It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Friday 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. North Carolina officials met with aerospace and defense manufacturers in London last week as part of an effort to recruit more companies to the state and expand its growing aviation and defense industry. The delegation met with companies that already have operations in North Carolina, including Airbus, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. as well as firms with no current presence in the state.
This was all taking place during the Farnborough International Air Show, which was held July the 20th through the 24th in London. Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the acronym for that group, EDPNC, recently told the Triangle Business Journal that it might be some time before state officials find out if those meetings were a success. The state also has competition with other states, including South Carolina, Kansas, and Ohio, who also had representatives in attendance, and we're likely there doing the same thing, trying to court the aerospace and defense industry to create more positions and create more manufacturing in North Carolina. This trip comes at a time that North Carolina is positioning itself to become a leader in defense manufacturing, aerospace production, and national security industries. Back in the month of May, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina Critical Technology Alliance announced the launch of the First in Defense Coalition, an industry-led effort geared towards making the state a leader in defense manufacturing and innovation.
Founding members of the coalition include NC State, a group called NSTXL, Duke University, RTI International, the Institute of Digital Engineering, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, and the Wireless Research Center. The coalition's three core priorities are elevating defense as a key economic opportunity for the Tar Heel state, accelerating entrepreneurship and innovation in critical technologies, and positioning the state to attract and grow defense companies from across the United States and key global markets. The chamber said in a press release that they want to ensure that North Carolina is primed for defense manufacturing and innovation investment as the U.S. accelerates its modernization of the military, builds up critical supply chains, and expands the defense industrial base. They added that the venture investments in early-stage defense companies has hit a record $49 billion just last year alone.
The coalition was expected to convene members of the North Carolina defense ecosystem and federal leaders in Washington, D.C. this summer. At the EuroStory exhibit in Paris this past June. Earlier this month, Democrat Governor Josh Stein, in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Commerce, announced the launch of a new statewide advisory council that will try to bolster the state as a premier location for defense research, innovation, advanced manufacturing, and technology commercialization. The North Carolina Advisory Leaders for Innovation Growth in National Security, pretty lengthy name there, nice acronym though, NC Align, convened by the Department of Commerce's Office of Science, Technology, and Innovation, will bring leaders from industry, higher education, state government, and national security organizations together to help identify strategic opportunities, strengthen statewide coordination, and advance North Carolina's long-term competitiveness in high-growth in the high-growth technology sector critical to national security.
According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and a press release there, NC Align builds upon recommendations first identified through North Carolina's Advancing Defense Innovation initiative and will focus on four strategic priorities supporting domestic defense, including clarifying North Carolina's strategic opportunities. In science, technology, and innovation, improve visibility of the state's research and technological capacities, strengthening coordination among universities, industry, government, and supporting organizations, and finally, supporting outreach and relationship building with federal agencies and national partners. The council will also include liaison and contributor participation from North Carolina-based Department of Defense organizations. Initial contributor participants include groups over at Fort Bragg, the Fleet Readiness Center East, which is based at the air station in Cherry Point, and the U.S. Army Research Office, which is based in the Research Triangle, with additional organizations expected to participate as this NC Align initiative grows.
Commerce officials stress that NC Align is intended to complement. Not duplicate the work of existing organizations and initiatives. that are currently in the process of supporting North Carolina's defense innovation economy and will only operate as an advisory body. They will not be managing any programs or be awarding any funding. Governor Stein and other state officials are no strangers to traveling abroad to court global business in North Carolina.
Back in October of last year, leaders, including the governor and labor commissioner Luke Farley, traveled to Asia to promote North Carolina's growing economy and make the case for why global companies should invest in the Tar Heel State. This is something that we will continue to see. Just a quick reminder there. Back in October of 2025, state leaders, including the governor and the labor commissioner, traveled to Asia. They spent about a week promoting the state as the top state for investment and partnership in both Japan and Taiwan.
The governor told Council of State members at the time that their meeting was an immense success. This is what Stein had to say back in October of last year. I had something like 30 individual meetings with businesses and three speeches to large business groups. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, a positive report. But North Carolina is very well known.
