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So, minutes. Create your own AI agent today on Monday.com. It's 5.06 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Wednesday morning to you. We start off with breaking news this morning posted on X at 3.32 this morning.
Congressman Chuck Edwards, the Republican out of North Carolina's 11th congressional district in western North Carolina, has announced he is not going to be seeking reelection and will be dropping out of that race after a major scandal breaking this week. As it related to a report from the House Ethics Committee in Washington, D.C. The short post on Twitter reads as follows: After much prayer and reflection, I've decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. I will complete my current term. Serving Western North Carolina has been the honor of my life.
Thank you for your trust, prayers, and support. God bless Western North Carolina and America. This bombshell news here in North Carolina just breaking hours ago in the middle of the overnight, as I mentioned, 3:32 a.m. this morning. This comes after a report out from the House Ethics Committee on Monday determining that the congressman in Chuck Edwards was found in violation of the House Code of Official Conduct as it related to sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment in his office in Washington, D.C., where he is currently a sitting congressman.
The rumors of this were reported back in May by the news outlet Axios, who was the first to report that it was a possibility that he was under some level of investigation. The committee found that Edwards consistently exhibited, quote, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct directed at two young female staffers, a 19-year-old intern who had not yet graduated from college and whom Edwards insisted on having as his scheduler, despite the complications from such a demanding role as that 19-year-old was a full-time student and also operating as a full-time staffer for a member of the United States House, and another who worked for him when he was a state senator and became a legislative assistant in his congressional office. While Edwards consistently denied that his behavior was romantic or sexual in any sort of nature, his actions, including lavishing the women with expensive and reoccurring gifts, things like a jewelry Roses, private, intimate one-on-one dinners, vacations, commenting on their appearance and attires, sending notes that walked it very close to the line as it relates to sexual advances, all in this 29-page report from the House Ethics Committee that we covered in great detail yesterday, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. The million-dollar question everybody will be asking themselves as they wake up on this Wednesday morning is what exactly is next? According to details from Dr.
Andy Jackson, he joins us regularly. He's over at the John Locke Foundation. Here's the general statute. And again, this is all breaking right now. General Statute 163-113 here in North Carolina named nominees right to withdraw as a candidate.
And it reads as follows: A person who has been declared the nominee of a political party for a specific office under provisions of general statute. Shall not be permitted to resign as a candidate unless prior to the first day on which military and overseas absentee ballots are transmitted to voters under Article 21A of this chapter. That person submits to the Board of Elections, which certifies the nomination as a written request that that person is permitted to withdraw. As we covered yesterday here on the program. That date would have been in early September, about a month from now, when military and overseas ballots would be available for those that, well, are in the military or living or working overseas.
That would have happened in and around September the 4th. And so with that deadline being well ahead of that, the process now remains relatively unclear as to how exactly there will be a replacement for Congressman Chuck Edwards. This is a race that we have seen over the last couple of months shift pretty dramatically. A group out of Virginia known as the Political Policy Center had recently, just as recently as May, ranked this race as something that they deemed a pretty solid chance for Republicans to hold since May. And in a new report released back just a couple of days ago, back in late July, that same group had moved that race from likely Republican to tall.
Toss-up, meaning that there was a toss-up chance of the Republican, that would be Chuck Edwards, or would have been Chuck Edwards, the current Republican incumbent in that race, and Jamie Agar, the Democrat challenger in that contest, throwing it at about equal odds that either of them could win that race. Of course, early voting beginning in the contest coming up here in around October 15th or so, when early voting kicks off here in North Carolina ahead of a very busy election day coming up on Tuesday, November the 3rd. This story sending and will be sending political shockwaves across the state of North Carolina as everybody trying to figure out exactly what that process is going to look like, who will replace him as the Republican challenger in Western North Carolina. All of that remains undetermined and unseen this morning. I think it would be fair to say, however, that with this report, this very Very disturbing report from the House Ethics Committee released on Monday that conversations likely had begun within high-level GOP circles to determine if Edwards did decide he was going to drop out.
Who exactly they would replace him with? This is again breaking right now. The report from the House Ethics Committee went on to say: the committee found no evidence that Representative Edwards engaged in sexual activity with or explicitly proposition any individual under his employment. Representative Edwards was aware, however, that his excessive attention towards the young women had led to rumors and innuendo in the office. Both women were uncomfortable with his behavior, which they attempted to communicate the committee rights, but were put in an untenable position by the virtue of his status as their boss and a member of Congress.
