. doesn't really understand what's going on in these court proceedings, at least at this point.

Well, and Mitch, this unfortunately only highlights the miserable situation that took place late last year, or I should say late summer of last year, as we have talked about in great detail here, and so many other publications have as well. These discussions and questions about DeCarlos Browni with all of these run-ins with law enforcement in years prior, this diagnosis of schizophrenia really, I guess, kind of even builds on to the point even further of why was somebody struggling this severely with a mental health issue allowed to roam the streets, especially with that criminal track record. Really, just, I think a lot of folks kind of wondering how this thing even began to take place and how totally preventable this could have potentially been. That's been one of the big issues for this case. This would have been a terrible event regardless of what happened.

But I think once the information came out that the Carlos Brown Jr. had been going in and out of the court system, had had multiple arrests, well over a dozen arrests, but kept going back out on the streets and even his lawyers who obviously are trying to get the best situation for them for him possible have said that you know he he at times has said i'm struggling i have problems i need to get some help but no one has responded to that call and i i think you you alluded to something that's exactly right and that is at some point in the process before the killing of arena zarutska on the charlotte light rail line something could have and should have been done to get uh to carlos brown jr either the help that he needs or to determine He's not going to be able to be helped and he's a danger to other people. Let's get him off the streets. It's disappointing that it took that well-publicized murder, killing of Irina Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail line to get DeCarlos Brown Jr. and his situation the spotlight and an attention that it probably deserved months, if not years earlier.

Yeah, and unfortunately, we see this way too often in government, Mitch. There has been some reaction from lawmakers, Arena's Law dealing with some things. There are also some other discussions about involuntary commitment. There was a lot of conversation about that in the immediate aftermath. But unfortunately, once again, it takes a horrific, tragic accident like this for things to change.

Let's go back to what's going on in the court system with his competency.

So you said that this is going to be a four-month period of time where I presume that he would be heavily medicated and they'll do another one of these competency hearings, see if he's able to understand truly the charges that he is facing. And then I guess at that point, determine and lay out a timeline as to whether the case moves forward right now or if it is continually delayed, if it does not appear that he is capable to even basically understand what he's dealing with. That's right. That was actually spelled out in the court order, which is not that long. It's about four pages.

But it basically said that now that there is this determination that he's suffering from the mental disease and cannot proceed to trial at this point, he will remain in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And they have a special medical treatment facility for cases like this. They will treat. To Carlos Brown for no longer than four months.

Now, if they give him some medication and it turns out that he is declared to be competent or is determined by the medical officials to be competent earlier than that, they could bring him back, but no longer than four months. And then he will come back and the judge will look at his situation again, and he's got the three options. He can either say, He is competent now and we will move forward with the proceedings. Or he's not competent, but we think he still can be with additional treatment, additional medication. Or the third option is: no, he's not competent and is not going to be competent.

And then, based on what happens at that next hearing, then you will see the process play out from there.

Meanwhile, all of this is happening, remember, at the same time as the state case, which is the actual murder charge against him. And the next hearing in that case is set for late October. And my guess is. That hearing either will take place in late October or get bumped back, depending on what happens with this federal court proceeding. Yeah, it is interesting to watch this playing out again.

Two different charges, but both playing out in both the federal and state judicial system. We've got extensive coverage, as we have now, for many, many months on this story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. And welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.

In western North Carolina, where recovery officials are warning that Hurricane Helene left behind more flood damage and destroyed infrastructure. Across the mountains, hundreds of thousands of acres of downed timber is now creating what state forestry leaders describe as a long-term wildfire threat that could linger for more than a decade. During a recent GROW NC recovery meeting, state officials and economic planners described a region struggling with what is being described as a dangerous fuel load, weakening timber markets and mounting pressure on not only the workforce, but housing systems that need to support long-term recovery. State forestry officials estimate that Helene damaged roughly 822,000 acres of forest land across 25 counties in western North Carolina. About 75% of that damage to forestry land is privately or state-owned, with officials also estimating approximately 616,000 structures sit within the damaged forest areas.

