NEA Repeal Push, Voter ID Fixes, Diploma Confusion

Congressman Harris pushes to repeal the NEA’s federal charter. North Carolina’s elections board begins collecting missing voter ID numbers, while a redistricting trial ruling won’t come until August. A Latin diploma confuses education officials amid a lawsuit over frozen federal funds. Meanwhile, residents in Enfield remain without power for four days.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's five oh five and welcome into a Tuesday edition
of The Carolina Journal, News Hour, News Talk eleven ten
ninety nine three WBT. I'm Nick Craig, Good morning to you.
Last week, Representative Mark Harris, who represents the eighth congressional
district across North Carolina, introduced a bill alongside Senator Marsha

(00:29):
Blackburn from Tennessee to repeal the congressional charter of the
nation's largest teachers union, that's the National Education Association, or
the NA. According to a press release from Harris's office,
the NEA voted to support LGBTQ related events in public
schools and cut all ties with the Anti Defamation League.

(00:52):
A press release from Harris's office reads Congress established the
NEA in nineteen six to support America can teachers and
strengthen our schools, but it has abandoned that mission in
favor of a radical agenda. From branding President Trump a
fascist to embracing diversive gender ideology and walking away from

(01:14):
efforts to fight anti Semitism, the NEA has become nothing
more than a partisan advocacy group. Since the NEA is
clearly not prioritizing students' parents or even teachers, it's time
to remove Congress's seal of approval from this rogue organization.
During the NEA's twenty twenty five Representative Assembly, delegates voted

(01:38):
to move forward a recommendation to the NEA and the
NEA's Executive Committee not to endorse, use, or public publicize
any materials from the Anti Defamation League, or participate in
any of their programs. ANYA President Becky Pringle said in
a statement quote, As educators, we are committed to an

(02:00):
assuring students of every race, religion, or natural origin have
a safe and welcoming space to learn and grow. The
National Education Association and its members are unequivocally committed to
the cause of educating, organizing against, and combating all forms
of hate and discrimination, including anti Semitism and anti Palestinian bigotry.

(02:25):
This is a fundamental principle that will never be abandoned.
The discussion goes on to say, anti Semitism is a
very real, in urgent problem in our country and throughout
the world. It is an insidious hate and cancer. NEEA
is committed to combating this hate in our classrooms, on

(02:45):
our campuses, and in our communities. This commitment was evident
at the twenty twenty five Representative Assembly, where the NEA
hosted a panel about how to combat anti Semitism, the
group noting that they've all also hosted other events in
the last couple of months and years dealing with civil rights,

(03:05):
honoring Jewish American Heritage Month, and more. If the bill
were to go forward, it would repeal the federal charter
granted to NEA under US Code Chapter one fifteen, Title
thirty six. It is not a lengthy piece of legislation.
The page is really only about six lines, just straightly

(03:27):
revoking the charter of the National Education Association. This is after,
according to comments again from Congressman Mark Harris and others,
that the NEA has become a rogue organization and is
no longer doing what's best for parents, students, or teachers,
and has become essentially a left wing activist group. We've

(03:49):
got some additional details on this story. We will continue
to track this legislation as it makes its way through
the United States Congress. We'll have those continued details over
on our website, Carolina Journal dot com, and of course
right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's
now five oh nine News Talk eleven ten ninety nine

(04:09):
to three WBT. More than one hundred thousand voters in
North Carolina are set to receive a letter from the
State Board of Elections starting next month that they are
missing what is known as a have a ID. We've
been walking through this very interesting process over the last
couple of months here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Think of us some more details this morning, it's my
pleasure to welcome doctor Andy Jackson of the John Locke

(04:31):
Foundation to our airwaves. Andy, there's been a lot that's
been made about individuals registered in North Carolina that do
not have the proper identification on form or on record,
i should say, with the State Board of Elections, going
back to an early two thousands law passed by the
federal government. You've been tracking this for quite some time.
What's the latest that you've got.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, the latest that we have is that that you know,
this is part of a settlement with the US Department
of just the State Board of Election has agreed to
go ahead and start collecting those numbers. And this is
required by both federal as you mentioned, but also state law.
And in state law they're supposed to the state Board
and the county board, they're supposed to make and this