Our brand is strong internationally, and the folks know about us being a hub of biotech, and they know about us being good for business. It was very exciting, and it's nice when you have such a great product to sell, which is we have a lot of agricultural interests also. People like our North Carolina sweet potatoes in Japan, so it was a very productive and positive trip. The governor led that 51-person delegation, including the North Carolina Department of Commerce Secretary Lee Lilly, the EDPNC CEO in Christopher Chung, as well as North Carolina business leaders to that trip. The governor said back in late last year, Japan is the number one source of foreign direct investment in North Carolina, both in terms of the amount of capital invested and the number of North Carolinians.
who go to work every day in Japanese-owned companies. Japan is very much a place of relationship and trust, and there are a lot of companies that have existing locations that are considering expansion. There are other companies, however, that are considering coming here fresh, and we are making that case to them every day. The governor also highlighted the Toyota battery manufacturing plant that is in Liberty, North Carolina near Greensboro, which opened up their doors late last year. The automaker there is set to invest some $14 billion and create around 5,000 jobs.
With the plant featuring 14 production lines, including four dedicated to supporting battery production for hybrid electric vehicles and 10 dedicated to supporting battery production for full-on EVs and plug-in hybrids.
So North Carolina continues, even though as we covered back just a couple of weeks ago, falling into the number two spot. In terms of business in the United States, the state of Ohio beating us out in CNBC's number one state for business in 2026.
However, with North Carolina in the second place and consistently being in the top two over the last five or six years, the business industry remains strong here in North Carolina as state officials from all over the place try to continue to convince businesses to either grow or expand, bring first-time business operations to North Carolina. We will keep an eye on some of these interesting sectors, including aerospace and defense firms, as state leaders were in London last week trying to court some of those businesses here to North Carolina. You can read some more details on that. We've got the link over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: NC Courts Aerospace Defense Firms to Grow Defense Hub.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT following up on a story from earlier this week as it relates to immigration and customs enforcement, that is, of course, ICE, and them opening a facility here in North Carolina.
Well, the GEO Group, GEO Group, the company that owns the former Rivers Correctional Facility that is in Winton in Hartford County, Hertford County, North Carolina, extreme northeastern half of the state, has announced that it has entered into a five-year support service contract with U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement. That agreement is for the activation of a federal immigration processing center at a more than 1,300-bed facility here in North Carolina. There was speculation after a report in The New York Times citing internal federal documents of an immigration center in North Carolina coming to fruition. The Times stated that the facility would be among the largest on the East Coast, housing around 1,400 detainees when it opens by the end of the year.
The support service contract is expected to generate approximately $80 million in annual revenues in its first full year of operations, according to a press release. GEO's support services are expected to include the exclusive use of the facility by ICE, along with security, maintenance, and food services, as well as access to recreational amenities, medical care, and legal counsel. Gregory C. Zali, the CEO and chairman of the GEO Group, said, We expect that our company-owned river facility in Winton, North Carolina, will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bed spaces. We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities.
GEO Group built the facility in 2001 in the extreme northeastern part of the state. It's only about 15 miles south of the Virginia border. It operated as a federal correctional facility until it shut its doors in 2021. Carolina Journal first reported in February about the possibility of a Hertford County site in northeastern North Carolina being chosen for a detention facility. At the time, county officials said that they hadn't received any notification on ICE's intentions.
The New York Times also reported in February that ICE planned to buy and convert several warehouses in 21 cities across the United States to house illegal migrants, including Concord. That is, of course, in Cabarris County. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, also said that it was going to be working on a facility in Greensboro as well. Both reports were unfounded and neither have come to fruition, at least at this time. The July report says that documents that the New York Times obtained showed that ICE planned to now sell seven warehouses they purchased for more than $700 million.
The report also said if the deal went through, the internal documents showed that ICE field offices in Washington plan to manage the detention center, which could possibly open as early as late September. The report noted rather that the facility is located in North Carolina's very competitive first congressional district. Incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Don Davis currently holds that seat. He is going to be facing off against Republican challenger Lori Buckout in the November general election, which is a rematch of that same election we saw back just a couple of years ago.
Some say that the facility will bring much-needed jobs to the area. The county, which has a population of less than 20,000 people, has a poverty rate of 23%, which is nearly double the statewide rate. And in 2021, the prison employed some 300 people. But the reopening of the facility is not sitting well with many across the state. In February, residents told WVEC 13 News Now that although they were all for ICE doing their jobs, the small rural community wasn't ready for demonstrations and potentially riots.
Governor Stein also is against the facility and made his thoughts known in a post on social media this week saying, quote, everyone who commits a crime should be held accountable and violent criminals who are here illegally should be deported.