According to North Carolina Forest Service, a regional forester, Michael Cheek, he said during the Grow NC meeting, the red and dark meat is this situation, is these highly damaged areas, while presenting wildfire maps to recovery leaders during the meeting. Forestry officials warned that the danger is not simply the number of fallen trees, but the way that storm debris is stacked up across steep mountain terrains. Large hardwood trees remain suspended off the ground, dying slowly, which will, and if there is a wildfire, will create a hotter fire with the fuel load burning much hotter. Jonathan McCall, the Southern Mountains Forest Manager with the North Carolina Resource Commission, told the committee that the stacking of these forests, the stacking in these forests helped form and add additional intensity to the fires. McCall said that the wildfire response is becoming more difficult because older roads and fire breaks are now buried under debris, saying it greatly increases the time that it takes for us to build up those lines.

With officials warning that some damaged areas may remain hazardous for 10 to 20 years before the timber naturally decays enough to a point where it is no longer any additional fire risk than anything else in its way. The wildfire discussion built on other recent subcommittee conversations about Western North Carolina's economy and whether the region has enough private sector capacity to handle the scale of cleanup that remains as we approach nearly two years since Helene affected and devastated Western North Carolina. Officials pointed to the closure of regional mills, including the Canton paper mill, as a major obstacle. Before Helene, Western North Carolina's timber economy was already shrinking due to aging logging operations, mill closures, and declining markets for low-grade wood products. Haleen flooded the market with damaged timber while reducing the region's ability to process it.

Back to Cheek from the Forest Service. He says there is a tremendous amount of wood out there that is available. Officials acknowledge that much of the timber may never be salvaged economically, with McCall saying in part, even if we're giving away these fallen trees as salvage, we're not going to be able to get the sales the way that we'd like to see them. The discussion highlighted how wildfire mitigation now depends partially on rebuilding functional timber markets that are capable of removing some of this fuel that is on the ground from forests before future disasters strikes. Recovery leaders discussed possible market-based solutions, including biomass processing, wood pellet, and biochar manufacturing using some of the storm debris that remains on the ground.

Officials described four. Forestry and biomass industries as possible economic growth sectors for Western North Carolina if private investment can attract can be attracted to the region. At the same time, economic development subcommittees warned the region faces broader structural challenges beyond wildfire recovery. With one participant saying during the economic development discussion, there's just extraordinary assets that we can build upon around economic development and entrepreneurship. Community members discussed strengthening manufacturing corridors, expanding startup investment, and connecting small businesses to larger regional supply chains.

But workforce shortages and housing costs repeatedly emerged as a major concern in the vast majority of the conversation taking place. According to subcommittee co-chair Laura Leatherwood, during the workforce discussion, she says, if you can't live here, you can't work here, highlighting some of the issues as it relates to temporary housing. She is also the president of Blue Ridge Community College. The comments came on the same day as Democrat Governor Josh Stein issued an executive order on housing and announced a housing policy advisor. Officials said that rising housing costs are making it harder for businesses to recruit workers across tourism, manufacturing and service industries.

Workforce development discussions also focused heavily on apprenticeship programs, community colleges and the STEM education pipeline. Infrastructure concerns also surfaced repeatedly throughout the GROW NC meeting, with participants referencing an upcoming statewide economic development plan for the North Carolina Department of Commerce that places major emphasis on infrastructure investments, as Governor Josh Stein announced, the first and opportunity plan that we talked about back in late May. But several discussions focus less on large public projects and more on smaller known as catalyst projects as it relates to infrastructure improvements that could help strengthen local economies and workforce systems. Tourism and art leaders also warned that recovery efforts must balance economic growth with protecting the character of mountain communities. This story highlights the many different avenues in which the discussion over recovery is happening and does remain happening in western North Carolina.

We have been talking about the wildfire risk for quite some time here on the Carolina Journal News Hour as there is so much timber, so much debris that is on the ground. We have already seen, as the state has two main wildfire seasons, one in the spring, one in the fall. We already saw nearly all of the wildfires that we would expect during a normal season just in the spring months in western North Carolina, meaning that in all likelihood, as we get into the fall, we will see numbers that could be as high as double what an average wildfire season looks like in terms of amount of fires burning and the amount of acreage. That remains a major problem for folks in western North Carolina. And then, of course, the Longer-term discussion about, well, what do we do with all of this forest, all this foliage that is on the ground?

What do we do with all of this timber? As many of the facilities, the paper mills, the other manufacturing plants that would typically process this kind of material have either closed permanently or damaged so heavily that their ability to process those types of debris in a rapid manner is just not the case right now. Looking at some of their alternatives and then, of course, looking at longer term, what is done as it relates to the western North Carolina economy? What can state and local officials do to try and bolster the economic conditions in western North Carolina moving forward so that communities are able to grow, communities are able to rebuild following the devastation from Hurricane Helene or Tropical Storm Helene, depending on who you talk to. Maybe get a different name on that there.