This is going to be breaking throughout the day. We will likely see a lot of chatter in Republican circles and see who is going to be the first Republican challenger that throws their hat into the race here. It's important to note: we are less than 75 days away from the start of early. Early voting here in North Carolina, less than 100 days until the November 3rd election day. Whoever determines that they are going to step forward and attempt to hold this seat for the Republicans, which, of course, is incredibly relevant during this midterm election cycle when Republicans currently controlling the United States House, United States Senate, and of course, President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Democrats looking to have a banner year in the national elections, flipping control of the United States House, attempting to do so in the United States Senate as well, and making President Trump a lame duck president for his remaining two years. This is a very important seat for Republicans, as we had only really envisioned one other race, North Carolina's first congressional district, changing or having the ability to change. That's the race between Don Davis and Lori Buckout. Don Davis, the Democrat, in Northeastern North Carolina running in that contest. Laurie Buckout, the Republican challenger, a rematch of a race we saw there in 2024.
However, with this bombshell and all of these reports breaking out in the 11th congressional district, which covers Western North Carolina, this race likely to suck a lot of the oxygen and the air out of the room. We will continue to track that throughout the day. We will have breaking news coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as we learn details, it will be probably pretty quick over the next couple of days. We'll, of course, bring it to you each and every morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Good morning to you. Breaking news we are continuing to follow across North Carolina. Congressman Chuck Edwards, the Republican in North Carolina's 11th congressional district, posted at 3:32 a.m. this morning on his official Twitter account, X account, that he is dropping out of his race in that 11th congressional district, announcing that he has decided to withdraw from his re-election campaign. That comes after a very damning House Ethics Committee report earlier this week.
We'll continue still collecting details. We'll bring you the latest as soon as we get it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. All right, and some other news this morning: a very interesting Tuesday in Raleigh as information comes to light on a very interesting day as it relates to. To hemp regulation in the North Carolina General Assembly. The details that we are tracking this morning after a very late House caucus meeting, after a day of competing pressures from law enforcement and hundreds of hemp protesters in our state capitol, the North Carolina House took no action Tuesday on a proposal that would outlaw popular THC drinks, gummies, and vapes while setting a minimum purchase age of 21 for hemp-derived consumable products.
This legislation is House Bill 328. Its title, Regulate Hemp-Derived Consumables, remained stalled in the North Carolina House late Tuesday evening after lawmakers left it off the day's calendar. The Senate approved the conference report in a 37-6 vote on July the 2nd, but the House must approve the same agreement before it can make its way to the governor's desk in Josh Stein for either a signature or veto. The bill would prohibit finished hemp. Derived consumable products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container.
It would also outlaw products containing synthetic or chemically converted cannabinoids. The restrictions would remove most of THC beverages, gummies, vapes, Delta 8 products, and THCA flowers from North Carolina's legal market beginning pretty quickly. This would start as early as November the 12th. And for those that have been into grocery stores and other sorts of drink markets across the state over the last couple of years, you've seen these THC drinks grow very quickly in terms of popularity and availability. All of those would essentially be illegal and off the shelf coming up here in mid-November.
The bill would separately prohibit the sale or delivery of any hemp-derived consumable products to someone younger than 21 years old and bar underage possession. Tuesday's inaction extended the House's initial hesitation over the proposal. House Bill 328 began as a narrow measure prohibiting hemp products on school property. The House unanimously approved that version back in April of 2025 before the Senate expanded it to address the broader hemp market. The House voted in April of 2025, last year, 95 to 18 to not accept the Senate rewrite, sending the bill to a conference committee.
When the Senate approved the final agreement in July of this year, House Republicans declined to take it up before leaving Raleigh. The disagreement prompted an intense lobbying campaign as representatives returned to Raleigh for what we are expecting to be their final days of voting before the November general election or midterm election, I should say. Excuse me. Hemp business owners gathered Monday at the tap yard in Raleigh to urge lawmakers to regulate the industry rather than outlaw most of its products. According to Riley Dunn of Grove Wagon, they warned that the proposed THC limit would quickly end many businesses.
Telling Carolina Journal, this would put us out of business in November, literally overnight. We're not banning beer, and you can still have a 0.1% ABV. That's a ban. Participants say that at a minimum, I should say, participants said they support a minimum purchasing age, third-party testing, child-resistant packaging, clear labels, and license requirements. That effort translated inside the legislative building on Tuesday when hundreds of hemp business owners, employees, consumers, and advocates filled the hallway of the North Carolina General Assembly and sought meetings with lawmakers.
