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Prediction Markets Grow; Astronaut Koch Honored

Carolina Journal Radio / Nick Craig
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August 28, 2026 6:22 am

Prediction Markets Grow; Astronaut Koch Honored

Carolina Journal Radio / Nick Craig

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August 28, 2026 6:22 am

Congressman Chuck Edwards is appealing directly to his House colleagues in a letter ahead of an expected censure vote stemming from the ethics investigation that preceded his decision to end his reelection campaign. Theresa Opeka of Carolina Journal joins the program to discuss Labor Commissioner Luke Farley recognition of astronaut Christina Koch and her North Carolina roots. Andrew Pomeranz of Carolina Journal examines the growing role of prediction markets in North Carolina elections, including both their expanding reach and potential risks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's 5.05 and welcome into 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. This week, Representative Chuck Edwards, the Republican from North Carolina's 11th congressional district, sent a letter to his colleagues defending himself against a recent report from the House Ethics Committee, which found that he had violated the House official code of conduct prohibiting sexual harassment within the United States House. In the letter, Edwards makes a plea to his colleagues before they vote on his censure, which the committee recommended.

Edwards asserts that the committee took an extraordinary analytical leap from the evidence to the conclusion, writing in part, the committee concluded that I neither engaged in sexual activity with nor explicitly propositioned any individual staff member. The committee concludes that the allegations in this matter do not implicate quid pro co sexual harassment. And the committee concluded that I did not violate federal sexual harassment law. Those are not my characterizations of the evidence. Those are the committees.

Committee's own conclusions. Edwards continues to assert that there is a great distance between the evidence presented and the conclusion that the committee came to, inferring that the committee went well beyond the scope of any evidence to conclude sexual harassment. He writes in the letter, An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition. A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct.

Poetry is not.

Socializing with colleagues is not. Caring deeply about someone with whom you have worked and have come to know for years is not sexual misconduct. Yet individual acts that were not themselves prohibited were gathered together, assigned the most damaging possible interpretation, and then used collectively to support a conclusion far more serious than the underlying evidence, wrote Edwards. He goes on to insist that House rules do not explicitly prohibit many of the Activities included in the report: writing: There is no House rule prohibiting members and staff from being friends. There is no House rule prohibiting members and staff from spending social time together.

There is no House rule prohibiting a member from genuinely and deeply caring about a person with whom he has worked closely for years. And House gift rules recognize circumstances in which gifts between established friends are permissible. Edwards goes on to imply that the evidence collected by the committee, which included 186,000 emails, voice messages, texts, and documents, were selectively picked and assembled. saying in part and during throughout the letter, members should ask how the how the communications quoted in this report were selected and on what basis they can be fairly characterized as representative. Edwards strongly pushed back, particularly in the area of gift giving, asserting that some of the gifts were, quote, job-related tools, and that some gifts predated the women's employment for him, also asserting that he gave gifts to both male and female staffers, and even gave examples of when he gave a handgun to a male staffer.

Saying in the letter, I testified that one of the women frequently referred to me as her second dad, wrote Edwards. I know the committee received testimony from another witness who had worked closely with us for years and viewed another relationship as a father-daughter and a mentor-mentee relationship. The report itself recounts a third-party reference to one staffer as just a daughter figure. Edwards asserts that the evidence in the report from the committee does not read as one-sided romance of one person relentlessly pursuing or badgering another person who shows no interest and gives many examples of the staffers in question.

However, Edwards fails to include examples such as text messages where he offered to get staffers a corsage and she declines, or another instance where the staffer thanked Edwards for the flowers that he had sent to her on their trip to Las Vegas together. But stated that the message that the messages made her feel uncomfortable. According to the committee's documents, the staffer said just want to make sure this trip isn't meant to be anything that it is not. Edwards apologized for making her uncomfortable, but insisted there was nothing meant by it and that it was quote a cute play on the name of the arrangement. Text messages also indicated that on July 14th, 2024, Edwards had sent a large amount of ice cream to one of the staffers, with the staffer responding, Thank you, but this seems a bit excessive.

Before accepting the committee's conclusion, Edwards wrote in the letter, I respectfully ask you to examine the evidence, the omissions, and the disputed facts, and above all, the enormous distance between what the committee actually found and the label that it ultimately imposed. Possibility is not proof. Inference is not evidence, and selective context is not totality. A finding this serious should rest on evidence equally serious. This one does not.

