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Good morning to you. For those that follow national politics, there has been a lot of discussion over the last year and a half around ICE, immigration, and customs enforcement as the Trump administration follows through on a large campaign promise that was pretty much the epicenter of the 2024 presidential election cycle. To walk us up to date with the latest on what's going on here in North Carolina, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Teresa, a couple months ago, we had a major ICE operation in Charlotte. known as Charlotte's Web.
There's been some rumors over the last six months or so about an ICE facility being opened here in North Carolina. We covered those rumors back a few months ago. Looks like we're hearing some more on that now. What's the latest that you're tracking? Sure, good morning, Nick.
Thanks for having me.
So, yeah, those rumors continue, maybe more in line with the Definite possibility at this point. We are hearing that the former Rivers Correctional Center in Winton, in Hereford County, that's the northeastern part of the state, is being eyed for a ICE detention center later this year, possibly as early as late September. That's according to a report from the New York Times.
So, what it says is that if this does open, it would be among the largest on the East Coast, housing about 1,400 detainees.
So, ICE is still in contract negotiations with the group that owns the former prison, that's the GEO group. That facility was built in the early 2000s and it operated as a federal correctional facility until it shut its doors in 2021.
So, yeah, we first reported this back in February. Actually, I had the story. At that time, this site was listed as one of the sites that they were looking at, possibly other sites, maybe even over in. We had different places around the state. We had the one place in Greensboro, also, and I believe it was Concord.
There were a couple different ones according, and back then they were looking at warehouses as well. But this seems like it's getting closer to becoming truth at this point. Yeah, and we've seen, Teresa, with some of these other ICE facilities, probably the most prominent one up in New Jersey, where there's been a lot of civil unrest around those locations. I would say one of the probably the big differences between what we've seen with some of those other facilities and what we would be seeing here in North Carolina is this is in a relatively rural part of the state. It's not in Raleigh.
It's not in Charlotte or Greensboro, Wilmington, Asheville, none of our major cities. Of course, obviously, it's still accessible here in North Carolina. That could be interesting to see as we've seen these other facilities essentially become like almost war zones in front with protesters clashing with local law enforcement and then ICE agents. There's been some pretty chaotic scenes in some major cities across the country where ICE is operating similar style facilities. You're right.
You mentioned New Jersey and there have been many reports on that. We've seen that, all the trouble that they've had when it comes to ICE and protests and stuff of that nature. Back in February, and even now, they've interviewed different locals who said they really, well, I shouldn't say all, a lot said they don't want that coming there. As a result, they didn't want the attention, the spotlight on such a rural area and having that pushback or protest or any kind of trouble like that. But there's also the flip side of people saying, well, there's a poverty rate of 23% in Hertford County.
That's nearly double the statewide rate for poverty.
So if they do bring these jobs into that area, which has a population of less than 20,000, they would be good paying jobs. You know, they lost all those jobs before in that prison system. And back in 2021, the prison employed roughly about 300 people.
So you've got both sides. Yeah, got both sides of the story. And I mean, now, you know, with inflation and with things going up. people looking for good, decent jobs with good benefits, it might be an actual good thing in that respect. But then again, understandably, nobody wants to have protests or people coming in and causing trouble on the outside either.
Yeah, and as we've seen with many of these protests at other ICE facilities, a large portion of the individuals, Teresa, that are throwing bricks, frozen water bottles, and shooting fireworks at law enforcement, these are typically not locals. They are being bused in or flown in from various areas across the United States to agitate some of these scenes.
So, no surprise there that locals would say, Hey, we're in this relatively rural, small area here in North Carolina. We don't want a bunch of these out-of-town agitators coming in. No surprise. We've also gotten some other reaction from leadership here in North Carolina. Democrat Governor Josh Stein teeing off on this on social media.
Fair to say, Teresa, that the governor is not in favor of ICE opening a facility here in North Carolina? Yeah, I think that'd be an understatement. You know, they basically said, you know, everybody who commits a crime should be held accountable. But he basically said, ICE has got a proven track record of arresting, detaining, and abusing American citizens. And the overwhelming majority of people ICE has detained have no criminal record.
