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It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Thursday 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 this morning in Raleigh, where the North Carolina House has unanimously passed the Dominique Moody Safety Act, advancing a child welfare reform package named after six-year-old Dominique Moody, whose death exposed repeated failures by Mecklenburg County social service officials to act on reports of abuse and neglect. The bill, Senate Bill 280, passed 113 to 0 after an emotional floor debate from lawmakers who said that the state must do more to identify repeated warning signs before vulnerable children are harmed. Representative Alan Chesser, the Republican from Nash County, said that the bill is intended to create a state-level escalation team that can intervene in high-risk child welfare cases before tragedy strikes.
Chesser, who led the very emotional, very lengthy, more than eight-hour House Oversight Committee hearing that happened just a couple of weeks ago. Ago, which included officials from Mecklenburg County and the state of North Carolina social services going through some of the very disturbing details in the death of Dominique Moody, told his House colleagues yesterday: the goal is to create an escalation team that has involvement with these child welfare cases before there is a fatality. The goal here is to pick up on patterns of behavior and flag activities or lack of activities before they have a negative or detrimental impact on a child. Building on these preventative measures, the legislation would create a child welfare escalation team within the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and its Division of Social Services known as DSS. That group would be tasked with reviewing high-risk child abuse and neglect cases across the state.
Chessler said that the team would provide another layer of review when a child's history shows repeated warning signs or exceptional high-risk circumstances. The bill also would require child protective service employees conducting home assessments to take photographs and create verifiable records of their work. Chessler said that that requirement grew out of cases reviewed when the bill was being developed. Jesser said on the House floor, ultimately, this wasn't the case in many of the cases we reviewed leading into this bill. And so we feel it's important to make sure that activity not only occurs, but is verifiable after the fact.
Representative Carla Cunningham, the newly unaffiliated representative in the North Carolina House from Mecklenburg County, one of the bill's primary sponsors, gave a very emotional set of comments on the House floor. This is what she had to say yesterday. Members before Dominique Moody became the name of a bill before this General Assembly. She was a little girl. Born on January the 20th of 2019, In Cumberland County, and later came into Mecklenburg County.
Like every child in North Carolina, Dominique Moody should have grown up in a safe home. Surrounded by love. protection. An opportunity. She should have had the chance to attend school.
Play with friends. celebrate birthdays, and discover the person she would have become. She should have been protected by adults. in her life. And by our child welfare system prepared to respond when concerns about her safety arose.
Instead of Dominique endures severe abuse. and neglect throughout her short life. She was kept in a dog cage. for two and a half years. Her legs and ankles were bound.
When the adults ate in the house, They put a bag over her head so she could not see. Them eat. She was deprived of adequate food, forced to live in inhumane conditions. and suffered prolonged neglect and repeat it. mistreatment at the hands of those responsible to care for her.
By the time of her death, On December the 16th of 2025, Dominique was six years old. She weighed only 27 pounds, and her birthday was right around the corner. deprived of adequate food, forced to live in inhumane. But an ongoing pattern of abuse, deprivation, and suffering, the circumstances surrounding her death.
Okay. shock communities across North Carolina. And raise serious questions about how repeated warning signs can be recognized and addressed before tragedy occurs. 911 calls over 50 something were made. in reference to her.
Dominique's story reminds us that abuse and neglect rarely occur in isolation. More often, it develops over time. with warning signs appearing long before the crisis. This legislation represents our commitment to strengthening our child welfare system so it can identify risks earlier, intervene sooner. and better protect vulnerable children.
Today, as we recognize Dominique Moody's Safety Act, we honor the memory of a little girl whose life should have been filled with safety. love and opportunity. While we cannot change what happened to Dominique Moody, We can Take meaningful steps to help prevent similar tragedies in the future. That is the purpose of this legislation, and that that is our responsibility as lawmakers. The Dominique Moody Safety Act is more than a response to one heartbreaking case.
It is a comprehensive effort. to strengthen North Carolina's child welfare system by improving coordination, accountability, training, and oversight. It recognizes that when children repeatedly come to the attention of child protective services, those reports should not always be viewed as an isolated incident. Patterns matter. History matters.
repeated concerns mattered. This is why Senate Bill 280 creates a child welfare escalation team within the division of the Department of Health and Human Services and Social Services to provide additional level of review. For the high-risk child abuse and neglect cases across the entire state of North Carolina. This team is designed to support county departments of social services, not replace them. It will provide additional expertise, technical assistance, and oversight when a child's history demonstrates repeated warning signs or exceptionally high-risk circumstances.