Edwards also included a list of 15 questions members should ask before accepting the ethics committee report that is published in the letter that he sent to the two members of the House of Representatives, that 22-page letter this week, regardless of what the full United States House determines and decides to do as it relates to potentially a full censure of Congressman Chuck Edwards. It all came crumbling down on August the 4th at 3.32 a.m., where Edwards posted on social media that he would not be seeking re-election in the upcoming November midterms. That caused a major shock out in the western half of North Carolina, the 16 counties that make up North Carolina's 11th congressional district, and kicked off a very quick process in which members of the 11th congressional district GOP Executive Committee. Had to have an emergency meeting to determine who Edwards' replacement would be on the November ballot coming up here in just a couple of weeks. In his place, State Representative Jennifer Balcombe, the Republican from Henderson County, was decided by Republicans at that meeting to be their candidate for the 11th congressional district.

She will be running that race against Democrat Jamie Ager, who has a significant fundraising advantage out in western North Carolina. It was back on August the 17th that President Donald Trump endorsed Balcombe on a post-in Truth Social endorsing her for that race in North Carolina's 11th congressional district. We will be waiting as the United States House comes back into session over the next couple of weeks in the month of September. We will be keeping a close eye on these details. You can read the entire 22-page response from a congressman Chuck Edwards out of North Carolina's 11th congressional district.

We've got that linked. Up this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: Edwards Appeals to Colleagues in Letter Before Censure Vote. It's 519. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT.

Don't forget if you miss any portion of the show to check out the Carolina Journal News Hour in your favorite podcast app. You can also watch a live video version of the program or catch it after the fact on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel. All of those links available over on the website, CarolinaJournal.com. A pretty cool event taking place in North Carolina this week as astronaut Christina Koch, who was aboard the Artemis II NASA mission that took place earlier this year, was honored in North Carolina. She's from the Tar Heel State.

Our friend Teresa Opeka from CarolinaJournal.com was at the event. Teresa, before we get into the award that she was given by the Labor Commissioner, first walk us through some of the details on the event. You were there. Maddo't have been a pretty cool opportunity. It's the first time in what, nearly 50 years that NASA has done a guided space mission here in outer space.

And to see that recognition here in North Carolina must have been a pretty cool event. It was. It was. Thanks so much for having me this morning, Nick. Yeah, so it was not your typical, you know, state government event.

It was a pretty interesting event to see, you know, North Carolina native and NASA astronaut there and getting that honor and hearing all about her background from growing up in North Carolina. She grew up in Jacksonville, and she said she always wanted to be an astronaut. She knew that as a young girl, one of the young girls that was there asked that question. And she served aboard Artemis II, and she just mentioned NASA's first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years. That happened back in April.

So that was pretty impressive.

So she went from the school, I believe it was White Oak School in Jacksonville. Then she also went to a graduate of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and of course, NC State University right here in Raleigh. And just very impressive, very well spoken, and it was a really, really fun event. All different law lawmakers, different department heads of state, and of course, there were fourth graders where they met with afterward to ask her different questions.

So it was a really, really cool event. Yeah, I mean, you talk about that 50 years. It's literally been a generation since young folks in third, fourth, and fifth grade have had the opportunity to speak with somebody that has recently been part of one of these manned space missions that have taken place here across the United States. This event, as I understand it, was put on by a labor commissioner, Luke Farley, who, funny enough, also grew up in and around the Jacksonville area, the Onslow County area. What exactly was the reason for the event?

Sure, sure. Yeah, he made a point of that saying, you know, all good things come from Oncelo County. He presented her with the Order of the Tar Heel, which recognizes individuals who have made a lasting impact through exceptional leadership, dedicated service, and meaningful contributions that strengthen communities and the workforce right here in North Carolina. Earlier this year, he also bestowed that honor on Pope Leo XIV over in Rome, too.

So, you know, he met and gave him our Carolina Hurricanes jersey. No jersey yesterday, but she did receive the Order of the Tar Heel, which was really, really nice.