(05:13):
is a rec quote, a diligent effort to collect all
the required information, and that includes these JAVA numbers, which
are either your driver's license number or the last four
digits of your Social Security number. The reason those numbers
are important is that it allows us, our government officials,
to match your voter registration records with other records, and

(05:34):
that helps us have cleaner voting roles. It helps like
if somebody's moved to another county, they can find that
out sooner and we have cleaner voter roles. It helps
prevent potentially prevent voter fraud. It helps prevent poor administration
by election officials. When you have cleaner books, they have
to go through less of a rigmarole to look up voters.
So it's better all around to have these numbers. And

(05:57):
so as part of the settlement, they're moving forward. What's
going ahead and collecting these numbers. They're going to be
notifying the people on the list each of the counties
and then they're going to have time to go ahead
and reply, send those numbers in, let them know that
those are required numbers. Folks who do not reply to that,
if they show up to vote, they're going to be

(06:18):
asked to provide those numbers, they will vote provisionally, and
then once those numbers are verified, their votes will count.
So there's nobody going to be automatically taken off of
voter rolls for this. Everybody's vote is going to be
counted as long as they provide those legally required numbers.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I'm sure some folks might be scratching their head
based off of what you just said. You mentioned that
this was federally required, that happened back in two thousand
and four. It's also in state statute as well. How
are we at a position where more than one hundred
and three thousand individuals are set to get some notifications
from the state Board of Elections next month that they
don't have this required information. How is something like that

(06:59):
even possible?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
You know, I'm not really a fashion guy or a
design guy, but this is one of those things where
sometimes a design failure can lead to real, real problems.
This was basically a design failure for the people that
designed the voter registration forms in North Carolina a couple
of decades ago, in that the required information I'm doing

(07:23):
this for memory is in a pink box with red
numbering lettering you got to you got to fill this
out well, because you can either do the driver's license
number or the social Security number, well, as long as
you have one, the other one was not required. So
they went ahead and highlighted that in a color that
indicated that it was optional. And so people, especially folks

(07:45):
that maybe don't like to give out those kind that
kind of information unless they absolutely have to, understandably didn't
give that information out. And so this is something that
has been allowed to fester for a couple of decades now,
and it wasn't an until a meeting in November of
twenty twenty three where the state Board of Elections finally

(08:05):
agreed to fix the forms to indicate that these JAVA
numbers are required. But they didn't say despite state laws
saying they had to make a diligent effort to get
this information, they decided that they weren't going to go
ahead and try to collect that from voter registrants who
had registered but didn't provide the information as required.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Andy, how were these individuals admitted to the voter roles
in the first place without this required information? Obviously, as
you know, maybe there was some design discrepancies on the
form itself. But as you look at somebody within a
local county board of elections in putting somebody into the
system as a registered voter, how were those numbers and
how are those people entered without some of that required information.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, that once again was just a real failure of
the system. I mean part of it is. Once again,
the design seemed to indicate that this was optional information.
And a lot of times in these local county boards,
you know, they're not necessarily reading up on all the statutes.
They'll take the forms, they'll follow the forms, they'll follow

(09:11):
the directions and the guidance from the state Board of Election.
And if the state Board of Elections is not telling them, hey,
you need to go ahead and get this information from
folks it's required, then they're not going to get it.
It fits into the categories such as race or sex
where we want to collect that information in North Carolina,
but it's optional, so you don't have to provide it,

(09:31):
and so folks didn't do it, and then they're put
into the system. And the way it works Carolina is
there's still allowed to vote because basically, if there is
a problem with your registration, but you're otherwise a legal voter,
and you show up and vote and they accept your ballot,
then you can't retroactively take it out. For example, this

(09:54):
is part of Jefferson Griffin's lawsuit. The reason he failed
is that he was trying to fix this on the
back end. You can't do that in North Carolina. This
had to have been fixing the front end. This is
the reason that the Justice Department went ahead and sued
this time round, so that we can fix the problem
now rather than have to try to deal with it
after the fact. In twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well continue the conversation with doctor Andy Jackson from the
John Locke Foundation. After this, you're listening to the Carolina
Journal News Hour. It's five twenty one. Welcome back to
the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk eleven, ten ninety
nine three WBT. Don't forget. If you miss any of