So, yeah, he's basically, you know, he doesn't want it. He said he doesn't want it here in North Carolina. And he made his feelings known on social media. That is for sure. Yes, and we've seen this debate over ICE and immigration and law enforcement in your article over at CarolinaJournal.com.
You've got some details on what have been some pretty fiery political debates over the last year and a half, two years here in North Carolina, Teresa, as it relates to local sheriffs, most predominantly Gary McFadden in the Charlotte area, not wanting to work with these federal officials. Lawmakers have passed laws, amended laws, and passed them again to try and force sheriffs to deal with some of these federal detainers that are placed by ICE. And so, while we have not had a facility here in North Carolina to this point, this has been a pretty active discussion in North Carolina, especially in the Charlotte area over the last couple of years. Oh, yeah. And again, that's another understatement about Sheriff McFadden because you've seen so many news reports on him not wanting to cooperate.
And in his own words, he said he didn't want to cooperate with ICE and federal officials. But that would be harder now because lawmakers overrode a veto by the governor for Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act. Basically, it's an immigration enforcement measure that is. Basically, framed as a public safety measure is what they have aimed at strengthening cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. It also targets local governments with sanctuary policies, so-called sanctuary policies, by holding them accountable for refusing to follow state immigration enforcement laws.
And basically, it says you definitely have to cooperate with the federal authorities. And Stein and other Democrats have criticized that bill as unnecessary and harmful to immigrant communities. But we had Senate Leader Phil Berger praising the override, who he also was one of the sponsors of the bill, saying that the General Assembly was basically taking decisive action to end sanctuary policies and tackle illegal immigration. And it's again, it's not against all immigrants, it's those who are causing issues in the state, which there's been so many different reports of. being arrested for DWIs or or other legal issues and other crimes as well.
So yeah, this is going to be a little bit harder to not comply with. And it's important to note that this is not deputizing local law enforcement as members of immigration and customs enforcement. And Teresa, you and I talked about this, man. It's probably been six or seven months since we dove into some of these details. This is the process where an individual is picked up by local law enforcement, whether it's a county sheriff's office or a municipal police department.
They run through a background check system there. And if it pops up that those individuals are illegally in the United States and there is some outstanding pending legal issues or criminal issues, as I understand it, ICE, immigration and customs enforcement puts what they called a temporary detainer on these individuals. Local law enforcement is supposed to hold those individuals until federal authorities can get there and take that individual into custody. And so we're watching that process play out in literally 99 counties here in North Carolina. There's been just one or two over the last couple of years where this has been a problem.
And the sheriffs in most cases have been following this state law. Mm-hmm. Right, that you're 100% correct what you just said. There's just been that few. And we just mentioned, you know, Gary McFadden, and among a few others that have, you know, basically more liberal, left-leaning who are following the status quo across the U.S.
and how the liberal left-leaning side feels about immigration and ICE and basically saying you're targeting everybody. You're targeting poor immigrants who come here to make a living. But really, it is the people who are causing the issues. And there are so many different reports, not just here across the United States. There are so many different reports.
There was a report even earlier, about a month or so ago, a state trooper in Pennsylvania was killed by an illegal immigrant with a DWI.
So, I mean, you've got things like that going on all across the country. It's not just in North Carolina, but in North Carolina, this is now a law and it has to be complied with. Yeah, no, no question about that. We will, of course, be keeping a close eye on this. This very well could boil into a much larger political issue, Teresa, as we approach November.
It is, again, as you noted at the open, not 100% set in stone yet. We did have some of these start and stop rumors back earlier this year. We'll continue to cover this over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Save up to 30% with promo code News at Lifelock.com. Terms apply. It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT and some other statewide news this morning. North Carolina Attorney General.
Jeff Jackson has joined a coalition of attorney generals from 22 states and the District of Columbia, alongside the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, in a lawsuit filed in Rhode Island on July the 23rd against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that's FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security, DHS. This is for threatening to withhold more than a billion dollars in Homeland Security and disaster response grants to states unless they adopt the Trump administration's policies on elections and immigration. Conducting post-election audits, requiring states to verify voter citizenship through the SAVE database, that's the systematic alien verification for entitlements save system, which is completely separate and has nothing to do with the SAVE Act that continues to be debated in Washington, D.C. Transitioning voting systems to equipment that will read handmarked paper ballots and cooperating with federal immigration foreman. Enforcements are requirements listed in the suit.