So he also mentioned talking about how North Carolina companies contributed to the Artemis program. There were at least 22 companies, which I didn't know about until yesterday, from North Carolina that contributed, including AB Emblem, which designed the mission patch. For the Artemis II mission, which I do have one right here, if you could see that, got that yesterday as a little extra bonus.

So, yeah, it was a really, really fun event, really, really cool. Let's talk about the young minds that were in the room. Teresa, obviously, it's one thing to have elected officials there taking pictures and congratulating Mrs. Koch on her event that took place and the safe arrival back here in the United States. But for these young, impressionable minds, I would imagine that that must have been a pretty cool event.

It was, it was. You know, they had so many different questions. You know, like I said, the one young girl asked her if she always knew she wanted to be an astronaut. They asked, you know, how it felt to be up in space and like floating around and how it felt when you came back down. Of course, the one thing I don't have in my story, which we could maybe joke about a little bit, is.

How do you go to the bathroom? She did describe it, you know, saying, well, they're going to make a few different adjustments and stuff like that. But it was, of course, kids are going to ask, and maybe adults want to know as well. But yeah, overall, it was a really, really fun event and really, really informative for these young children to sit there and listen to her experiences. And one theme she kept stressing, whether it was adults or for kids.

Is not to give up on your dreams. Everybody's dreams count. It doesn't matter if you want to be an astronaut, if you want to be a farmer, a machinist, whatever you want to be, your dreams count, you matter. To have those big dreams. Another thing she said is, we do big things here in North Carolina.

We dream big, we do big.

So it was really, really, really inspiring for these young children to hear her talk about her time here in North Carolina, what she's done, as far as from school all the way through NC State, and then going on to the. The program at NASA. She was chosen in 2013 to be an astronaut and has gone on and flew in the International Space Station for.

Well, over a year, year most I think a year and a half. And then now with this mission back in the spring, it was just something truly, truly remarkable. And not many people can say they can do that or maybe would want to do that.

Well, and you make a good point about being selected into that NASA program, Teresa. It is a relatively small program. But then, of course, you look at the size of these crews and the size of these missions that actually take place. And for this first flight that has happened in more than 50 years, just a handful of hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals that were eligible through the NASA program to actually take advantage of this, a very small likelihood that that happens. But, of course, we did see that take place earlier this year in April.

Yeah, yeah, the very select few, you know, that get picked for that, which means she really had a special honor in that and you know, and getting selected and flying on the International Space Station. One comment she did make, they asked if she went to space camp. This is what the kids asked, and she said yes, she did. But she didn't always get picked for the different flight simulators and things like that, or maybe, you know, maybe did have something that maybe she kind of messed up as a kid. But look where she's gone.

You know, I mean, like, okay, you didn't get picked for this, you didn't do that, but she's she's an astronaut. She's flown in space for. Jeez, I mean, a length of time that I can't even imagine being up there for like ten minutes or mine, a year and a half or a year's or whatever the case may be, or for a couple of weeks just to be up there. It's just simply amazing.

So yeah, you've got to be a really exceptional individual to get picked for this program. Yeah, maybe getting skipped over in space camp, but I would argue getting to be one of the members aboard the Artemis II crew probably made up for some of those issues in a much earlier time in her life. You mentioned these 22 North Carolina businesses. That's interesting as well, Teresa. And I hadn't heard about any of that either prior to your story over at Carolinajournal.com.

The state as a whole, and obviously we're talking about spacecrafts and outer space here. But in terms of the air industry, we have seen a lot of discussion over the last couple of years here in North Carolina. In that space, I know that there's some major projects going on from the mountains to the coast as it relates to the aeronautical industry. And so maybe there is a little bit of a good partnership there that continues. I would imagine so.

You know, North Carolina has been on the map for quite some time as being the best state for business, or if not in the top two when it comes to the best state for business. And the climate, the business climate has been fabulous for new businesses, a startup. We always hear our Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, at Council of State meetings talk about even smaller businesses, too. You see all these bigger businesses coming here as far as the aerospace, you know. Industry, it just keeps growing and growing and growing.

And now, when you have 22 companies linked to this. NASA and the Arnemis space mission, which I said again, I didn't know about it till yesterday, which is just phenomenal that there's that many companies that were connected to this. North Carolina is a very, very special state. in terms of doing business here, growing here, having a stable environment. You've seen how the last several years how the General Assembly has run things is getting things stable in the budget, making sure that things are have checks and balances and making it a business friendly climate in the state.