However, ICE has a proven track record of arresting, detaining, and abusing American citizens. And the overwhelming majority of people that ICE have detained have no criminal records.
Meanwhile, the last year, dozens of people died while in ICE custody. The planned ICE detention center in Winton is not state-owned, and I did not approve this transaction. Like many other North Carolinians, I do not want it in our state. ICE and Border Patrol have not earned our trust. The governor there taking a very similar line to many other Democrat politicians in the nation.
According to the Deportation Data Project, over 6,300 people have been arrested by federal immigration agents since January of 2025. And here in North Carolina, lawmakers overrode a veto by the governor last month that will require state law enforcement agencies to comply with federal immigration detainers and cooperate with U.S. immigrants. And customs enforcement when a person in custody is believed to be in the country illegally. Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act and immigration enforcement measure sponsored by Representatives State Senator Phil Berger, the Republican from Rockingham, Warren Daniel, the Republican from Burke, and Buck Newton, the Republican from Wilson, is framed as a public safety measure aimed at strengthening cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The bill also targets local governments with so-called sanctuary policies by holding them accountable for refusing to follow state immigration enforcement laws. And under Senate Bill 153, private citizens would have the ability to seek a legal recourse against a municipality or a county, whatever it might be, that goes forward with said so-called sanctuary policies, and they could be held criminal, or they could be held liable. in the legal system, depending on what exactly goes on there.
So we are keeping a very close eye on this. Earlier in the week, the rumor mill was once again churning, indicating that there was the possibility of ICE getting into this agreement in Winton, North Carolina. That is in Hertford County, about 15 miles south of the Virginia border. And according to the group that built that facility back in 2001, operated it for about 20 years. They have officially signed a five-year support service contract with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We will be keeping an eye on that. We do not have a timeline as to when this facility would open, how quickly that will all take place, and of course, what the reaction will be as we have seen riots and protesting at other federal ICE facilities across the United States. We'll be keeping you up to date with details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour.
It's 5.36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. A good Friday morning to you. Over the last few years, we have been keeping a very close eye on a company called VinFast.
They are a Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer. Back a couple of years ago, it was announced that they were set to build their first plant in North America, bring more than 7,500 jobs to the state of North Carolina. And unfortunately, since that announcement, it seemingly has been all downhill since. To bring us up to a date on the latest this morning, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. The announcement itself is pretty great, Teresa.
7,500 jobs, a lot of big announcements, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of economic investment. And seemingly every time we have chatted about it since, it is another bad news story about VinFast. What's the latest that you've been following over the last couple of months? Sure. Good morning, Nick.
Thanks for having me. Yeah, this company doesn't seem to catch a break here in the U.S. It's doing okay in its home country of Vietnam, but and also in Asia, too. We'll touch on that. But as far as how it's doing here with this project in North Carolina, not so great.
So, giving a little more of a backstory, as you said, back in May, State Attorney General Jeff Jackson filed a lawsuit on behalf of the State's Department of Commerce for breach of agreements with the company. Because, as you said, about the 7,500 jobs and starting, they were supposed to start rolling cars off the assembly line in 2024. Obviously, that hasn't happened.
So basically, they filed a lawsuit saying, you know, the state's exercising its rights to acquire the property back. They're protecting taxpayer investments and preserving the site for future economic possibilities. And we also went back a few weeks ago, working on that lawsuit. We also had the North Carolina Department of Commerce and VINFAST, they both filed documents asking a judge to keep portions of that lawsuit against the automaker out of public view. And lawyers with Jackson's Department of Justice filed a July 2nd motion to seal an amended complaint and attached exhibit.
So that's the backstory so far this year, what's been going on with the company and its plans to build a factory here, which is not taken off. And most likely, I'm just going to throw it out there. And I don't have a crystal ball, but I don't think it will. Yeah, with all the updates you've been tracking over the last couple of years, that would seem to be the most logical conclusion. And a lot of what we've talked about, Theresa, is on the state level.
You mentioned the Department of Commerce and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. That relates to the JDIG grant, which is highly controversial. We've covered that in great detail as well over at the John Locke Foundation and the Carolina Journal. A pretty miserable track record for those programs there. But with many of these major economic development announcements that happen across the state, yes, we see that state money being invested.
There's also a lot of times local money as well. And the most recent update that you've got is that the Chatham County Board of Commissioners is looking to claw back a pretty major incentive package that they were set to offer the Vietnamese EV maker as well. That's right.