The Attorney General said that since FEMA doesn't run elections, they have no authority over them and the demands would interfere with the authority of the North Carolina State Board of Elections and all 100-county board of elections. Jeff Jackson also said it would force at least 13 North Carolina counties, most of them rural, to spend millions of dollars on replacing voting equipment the state board already certified after mandatory testing by national accredited laboratories. Noncompliance would lead to the loss of at least 20% of the Homeland Security grant program known as the HSGP funding and possibly the entire award funding going forward. Plaintiff states have been allocated over $740 million in the fiscal year 2026 as it relates to those HSG GP funds, meaning that DA. and FEMA will hold at least $148 million, quote, hostage, according to the lawsuit.
Jackson and North Carolina received over seven said that North Carolina received over $17 million of those Homeland Security grant package and emergency management performance grants funds last year. Funding has been used to purchase equipment for things like bomb squads, conduct active shooter exercises, combat cyber attacks, respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, including things like flooding, wildfires, conducting search and rescue efforts, which the Attorney General notes North Carolina has experienced several of in the past few years. The Attorney General argued that a set of immigration conditions in the DHS fiscal year 2026 standard terms and conditions are identical to those already vacated and enjoyed last year in FEMA, and that DHS and FEMA asserts that they are still considering whether to apply those conditions to the grant programs from both DHS and FEMA. They also state that DHS and FEMA can pull funds from all 2026 FEMA funding at any time based on the new terms that don't align with the agency's priority or no longer, quote, advances the national interest, which they say imposes new and vague requirements and leaves states with uncertainty to plan for major public safety operations around federal funding that could be terminated at any time. Democrat Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a press release that the attorney generals from all the states Argue that FEMA and DHS are violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the spending clause of the United States Constitution.
North Carolina's AG said FEMA is threatening our counterterrorism funding again. The last time they tried this, we took them to court and won.
Now they're trying to do it again, and I expect we'll beat them again. Hopefully, they get this message: don't threaten our first responders unless you're ready for a fight. And quote there from Attorney General Jeff Jackson. The Attorney General previously sued FEMA and DHS and won for withholding $17 million in funding for North Carolina emergency management, disaster relief, and homeland security operations. In addition to Jeff Jackson, the Attorney Generals of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rebecca.
Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington State, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, all Democrats are in this suit. FEMA has come under fire by local, state, and federal officials over the past years, including U.S. Senator Ted Budd, who we covered just last week, testified at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing back on July the 21st about how the need for additional disaster relief funding would benefit Western North Carolina's recovery from Hurricane Helene almost two years ago. Budd also noted in a June press release that FEMA approval times on public assistance projects have greatly improved under the new Secretary of Homeland Security in Mark Wayne Mullen, who is from the state of Oklahoma as opposed to former Secretary Christy Noam. Bud said at the time, Secretary of Homeland Security Mark Wayne Mullen has empowered FEMA to more rapidly reimburse state and local governments for public assistance projects.
I'm pleased that the projects are now being approved on a regular basis, something I've called for more than a year ago. Bud stated last week that he is holding firm on a position he had in June about a supplemental funding request from President Donald Trump, which would help pay for the Iran war, among other things, because additional Haleen recovery was not included. The Office of Management and Budget stated that the $86.66 billion request to Congress is needed to fill urgent needs such as Operation Epic Fury, the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, and American farmers. Bud has been pretty blunt on the situation, saying, I want to be clear that I fully support President Trump's request to replenish our munition stockpile and strengthen our military. I am also appreciative of his efforts to provide economic assistance to farmers impacted by disasters and unfair trade practices.