So yeah, I mean, it's exceptional to see how this industry, among other industries, is doing here in the state. Yeah, no question about that. Teresa, you've got a lot more quotes from this very cool event that happened in Raleigh earlier this week. We encourage folks to head on over to our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com, and read some of those details. We appreciate the update this morning.

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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 Friday morning to you. Over the last couple of years here in North Carolina and across the United States, there's been a lot of discussion on sports betting.

You've probably seen commercials on television. Maybe you've received social media ads, things in the mail as that has been legalized here in North Carolina. Over the last couple of years, however, there's a new type of betting that is taking place across the nation. It's called prediction markets. It's putting governments in a rather interesting position.

You've probably seen commercials for Cauchy or Polymarket over the last couple of months to walk through what's going on here in North Carolina. Andrew Pomerance, CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Andrew, sports betting is one thing. It's highly regulated by state and federal governments. There's a lot of rules and Restrictions as it relates to that.

These prediction markets are a little bit of a different story. You can bet on the high temperature. We've seen stories out of the UK where people are bringing hair dryers to weather stations to warm up the temperature and cash out. These prediction markets are a little bit of the Wild West. What is the latest that you're following there?

Yeah. Hey, Nick, happy Friday. Good morning. As you've mentioned, I think you can bet on the SPs. You can bet on who's going to be the Democratic candidate for 2028.

There's a great market already there for that.

So kind of the Wild West, like you said, but here in North Carolina in the state budget, we were the first state this year to regulate call share at a statewide level. We did so by implementing a new tax structure separate from that of our sports books.

So, under the new budget passed this year, after right that two-year gap and not having a new state budget, we raised the tax rate on sports books from 18 to 23 percent. And those are your traditional sports books, right? Your fan duels and the rest of the world. And then we took another step in these predictive markets, bringing in a 6% tax on their fees collecting. And so, a lower tax rate for these predictive markets for a number of different reasons, governed in a different way, but allowing them to come into the state.

We formalize their recognition here, and then we allow the federal government to still offer those licenses and those certifications that they need and not do that at the state level like we do with some of the sports books.

So, a really different market. You know, we're seeing it really kind of grow here in North Carolina. The inspiration for kind of me looking into this, right, there's already been over a million and a half dollars spent on the North Carolina Senate race here with between former Governor Roy Cooper and Michael Watley, right?

So, that market is really taking off and is favored. former Governor Cooper now for a long time, up to about ninety three percent is where he looks like he's maxing out on that polymarket or that cauchy predicted market lane, right? And so as we kind of see that race develop and money continue to be dumped into this race, I think it'll be interesting to see how much money this kind of predicted market grows here in North Carolina, too. But you mentioned the tax structure that was part of the state budget. And unlike sports betting, for those that are familiar with that here in North Carolina, Andrew, there is no fee for the user.

You place $25 on a team to hit the over, the under, and an NL game coming up. And if you win, great, you get your money back plus whatever the winnings would be on that. But when you look at these prediction markets, there's a small, as I understand it, a small transaction fee on every single one of these predictions that you make, whether it be the winner of a race or as you noted, who's going to be the 2028 Democrat presidential candidate nominee.

So it is a little bit of a different business structure than we see from the fan duels, the DraftKings, and all of these other heavily regulated sports books. Yeah, and speaking with call share representatives over the last couple of weeks, you know, I've gotten in these conversations with them about what's the difference between them and a sports book and why they should be taxed differently. And like you said, so they collect about a 1% fee on every transaction, and that goes into them. That's how they make their profits.

So they don't necessarily profit because they're in a futures trading market and it's a zero or one outcome, right? Yes or no. They don't receive money on the back end. If you lose, if you win, they purely make money on the more you invest into these markets. And so, you know, they argue that they're not a bookie, they're a financial exchange, almost more like the stock market.

And so they don't operate on this money line proposal. No one is setting the money lines. Other than the bettors themselves, right? The bettors themselves are determining the odds in those markets by the people that they're choosing to bet on instead of someone in Vegas or something like that. And this is actually dealt with at the Commodity Future Traders Commission, right?

