Welcome. This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. The platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
Thanks for you patience while I was on the road working for about seven weeks. It was a wonderful holiday season.
North Carolina’s new governor is sworn into office
The new year started with a changing of the guard in North Carolina’s executive branch. Governor-elect Josh Stein was formally sworn in as North Carolina’s 76th Governor at the North Carolina State Capitol.
Click below to watch Stein take the oath of office and outgoing Governor Roy Cooper transfers the powers and duties of the chief executive officer of the state to Stein.
“The time is now to build a safer, stronger North Carolina where our economy continues to grow and works for more people, where our public schools are excellent and our teachers are well-paid, where our neighborhoods are safe and our personal freedoms are protected. And of course, we must act with urgency to help the people of Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene,” said Stein in his first remarks as governor.
Public inauguration events will take place on January 11th and 12th.
NC’s new governor signs five executive orders to expedite Helene recovery
In his first full day on the job Thursday, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein traveled to western North Carolina where he signed five executive orders to speed recovery for residents still coping with last year’s damage from Hurricane Helene.
Noting that more than 12,000 western North Carolinians are without safe housing, Stein’s first order temporarily waives procurement regulations to increase the supply of temporary housing.
“Winter is here in western North Carolina, and we must act quickly to get people in temporary housing and keep people safe,” said Stein in a written statement. “I will do everything in my power to make sure we are both thinking creatively and acting swiftly to help our neighbors recover.”
The order allows the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to purchase up to 1,000 Transportable Temporary Housing Units to be placed in the counties identified in FEMA’s major disaster declaration.
In his second executive order, Gov. Stein delegated his authority to establish emergency assistance funds for the repair of private roads and bridges.
The Division of Emergency Management is directed to contract to repair private residential structures and roads using vendors with which the Division, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, or other state agencies already have existing statewide contracts. Click here to learn more about how this will be implemented.
Helene damaged more than 8,000 roads and bridges many of which serve as the only access route for ambulances, fire trucks, school buses, and mail delivery.
Federal funding delays could cost North Carolina nearly $9 billion in disaster relief
North Carolina stands to lose nearly $9 billion in disaster relief if Congress fails to pass a spending bill before the end of the week, the second-largest amount of any state.
The spending plan, known as a continuing resolution, has received bipartisan support after it was introduced Tuesday by House Speaker Mike Johnson. The measure contains nearly $100 billion in disaster relief and an additional $10 billion in banking relief.
As it stands, funding is set to run out on Saturday and could cause a government shutdown. The continuing resolution would fund the government through March 14.
But there’s opposition from the incoming executive branch. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance released a statement Wednesday demanding Congress raise the nation’s debt ceiling, as well as remove certain spending proposals, instead of approving the bipartisan package that had been negotiated.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro released a documentoutlining the value of investments that states could lose if the bill doesn’t pass.
New leaders, new problems: Top 2025 stories to watch in NC politics
New Gov. Josh Stein, new NC Speaker of the House Destin Hall and others will be among those stepping into the spotlight in 2025 as North Carolina politicians take on Helene relief and other hot-button issues.
North Carolina’s 2025 legislative session will bring a host of new leaders to Raleigh — including a new governor, a new House Speaker and a new Senate minority leader — as they wrestle with new issues and revisit years-old disputes.
The overall dynamics remain the same as they’ve been for nearly a decade now: The governor is still a Democrat, and Republicans still control the legislature. But with new faces in many top state government roles, plus the switch in national politics to unified GOP control of the presidency and U.S. Congress, new priorities will likely emerge as state lawmakers return to session in just a few months.
As politics become increasingly nationalized, the state legislature is also likely to consider new bills reacting to ideas promoted by President-elect Donald Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk or other national conservative leaders.
Finally, there’s the interplay between the legislative and executive branches. That doesn’t only include new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. The majority of the 10-member Council of State — the elected officials who lead North Carolina’s executive branch — are brand new. So how they work with or against state lawmakers will be closely watched, particularly for two incoming Democrats in high-profile roles: Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green.
Ripken, beloved dog to NC State and Durham Bulls fans, dies on New Year's Day
Ripken died unexpectedly on New Year's Day after "suffering complications from a serious, undiagnosed medical condition which he sadly could not recover from," according to an Instagram post.
He was eight at the time of his death.
Ripken was usually seen retrieving the kicking tee after kickoffs at NC State football games. He also played the role of "bat dog" at Durham Bulls games, going out to fetch bats after plate appearances for Bulls players.
Ripken's owners, Michael and Melissa O'Donnell, said they knew Ripken was destined for a life on the field.
"I want to say it was the first day I met him at eight weeks old...He didn't want to play with anything else but a bat, a football tee or a golf ball," he said. "It was never a frisbee or the normal dog toys. It was always something sports related."
Ripken, named after baseball legend Cal Ripken, Jr., was a local celebrity of sorts for fans of animals and sports. He started his career in 2019 when he was three years old, often helping the Holly Springs Salamanders.
Cherokee Nation withdraws from Tri-Council
One of the three legs of the tripod that is Tri-Council has decided to withdraw from participation. The Legislative Branch of the Cherokee Nation (Okla.) passed Res. No. 24-114 on Monday, Dec. 16 withdrawing their tribe from the Tri-Council which is an annual meeting of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (N.C.), the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (Okla.).
Res. No. 24-114 states in part, “Cherokee Nation has participated in Tri-Council, which was formed on the basis that it ‘united the Legislative Branches of government of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB) in Oklahoma’…”
It continues, “In practice, Tri-Council does not achieve its legislative objectives but instead serves as a forum for the UKB to attack the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation and to falsely claim rights under Cherokee treaties, including but not limited to jurisdictional rights within the Cheroke Nation Reservation.”
The legislation went on to state, “…it is in the (Cherokee) Nation’s best interest to pursue collaboration with EBCI and/or UKB in forums and by means that are not divisive and which do not provide UKB with a platform for its attacks on Cherokee Nation tribal sovereignty.”
North Carolina banks $300M from film industry in 2024
The film industry brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the state in 2024, thanks to the entertainment industry rolling cameras from mountains to coast.
More than 55 productions were set up and made $302 million in purchases statewide for their projects — which included (asterisk indicates filming that took place in the greater Wilmington area):
TV/streaming series
- “100 Day Hotel Challenge” (Season One)
- “Battle on the Beach” (Season Four)*
- “Blue Ridge” (Season Two)
- “Battle on the Beach” (Season Four)*
- “The Hunting Wives” (Season One)
- “The Runarounds” (Season One)*
- “The Summer I Turned Pretty” (Season Three)*
- “The Waterfront” (Season One)*
Feature-length films
- “Apopka / Christy Martin Biopic”
- “Capsized”*
- “Deadly Intentions”*
- “Henry’s Ebb”
- “Merv”*
- “Roofman”
- “The Double”
- “The Gardener”
- “The Shot”
According to the N.C. Department of Commerce, which oversees the film grant program, the $302 million is the third highest total since 2000, when it began offering incentives to support the film industry. 2021 remains record-breaking, garnering $416 million, and before that it was 2012 bringing in $370 million.
Thanks for stopping by. Bundle up and look out for those that might need your help.