However, to address long-term recovery needs of Western North Carolina, more federal funds are needed. closed with stressing the need to remember Western North Carolinians who are still rebuilding their lives nearly two years after the costliest natural disaster on record in the state of North Carolina. With Bud saying, every time I'm in Western North Carolina, people ask me to make sure that they are not forgotten. This is Congress's chance to remind them that we're serious about helping them get back on their feet.
So a couple of different things going on there. The most recent update from U.S. Senator Ted Budd and this new lawsuit filed by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson alongside the AGs in 22 states, the District of Columbia and the governors of Kentucky and of Pennsylvania, as many blue state governors and AGs continue to wage legal war with the Trump administration in Washington, D.C. We will be keeping an eye on these details and the potential economic impacts here on North Carolina. You can read more on this story by visiting our website this morning, Carolina Journal.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you. We have been keeping a close eye on electricity rates across the state of North Carolina. This has been all the rage now over the last couple of years.
To bring us up to date on the latest this morning, Andrew Pomerance, CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Andrew, pretty depressing headline over at CarolinaJournal.com. State ratepayers that are already getting squeezed by multi-hundred dollar a month electricity bills. Looks like unless something dramatically changes, they're going to see more of that in the coming years. What's the latest that you're following?
Yeah, hey, good Nick. Good morning. Happy Tuesday. It is one thing to say we've agreed on a lower rate at 9.5% increase, I think, like you mentioned. This isn't an increase that is 2% or 3%, or the state has agreed to not have an increase at all.
It's still a 9.5% increase, but it is down about half from where Duke originally came in at with an 18% increase proposal back just earlier this year. And so definitely progress on both sides here. North Carolina Utility Commission has to still approve this, right? It's gone through their public staff or one of their agencies inside of the larger commission there.
So something that has to still be agreed on. But last week, Duke and the public staff there came to this agreement at 9.5% over the next two years, right? And so consumers will feel about a 6% increase beginning in 2027 and then another 4% increase in 2028. We're looking at about a Mm. After those two increases, we're looking at about $15 a month increase for average households across the state.
So, those use about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month.
So, not a huge increase, but as you mentioned, as so many of us already feel the pinch of electricity prices going through the roof and just prices in general, that is definitely something that will be hitting our wallets hard and a topic that I think will continue to see a lot of conversation as we move through election season. Yeah, a lot of conversation indeed. And unfortunately, Andrew, while this is, as you note, down about half from what it was originally proposed, this has been the common tactic from Duke Energy over the last five or six years, go to the Utilities Commission with an absurd rate, 20, 30, 40% increase, then go through this very well laid out process as to either coming to an agreement with them, going throughout the, there is actually a legal side of this through the North Carolina Utilities Commission. If it gets to that point, we've seen that. But unfortunately, even though this is 9.5%, this builds on some of these high increases that we've seen year after year after year.
And I would imagine when we're done with some of those other increases coming up in 2028, we'll probably be having the same discussion again, just like we were back a couple of years ago when Duke made their initial request of, I believe, it was about 25% back just a couple of years ago. And it's important to know that, you know, Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Governor Josh Stein came out and said, you know, 9.5% isn't acceptable for North Carolina taxpayers. And so in a press release, the Attorney General said no deal, right? And that he was going to continue to fight for this and that 9.5% was too high and that he would love to see that rate continue to be pushed lower. Same thing from Governor Stein.
I think he more focused on the fact that data centers are driving up energy costs in some of these larger energy consumers. And how do we kind of build out a caveat for them in this new energy market that is going to come in North Carolina with increasing demand, right? And so a number that I think is still under much discussion. I think it'll be interesting to see as the executive branch here in North Carolina continues to push back against Duke Energy and some of those principles. But I'm not quite sure.
And I think, you know, our CEO over here at the John Locke Foundation, Donald Bryson, mentioned on state lines last week, I'm not sure what the governor And the Attorney General expected after we passed the carbon ban back in 2021, right, to begin to look towards a carbon-neutral future here in North Carolina. And he attributes the driving costs, the increase in costs, to some of those investments that Duke has had to make. And that's kind of been their argument since day one, right? we have to replace a lot of these outgoing energy sources that have already been paid for with new energy sources that have not yet been paid for and that are costly, whether that be batteries or some of these other forms of cleaner energy, right? And so I think there's a push and pull here between that Embrace of trying to get to carbon neutral by 2050 in North Carolina, but also keeping consumers' electricity prices down.