Their arguments echoed a letter circulated by the North Carolina Hemp Business for Responsible Regulation and was signed by more than 80 manufacturers, distributors, breweries, restaurants, bars, retailers, and other businesses. The coalition estimates that North Carolina's hemp industry generates a whopping $3.2 billion annually and supports some 16,000 jobs across the Tar Heel State. The business organization wrote, 0.4 milligram THC per container wipes out 95% of all consumable hemp products, including most non-intoxicating ones. The coalition urged lawmakers to establish age restrictions and other regulations while preserving access to adult products. They wrote in the letter, we urge the House to reject House Bill 328 and further urge our state legislature to enact common sense hemp laws and regulation because prohibition only moves demand underground and worsens public health and safety.
While this massive rally was taking place in the North Carolina General Assembly on Tuesday, law enforcement officials And supportive Republican lawmakers held a press conference Tuesday morning, arguing that immediate action is, in fact, necessary. Several dozen sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors, and other officials attended the event. It was Representative Reese Pertle, the Republican from Rockingham County, who displayed brightly packaged gummies and other products that he said were purchased just less than a mile away from the legislative building in Raleigh. Pertle said during the press conference that the store clerk warned him, be careful if you take these. Representative Jimmy Dixon, the Republican from Duplin County, also blamed lawmakers for creating the current market through earlier hemp legislation.
That was back in 2019, with Dixon saying during the Tuesday press conference, several misguided Republicans in the House misguided this situation. They're good people, but they did not handle this correctly. The press conference followed a July the 27th memorandum from seven law enforcement and criminal justice organizations. Calling the conference report, quote, a high priority. The memorandum came from the North Carolina Sheriffs Association, the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, the North Carolina Police Executives Association, the State Bureau of Investigation, the State Highway Patrol, Alcohol, Law Enforcement, and the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, some powerhouse organizations across the state.
The groups rejected criticism that the proposal apparently unexpectedly neared the end of the legislative session. The organizations wrote in their letter: Do not be fooled by those attempting to tell you that this conference report is bad or contains some hidden trick because it appeared, quote, all of the sudden at the end of session. That is not true. They pointed to previous bills addressing hemp products and argued that lawmakers have repeatedly debated how to close the gap in state law. The groups also warned that failing to act would leave minors free to purchase potentially intoxicating products.
With the organization saying in their letter, let us be clear, failing to adopt this conference report means that anyone, no matter their age, will continue to be able to buy intoxicating THC products from any retailer that wishes to sell them without legal consequences in North Carolina. It ended with a broader criticism of business and advocates opposing the conference report, with the group saying pretty bluntly, the only people and businesses who would oppose this conference report are those who are profiting from and promoting a business model that thrives on selling intoxicating substances to North Carolina's children. Pretty blunt there from the law enforcement groups. Business owners at the legislature rejected that characterization. They argued that responsible retailers already limit the sale to adults and that the bill would punish the broader industry rather than target businesses selling products to minors.
Governor Sign also criticized the current unregulated market in a social media post during a meeting of the Council of State earlier this week yesterday, but said that the conference report does not provide the right solution. He called for a regulated adult market with stronger protections for children, accurate labels, and products. Safety standards. The state debate comes as the future of similar federal restrictions remain uncertain. Congress approved a 0.4 milligram federal limit in November of 2025.
With that change scheduled to take effect on November the 12th, the White House has since asked Congress to revise or delay the restriction while bipartisan federal legislation would replace or postpone it. House Bill 328 would ensure that a change in Washington does not automatically preserve the products in North Carolina. Beyond hemp, the legislation. Would regulate other products, including synthetic products and others that are on the state's Schedule 3 control substance list, and make other updates to the Control Substances Act. Because conference reports cannot be amended on the House floor, representatives must either adopt the Senate-approved agreement or send lawmakers back to negotiate.
The bill's immediate future remains relatively uncertain this morning, as House members could still take up the conference report on Wednesday, their expected final voting day before the November 3rd election. If House, if the House lawmakers leave Raleigh this week without acting, the bill would remain eligible for consideration during the November post-election session, pushing that debate into a less predictable political environment. We are tracking the details on this. This is also another breaking story that we are following this morning. We'll be watching that as the North Carolina House.
Is set to gavel in according to the legislative calendar. It is slated for 9:30 this morning. They're likely their final voting day ahead of the November election. Andrew Pomeranza and the team over at Carolina Journal will be down at the chamber, at the General Assembly today to keep an eye on those details. We'll bring you the latest over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents. Reese, our content agent, wrote the copy based on our best practices, like mentioning Monday.com three times. That was the second. Johnny, our coordination agent, built the timeline and kept everyone aligned.