(10:36):
our show weekday mornings five to six, you can check
out our Carolina Journal News Hour podcast. It's available in
Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, anywhere you get your shows.
Just search for the Carolina Journal News Hour, tap that
follower subscribe button and get a new program delivered each
and every weekday morning. It's the Carolina Journal News Hour
podcast download and subscribe now. A three judge panel concluded

(11:01):
a six day trial last week challenging North Carolina's congressional
and legislative election maps, with no ruling expected at least
before the beginning of August, as final written arguments are
due back to the court by August the fifth. The NAACP,
Common Cause, and individual voters argue that Republican drawn maps

(11:24):
unlawfully dilute black voting power in violation of the Voter
Rights Act and the United States Constitution. Specifically, challenges target
Senate districts one, two, eight, forty, and forty one with
multiple House districts, as well as congressional districts one, five, six, ten, twelve,

(11:45):
and fourteen. Judges have already ruled in favor of Republican
lawmakers on Senate district forty and forty one, but resolved
judgment on some of the other districts. They also dismissed
claims related to several other districts due to lack of
standard and throughout a variety of allegations brought forth by
the two groups, NAACP and Common Cause, as well as

(12:08):
some of those individual voters. The maps as of right
now remain in effect. If the plaintiffs are to succeed,
lawmakers could be in a position where they need to
redraw districts. That would have to happen very quickly before
December the first of this year to avoid any disruptions
in the twenty twenty six mid term elections. Again, we

(12:29):
are expecting some sort of decision from the court coming
up in the month of August. We'll keep an eye
on these election map lawsuits over on our website, Carolina
Journal dot com and right here on the Carolina Journal
News Hour where it's now five twenty three News Talk
eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT, continuing our discussion

(12:49):
this morning with doctor Andy Jackson of the John Locke
Foundation over have Identification numbers and voters affected in North Carolina.
This is, as you noted, has been the case for
for have it going all the way back to two
thousand and four, so more than twenty years. This has
been on the books federally. I don't know exactly how
long it's been on the books in state statute here
in North Carolina. Andy, is it a fair question to

(13:11):
ask why it took this DOJ lawsuit back A couple
of months ago to get the State Board of Elections
to go through this process and remediate some of these issues.
With more than one hundred thousand voters across the state, that.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Is definitely a fair question. We got to this point.
What led us up to this point was a series
of citizen complaints that there's a North Carrea. I think
she's out of Surrey County, could be wrong about the county.
Her name is Carol Snow. She had been doing a
series of complaints to the state Board and she made
so many complaints on these HOLA numbers that they actually

(13:46):
changed the way they handled complaints so that they could
streamline the process a little bit. And then they finally
concluded at this meeting back in November of twenty twenty
three that yes, in fact, we have not been following
the law. But they listen to their advice of their

(14:06):
general counsel, Paul Cox, who said, yeah, we need to.
I agree that we need to fix this problem, but
he advised the board that they don't have to go
ahead and correct the mistakes of the past, that they
can just keep going as they have been going with
these registrations. That was an unfortunate decision at best, because

(14:27):
he was basically advising them that they didn't have to
do that due diligence. They didn't have to make that
diligent effort to collect this missing information when state law
clearly says that you do. And so it took this
lawsuit from the federal government to make this thing happen.
But really we should have done this on our own

(14:49):
eighteen months ago.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Over the last couple of months as well, I'd be
remiss if I didn't bring up the fact that the
State Board of Elections has recently changed its major political party,
that is income control of the five member board. It
has been a Democrat control board going all the way
back to the beginning of Roy Cooper's term. Now that
authority and those appointments being made by the state Auditor
and Dave Bollock, who is a Republican Andy, do you

(15:13):
think there's anything there as well now that this board
is a three to two Republican the Democrat board as
some of these changes are beginning to roll out, Well.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
That's definitely a part of it, I think. I mean,
it probably made it easier for the board to decide
to settle. Although I will say it was unanimous vote
both of the Democrats on the board also agreed with this.
But you also have to remember the North Carolina Supreme
Court when Jefferson Griffin brought this lawsuit saying that you
should toss out the ballots from these registrants with the

(15:43):
missing HAVA numbers. The state Board, I'm sorry, the Supreme
Court agreed with the substance of Jefferson Griffin's arguments that
these were illegally constituted registrations, but they disagreed with that
post hop tossing the ballots. So the State Board of
Elections was already on notice from the North Carolina Supreme

(16:04):
Court that they were in violation of North Carolina law
and they were going to have to fix this problem.
Then the lawsuit comes from the federal government, and this
provides essentially an opportunity for them to do what they
were going to have to do anyhow, but in this
case doing it under this settlement with the federal government.