Yeah, and there's no question about it, Andrew. That has been the major debate as Duke Energy, as you noted. We're forced literally by state law, something that was promoted in large part by former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper to turn off a lot of well-run, very efficient coal and natural gas plants across the state of North Carolina in this very large push towards solar and wind energy. We just saw in the last couple of months an agreement that Duke Energy made with the federal government to not move forward with a major offshore wind farm in southeastern North Carolina. We've seen some additional debate and discussion on some of these very large-scale, multi-hundred-acre solar power plants that are being developed across the state as well.
I think many folks, including John Sanders and others over at the John Locke Foundation, Andrew, they've been warning about this stuff. They've been blowing the whistle on this now for the better part of a decade. And unfortunately, it seems like the situation that many warned about is now here and we're, unfortunately, as consumers. paying for it. Yeah, and I think it's important to note, right, that 2021 bill that installed these carbon reduction targets and that 70% initial reduction by 2030 was removed this past year.
But that interim requirement still, or that long-term requirement, I apologize, is still in place, right?
So we're still looking to get to carbon neutral by 2050, but there's no longer that 2030 requirement. And I think the governor and the attorney general are pointing to that and saying, look, you no longer need to do this as aggressively. Energy prices do not need to rise as aggressively. But at the same time, as we see this shift happening and this reinvestment having to take place into more expensive energy forms for Duke, we're also seeing this driving increase in demand, right? And also over the Carolina Journal, we've got a story about these data center agreements that are happening at the federal level and the Trump administration pushing To put the cost of electricity back on data centers and these large consumers of electricity.
And so we'll see how Duke also addresses that. If there's an opportunity to earn some additional revenue, Duke appears to think that there is from these large commercial consumers of energy and not additional cost. But there's a lot of demand pressure, and also at the same time, there's a lot of supply pressure, right? And so I think it's an interesting spot for Duke to be in. I think we see a lot of energy pressure across the East Coast or that be with Dominion and X Eras, ongoing merger happening that'll affect the northeastern part of North Carolina.
But we see a lot of these upward pressures on energy prices right now. And I think Duke is struggling to find that middle ground. And I think this rate increase continues to show that they're working to try to find a path that's both Heading towards where North Carolina wants to be as a state, but also a point where it's a. productive for consumers to be energy uh demanders. You know, we did see a lot of this discussion throughout the General Assembly's long session and then short session over the last couple of months.
There was a piece of legislation that went through a couple different pieces that have been in committee, out of committee, some that passed, some that didn't, dealing with some of these high costs that families are feeling. There was one called the, I think it was called the Rate Payer Protection Act that we discussed in pretty great detail as well.
So, Andrew, it's an odd situation where everybody is seemingly on both sides of the political aisle. You've got the Republican-led General Assembly, you've got Democrats and Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Governor Josh Stein, all kind of singing off the same sheet of music as it relates to electricity bills across the state of North Carolina. I'll admit that is not a common occurrence with such a politically ripe issue like this across the Tar Heels state. Yeah, we talk about the affordability crisis that I think both sides are going to hit home here in November, pointing to each other. And I think electricity pricing is a perfect example of that, where long-term policies are forcing electricity prices up, and both sides of the aisle acknowledge that this is a situation that needs to be addressed.
Now, they have different ideas on how to do so, right? But this is an opportunity where we could see some right and left coming together. The budget removes some taxpayer or tax funding. Consumption from data centers for electricity. And so, a tax break there that they got rid of.
That was a bipartisan piece of legislation before it ended up being in the budget. That piece of legislation did not move forward, but was bipartisanly sponsored, came out of a bipartisan working group that the governor put together to study the impact of data centers on energy consumption earlier this year.
So, I think, like you mentioned, a really bipartisan issue that both sides would like to take a bite out of the apple before November. Do we have any idea when the North Carolina Utilities Commission, who will be the final group, the NCUC, they will be the final determiner? Do we know exactly when they're going to determine whether this rate increase is going to happen or not in the next couple of months, I would presume? Yeah, well, we don't yet have an exact date. I think there's a deadline here upcoming, but that is still well ways out.
