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Good morning to you. It was a busy Monday at the governor's mansion in Raleigh as Democrat Governor Josh Stein vetoed House Bill 958, the name of that piece of legislation, election law changes during an event, a very public event dubbed Protect Our Vote. Those assembled included Senate Minority Leader Sidney Batch, the Democrat from Wake County, State House Democratic Leader Robert Reeves, the Democrat from Chatham County, and former Representative and current Democrat candidate for Senate District 11, James Gillard. Among the most significant changes in House Bill 958 is a provision reducing early voting from 17 days to 10 days for primaries, second elections, and runoff elections. The bill would also direct the state auditor to conduct post-election performance audits of election systems and procedures in randomly selected counties, with every county board reviewed at least once every six years.
Democrats, including Governor Stein, said that the reasoning for the bill is that Republican lawmakers are scared of their voters, whether they be students or anybody else in the state, and it is one of the only ways for them to keep their power, something that state Senator Sidney Batch made abundantly clear during the event in Raleigh yesterday. Like when they handed the state auditor even more power over elections and ordered him to randomly audit all of our county boards of elections across this state. Or what about the voter roll purge? That you better not be caught dead on, literally, because they ensured that you have no process to fight it before your name is removed. Or what about the cuts to early voting during primary elections?
Because after all, in a gerrymandered state like ours, where nearly every district is decided in the primaries, They, and sometimes just by a few votes, they cut early voting by a week. And if you don't think that's intentional, just ask Phil Berger. And when this bill came to the Senate floor, my fellow Democratics colleagues stood together. And we went ahead and we fought back against the Republicans. We brought more than half a dozen amendments.
to fix their manufactured mess. And not surprisingly, all of our amendments were voted down by every single Senate Republican in the chamber. Because, to be clear, their bill was never about election security. It's all about the fact that this is a party scared of its own voters. That should make every single North Carolinian furious.
That is Senator Sidney Batch, the Democrat from Wake County, during a very interesting veto ceremony that took place at the governor's mansion on Monday in Raleigh. Representative Robert Reeves told the crowd that no neutral observer of North Carolina politics can honestly say that the changes made to elections over the past decade and a half of Republican control are about securing elections or protecting election integrity. He also highlighted the fact that he believes that this is nothing more than Republicans trying to stay in power. Republicans have controlled the General Assembly. And their trend has been to go away from true representation, not.
Just when it comes down to us, but as you've heard, they even want to play in the primary process now. because they're scared of their own voters in the primary process. And so they do that. And so all they want to do is make sure that you have less power as voters and that they have more power for themselves. And that's why I'm glad that Governor Stein is choosing to veto House Bill 958 today.
We have talked in great detail about House Bill 958 over the last couple of weeks here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. Representative Reeves highlighted some of the details in this legislation that he says he's very concerned with. You hear the bill's proponents talk about how these changes are needed to ensure voters have confidence in elections. which I appreciated because they used to tell the fiction that it was all about voter fraud, so they don't pretend anymore.
Now they're saying, well, you don't have confidence in elections, even though the only reason you don't have any confidence in your elections is because of the people who keep changing the rules on you day by day, month by month, no matter what time of year it is. And no neutral observer of North Carolina politics can honestly say that the changes made to our elections over the past decade and a half of Republican control are about securing elections or about protecting the integrity of the elections. One party here controls how districts are drawn for the legislative races and congressional races. One party controls the rules by which these elections are run. And now one party controls the State Board of Elections and its partisan operatives, which seem to multiply by the day.
Because it's funny, you see hundreds of pages of text messages from one, they say, Well, we got rid of that guy. But then it feels like the pressure didn't go away.
So I guess the names might change, but the directive still stays the same. Fix these elections by any means necessary. And my point here today is that enough Is enough.
Some years we see monster election bills, other years we see smaller tweaks around the edges, but the sum of these efforts is what we have to concentrate on, and the sum of these efforts. is going all towards the same goal. Making it easier. for Republican leadership, present leadership. to hold on to their power.
not even looking up for other republicans in there they're making sure they stay in power No matter what you feel. That's Representative Reeves at a very partisan event, a very partisan veto event at the governor's mansion on Monday. We'll now transition over to Democrat Governor Josh Stein, who would go on to veto this piece of legislation, House Bill 958. This is what the governor said are his issues with the legislation. Here's what's wrong with the bill.