That remains a major problem. Topic of discussion out in western North Carolina. You can read more on that story this morning. We've got the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: Helene Debris Raises Wildfire Fears.

Uh And welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. Discussions over utility rates have become all the rage on social media across the state of North Carolina. A lot of frustration at Duke Energy and other utilities across the United States as rising rates across the entire country have really pinched the pocketbooks and wallets of a lot of families across North Carolina and the rest of the nation.

Tracking an interesting story this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. While it doesn't affect all of North Carolina, it would in fact affect our neighbors up in the northeastern half of the state as a major electricity merger is planned and could go through here. We'll be keeping a close eye on that to walk us through some of the details. Andrew Pomerance, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us this morning on the news hour. Andrew, for those in the northeast half of the state, they are very familiar with Dominion Energy, which is very prominent, especially as you work north into Virginia.

and other parts in the mid-Atlantic. What's the latest that you're following? Yeah, hey Nick, good morning. Thank you so much for having me with you. About last week, we heard this merger start to come to fruition between Dominion and NextEra, which is a power company out of the southeast.

So currently headquartered in Florida, but has some roots in Georgia and South Carolina. And so this would affect about 130,000 customers in eastern North Carolina.

So think the Outer Banks region, think that corner up that way. And this is a merger, right?

So this is an acquisition of a merger.

Next Era would be taking on about 75% ownership of Dominion Energy in this move. And so the reported figure is $66.8 billion that NextEra is paying to Dominion to kickstart this process. I know if I had $66.8 billion, I don't know how I would spend it. But this actually forms the largest regulated electric utility. Business in the country.

And so, and largely, many would argue the world. And so they'll own about one hundred and ten gigawatts of the generation for mixed energy sources if this were to go through. But that's a long process, and I think there's a lot to come on this front before we get to that stage of this agreement. And I'm glad you mentioned the process of this being very lengthy. We are dealing with a multi-state utility, multiple multi-state utilities, dealing with discussions at the federal government as it relates to these mergers.

And then, of course, the states getting involved as well. I presume that the North Carolina Utilities Commission would be brought into this discussion. Probably not immediately clear as to how quickly they will be brought in, but no question about it, Andrew. The Utilities Commission will play some role at some point. Yeah, there's some speculation.

I spoke to energy folks both federally and state level last week. There's some speculation that this will move somewhat quickly, but look to this summer for some of these issues to actually be presented to either FERC or the SEC at the national level before they come down to the state regulatory boards, both North Carolina and Virginia. This merger will have to go through. And so there's some speculation that the goal there is to start this process before the next General Assembly session, as both Virginia and North Carolina are expecting to see maybe a little bit of legislative turnover, especially here in the state with elections come November. And so I think we see about a 12 to 18 month timeline to potentially get this approved and all put together.

We could see some movement at least when it comes to filing with some of those boards come August or September of this year. There's been some major discussion, as I mentioned in the open, for anybody that has spent time on social media, a lot of frustration over the cost of electricity. Andrew, a lot of this is even being blamed on data centers. You had a story over at CarolinaJournal.com last week about some legislation that's moving through the North Carolina General Assembly, as many folks are pointing the fingers at these large tech companies and blaming them in large part for bringing these new facilities online, causing a major surge in electrical generation from these major utilities, whether it's Duke, Dominion, or New Era here. It doesn't matter the company we're talking about.

So, this is kind of an interesting timeline for all of this to be happening with what I would say is some pretty significant pressure on these utilities to lower rates as consumers are seeing their bills, in many cases, skyrocket out of control. Yeah, that's absolutely right, Nick. And the reason that Dominion actually points to having to do this merger is because of the increased demand that's coming from data centers and large consumers. And so they came together in a press release they put out announcing the agreement said, we have to be able to scale up faster. It's capital intensive to be able to scale up, to be able to Fill the energy needs of these large energy customers, whether that be data centers or whether that just be manufacturing plants.

And so, to be able to do that, they needed the extra resources, they needed to cut out some of that administrative cost and some of those inefficiencies.

