News

Audit: No Safeguards In Place Monitoring State-Run Snack Bars

RALEIGH — Currently, 89 facilities are run by 70 operators across the state, located in state and federal government buildings. Gross sales total about $10.6 million a year. Since the program’s inception in 1978, 326 people have been licensed to operate food service and vending facilities at those locations. According to the report, 80 people have been trained and licensed to operate snack bars since 2000, and 53 of them have been placed in a food service or vending facility.

Barry Smith
News

N.C. Homeschooling Hits 100,000 Enrollment Milestone

RALEIGH — Officially, the N.C. Division of Non-Public Education lists 106,853 students in homeschools, up from 98,172 the previous year, or a 9 percent increase. In 1985-86, the first year homeschooling was legal in North Carolina, 809 students were educated at home. Homeschool enrollment also is higher than the enrollment in North Carolina private schools, listed at 97,259 students.

Barry Smith
Video

Reason’s Damon Root contrasts judicial engagement and judicial deference

Damon Root, senior editor of Reason magazine and Reason.com, discusses the competing philosophies of judicial engagement and judicial deference. He explores the topic more thoroughly in the book Overruled. Root offered these comments during an interview for Carolina Journal Radio (Program No. 636).

News

Audit: Robeson Schools Misspent $3.16 Million In Medicaid Funds

RALEIGH — According to the audit findings released Monday by State Auditor Beth Wood, the school district failed to claim more than $364,000 in available Medicaid funding that would have further helped students with special needs. The audit said the problem was linked to misinformation from the state Department of Public Instruction, and inadequate training of school district employees handling the funds.

Dan Way
News

State Has $25.5 Billion Unfunded Retiree Health Liability

RALEIGH — The state of North Carolina has unfunded liabilities for its retiree health benefit fund totaling $25.5 billion, a legislative oversight committee learned Monday. While the state should have no problem paying retiree health care benefits in the near future, if no action is taken, payments could be jeopardized at a later time, analyst Kiernan McGorty said.

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: Remaining Covid Lawsuits + Sam Hayes Interview

This week on The Debrief, Mitch Kokai and Donna King discuss the remaining covid lawsuits and other court cases in North Carolina. Plus, North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes sat down with Carolina Journal’s Theresa Opeka to talk about his first year in office, including his accomplishments and what’s on the...

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