They make it harder to vote early. They're slicing a full week off of early voting in the primary. About 200,000 North Carolinians voted in the first week of early voting this year. And if you vote early in the general elections, This bill makes it easier for partisan officials to throw out your vote for up to three days. after the election is over.
More than 4 million North Carolinians voted early in 2024. It is far and away the most popular way that folks vote in our general election.
So if you are lawfully registered. Show your ID. and vote early.
Some sore loser could still try to throw it out. after the election is over. Your leaders should respect your vote, not restrict it. That's Democrat Governor Josh Stein moments before he would go on to sign the veto on House Bill 958. The governor also highlighted some concerns that he has with election administration moving forward in North Carolina.
Elections administration in North Carolina has always been done by non-partisan elections professionals. But the auditor has politicized the administration of our elections, appointing the former executive director of the state Republican Party as his liaison to the county boards of elections. These partisans are scared of student voters like Shia, so they went after early voting sites on our college campuses. They're scared of black voters, so they went after Sunday voting. And they're scared of early voters.
So they told county boards of elections where to allow early voting and when. It is wrong and I am fed up. He says he is fed up after indicating that Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly are afraid of college students and black voters across the state of North Carolina. No surprise with a very partisan press conference in Raleigh yesterday. Reactions started flowing in pretty quickly across North Carolina.
State Auditor Dave Bollock responding nearly immediately to the governor's calls yesterday, saying the governor incorrectly claims election administration has been politicized. Election access in North Carolina has expanded this year. Voters had a greater number of early voting sites and more early voting hours for the March 2026 primary compared to the May 2022 primary election. The state auditor added that post-election audits are common sense and objective ways to boost public confidence in our elections. He went on to say these examinations of election systems and controls are an additional layer of accountability.
That should be welcomed. North Carolina House Election Law Chair Hugh Blackwell, the Republican from Burke County, says that the House will override Stein's veto, very bluntly saying in part: House Bill 958 continues practical election reforms so we can all have greater confidence that every lawful vote in North Carolina is counted fairly and accurately. He went on to say, Governor Stein's veto of this legislation puts politics ahead of common sense and the peace of mind of voters that they should have when they cast their ballots. North Carolina State Board of Elections Director Sam Hayes, also commenting on this piece of legislation as well, taking to social media to comment on some of the details in this legislation, as he was recently put in that position. He says House Bill 958 contains a number of significant changes to North Carolina's election law, including provisions related to voter registration, list maintenance, audits, and election administration.
While the governor's decision on this bill is a matter for the governor, our office hopes that the General Assembly will revisit these priorities later this year. The state board's responsibility is to ensure that our voter rolls are accurate and that every eligible voter can participate while maintaining the security and integrity of our elections. We welcome the opportunity to work with legislators on thoughtful, practical improvements that strengthen these goals, signed Sam Hayes, the executive director of the North Carolina. State Board of Elections. Dr.
Andy Jackson, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, noted this bill has a host of features that will improve elections in North Carolina. Jackson went on to say they include requiring officials to stop the registration process when they discover that a prospective voter is not a U.S. citizen, a ban on foreign money and referendum campaigns, and more time for election officials to deal with absentee and provisional ballots. Jackson said that the bill's election performance audit provision is especially important, telling Carolina Journal, an especially welcome feature is the addition of election performance audits, which will help find problems with how elections are conducted and give local officials a chance to correct them. Most major provisions in House Bill 958 would have taken effect January the 1st, 2027, and would not apply to this November election, contrary to some of the comments.
made by Democrats in Raleigh yesterday. We are expecting the North Carolina General Assembly to be back shortly after the November midterm elections, in which we've already heard from members of the North Carolina General Assembly. They look forward to overriding this veto from Governor Stein. That would be their 15th veto override. We'll be keeping an eye on the details and the reaction to this event yesterday in Raleigh over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time.