So, I talked to Stephen Hanner, who's the senior fellow for state and local tax policy up at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Bug Policy in Virginia. And he said, he actually buys this argument. He says, you know, this is actually an argument that makes a lot of sense to him. And that, you know, Dominion was going to look to have to spend $500 billion just over the next 10 years in infrastructure investments. And as you can imagine, it was skyrocketing energy costs.

Something that wasn't going to drive down energy costs is a billion-dollar investment. And so he sees this as potentially a way as actually we start to slide those costs down. But still, a lot to be determined, a lot to be seen. But definitely data centers having a role both in energy prices and also this merger. Yeah, no question about that.

And, you know, this is maybe bringing forth a larger discussion over some of the lengthy period of times, time that it does take for many of these major utility companies across the country to bring these new baseload generation facilities online. Andrew, there's a lot of bloat, there's a lot of bureaucracy, there's a lot of red tape at the federal and state level to bring many of these new generation plants online. Many times, it can be easily a decade before some of these facilities are up and operational. And unfortunately, with our growing power demand, in many cases, we don't have the time to wait for a lot of these lengthy regulatory approvals to get these facilities online and get power flowing onto the grid.

Well, and that's what Senate Bill 730 that we wrote about last week, entitled the Rate Payer Protection Act, actually tried to really try to help identify and fix that crack, right?

So, talking about baseload generation, I know John Sanders of the John Locke Foundation has talked a lot about one-to-one replacement. We turn off one energy source, whether that be a fossil fuel or something that's expiring. We have to make sure that we're ready to turn on the energy source to at least match that. And so, Senate Bill 730 that was introduced by well, was amended by Representatives Winslow and Representatives ARP, really looks to kind of fill that void as well as do some of those other rate payer protections like managed data centers and tax exemptions for utilities. Yeah, and of course, we are not only seeing this discussion play out here in the state of North Carolina, I think this is a broader discussion that is taking place in a lot of legislatures across the United States, a lot of town council, city council, county commission meetings across the U.S.

as well. As Andrew, this is not necessarily a region-specific discussion. I feel like this growing pain or this growing pressure is essentially happening all throughout the United States right now.

Well, nearly four-fifths of voters, so 78.2%, actually agreed with that new data centers should actually have to provide their own energy generation. I mean, that was the Carolina Journal poll going back to March. And 60% said they strongly supported that measure, right? And so I think you are seeing a public outcry, whether that be on data center moratoriums or just a efforts and interest by the public to push energy alternatives for data centers, right? Bring your own energy.

And so I think we'll see a lot of that going forward, especially in the General Assembly as we move forward and Senate Bill seven thirty continues to move through the legislative process. That's also something that we've seen the president of the United States, Donald Trump, kind of dip his toe in a little bit on this issue as well, talking about making sure that the federal government kind of takes a back seat or steps a little bit out of the way as it relates to these major companies. And as you noted, Andrew, it's not just data centers. We're talking about major manufacturing facilities, anything that you would expect that is consuming a large sum of electricity, having the federal government take a couple of steps back and allowing these companies, of course, in a safe and efficient manner to build some of this generating capacity on site so they're putting a far less burden onto the utility grid itself, which, of course, would help small businesses and other residential consumers across whatever electrical utility we might be talking about. Yes, supply and demand, right?

If we can produce more energy in a quicker manner, and energy demand is there, whether you go in Virginia, if you look in South Carolina, where Nexera also operates, the demand is across the board for all three of these states. And as we see North Carolina continue, Virginia continue, the Southeast Corridor continue to be a data center-friendly environment. I think we will continue to see the energy demand increase and consumers definitely could feel that on their electricity bills every month. And so, how do we address that? We've got to produce more energy, and we've got to be able to produce it quicker than we currently are.

Yeah, and it's not only these new companies moving in, it's of course the major influx of population that we are seeing in states like North Carolina as well. Andrew's got a lot more on this proposed merger. We'll be following this over the next 12 to 18 months. You can read our continuing coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning.

Andrew Promerantz joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again, and welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Keeping our eye on some other statewide news as North Carolina's prison system continues to struggle with staffing shortages, the Department of Adult Corrections, known as NCDAC, as well as the Office of Human Resources. Have launched a pilot program to recruit and retain correctional officers. At a press conference last week, Governor Josh Stein said that North Carolina ranks 49th nationally in correctional officer pay.