I think they still have a couple more months to kind of dive into this issue, understand the Attorney General's concerns, and I would imagine maybe even see a slight decrease from where you're currently. But I think Duke has said we have now come to the table. We have negotiated with both the state and we come to this agreement with their stakeholders, and so there's not much more to do. But this is something that I think will continue on for months now. Yeah, and there's no question about it.
Not only will those debates continue likely within government, but there's a lot, there has been and there will likely continue to be, Andrew, a lot of public reaction to this as folks continue to get these eye-popping energy bills, especially as hot as it's been over the last couple of months here in North Carolina. We'll be keeping a close eye on this in the months to come. We appreciate the update this morning. Andrew Pomerance joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Don't forget, if you miss any portion of the program, weekday mornings here, 5 to 6 a.m., you can check out the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast in your favorite podcast app. You can also watch the show live and after the fact on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel as well. Those links over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. All right, it's set to be a busy week and a half or so in the North Carolina General Assembly.
We have been reporting over the last couple of weeks that lawmakers were slated to make their way back to Raleigh this week and next. It was a little uncertain as to what exactly would be taking place.
However, it does appear that a major elections overhaul bill is going to see some movement according to the House calendar for today. The Senate Elections Committee is set to meet at 11 o'clock this morning. followed by the Senate rules and operations of the Senate, which will be the final place for that piece of legislation to head before it makes its way to the full Senate floor for a vote. We are expecting some pretty significant movement on that legislation today, and then we will likely see a similar process Taking place with that legislation in the North Carolina House next week. After August the 6th, the North Carolina General Assembly has also proposed an adjournment schedule, an adjournment resolution that would only set a couple of days left for lawmakers to make their way back to Raleigh for the remainder of this legislative short session.
Those dates could possibly be in around August the 31st, September the 28th, October 26th, November 16th, and 30th, with a final adjournment set for around December the 18th. That would be the final day or close to the final day of the legislative, the biennium legislative session, the 25-26 session, before new lawmakers would be sworn in in early parts of 2027. And the General Assembly would kick off that long session not long after that. We are also keeping an eye on the potential progress. For a veto override in the North Carolina House as well, as the House is set to meet next week.
Senate Bill 50 does remain on the calendar there as well. As lawmakers in the North Carolina House, House leadership try and figure out if they have the ability to override that veto. That has been on the calendar now for months. There are multiple Republican lawmakers, at least according to our sources, over at CarolinaJournal.com, that are not in favor of moving forward with a veto override of this constitutional carry legislation. We have seen this move in the General Assembly over the last couple of years, and every time it seemingly falls just a little bit short, and it would appear that that is the way that at least it is trending right now for these voting days in the remainder of July and early parts of August.
So we'll be keeping an eye on this, especially this elections bill that I was just mentioning in the North Carolina Senate. That has been debated. We covered that in some pretty great detail. The last two or three months, as lawmakers have looked to once again make some significant changes in overhauling the election system across the state of North Carolina, looking at the possibility of shrinking the early voting window, which runs now for some 17 days ahead of Election Day in early November. We have in the last couple of days as well had some discussion and conversation within the North Carolina State Board of Election about voter ID laws and rules as it relates to absentee by mail ballots and envelopes and deadlines and everything associated with that.
There was a lot of outrage over this elections bill the last couple of weeks as lawmakers dealt with that ahead of the July the 4th holiday when the short session was continuing. And it looks like we're going to see some revitalization of that coming up a little bit later on today. We'll be keeping a very close eye on that. Andrew Pomerance, Andy Jackson at the John Locke Foundation. And the Carolina Journal keeping a close eye on what that bill could potentially look like.
And then, of course, it will be the North Carolina House if it is successful in moving through the North Carolina Senate. We'll be keeping our eye on that over the next week and a half or so as lawmakers will round out the short session and put all steam ahead towards the November election. The latest on that over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Tuesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.