So, their board of commissioners voted on Monday to terminate its $400 million economic development agreement between the county and the automaker, dealing another blow to this ill-fated project in Montcure or Chatham County. Basically, they just said, Hey, you know, same thing with the state. You're not following through on the agreement we had. We want the money back. Or actually, they didn't give the money out, but they want this agreement to cease, meaning they're not going to see this because there's been no developments.
So, the board directed its solicitor to provide notice to the company to terminate the agreement for the plans at the Triangle Innovation Point site, where that factory was supposed to produce 150,000 electric vehicles per year. And then basically, you know, they were saying this is coming from the county manager. That our focus remains on protecting the interests of Chatham County residents and advancing long-term economic development opportunities that benefit our community. This is in an email to Carolina Journal. We remain committed to working with our state partners to support responsible economic growth and investments that deliver on their commitments.
We also heard from the president of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation, C. Michael Smith, says basically, we're still working with the state and added, the county received unprecedented national and international attention thanks to the project and all the investment that was put into it. And the site has been validated by other people and communities and developments with mega sites like this are very rare. If the site becomes available, Chatham County would have that opportunity to market to a wide range of industries, seeking large-scale locations. And they are optimistic about long-term potential for that site in Moncure.
So, basically, the county is terminating its contract. And as you said, it's a pretty substantial contract: $400 million with VinFest. VinFest didn't see a penny of that because it all had to come to fruition. The factory, all those jobs, all that was promised.
So, yeah, it's a pretty big setback again for that car maker. And it is good news to hear. And the JDIG grant program, which we've covered as I mentioned a little while ago, does deal with some of these benchmarks. You've got to hit a certain number of jobs that you've produced or people that you've hired. There are some metrics associated with getting those grants.
And fortunately, the state is in a position and Chatham County is in a position where they don't really have to claw the money back. They just essentially get rid of the earmarks that they had for some of those funds. But this VinFast site, Teresa, is one that's rather interesting because the state has already invested, and I would assume Chatham County as well. They've already invested in a lot of infrastructure to make this mega site a reality. And unfortunately, unless you're going to go through and dig up the roadways and rip the pipes out of the ground that I'm sure that they've invested a lot of money into, it's really hard to recover that money.
And you do, I guess, just have to hope that another major manufacturer comes to that facility. That money's gone. Yes, that money is gone. In fact, you were mentioning the state was spending about four hundred fifty million on infrastructure around the site, including a new highway to gain access in and out of the site. That was spent So, you're not getting that back.
As a result, we've had eminent domain, which is something we've talked about many a time. I point to this old, over one over 100-year-old church, Mary Oaks Baptist Church. They demolished it last June. That was built in 1888 with a wrecking ball last year for this project for that highway. And there's been other businesses, 27 homes, five businesses.
They all had to forfeit their land under the eminent domain for NCDOT's highway plans. It's not going to happen. You might as well just say that. I mean, I know it's not 100%, but we're inching ever closer to that.
So, yeah, the money was spent on that. That portion cannot come back, unfortunately. Have we heard anything from VinFast as of late? I know back, it was probably late last year, we talked about some of their pretty miserable economic conditions that were existing. You had the president or the CEO of the company dumping his own money into the company essentially to keep it afloat.
Have we heard anything in the last couple of months about what does the stability of this company look like? And is there any possibility of them moving forward, maybe with a more scaled-back project? Anything that you've heard as of late? Not recently, but back in March, they said that they were still going to be building. This is before the lawsuit and all that, of course.
And they were going to be scaling it back.
So, like, they had the plant, you know, the new size of the plant got scaled back a while back. And as that report came out in March, they did lower their hiring goals from 7,500 to 1,400 people and said they were going to scale back on the size of all the different buildings. And when this lawsuit came out in May, FinFest did respond to Carolina Journal for comments saying that they're still going to be going ahead with this and they're going to be working things out with the state. We did ask for a comment this time around after Chatham County terminated its agreement. We did not hear back from FinFest.
Yeah, no real surprise there. You know, Teresa, this is bringing forth this broader argument and broader discussion about economic incentive. We live in a system of free market capitalism. We've seen a lot of these major economic development announcements over the last couple of years, whether it was former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, current Democrat Governor Josh Stein. The announcements themselves look pretty good on paper.
A lot of jobs, albeit a lot of taxpayer dollars, set to be doled out. And it just seems like time and time again, not only do these projects fall short, in many cases, they don't even come close to fruition and things are delayed or deleted before we get anywhere close to what was originally projected and predicted. That's right.