The bill establishes clear criteria. For identifying high-risk homes and families with extensive child welfare histories, ensuring these cases receive the additional attention. they need before another child is harmed. Senate Bill 280 further improves coordination among agencies. clarifies juvenile court procedures, strengthens protection for children involved in the child welfare system, increases transparency through public reporting and enhances accountabilities across the North Carolina Child's Welfare System.
That is Representative Carla Cunningham on the House floor yesterday describing details of the Dominique Moody Safety Act. Representative Brendan Jones, the Republican from Columbus County, also spoke in support of the bill, saying that lawmakers have no greater responsibility than to take care of children in our state, saying in part, I read the report on Dominique, and it's enough to make the biggest, strongest man cry to know what this child endured. No child should ever have to go through this torment that this blessed little soul went through in Mecklenburg County. Moody's death has become a flashpoint in the General Assembly and its scrutiny of North Carolina's county-administered, state-supervised child welfare system. At the most recent House Oversight Committee meeting earlier this month, NCDHHS officials told lawmakers that Mecklenburg County received multiple reports involving Moody's household, but failed to intervene further.
State reviewers found that four of five reports involving Moody's home were screened out, which means no further action was taken and noted that they should have been screened in because the information did in fact meet the legal definition of abuse or neglect. NCDHHS also found broader problems in Mecklenburg County's child welfare practices. In a review of 122 unrelated child protective service records, the department found intake workers failed to ask sufficient questions 52% of the time. Files lacked required notifications to law enforcement and district attorneys 36% of the time. And in cases involving potential child abuse and safety plans were adequate in only 43% of the cases.
Face-to-face contact with children occurred at the correct frequency just 48% of the time. And 58% of the cases out of 122 that were reviewed lacked all required components of quality supervisory oversight. House Oversight Leaders have also asked Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather to conduct a criminal review of the county's DSS employees and officials who handled reports and decisions in the Moody. Case. With this broad bipartisan support, the unanimous House vote now sends the measure forward to the North Carolina Senate as lawmakers continue to examine what went wrong in this case and whether similar failures could be occurring elsewhere in the state right now.
As I mentioned, that legislation has now passed the House. It will make its way over to the North Carolina Senate. Presumably, it will get a strong support there, potentially unanimous as well, and then make its way to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk for a signature, a veto, or the law will become automatic after a period of time if the governor decides not to act on said legislation. We've got more on the Dominique Moody Safety Act. You can head on over to our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
Look for the story with the headline: House Unanimously Passes Dominique Moody Safety Act. Bye. It's 22 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, and some other statewide news this morning. Two new audits from the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor found a 15-year pattern of delayed first-round unemployment benefit payments and more than $47 million in fraudulent benefit overpayments.
The first of the audits revealed that between July the 1st of 2024 and November the 30th of 2025, the North Carolina Department of Commerce's Division of Employment Security, known as DES, which oversees unemployment benefits across the state, were late in paying out 28% of initial unemployment benefit payments, totaling approximately $12.2 million. That amounts to more than $31,000 of more than 11,011,000 first unemployment. Unemployment benefit payments not being made within the federally required 14-day standard. And over 13,500 first unemployment payment benefits were made only after more than 35 days. Auditors acknowledge that while the 28% rate is an improvement over the 43% rate that was reported in a 2024 audit, DES hasn't met the federal timeline rate for first-time unemployment payment benefits since 2011.
And that the state has consistently ranked among the untimeliest states in the nation, averaging 41st overall since the year 2005. State Auditor Dave Bollick said in a press release associated with the audit: losing a job can be a traumatic event that hurts entire families. Employees pay into our unemployment benefit safety net, and yet for 15 years, the benefits haven't been going out the door when they should. People who lose a job still have mortgages to pay and bills to finance. As the follow-up audit from the professional team at the state auditor's office shows, slight improvements have been made, but it's not fair for the government to continually shrug its shoulders as such a long-standing problem exists.
Recommendations from the auditor's office to DES include making an evaluation of its unemployment benefit claim process design a priority and making sure that first payments are paid out accordingly, identifying any delay patterns and implement corrective actions, as well as being prepared to handle increased claim volumes by continuing to assess, monitor, and update its service escalation readiness plan. The department did agree with the recommendations and said that it has already begun discussing how to implement some of those plans as this is, as I mentioned, a long-standing problem going all the way back to 2005 in North Carolina, one of the most untimely states for delivering first-time unemployment payment benefits. And this has been a big problem since 2005. And since 2011, the state has not been in compliance with federal regulation.