So at the federal level, at the FTC, right? And so this is something that is dealt more like with a typical structured market of swaps or derivatives or something along those lines. Yeah, now it is interesting, though, because you can, in fact, still predict or bet on sports. Again, as you noted, the lines are a little bit different. What is available on a traditional sports book, you know, first touchdown, things that you can get really in the weeds on is traditionally not available on these markets.

But you make a really good point there, Andrew. Unlike what we see with some of these other online exchanges that existed, Kauchi in particular is a federally recognized futures trading market.

So there is some level of government involvement in the way in which they're operating their business.

Well, and that's the point that I think the opponents of this being inside the North Carolina state budget and to these markets will make is we're treating them differently, but you're able to bet on sports events just like you are on the FanDuels or a other platform you choose for your sports betting. And that these are really just unregulated sports markets. And so we continue to hear that from folks like Mick Mulvaney, the former White House Chief of Staff, who's now lobbying against these. Type of markets. And so, you know, it's be interesting to see as we move forward.

I saw a number today, about 85% of all revenues into these predicted markets is still coming from sports betting. And so overwhelmingly, their business model is still dependent on these sports books and on this sports betting revenue. And so while you can bet on these other things, while it is a fee-based structure, there is still this sports element to it that many critics would argue still deserves to be regulated like a sports book.

Well, and I'm sure that that is taking place. A lot of that money coming from sports revenue, Andrew, because not every single state fully recognizes and allows electronic gambling. I think there's still 20 some odd states across the country that have not legalized the fan duels and the DraftKings.

However, because Calci is in this position where it is a federally regulated exchange for all intents and purposes, I would imagine in those states they must have significantly higher numbers of sports predictions or bets being placed in comparison to a state like North Carolina, where that stuff is already legal through the traditional sports books.

Well, and there's more pushback there, right? And I think a lot of people we continue to hear, you know, Chris Christie wrote an op-ed a couple weeks ago about this being inside the state budget. And the criticism really comes to why North Carolina did this. Why are we the first to do it? Why did we take this step to recognize them in this manner?

You know, was it being forced upon us by the federal government? You know, there's still a lot of regulations at the federal level that are being waiting to be handled. And so the fact that North Carolina did this at the last moment, some people felt like in a state budget that was obviously unveiled as a conference report. Only 48 hours before it was officially passed out of the House and Senate. A lot of people felt that that was done kind of behind closed doors and thrown in maybe as a favor.

Patrick Henry had an op-ed out today where he said, take a moment to step back and look at how this was actually done and not just say this was done under the curtains for a bad reason, but this is something that the state had to do at this time. But North Carolina will be in the spotlight now because we've taken this first step to legalize this in this way by taxing it. Let's move on from sports and talk about politics. That is a lot of what we cover over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, Andrew, you already highlighted some of these more high-profile races: the United States Senate race taking place here in North Carolina this year, the 2028 Democrat presidential nominee.

These are very high-ticket things that a lot of individuals are keeping an eye on and keeping track of. But you can get really down into the minutia on some of these political predictions. We have seen this over the last couple of weeks, all the chaos that ensued out in western North Carolina after Chuck Edwards announced that he would not be running for reelection due to a House Ethics Committee report. There was a polymarket prediction on who was going to be Chuck Edwards' replacement for Republicans in North Carolina's congressional district. You looked at that a little bit.

Was there any significant money flowing there? Chuck Edwards' replacement for Republicans in North Carolina's congressional district. You looked at that a little bit. Was there any significant money flowing there? Yeah, so about $11,000 went into that race out in NC-11 when they were choosing a replacement for Chuck Edwards.

Right. This is a Republican nominee. This is a process.

So an individual was selected by about 65 members of an executive GOP committee out in NC 11.

So really, you know, this wasn't an election. This wasn't voting. There wasn't donations being pulled in. There wasn't polling on this done. But within 48 hours, we had this market pop up and run its whole course.

And so when we first opened, Senator Tim Moffitt, who said he was interested, I believe on Friday, was pulling about 51%. By Monday, he had dropped out of that race, and you saw his odds tank. And as that happened, Eventual nominee Bulkham kind of really gradually gained momentum to finishing about 40% by the end of the day on August 7th, which is that Monday that. the day of that happened. And so we saw a pretty tiny decision market, sixty eight people making a decision that didn't have a lot of influence.