I mean, I've written on so many of them in the past over the past several years, you know, that they have big, high hopes we're going to, you know, meet all these targets. You've even had well-known companies, some as well, that said they're going to be, you know, hitting all these marks, and then they don't. It all usually falls through.
So, you know, basically the state is. one of the best states, if not the best state for business. It ranked high in markings or ratings for the last several years. I don't think you really need to get incentives to have them come here. It is nice to hear the argument on the other side, of course, yes, but I don't think that they really work.
I think they do see the workforce here. You've got great colleges, community colleges. People are moving here for a better quality of life. Everything is just really set in place. There's a good, you know, economic development all going on across the state.
You've got great business acumen. I don't think you really need the incentives. And you're seeing that. I mean, one other note to mention, which we talked about. This around the staff here is that this was an unknown company.
Unknown to us. Maybe known in Vietnam, but not here. It's not Toyota. It's not Subaru. It's not even like Hyundai, Kia, any of these companies that you've heard for years, or Ford, you know, an American-made company or owned company rather.
So it was a huge gamble, huge gamble that former Governor Roy Cooper took when he was there at the groundbreaking in 2023, saying that, you know, this was going to be, this was going to be the jewel, crown jewel, is what the VinFast staff and higher ups were calling this project, you know, and they were out there shoveling the dirt that day. But I mean, to take this big of a gamble and get all this money, again, granted, again, they didn't get any of the state or county money, but they also. Demolished church, a church, businesses, homes. I mean, that part really hits home for all these people. They were affected.
It's an unknown quantity, and you're going to sink all that into that. I don't think that was a wise move. And I think we are seeing that right now. You make a great point there, Teresa. Yes, a totally unknown company, essentially to the Western economy here.
Not only an unknown company, but a very volatile sector in EVs. You talked about some of these other major auto manufacturers. They have gas-powered vehicles and they also have an EV line. VinFast is a solely EV company. We've seen a lot of those federal incentives dry up over the last couple of years, which have really put a major strain on the EV market.
No surprise. As soon as the federal spigot turns off, everything kind of comes back to reality.
So we're going to be keeping a very close eye on this. There is still that ongoing and pending lawsuit from Attorney General Jeff Jackson, representing the North Carolina Department of Commerce against VinFast. This is likely not the last time we'll talk about them in the upcoming future as well. You can read more detail this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning.
Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Ah. Good morning again. It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM.
WBT, as we get ready to flip the calendar into the month of August, we are, of course, keeping a very close eye on the high-stakes United States Senate race here in North Carolina. That pits former Democrat governor Roy Cooper against the former head of the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Watley.
Some brand new polling out from Fox News this week gives Cooper a 53 to 44 advantage over Watley in this very interesting Senate race that we have been keeping an eye on with a nine-point advantage there for the former Democrat governor here in North Carolina. And with that, the Senate Leadership Fund, known as the SLF, has announced a $17 million investment in the first round of a total of $71 million that they are set to invest to. elect Michael Watley here in North Carolina, according to a press release this week. The inaugural $17 million is earmarked for a summer ad campaign targeting Cooper in a new ad. According to the communications director for the Senate Leadership Fund, they say that Roy Cooper advanced his career on the backs of grieving parents and widows, catering to far-left groups and releasing thousands of violent criminals from prison early.
The Senate Leadership Fund is strongly committed to ensuring voters reject Cooper and his deadly record and are proud to support Michael Watley's campaign to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina. No surprise there, the Cooper campaign disagrees with that. A spokesperson recently told the Carolina Journal these attacks are false. After Roy fought against these releases in court, North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked at similar criteria that President Trump used a year prior when his administration.
Administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Roy spent his career putting criminals, rapists, and violent criminals behind bars, the Cooper campaign compares that to Michael Watley and says that while he does not have the track record on moving forward with those issues, the discussion about criminals and criminal releases does remain. A major topic of conversation here in North Carolina. Roy Cooper, more than 40 years in public service on the flip side, Michael Wally, having never served elected officials. Yes, elected to positions like the head of the North Carolina Republican Party, but never a political contest like this.
We are expecting some new Carolina Journal polling over the next couple of weeks, and we're seeing a lot of other national polls dig into this race as well. We'll be keeping you up to date with all of that as we approach November right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. That's going to do it for a Friday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