As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals. Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future.
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We've got a brand new report out this morning from the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor that has found that the Charlotte Area Transportation System, also known as CATS, is losing an estimated $5 million to $6.5 million annually to fare evasion. The report also identifies broader concerns involving security, coordination with local law enforcement, and delayed safety improvements within the CATS system. The report released Monday by state auditor Dave Bollick's office is a follow-up to a preliminary report that was issued in September of last year. That was following the horrific, the brutal murder of 23-year-old Irina Zarutska aboard the CATS-operated Charlotte Lynx Blue Line light rail system. Among the findings in the reports, auditors say that CATS lacks physical barriers such as gates or turnstiles to deter riders from entering the system without paying and does not have adequate procedures to address fare evasion or collect fines for individuals that are deemed to be riding without a ticket.
The report from the auditor's office estimates that those problems result in between five and six and a half million dollars in lost revenue each year. And the details are pretty shocking. A CATS analysis in late 2025 found that 45% plus or minus 5%, so anywhere between 40 and 50% of total bus and light rail riders are not paying fares within the CATS system. The estimated rate was 35% plus or minus 5% on buses and 60% plus or minus 5% on the light rail, which could be as high as 65%. Fare evasion citations have also declined dramatically according to the report.
There were 4,763 of those citations issued in 2023 compared to just 2,018 in 2025, a 39% decrease. State Auditor Dave Bollick said in a press release, the city of Charlotte, Katz, and the Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority needs to take decisive action on public transportation security. Katz estimates almost half of all riders aren't paying for a ticket. Up to $6.5 million may be lost annually to fare evasion, but only $550 in fare fines for the light rail system were collected in the state fiscal year 2025. The taxpayers of Charlotte pay the bill for Katz and they're asked to buy tickets to ride the bus or light rail.
Moving forward, CATS and the Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority should implement effective measures to stop fare evasion. The Charlotte Area Transportation System told the Auditor's Office that the decrease in citations for those that are evading fares was due to instructions given to bus drivers and other folks that work within the CATS system not to enforce fares because of concerns that fare disputes could lead to verbal or physical assault against operators. The report recommends that CATS study payment systems used by comparable transit systems across the United States, including tap-to-pay technology and increased spot checks of tickets. The report also recommends installing gates or turnstiles, particularly at light rail stations. This same report also found very limited interactions between Katz and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Katz uses a private contractor for security services across its system, but a 2023 agreement between the City of Charlotte and CMPD established a metro transit unit. But Katz reported that only two CMPD officers have been assigned to said unit. At the time of the Arina Zarutska murder, there was also no direct connection between CMPD's real-time crime center and cats surveillance camera systems with cats telling the auditors of this. That that issue would go on to be corrected just weeks later in October of 2025. Auditors also examined Katz exclusion list, which contains the names and photographs of people banned from its buses and rail systems.
As of February 2026, the list contained 175 people. The report found it was unclear whether the role CMPD plays in determining the lengths of exclusions or enforcing bans. The auditor pointed to a December 2025 non-fatal light rail stabbing as evidences of concerns with the system. According to the report from the North Carolina State Auditor's Office, the suspect in that December 2025 case and the stabbing was already on the CATS exclusion list, leading auditors to determine that the measures used to enforce the bans, quote, appear to be insufficient. The report recommends that CATS and CMPD agree to assign additional officers to the Metro Transit Unit and work together to monitor light rail stops and surveillance systems to identify and remove banned riders.
Some of the other issues highlighted in the report includes Katz's use of Department of Defense guidelines rather than Federal Transit Administration or FTA guidance for coming up with its annual safety risk assessment, which is required for public transportation systems operated by CATS that receive. Receive federal funds as well as millions of dollars in budgeted safety and security funding that have gone unspent in recent years. As I mentioned, this is a follow-up on a preliminary report issued almost a year ago in September of 2025 that came out just weeks following the murder of 23-year-old Irina Zarutska, who was aboard the Charlotte Area Transportation System Lynx Blue Line Lightrail System when she was seen on closed-circuit surveillance of video, being brutally stabbed in the neck multiple times and left for dead on that system. The scrutiny on the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the Charlotte Area Transportation System has been brewing now for the better part of a year. We have got a full copy of this report from North Carolina from the North Carolina State Auditor's Office.