(16:25):
And so this was something that was going to happen anyhow,
but this kind of puts a little more oomph in
the process, kind of forcing them to move at maybe
a faster pace than they would have any had on
their own, and that's a good thing because we're going
to have local elections, municipal elections later this year. Then
we've got the primary. If they don't get it done

(16:46):
by the end of the summer, it's going to be
very difficult for them to complete this process before you
get lots and lots of voters starting in the primary
in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
And that process is a kind of a three step
plan that the state Board has rolled out or has
been talking about in his beginning to roll out. Over
the next couple of weeks, they're going to be sending
mail to these one hundred and three thousand plus individuals
on the list. Andy they've got a new website setup
where you can go in and search for your name,
your family members, your friends and alert them that way,
And they seem to be really pushing hard for people

(17:18):
to go to the DMV, the my DMV web portal
where you can renew your license. I guess you can
make some of those changes through there, or visit your
local county Board of Election office, or as you were
just mentioning earlier, the last kind of a step in
all of this is when you show up to vote,
there's going to be a flag on your voting profile
if you still fall into this category. So it seems

(17:39):
like they're going to try to catch every possible person
on this list if they're an engaged voter and are
going to show up and vote in either the municipals
or some of these elections next year.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Right, And that's hopefully this is going to really diminish
the number of registrations that are missing this required information.
The good news is since we have votter idea in
North Carolina, that's probably going to help that last step
a lot, because you know, the most common idea used
is your driver's license, and so folks already know to

(18:10):
bring that in and it's going to help smooth out
that last process, that last phase a lot. Now, there
may be folks that bring in a different ID and
they can't provide that number. They don't have either number memorized.
Then they may have to come back and show it
to election officials to have their ballot counted. As long

(18:31):
as they show up before election day. I think that's
going to be a very small number of folks that
don't have that memory, because who doesn't remember their Social
Security number? So those numbers are going to be available,
there's going to be a really small number of folks
that they're going to have to go back and get
those numbers later. And I expect we're going to be
at least for people that show up to vote, we're

(18:53):
going to be looking at close to one hundred percent
compliance with the law at this point. For people that
are have you either moved out of the states that
these are old registrations, obviously that's going to be a
lot less compliant. So you'll we'll hear some panicking numbers
somewhere down the road like, oh, you know, only you know,
fifty percent of people will lose the right to vote.
Nobody's going to lose the right to vote under the system.

(19:15):
You just when you get the chance to provide the numbers,
your vote will be counted.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
We've got a lot more details on how this process
is set to roll out, on how you can check
your own registration and make sure that that is up
to date and you've got all that required information on
an article over on our website this morning, Carolina Journal
dot com. We appreciate the update. Doctor Andy Jackson from
the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal
News Hour. It's five thirty seven. Welcome back to the

(19:44):
Carolina Journal news our news stock eleven, ten ninety nine
three WBT an interesting story we're tracking this morning over
at Carolina Journal dot com. A North Carolina mother recently
faced an unexpected obstacle while registering homeschool her children. This
is according to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. The state

(20:06):
officials questioned the validity of her college diploma because it
was written in Latin. Her name is Kristen Barclay, and
she recently moved to the state from South Carolina and
submitted her diploma from Sweet Bear College, which is a
well regarded liberal arts school in the state of Virginia.
Sweet Bear issues diplomas in Latin, like many other historical institutions,

(20:31):
including all of the Ivy League schools. However, North Carolina's
Division of Non Public Education DNPE rejected Barclay's submission, stating
that her diploma could not be accepted as evidence of
a sufficient education because it was not written in English.
This led to an automatic classification of her homeschool as

(20:53):
non compliant, placing her in violation of state law unless
she provided acceptable proof of academic credentials. The North Carolina
DNPE mandates that parents who wished to homeschool their children
must have at least a high school diploma or its equivalent.
There is no requirement that says that the documentation must