Now, the fraudulent aspect of this, while there was a slight improvement shown in those first-time benefit payments, the second audit found that the rate of incorrectly paid out unemployment benefits in North Carolina has increased since it was last audited in the year 2022. The payments either shouldn't have been paid or were paid in the incorrect amounts. Auditors say that from April the 1st of 2021 through March the 1st of 2025, the state had an estimated improper payment rate of 22%. Which is 4% higher than the 18% rate reported by the auditor's office back in 2022. North Carolina's improper payment rate has routinely exceeded the 10% limit and the national average for the past nine years.
Another bad mark here for DES. Overpayments reported out by DES during that time period resulted in $168.8 million in established overpayments, $47.2 million categorized as just blanket fraud, and more than $121 million as non-fraud payments. Of these amounts, DES recovered approximately $49.1 million in total overpayments, which rounds out to just 29%. Of that figure, $12.2 million of those dollars were fraudulent payments. Auditors did note, however, that fraud recovery has improved comparing fiscal year 22, the worst year for the time period.
During that time, over $26 million in fraud overpayments were made, with only $3.8 million being recovered, meaning that unemployment benefits Paid here in North Carolina in fiscal year 2022, more than a $22 million of those dollars stayed out in circulation, and the state was not able to claw that back. Auditors say that the primary cause of overpayments in North Carolina in the past has been errors with work search requirements, benefit year earnings, and separation determinations and refers to the North Carolina Office, the state auditor's September 2022 audit recommendation that DES require work search activities be reported within the weekly certification process to reduce work search requirement errors. Back to state auditor Dave Bollick also saying in another press release, government waste comes in many forms, and in this case, it's occurring through unemployment insurance. Not only was there a higher rate of improper unemployment benefits, but there was also more than $47 million in fraud overpayments made during the scope of our audit. The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor will continue to serve as our state's fiscal watchdog, assessing programs and sounding the public alarm to push for improvements.
Ignoring problems for years and missing basic public expectation cannot continue to be tolerated. The Department of Employment Security applied for and received a federal grant in August of 2022 to assist with online work searches, but implementations didn't occur all the way until December of 2025, with DES not identifying a specific root cause for the delayed implementation, according to auditors. In short, full implementation of the work source, the work search repository was the only prior audit recommendation that was not completed. Auditors recommended that DES should continue to review and implement U.S. Department of Labor recommendation strategies and best practices, including targeted actions to address work search requirements, benefit year earnings, and separation issue errors.
They also recommended that DES should monitor the work search repository to ensure that it is working as intended. And with its completion in December of last year, DES should redirect efforts towards addressing other causes of improper payments. Finally, the last recommendation was that the Department of Employment Security should monitor its re-employment service and eligibility assessment, its new hire cross-masking, weekly certifications, and separation determination process to ensure that they all are all working as intended. DES once again agreed with the recommendations and has said, as we've heard from many of these state agencies, that it has already begun discussing how to implement them. Another very concerning report out of the North Carolina state auditor's office, Dave Bollock and his team, now highlighting some issues within the North Carolina Department of Commerce's Division of Employment Security.
You can read more details on this story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, NC Audit Reveals Unemployment Benefit Delays, $47 million in fraud. It's 537. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig.
A good Thursday morning to you. A closely watched legal case coming out of the COVID era is set to head back to the trial courts. This comes after a ruling this week from the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The story deals with a, at the time, a 14-year-old and an alleged forced vaccination. His mother, of course, also involved in the lawsuit, walks through the latest this morning.
Mitch Cokei from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, this has gone through a pretty lengthy legal process. We're talking about things that happened in 2021. Can you walk our audience, kind of bring us back to the beginning here and this most recent ruling from the North Carolina Court of Appeals? Yes, the short answer is the ruling is very good for Tanner Smith and his mother, Emily Happel, who were the plaintiffs in this case who sued the Guilford County Board of Education and the Old North State Medical Society.
What happened was back in 2021, Tanner Smith was 14 years old. He played on his high school football team and he was notified that there had been an outbreak of COVID cases related to his football team. And so he needed to go and get a test to make sure he didn't have COVID-19 before he could resume practice with his team.
So he had his stepdad drive him to a clinic that was taking place at another Guilford County High School that was providing COVID tests. What neither he nor his stepfather knew was that they were also giving the COVID vaccine at this clinic.