It is available over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, CATS Audit. Finds millions in lost fares, comma security concerns. It's 536. 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 could learn as soon as today whether former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper and his top health secretary, Mandy Cohen, would have to testify in a very interesting legal challenge that we've been keeping an eye on here over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and here on the Carolina Journal News Hour as it related to bars and taverns being shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. To give us a preview of what we could expect in court a little bit later on today, Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, back about a month or so ago, maybe two months ago, you walked us through some initial details as some of these bar owners requested that the former governor and Mandy Cohen, who made many of the decisions that shut down their establishments back in 2020 and 2021, wanted them to come in front of the to court and testify, what's the latest that you're following there?
Well, the latest is we're going to have a hearing before Judge Edwin Wilson of Wake County Superior Court to determine whether the former governor Roy Cooper and the former Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen will have to give depositions, sworn testimony under oath in this case that was brought by bar owners who are challenging the COVID-related shutdowns that caused them to lose business during 2020 and for many of them into 2021. You might recall from our previous conversations about this that this was a suit that was filed during the heart of the COVID pandemic when these bars were forced to remain closed while other businesses were allowed to reopen, including restaurants, breweries, wineries, country clubs, a lot of other different types of businesses that serve alcohol. All of them were allowed to reopen after being closed for maybe a few weeks, couple of months, while the private bars had to remain closed. And basically the lawsuit said that there was no reason for that, that there was no good justification to keep these private bars closed while all of the other establishments that sell alcohol were allowed to reopen. This case has been winding its way through the courts.
In August of 2025, the state Supreme Court, the highest court in North Carolina, ruled that the suit could go forward.
So now it's back in front of a trial judge, Judge Wilson, dealing with all of these issues that are related to the things that you would deal with at a trial court. We've also seen that the number of plaintiffs in this case, which started at more than 200, is now really at about 30. 30 or 31, and we're talking about bars, bar owners, or a combination of a bar owner and his or her bar. And so there are about 30 plaintiffs that are still pushing to get relief from this shutdown. And basically, the argument that's going to be before Judge Wilson is whether to compel the testimony from Cooper and Cohen.
The bar owners have filed paperwork saying, Look, this testimony is crucial. The only person who really knows what was in the mind of Governor Cooper when he decided that. This group of bars had to remain closed while all other alcohol-serving establishments could reopen. The only person who knows that is Roy Cooper. We need to have his testimony about why he did this, what evidence he had that private bars were somehow different.
And if there's no evidence, then it seems as if the bar owners should win their case. If there is compelling evidence, he ought at least to be forced to provide it so they would know. And then, in addition, having Mandy Cohen, who was his top advisor about these decisions to be made, she is also supposed to be someone who should be relied upon to provide evidence about why this would be done. One of the things in the filing from the court owners is that Mandy Cohen has already filed a declaration in the suit on behalf of the defense, talking about her role. And they say, well, wait a minute, the defense has already put her forward as a witness.
We should be able to cross-examine what she's saying and so get a deposition.
Now, on the other side, We had a court filing from the governor. It's actually State Justice Department lawyers representing current Governor Josh Stein, who is the official defendant because the suit was filed against the governor. And once Josh Stein became the governor, he became the defendant.
So, State Justice Department lawyers who are presumably representing Governor Josh Stein, but are also to some extent representing former Governor Cooper and Mandy Cohen. They're saying that these depositions should not be forced, and they're saying that this would be an extreme measure at this point in the case. And they're suggesting that the information that the plaintiffs want could be found in other ways, either by talking to other people or looking through documents. The bar owners are saying, no, I mean, we really need to hear from Cooper about what it was, how he weighed in the evidence, and what forced or what prompted him to make the decision he made. That would tell us whether he has liability and whether these bar owners are going to be able to get any sort of damages because of what he did during COVID-19.
