A federal judge has sanctioned the North Carolina Department of Justice, run by Attorney General Jeff Jackson, after documenting a history of lawyers from its Public Safety Section repeatedly running afoul of federal court rules. US Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers issued a 43-page order Friday imposing sanctions that affect the state attorney general himself.
Eleven western North Carolina counties switch from paper to digital court records Monday in the state’s latest eCourts expansion. The latest additions mark the halfway point for a 10-track expansion project that will extend into 2025.
Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at the age of 96. After 70 years on the throne, she was the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The news came hours after Buckingham Palace announced that the queen was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Her funeral is traditionally to be held 10 days after her death...
Keeping the lights on. That’s the popular theme, for businesses — small and large — throughout the country. Throughout North Carolina. “Our No. 1 aim,” says Stuart Arnold, president of Fortnight Brewing Co. in Cary. Arnold was sitting in the brewery’s dark taproom, devoid of customers. Several workers, headed inside and out, passed him as...
Amy O. Cooke is the new publisher of Carolina Journal. She is also the new CEO for the John Locke Foundation. Cooke for 16 years filled a variety of policy and operations roles at the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank in Colorado — the past eight years she as the institute’s executive vice president. She...
Rep. Chuck McGrady, his hand on the polished bar, couldn’t stop smiling as he leaned in for a better look. Gov. Roy Cooper, McGrady just to his right, was smiling, too. A group of lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats — brewers, and distributors, all lined up around and behind the governor. They laughed, clapped, and...
Award-winning craft distillers in North Carolina are making a plethora of products. Rum with pecans and honey, for example, and organic wheat whiskey, and strawberry moonshine. The distillers come from diverse backgrounds and apply myriad methods and processes. Yet a common theme runs throughout the state, regardless of a distillery’s physical size or financial portfolio. ...
A law banning plastic grocery bags in some Outer Banks communities may be unconstitutional, says a prominent former lawmaker. Apex attorney Paul “Skip” Stam, a Republican who was House speaker pro tem before retiring from the legislature in 2016, circulated a memo to General Assembly members on the constitutionality of Session Law 2009-163. In it...
Distillers in North Carolina aren’t quite ready to extend their arms in a celebratory toast, but they’ve certainly opened the bottle and dropped some ice in the glass. Senate Bill 155, omnibus legislation loosening rules on North Carolina distillers and brewers, is headed to the House Finance Committee. The House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee on...
One lawmaker thinks it’s high time that North Carolina sack a ban on plastic bags. A proposed committee substitute from Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, aims, as part of House Bill 56, to repeal the longstanding ban. The provision, enacted in 2009, prohibits businesses in several Outer Banks counties from using plastic bags, with some exceptions. The intent...
Craft brewers say North Carolina is suppressing growth and have filed a complaint saying that two state laws are unconstitutional and nothing more than economic protectionism. The complaint, filed Monday in Wake County Superior Court, seeks a permanent injunction against enforcement of the state’s distribution cap and franchise laws. It says the distribution cap and...