A level he linked to staffing shortages that have left the state prison system operating at roughly half of its needed workforce. State lawmakers in a budget framework announced back just a couple of weeks ago on May the 12th acknowledged the issues facing state correctional facilities and said that they plan to include a pretty substantial 15.4% salary increase for correctional officers in the proposal, which is currently under negotiations in the North Carolina General Assembly. Captain Derek Simmons of the correctional facility in Goldsboro has worked in the correctional system for 28 years. He spoke at the governor's news conference a middle part of last week about how difficult he thinks it is to keep the staff and prisoners safe compared to where things were at just 10 years ago, saying during the press conference, 10 years ago, it was routine to have about 28 officers and five sergeants on a shift. At the lineup today, we have seen seven or eight officers and three sergeants on staff.

Having fewer people working inside the institution means that more things more things that you cannot see and cannot prevent, things that would not that you would not want to go on, they happen. Simmons says that that includes assaults, extortion, among other offenders, and violence, all increases with a lack or a lower number of correctional officers without those officers providing security. He said that educational and rehabilitation programs cannot happen. Trips outside the prison for medical departments, for medical appointments, get delayed, and people are not always as well prepared to be successful upon their release. This is why Simmons and other officials believe that this pilot program, announced by the Department of Adult Corrections, alongside the Office of the State of State Human Resources, believe that it is important, which has been rolled out at Central Prison in Raleigh, as well as prisons in Harnett and Pasquataine counties here in North Carolina.

It works by streamlining the hiring process for correctional officers, which has many steps and can take up to 45 days until the state says. Says yes to an applicant. But Governor Josh Stein said at the press conference: many people can't wait that long for a paycheck. Once a person passes through the initial steps of being hired, they are put to work immediately in other roles as certification steps continue. The governor said during the press conference, that means that people get hired, onboarded, and paid quickly so we're not losing out talent to other places that can get them started faster.

The pilot initiatives are working. In four months, this pilot program has hired 95 people at the three prisons, 31 new hires at Central Prison, 43 new hires at Harnett, exceeding their hiring goals of those two institutions. And while we have not yet hit our hiring goals in Pasquatane County, we have hired 21 new officers there so far. Leslie Cooley-Dismukes, who is the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections, said that the system consists of 55 correctional facilities across the state and that they are hiring people at a high rate, reducing the time to hire by about 10 days and the number of people dropping out. She said during this press conference, perhaps the most Telling thing I can share with you is about our staffing situation and our numbers from last year.

In 2025, we hired 2,647 people and 1,530 of those who were correctional officers. Despite hiring more correctional officers in 2025 than we did in 2024, we ended the year with fewer filled correctional officer positions with a 24% turnover rate among correctional officers. Retention continues to be our biggest challenge. Currently, correctional officers' salaries range from $18 to $25 an hour. Cooley Dismukes commended the General Assembly's proposed salary increase for correctional officers, but added that she thought that all correctional system employees, not just the officers themselves, should be getting that 15% pay increase, which the governor has put in his budget proposal, saying in part, if right now we give 15% to those on the step which desperately need it, then we have correctional officer threes who are making more than sergeants.

If that happens, it will affect our sergeants, captains, and lieutenants, and then our case managers, food service workers, and maintenance workers. We have to recognize all of those people, and the governor's budget does just that. Governor Josh Stein added that without raises, he believes that there will be more prison closures on the table, like the craggy. Correctional Center in Woodfin, which is just north of Asheville, which is scheduled, which is scheduled to close by late summer of this year. The governor noted that about 250 inmates who are still in that facility will be transferred to neighboring facilities, and every correctional officer and employee that worked there will have the option to work at a neighboring facility.

Obviously, they will have to relocate to those new facilities, noting that there are no other potential closures at this time. There's no question that long-term, if our staffing shortages continue, we will have to make some critical decisions, said Dismukes at the press conference in Raleigh last week. Again, a very busy couple of weeks in Raleigh, not only dealing with the state budget, but veto overrides and constitutional amendments for voters to deal with coming up later on this year in November when they vote in the midterm elections. We'll be keeping you up to date with. All of the details, all of the information right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.

Also, a good opportunity to follow the Carolina Journal on all of our social media channels. We are on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube. You can follow us on all of those platforms. You can also get all of those links over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We've got our social media icons right in the top of the website, right next to our logo, over at CarolinaJournal.com.

And that's going to do it for another edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back here next time, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9, WBT.