Olivia, our human creative director, stayed in the loop because agents are great, but they don't always know when a joke lands. She had one note: tell listeners it only takes minutes to build an agent, so minutes. Create your own AI agent today on Monday.com. It's 5.39. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM.
WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Wednesday morning to you. Over the last year and a half, at both the state and federal level, there has been a lot of discussion about waste, fraud, and abuse. We've covered a lot of different angles of that, both at the federal level and here in North Carolina.
However, this morning, we've got a new report over at CarolinaJournal.com highlighting some details about North Carolina joining a Southeast, a regional anti-fraud enforcement group to walk through some of those details. Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, this has been a lot of messaging predominantly from the Republicans and the GOP, both at the federal level and across a variety of different states dealing with waste, fraud, and abuse. We're on the fraud angle this morning. What's the latest that you're following?
Sure. Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
So, yeah, this is a unique partnership. You've got different people from North Carolina, prominent names: Attorney Jeff Jackson, and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, rather, and state auditor Dave Bollick, and different attorneys for different districts, including Dan Bishop. They all joined with uh the Other officials across the Southeast last week for the launch of the Southeast Fraud Enforcement Federal State Partnership.
So, states including North Carolina is South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And they met at a round table in Columbia, South Carolina, and that was hosted by the U. S. Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Now, what they discussed is strengthening the different working relationships between federal and state agencies to basically root up fraud involving taxpayer money. And they also discussed significant fraud enforcement actions being taken across the seven states involving seventeen cases. And we mentioned a few of those from North Carolina in the story.
So pretty important partnership that was put together. Yeah, and you highlighted the group of individuals there. You've got state auditor Dave Bollick, a Republican, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, and then, of course, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina and Ellis Boyle. It's an interesting kind of marriage there, Teresa.
Typically, on a lot of the other political issues that you and I discuss and the rest of the Carolina Journal team, it's typically the Republicans on one side of the issue, the Democrats on the other.
Some nice bipartisan on an issue that seemingly has pretty broad appeal, cutting out kind of fraud as it relates to government. Yes, absolutely. You mentioning about that. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about partisanship these days. We've seen that quite a bit over the last several days with Governor Stein and mentions with the General Assembly.
So, yeah, this is a nice change. And it affects everybody, regardless if you're a Republican, Democrat, independent, unaffiliated, whatever you want to call yourself or what you are registered to vote. It affects everybody. Fraud is a big, big, huge factor, taking billions of dollars each year, stealing taxpayers' money. And basically, that's what they were talking about, the fraud epidemic in the country.
This is what Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division of the USDOJ said. He says, defeating the fraud epidemic in our country requires an all-hands on deck from our federal and state partners nationwide. And he said, whether that's sharing intelligence, data personnel, or priorities partners. With state agencies strengthens the ability to identify those who are stealing taxpayer dollars.
So yeah, it's a partnership that's just a really good thing on both sides of the aisle. Yeah, no question about that. And we've seen some relatively high-profile situations over the last year or so, Teresa. Probably the largest as it relates to fraud was the major story right around Christmas of last year and into the early parts of this year, that major daycare and child center ring out in the state of Minnesota kind of really blowing the gates open on the insane and the high level of fraud that exists. And unfortunately, a lot of states across the nation seems like there's been a lot of emphasis on this from the federal level, kind of trickling down to the states once that story broke late last year.
Right. Yeah, that was huge. I mean, they're still talking about it, looking into it. And if you're focusing on a state level here in North Carolina, one of those cases involves two Romanian brothers that were illegally in the U.S. pleading guilty to wire fraud.
They were charged with orchestrating a fraud scheme involving SNAP benefits affecting victims across multiple states, not just here in North Carolina. That cost nearly $766,000 in loss. And that case, we also have another case led by U.S. Attorney Bishop. That involved a man pleading guilty as a member of a money laundering ring involving proceeds of various fraud schemes, including false applications for different economic injury disaster loans and false applications for unemployment benefits.
He cost nearly $1.7 million in loss. Finally, the last case led by Boyle. Was a Robinson County woman along with seven co-conspirators who she was the owner of a North Carolina tax return preparation business. She pleaded guilty to conspiring to prepare false returns, claiming fraudulent refunds based on COVID-19 tax credits. And this caused get this nearly $25 million in loss.