So Tanner Smith goes in by himself, sits down. He's expecting to get a COVID test. The clinic workers from the Old North State Medical Society, who are working at the Guilford County School, say, you're going to get the vaccine. He said, no, I'm just here to get a test. They tried to contact his mother by phone.
They didn't contact the stepdad who was sitting outside in a truck, but they tried to contact the mother, couldn't contact the mother. And apparently, according to the court records, one of the clinic workers said, just give it to him anyway. And so they gave him the COVID vaccine. He and his mom file suit saying that his rights were violated. Initially, the case was knocked down at both the trial court level and by the state court of appeals.
And one of the main reasons was that there is a federal piece of legislation called the PrEP Act. that are designed to protect Healthcare workers from lawsuits of this type. And the reason being, COVID was such an emergency. You want to make sure that these emergency workers who are providing the vaccine and trying to help people are not going to get lawsuits. But by the time this case got to the state Supreme Court, a ruling that came out in March of 2025 said: no, the PrEP Act does not protect against a violation of this type.
Now, the PrEP Act does protect. Against a standard lawsuit for battery.
So you by ejecting him, that could be considered a battery. The PrEP Act does protect against that, but the Supreme Court says it does not protect. Against a violation of state constitutional rights. And the The state Supreme Court's order talked about the right to bodily integrity, the right of a parent to control the health decisions for her child. And so the case went back to the state court of appeals more than a year ago to decide a couple of issues.
One of them, did the case Spell out a strong enough case that the old North State Medical Society, which is the one that conducted the clinic, was a state actor. By working with the Guilford County Schools, did that make Old North State Medical Society a state actor? And two, was there enough of an argument that there was a violation of the constitutional right? And basically, what the State Court of Appeals said in a unanimous opinion was that there was enough of an argument that Old North State Medical Society was a state actor and that the second piece was also proved.
So now it goes back to a state court to see whether they will ultimately win the case. You mentioned that this case has been around for a long time. By now, Tanner Smith's got to be about 19 or 20, he's out of school, presumably. But this will set a good precedent for what can happen in the future if you have something like this happen. And can the school system and can a group like the Old North State Medical Society?
Society who rely on the Federal Prep Act to escape liability, or if something like this happens, can they be sued? And it'll be very interesting to see what happens from here. Yeah, no question about that. And as you mentioned at the open, and as I mentioned as well at the time, where we're talking about, we're talking about a 14-year-old, by every legal definition, Mitch, a minor in the eyes of both state and local and federal governments. No question about that whatsoever.
So after this ruling from the North Carolina Court of Appeals this week, where exactly in the process do we go back to?
Well, barring a successful appeal. From either the school system or the Old North State Medical Society, who could potentially appeal this ruling back to the Supreme Court and say the appeals court got it wrong, barring a successful appeal of that type, you would see this case go back to the trial court to deal with the basic issues of the case. Is the case proven? I mean, we say that the court record said that the clinic workers said, well, give it to him anyway. What kind of proof is there of that?
Is there proof that this was something that was done that the Old North State Medical Society bears responsibility for? Or is this something that they can avoid liability for anyway? Basically, it kind of goes back to the drawing board. What had happened in the earlier rulings was that the trial court initially and the appeals court initially said, you can't even go forward with this case. This PrEP Act stands in the way, says that there is no liability.
And so Guilford County and the Old North State Medical Society don't even have to present really any evidence on their behalf.
Now, Emily Apple and Tanner Smith can move forward with their case, say, here's what happens, here's why we think there's liability, and the school board and the Old North State Medical Society will have to present. Countervailing evidence saying this is why we should win, and you'd go through an actual legal proceeding, if not a trial, then at least. Arguments for summary judgment and arguments that would be somewhat the equivalent of a trial. It basically gets back to the starting point of. Happel and Smith being able to make their case to a trial judge without the case being thrown out just because of this PrEP Act.
So, you mentioned just a couple of minutes ago that this could have some impacts moving forward. Again, obviously, this would be depending on the ruling. It's already a five-year, the situation already happened five years ago, Mitch.
So, I don't think it's accurate to say here that we're likely to get a decision in this case anytime soon.
So, likely a couple, potentially a couple of years down the road. But there could be some pretty long-term impacts here in North Carolina. And I guess maybe accurate to say, depending on what the ruling of this case is, could impact going forward how school districts handle some of these vaccine clinics, which they do even outside of COVID-19. They typically will partner with a healthcare company or some sort of health system to provide this, most predominantly for student athletes like we see in this case. Could definitely shake some stuff up here in North Carolina.
