News

Top athletes back Opportunity Scholarship program

RALEIGH — Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis has teamed up with advocates of school choice to raise awareness for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship program. The 33 year-old NFL star this week appeared in an ad from Parents for Education Freedom in North Carolina, a nonprofit group that backs school choice, to promote the state’s private school...

Kari Travis
News

Cooper picks former Hagan aide as communications director

Gov. Roy Cooper has added a communications director whose name may be familiar to regular readers of Carolina Journal. Cooper selected Sadie Weiner, who worked for former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and most recently was communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. She will oversee the governor’s press and communications office. While on...

Barry Smith
Video

JLF’s Roy Cordato explains N.C.’s conversion to a flat tax

Dr. Roy Cordato, John Locke Foundation vice president for research and resident scholar, discusses North Carolina’s conversion from a progressive tax system to a flat tax. Cordato offered these comments during an interview with Donna Martinez for Carolina Journal Radio.

Dr. Roy Cordato
News

Bill could help ease tension at traffic stops

An evening TV news program showing a traffic stop “that got out of hand and escalated” led Rep. Ken Goodman, D-Richmond, to introduce a bill requiring instructions of how motorists should interact with police. “My wife and I were talking, and you know, we said a lot of people don’t know how you’re supposed to...

Barry Smith
News

NCGA roundup: Local cops could get whistleblower protections

  RALEIGH — Local police in North Carolina would have whistleblower protections under a bill introduced in the state House. “If you have whistleblower protections throughout government, to not have these fellows also covered just wasn’t copacetic,” said Rep. Chris Malone, R-Wake, the sponsor of the bill, House Bill 37. “We want people to be able...

Barry Smith

Opinion

Elections

News

Trump nominates Bishop to be deputy director for budget at OMB

"Dan has been a tireless fighter for our MAGA Movement in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees," Trump said in a press release issued Tuesday night. "Dan will implement my cost-cutting and deregulatory agenda across all Agencies, and root out the Weaponized Deep State."

Theresa Opeka
News

Democrats want federal court to address GOP challenge of 60,000 NC ballots

The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Friday to ensure challenges of 60,000 ballots in the state's latest election are addressed in federal court. Republicans filed the challenges with the State Board of Elections. The challenges could affect the outcome of the state Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Jefferson Griffin, along with a handful of state legislative contests.

CJ Staff
News

Griffin asks Appeals Court to order decision on election protests by Tuesday

Republican North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin is turning to North Carolina’s second-highest court for an order that would force state election officials to make a final decision about Griffin’s election protests Tuesday. The State Board of Elections had planned to hear oral arguments about the protests the following day, according to a document Griffin filed Friday with the state Court of Appeals.

CJ Staff

Videos

Video

The Debrief: Trump tariffs head to the high court

Voters in many North Carolina cities made their choices this week in municipal elections. We recap the top results and look at some of the major voting decisions across the nation. Then we turn attention to a national story with major North Carolina implications: the future of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The nation’s highest court...

Video

Locke’s Mitch Kokai responds to AG Jackson’s lawsuit over SNAP benefits

Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joining Democratic counterparts in other states in a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration. It focuses on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Kokai offered these comments during the Oct. 31, 2025, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “State Lines.”

Mitch Kokai
Video

Locke’s Donald Bryson discusses SCOTUS case dealing with Trump’s emergency tariffs

Donald Bryson, John Locke Foundation CEO and Carolina Journal publisher, discusses the US Supreme Court case addressing President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs. Locke filed a joint amicus brief challenging the constitutionality of emergency tariffs. Bryson offered these comments during the Oct. 28, 2025, episode of Spectrum News’ “Capital Tonight.”

Donald Bryson
Video

Carolina Journal’s Donna King analyzes NC congressional redistricting plans

Donna King, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, discusses the North Carolina General Assembly’s plans to redraw the state’s congressional election map. King offered these comments during the Oct. 17, 2025, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “State Lines.”

Donna King

Culture

Civil Society

Opinion

For healthy civil society, politics needs to stay in its lane

Political and cultural causes are important. They motivate us to make the world around us better and hone our sense of justice. Also, the excitement of fighting the good fight can be, for lack of a better word, fun. But everything has its time and place. And even if we think a particular political issue...

David Larson
Opinion

Flashback: North Carolina’s Easter Monday tradition forged on the baseball diamond

On Good Friday state offices will be closed in North Carolina for Holy Week, along with 10 other states. However, that has not always been the case in North Carolina. The Monday after Easter — rather than Good Friday — was a legal holiday in North Carolina for 52 years, and for many years before...

Dallas Woodhouse