(21:14):
be in English or accompanied by a certified translation. Despite this,
a DNPE sent Barclay an email, including indicating rather that
the evidence of her education was not written in English
and could not be accepted until further information was provided.
The email reads as follows, One or more problems exist

(21:36):
in your notice of intent. Specifically, the diploma evidence was
not written in English. Your homeschool is not legally registered
with the State of North Carolina. Attempting to resolve the issue,
Kristen Barclay obtained an English translation of her diploma directly
from the college that she went to in Virginia. The
translation restated the contents of the original diploma. However, then

(22:00):
state officials objected again, this time pointing out that the
translation did not include her name. They asked her to
submit her college transcripts as additional proof. Barclay then reached
out to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, a nonprofit organization
that advocates for the rights of homeschool families. Across the

(22:22):
United States. Attorney Darren Jones of the Homeschool Legal Defense
Association reviewed the case and found that the state's request
exceeded what is legally required under North Carolina law. He
contacted DNPE directly to dispute their actions and to clarify
that the documents already submitted meant all applicable legal standards.

(22:46):
Jones emphasized that there is no legal basis to reject
it to Palma solely because it is in Latin. The
DNPE quickly responded to Jones, informing him that the status
of Barclay's homeschool was changed from pending to open. The
vast majority of very many college degrees have some level
of Latin written on them. That's what makes this such

(23:09):
an interesting story. We've got a full rundown on this
this morning over on our website, Carolina Journal dot com,
the headline Latin to ploma confuses officials Stall's homeschool effort.
It's a very interesting story. Again, those details over on
our website, Carolina Journal dot com, keeping our threat on

(23:29):
education this morning. Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff
Jackson joined twenty four other mainly Democrat run states ensuing
the federal government to prevent it from freezing funds for
North Carolina schools and educators. He joined the lawsuit filed
in Rhode Island by the attorney generals of nearly twenty

(23:50):
four other states, including the governors of Philadelphia and Kentucky.
In a press release, our Attorney general said that schools
in the Tarhill state will lose more than one hundred
and sixty five million dollars in funding. That's the state
share of six point eight billion dollars in nationwide federal funding,
and about one thousand educators across the state will lose

(24:13):
their jobs. According to Jeff Jackson, the cuts make up
nearly ten percent of all of the state's federal education funding,
with the Attorney General writing, public schools across North Carolina,
especially in rural areas, need this money to keep teachers
in the classroom and keep kids safe while they learn.

(24:33):
It's unlawful and unconstitutional for the Department of Justice to
withhold money that Congress has appropriated. I'm going to court
to get this money out for our students, our schools,
and North Carolina families. Democrat Governor Josh Stein also reacted
to the news, writing Today, North Carolina is taking action

(24:55):
to unfreeze funding for North Carolina public schools that was
appropriate by Congress. Without these funds, nearly one thousand teachers
will have their jobs taken from them. This money also
provides after school programs, supports children learning English, and helps
adults learn to read. If the grants are eliminated, Wake

(25:17):
County Public Schools stand to lose more than eight million
dollars in federal funding CMS. The Charlotte Mecklenburg School System
is estimated to lose over twelve point two million dollars,
with western North Carolina schools losing the most funding per
pupil or per student. The Wake County Public School System
instituted a hiring freeze two weeks ago in anticipation of

(25:40):
the funding freeze, with the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System and
the school board rather sending a letter to the Department
of Education asking officials to reverse their decision. Nine of
the ten school districts losing the most money per student
are in rural North Carolina. Many of those counties, of
course devastated by Hurricane Helene. Combined, our facing a cut

(26:03):
of roughly eighteen million dollars Moe Green, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, wrote in a press release last week. While
the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction respects the federal
administration's right to review programs, I must emphasize that our
legal obligations to serve these students remained unchanged, and this

(26:25):
timing creates a significant and unnecessary challenge for schools, community organizations,
and most importantly, the children who depend on these services.
I support efforts, including the nationwide lawsuit, to resolve this
situation quickly and ensure that North Carolina students received the
support that they need and deserve, and that our federal