Yes, it could. And you would hope that, however, this case comes out, and even if this case isn't resolved anytime soon, that this. Incident here in Guilford County from 2021 would have prompted both that local school board and school boards across the state to think about: you know, we got to make sure that all the I's are dotted and T's crossed, and that if you're going to administer a vaccine, that there is parental consent, that there that you know, that if the if the teen is saying, no, I don't want this vaccine, and you don't have the parent saying, Yes, he's going to get it, that it doesn't happen, and that you don't have clinic workers saying, Well, just give it to him anyway, uh, you know, that's that is the accusation that's made in the case. And one would hope that there are more pieces put in place that ensure something like that doesn't happen again.
Now, another piece I need to go back to is: I was, I told you earlier that the things the Court of Appeals had to deal with were: one, whether the Old North State Medical Society was a state actor, and the appeals court said, yes, there's enough evidence. To that effect, moving forward. The second piece was actually: is there an adequate state remedy other than this lawsuit under what's called a quorum claim? Because the argument that's made in this suit is a violation of state constitutional rights. And the only way that you could pursue this type of quorum claim.
For a violation of state constitutional rights, where you could ask for damages from the school board and the Oliver State Medical Society, is that if there's not another, Remedy that's already available in the courts. And basically, what the appeals court said is: look, the PrEP Act. Knocked out any other potential remedy because you can't sue for battery because the PrEP Act says that you can't.
So if the PrEP Act protects you from all this other stuff. That means there is no other remedy, and the only remedy left is the quorum claim.
So that's why this case is able to move forward because while the PrEP Act doesn't protect the the school board and the medical society from the constitutional claim. It did protect them from other types of lawsuits.
So now this is the only thing left, and this is the type of lawsuit that can move forward. We will be keeping an eye first off to see if whether the Guilford County School District or the Old North State Medical Society appeals this decision from the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Then, of course, depending on what happens there, keep an eye on the trial courts. We have some continuing coverage of this over on our website this morning. CarolinaJournal.com, we appreciate the update.
Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT is celebrating 250 years of freedom and 50 years of WBT Sky Show. Join us on Saturday, July the 4th at Truest Field, home of the Charlotte Knights, as the Charlotte Symphony will present a musical tribute to America, followed by the biggest and best fireworks show in the Southeast. It's the 50th anniversary WBT Sky Show presented by Rhino Shield. Coming your way Saturday, July the 4th at Truest Field in Uptown Charlotte.
Visit wbt.com this morning for tickets and event details. It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. A U.S. magistrate judge has signed a criminal complaint accusing a Raleigh man of threatening to harm President Donald Trump.
This is according to a news release Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle's office. An individual by the name of Christopher Carnes, who's 33 years old, is accused of knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life to kidnap or inflict serious bodily harm upon the president of the United States. He is charged with violating federal law, 18 U.S.C. 871A, and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Carnes posted several videos on Facebook in the month of May with statements including, quote, Donald J. Trump, I'm going to kill you, end quote. According to the news release, he advised viewers to alert the Secret Service in Washington, D.C. of his plans. Investigators established that Carnes was located in Raleigh when he posted the threatening Facebook videos, according to details, with a June 6th video referencing his prior threatening videos while talking about having pipe bombs.
According to Carnes stated, after displaying a self-described PVC blaster in the truck of his car, Carnes stated, this here, I've told you, Donald Trump, I'm not the person for bluffing calls.
Now that the government knows I have a live bomb under my car, we'll F you around and you will find out. Out, according to those are some of the quotes according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Authorities met with Carnes at the Raleigh Police Department on June the 10th. He arrived in the same car that was allegedly seen in those Facebook videos where he was making threats against the president's life.
And after canines alerted to the potential presence of explosive materials in the car, Raleigh Police Department officers searched his car and found the PVC pipe and a metal pin. U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Meyer signed a criminal complaint against Carnes on Friday. The complaint explains that the Pentagon Forest Protection Agency first alerted the U.S. Secret Service to these Facebook posts in the middle part of May, which did include some of those comments just blatantly threatening the life of the President of the United States.
Boyle's office is currently prosecuting another case against the case that does seem to threaten the president's life, a high-profile case against former FBI director James Comey, a charge of violating the same federal law cited in Carnes' case. Comey's charges are related to a 2025 Instagram post that allegedly was taken in southeastern North Carolina. We've got some additional commentary on this, some additional details from a U.S. attorney, Ellis Boyle's office. You can read those details this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Look for the story with the headline, Raleigh Man Arrested for Threatening on Social Media to Harm President Trump. That's going to do it for a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FMWT.