Yeah, Mitch, you mentioned it a couple of times. It's been mentioned in a lot of the legal updates and briefings from the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association and many of the groups or many of the individual establishments that are part of this legal challenge of the true absurdity that was going on in late 2020 and early parts of 2021, where restaurants serving food that also had bars were able to operate, but there was this weird carve-out that if you did not serve food at your establishment, somehow the risk of getting COVID-19 was higher in those areas, which did cause many of these establishments to stay closed for months, in some cases years, many of them not even reopening after the fact due to still having to pay thousands of dollars a year to the North Carolina ABC Commission to keep their licenses operational, rent on their buildings and their doors essentially shut by the government. But there's also an interesting political angle of this. When we refer, of course, to the former governor and Roy Cooper, he's not just the former eight-year governor in the state of North Carolina. North Carolina, Mitch.
He, of course, is running for U.S. Senate and will be on a ballot coming up here in November. Adds another kind of interesting political element to a case like this. It certainly does because it reminds people who are thinking, if they are thinking at this point about who they're going to vote for for Senator, that Roy Cooper was a major player, perhaps the major player, in determining how North Carolina responded to COVID, shutting businesses down, choosing which ones could reopen and when. And so, depending on how this suit plays out, it could be something that plays a role in the Senate race.
Now, we will get a decision as soon as you mentioned, as soon as today, but if not today, probably not in the long future about whether Roy Cooper and Mandy Cohen will be compelled to testify. If they do, it would not be a public setting. It would be depositions held behind closed doors. But at some point, information would come out about those depositions. And perhaps as the campaign season is playing out, we will get into the inner workings of how the governor came up with this decision to keep the private bars closed while every Every other type of establishment that sells alcohol was allowed to reopen.
Now, you might recall from the time when this was happening, one of the debates that was made from the private bars was that the reason that the other establishments were allowed to reopen was political pressure. That you had breweries and wineries and country clubs and restaurants, all of whom had strong lobbying presence and got to the governor's people and said, Look, you know, we need to start making money again. You need to get us to reopen. Whereas the private bars didn't have that same type of lobbying clout and basically were left in the cold while everyone else was allowed to reopen.
So that's an accusation that's been made on behalf of the bar owners. We'll see whether that type of thing will play out in this case. But certainly, depending on the level of publicity that this gets, and we know the Carolina Journal has been. Publicizing this case. It hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention elsewhere.
But if it does get attention during the course of this campaign, it could. cause at least a little bit of a thought among voters about, oh yes, this is the guy who was responsible for us having to stay home during COVID, and that might affect their votes. Yeah, there's no question about it. Looking back on this now, more than six years removed in many cases from a lot of these beginning discussions around COVID, Mitch, that it does bring up, and for a lot of people, a lot of very negative and harsh feelings.
So we'll keep an eye on that. Let me play out a hypothetical for you. Let's say that the judge in this case decides either later on today or within the next couple of weeks that Cooper and Cohen do have to testify. Can they challenge that decision by the judge, or is that final decision essentially what's going to happen moving forward? Is there an appeal process with a decision like this?
We're not talking about the full resolution of the case, just an individual motion and a ruling from a judge. I wouldn't be surprised that there would be some sort of appeal to a ruling like that.
Now, usually, as you suggested, you don't have an appeal until the final arguments are done, the final resolution of the case. But there are, in many cases, what's called an interlocutory appeal where there's a ruling and someone will appeal to, most likely in this case, the North Carolina Court of Appeals and say, you know. We know this is not an appeal of a final judgment, but substantial rights would be violated if you allow this court order to go forward. And so it's entirely possible that there could be an appeal. And then the appeals court would have to decide whether this is the type of order that would impair the rights of the governor in some way.
And if not, then it would go back to the trial court and the trial court would allow the deposition to take place. If the appeals court says no, this would be something that would violate the governor's rights, then they could block it from happening and go back to the court, the trial court and say, do everything else, but you can't have these depositions.
