More than two hours into a long-anticipated meeting, audible moans swept the packed room where the State Board of Elections authorized several voting technologies for the 2020 election — including an updated version of controversial touch-screen devices. In a 3-2 decision, the board approved Election Systems…
Three days. Three vetoes. Gov. Roy Cooper announced late Friday, Aug. 23, that he vetoed Senate Bill 438, the Excellent Public School Act of 2019. Wednesday he vetoed House Bill 370, a measure requiring…
UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill is on probation after the system received preliminary denial of its accreditation. Preliminary Denial of Accreditation is recommended when there’s an immediate threat to health and safety, a submission of falsified documents or misrepresented information, a lack of a required license,…
Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has resurrected a loan program aimed at saving rural hospitals from financial ruin. The Rural Healthcare Stabilization Act would channel $20 million to distressed rural hospitals in the form of a loan administered by UNC Health and the N.C. Local Government…
Republicans are getting impatient. Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper insists Medicaid expansion be included in the General Fund budget, and the Republican-dominated General Assembly unequivocally refuses. Lawmakers passed a budget bill and sent to it the governor, who vetoed it June 28.
State Superintendent Mark Johnson is challenging a temporary stay against implementing Istation, the state’s new reading diagnostic tool. “I’m the N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction, but I’m also a lawyer. That’s a good thing on weeks like this one,” Johnson said…
North Carolina’s farm bill has passed the House, but it now may be frozen in the Senate. Senate Bill 315, “North Carolina Farm Act of 2019,” was approved Wednesday, Aug. 21, by a 63-48 vote, but only after House members revised…
As the Obamacare individual marketplace bleeds unsubsidized enrollees, Blue Cross N.C. is looking to reverse a surge of earlier premium increases. In 2020 Blue Cross N.C. will reduce average rates in all counties for the first time in more than 25 years, when it entered the…
North Carolina taxpayers could get a check from the state by late November. General Assembly leaders in a news conference announced a plan to return to taxpayers money from the $900-million surplus. Income-tax payments and sales tax collections ran higher than expected. Lawmakers were…
Gov. Roy Cooper issued the 33rd veto of his administration when he rejected a bill requiring N.C. sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration officials before they release inmates held in local jails. Cooper vetoed House Bill 370 Wednesday, Aug. 21, the day after it passed the House along party…