So those are just some of the cases here in North Carolina that were discussed. Yeah, that's a lot of money, taxpayer money at risk. Yeah, and it's a lot of money, Teresa. And these are only a couple of the stories that we know about now that have concluded and are no longer an active investigation where things are still, of course, sealed and cloaked under some level of anonymity and secrecy while the investigation is ongoing. It seems like you can't go a week without seeing a major DOJ report, a couple of them from across the nation busting some of these major fraud rings.
And we're not just talking about, as you noted, a couple of hundred dollars here, a couple thousand dollars here. Many of these cases are in the hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. And this stuff is happening pretty consistently. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's almost like every day, you know, and it's just, I mean, it basically is.
I mean, and you're looking, one was a tax preparer. I mean, who would think? I'm not saying I'm singling out tax preparers, but I mean, you have to be vigilant. And I'm glad that there is this partnership that they are vigilant in trying to catch people who are committing all this fraud. It's just, it's just, it's.
You know, you know, I'll quote Jeff Jackson what he said. This is what a united front looks like. This is what he said in his press release. And basically, the fraudsters become more sophisticated. They have to step up their enforcement actions, use new tools, and work across jurisdictions to take them down.
And rightly so. That was perfectly said by Attorney General Jackson. I mean, and gets really creative ahead of those fraudsters. Yeah, there's no question about that, especially with the advent of technology and everything being in the digital realm, Teresa. It can be a lot easier for individuals to commit some of these fraudulent actions.
As we round up the conversation here, let's zoom out a little bit. This has been a big push over a variety of different years up in the federal level, up in Washington, D.C. And we've consistently seen polling, obviously, and I don't think this should be a surprise to anybody in our audience. There's not a wide variety of people that are in favor of fraud being perpetrated across the United States. This is something, obviously, that folks would want to cut down on.
And so we look at this strong bipartisan support on an issue that seemingly everybody, regardless of political affiliation, says, yeah, this is not a good thing. Right, right. Like you mentioned, it's a nice change of pace from hearing all the partisan talk on both sides of the aisle. It's just become so prevalent these days, whether that is local, state, or federal, and looking at federal and just seeing what the Trump administration is trying to work and getting this taken care of. As you mentioned, going to Minnesota and having the feds investigate that, but also on the state level, having, you know, we have the Democrat Attorney General, we have the Republican state auditor, and different, you know, it doesn't matter what political party you're from, at least they are trying to work together to make this work, working across the aisle and taking a look at all of that and seeing that being prevalent on a national scale.
Because just look at the dollar amounts that we were talking about. Like you said, it's not a couple hundred, couple thousand dollars. It's millions and probably adds up to billions of dollars over the years. And this is all taxpayers. Money.
This is money that you and I and your neighbor were all paying into the system. And it's good that they are working together to help root out this fraudulent activity. Yeah, and lo and behold, Teresa, every time we watch budget negotiations take place, whether it's up in D.C. or here in North Carolina, there's never enough money, but there's, of course, all this fraud swinging around. This is the Southeast Fraud Enforcement Federal and State Partnership, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
We'll continue to keep an eye on this group's progress. You can read some more information and detail over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents.
The agents wrote the copy and managed the timelines, while our human creative director made sure it all made sense. Easy! Create your own AI agent today on Monday.com. Uh Good morning again. It's 5:55.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBTA should be a very interesting Wednesday across North Carolina. A couple of things that we are tracking: the breaking news out of Washington, D.C. this morning.
Congressman Chuck Edwards has announced that he is ending his reelection campaign after a House ethics committee found he violated House rules related to sexual harassment and creating a hostile workplace. He announced that in a post on social media at 3:32 this morning. We are expecting a lot of reaction throughout the day. We'll be keeping you up to date over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Ended some statewide news, a very interesting day in Raleigh yesterday as competing pressures from law enforcement and hundreds of hemp supporters took their message to the North Carolina General Assembly trying to.
stop or in this case of the supporters trying to stop House Bill 328 law enforcement in full favor of this legislation regulating hemp derived consumables in the state of North Carolina the bill would prohibit finished hemp derived products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container that for all intents and purposes would remove most THC beverages gummies vapes Delta 8 products and THC a flour from North Carolina's legal marketplace beginning on November the 12th there does remain some uncertainty and some questions whether there are enough Republicans in the North Carolina House that will support moving forward with this ban the legislation passed the North Carolina Senate in a 37 to 6 vote with some very strong bipartisan support it is not immediately clear what will happen in the house on what is expected to be the final voting day for the North Carolina General Assembly ahead of the November election. We'll be keeping you up to date with all of these stories over at CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday 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.