So yes, there's a possibility because it would not be an appeal from a final judgment, it would have a little bit less likelihood of getting success at the appeals court level. But almost any court order. Can be appealed if the person really wants to appeal it. And then the only matter is: does the appeals court take it up or do they decide, no, you should wait till the process gets further along? The other interesting piece of this is that the timing.
Now, we don't know if the depositions are ordered when they will take place. The initial motion to compel from the bar owners suggested setting a 45-day window from the time that the court issued this order until the deposition takes place. If that's true, then these depositions would have to take place during the real heart of the campaign season. You imagine that Roy Cooper is going to be out on the road meeting with folks, kissing babies, shaking hands, talking about why he should be the U.S. Senator.
If this deposition has to take place sometime within the next 45 days, or if this order comes down in a few days, you know, sometime in the next 50 days or so, that's right in the heart of the campaign season. And one would imagine. that the Cooper campaign will not want to have to take some time out from campaigning to do this deposition, even if the results of that deposition would not be made public until much further down the road. Yeah, as of today, we are 77 days away from Election Day, early voting, of course, a very lengthy early voting period here in North Carolina. Kicks off on October the 15th.
So the timeline on this, Mitch, as you noted, going to be highly interesting for Cooper and his team moving forward. We'll be keeping an eye on the accords throughout the day. Today, we'll have continuing coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as always, bring you the latest right here. We appreciate the update.
Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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It's 5:53. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. We talked earlier in the program about Democrat Governor Josh Stein and his veto of House Bill 958. That was the second piece of legislation that the governor vetoed yesterday. He also vetoed House Bill 377, known as 2026 Court Changes, saying that the bill would have a chilling effect on judicial independence by giving the Chief Justice authority to suspend trial judges without pay, a power no other Chief Justice in the country has.
In addition to suspending trial court judges without pay while they are under investigation, the bill would also allow the Supreme Court to change the punishment recommended by the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission and impose a public reprimand. Censure, suspension, or even removal. A majority of the members of the North Carolina Supreme Court voting must concur in any of those orders. The bill would also allow the Chief Justice to suspend a district or superior court judge without pay while an investigation or disciplinary proceeding is underway. The Judicial Standards Commission would first have to recommend the suspension and find that allowing the judge to remain on the bench could cause immediate and irreparable harm to the public or the administration of justice.
The governor said in a press release with the veto that North Carolina voters elect the vast majority of judges in the state, and removing judges from their posts should be first and foremost determined by the people. The governor being very blunt in his public commentary saying, just as a respective leadership in each legislative chamber does not have power to suspend duly elected legislators, and just as the governor does not have the power to suspend an elected member of the Council of State, the Chief Justice should not have the power to suspend a trial judge elected by the people. Judges should be able to do their jobs without fear that the Chief Justice may deprive them of their livelihood. The small role the bill reserves for the Judicial Standards Commission is cold in comparison, given that the Chief Justice and the Legislative Leadership control nearly all of its appointments. The Senate passed this piece of legislation back on July the 29th in a 26 to 11 vote.
Just a few days later, the House passed the bill 62 to 45 on August the 4th. The governor went on to say, for 13 years, the General Assembly has repeatedly played. politics with the judiciary, including taking all four of the nonpartisan state bar appointments to the Judicial Standards Commission for itself. It needs to stop politicizing our courts. An independent judiciary is critical to protecting the rule of law and the rights of all North Carolinians.
I will always stand up for the people in North Carolina. Therefore, I veto this bill. Supporters of the bill argue that the strong disciplinary authority is needed to hold judges accountable for decisions that may put public safety at risk. House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, pointed specifically to cases involving violent offenders, concurring with some of the language in that legislation and highlighting some recent high-profile cases in the state of North Carolina where dangerous, violent repeat offenders were consistently released by the judiciary onto the streets of North Carolina. Carolina to later go on and commit heinous acts of violence and crimes against innocent bystanders in the streets.
That is one of the pieces, one of the portions of this legislation that put Republican lawmakers in the position to move forward with this, like House Bill 958. We'll keep an eye and see if the legislature overrides this veto in mid-November. That's going to do it for a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM WBT.
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