It was it was a pretty closed door process. Making a decision that had $11,000 riding on it, right? And so I think there is some concern there for folks who, you know, will say, How are you sure insider trading doesn't happen? How do you have a market like this where you take the influence out of it? You know, that obviously now cash flow flowing in, so there's incentives to maybe act improperly and make a decision based on those financial incentives.

So it was a really interesting race to watch the market develop out there. And I think, you know, really highlights we can bet on anything on these predictive markets. You know, you can wager or buy futures on these markets on these little tiny races and areas like this where information is not super public. And so how do we balance both bringing these markets into the state in this manner and also preserving those bad incentives from not happening? You had the opportunity to speak with official spokespeople over at Kalshi.

Did you have the ability to ask them about this threat of insider trading? I know that on a lot of the Calci ads that run on a lot of podcasts and YouTube channels, they talk a lot about this discussion about insider trading or using non-public information to cast bets. Any concern there from company officials? Yeah, they both acknowledge this is something that is going to be an ongoing challenge for them going forward, something that is always going to be there. And, you know, since working on this story, I've known I've joined their email list and they've sent me numerous emails about this concern and how they are working to address it.

So, something that they are actively working to do. First of all, you do have to claim your employment status. They make sure that no one who's working for these campaigns or maybe for an elections office can directly invest into these futures markets in this way. Then they talked about things like political data to identify candidates, campaign staff, election officials, all of those things. And then some other red flags that they're not afraid to say that they're willing to use, like unusual timing or win rates or coordinated activities, maybe patterns of employment or relationships.

And so even your geolocation, which I've learned you share with them when you accept their terms through this process.

So a number of things that they're working to do. They're also working with the NASDAQ folks to work. On how they deal with insider trading as another futures market, right? And so working to kind of align their practices with them. But a concern that we've talked to a lot of folks about, and I think it's a real concern for people.

And I think as we continue to see these markets develop, We're going to have to continue to alter the way that we look for inside our trading. Yeah, and you know, you talk about these markets continuing to develop. Andrew, if the popular advertising on social media and very influential podcasts and YouTube channels is any indication Calci and many of these other markets are dumping a lot of money into continuing to build their brand.

So, this discussion is not likely to go away anytime soon. You can read more on these prediction markets. It's a fascinating read this morning. We've got the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning.

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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT recapping our top story this morning. Representative Chuck Edwards, the Republican out of North Carolina's 11th congressional district, has sent a letter to his colleagues in the United States House defending himself against the House Ethics Committee report that we have covered over the last month or so, which found that he had violated House official code of conduct as it relates to sexual harassment and making staffers feel uncomfortable within his congressional office. In the letter, Edwards makes a plea to his colleagues before they vote on his censure, which was in fact recommended by the House Ethics Committee. Edwards writes in his letter, in part, the committee concluded that I neither engaged in sexual activity with nor explicitly proposition any individual staff member.

The committee concluded that the allegations in this matter do not implicate quid pro quo sexual harassment, and the committee concluded that I did not violate federal sexual harassment laws. Those are not my characterizations of the evidence. Those are the committee's own conclusion. Throughout the 22-page letter, Edwards goes on to push back against many of the conclusions made by the House Ethics Committee as it relates to gifts and travel and other events that took place with him and young female staffers within his office, of which many of them had texted and responded back to things done by Edwards, including flower arrangements and telling the congressmen that it made them feel uncomfortable in certain situations and instances. Edwards ends.

The letter with 15 questions that members of the United States House should ask themselves as that full report from the House Ethics Committee does recommend a censure of Edwards, regardless of if there is a vote on that or not coming up next month in the United States House. It was on August the 4th at 3.32 a.m. that Edwards announced in social media posts that he would not be seeking re-election in the upcoming November midterm election, causing a very quick process in North Carolina's 11th congressional district, where Republican Jennifer Bulcombe, the Republican member from Henderson County in the North Carolina House, was selected by the GOP Executive Committee to run as their candidate against Democrat Jamie Ager. And then just a couple of weeks later on August the 17th, in which President Donald Trump endorsed Bulcum, we'll be keeping a very close eye on NC-11 in the weeks to come. More coverage over on our website.

CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. 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. When life gets busy, it's important to reach for the things that help keep you grounded.

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