(26:48):
government agreed to provide them. In addition to school budgets
and teacher salaries, the grants that go toured before and
after school programs for students, unity learning centers, and teacher
development programs. The funds were supposed to be released on
July the first of this year, but the Department of
Education suspended them back on June the thirtieth. Brian Balfour,

(27:13):
the vice president of Research of the John Locke Foundation, said, quote,
North Carolina public schools spend three billion dollars in funds
from the federal government per year. The Trump administration's freeze
would represent about five point six percent of federal funding
and is targeted to specific programs and may may prove

(27:34):
to be a temporary hold on the funds rather than
a permanent reduction. Furthermore, total spending on North Carolina public
schools was eighteen billion dollars last year, so one hundred
and sixty nine million dollars is less than one percent
of the total statewide spending. Attorney General Jeff Jackson also
noted that the loss of nearly one thousand teaching positions

(27:57):
across the state could have a major impact on school
districts throughout North Carolina with an ongoing teacher shortage, stating
that from the twenty three to twenty four school year,
data shows that almost nine thousand teachers left the profession
in the state of North Carolina. NCGP communications director Matt

(28:17):
Mercer responded to the press release from the Attorney General,
noting multiple North Carolina cities have seen homicide rates increase
in twenty twenty five, and some North Carolina sheriffs still
refuse to cooperate with ICE, but Jeff Jackson's top priority
is joining with other radically left wing Attorney generals to
spend taxpayer money on a lawsuit against President Trump so

(28:41):
he can raise money for his next act of political opportunism.
The lawsuit came around the same time that the Supreme
Court announced that it would allow the Trump administration to
fire over one thousand Department of Education employees, paving the
way for President Trump to dismantle the department. We've got
some additional details, including a list of some of the

(29:03):
more affected schools as we as I noted, nine out
of the ten school districts losing the most money per
student that per pupil allocation are in western North Carolina.
You can of view the details on that. You can
also read the letter from CMS to the Department of
Education asking them to reverse their decision. All of that

(29:24):
available this morning over on our website Carolina Journal dot com.
The headline NC joins other states ensuing the federal government
for frozen education funds. It's five fifty three. Welcome back
to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Newstock eleven, ten ninety

(29:46):
nine three WBT. The town of Enfield, North Carolina, which
is between Rocky Mount and Roanoke Rapids. It's about forty
five minutes south of the Virginia Border has entered its
fourth day without power, as much most of the town
is still struggling to receive electricity following severe storms that

(30:06):
affected that area over the weekend that damaged the town's
own aging electrical infrastructure. Mayor Mondel Robinson declared a state
of emergency last night, citing risks to public safety, especially
for vulnerable residents who rely on electricity for medical needs.
Now we know temperatures have remained dangerously high across the

(30:28):
state of North Carolina, with heat indexes topping more than
one hundred degrees over the last couple of days. The
town's nearly fifty year old power grid has made restoration
challenges take place. As of Sunday, five of the six
circuits were restored, but with that many residents are still

(30:49):
without power. Hundreds still without power this morning. Mayor Robinson
is calling for state and federal health including emergency disaster
status and long delay laid infrastructure funding, noting that the
outage's serious impacts include spoiled food, uncooled homes, medical concerns
like refrigeration for prescriptions, and the use of seapat machines.

(31:14):
The town is fed by Dominion Energy and It clarified
that it supplies power to a single delivery point within
the town and that the issue lies within the town's
internal electrical grid, not the grid of Dominion Energy. They
noted that they are supporting repairs as needed. There's currently
a shelter, a cooling center, and charging station that is

(31:35):
open at the Infield Middle School, and mobile medical clinics
are opening in the area as well. There's been a
lot of discussion over the last couple of years here
in North Carolina about some aging pieces of the electrical
grid and the electrical infrastructure. You'll remember back just a
couple of Christmases ago, some big time power outages in

(31:57):
North Carolina on Christmas Eve that was due to supplier
and demand issues from Duke Energy at the time. An
electrical substation attacked back last year causing some long term
power outages, and of course, as we continue and head
deeper into the Atlantic hurricane season, a lot of discussion

(32:17):
over aging infrastructure in certain areas of the state, especially
when you look at a small town which Enfield is.
It's only got a population according to the twenty twenty census,
of about eighteen hundred individuals, so it's a relatively small town.
They do control their own electrical grid, as you can imagine,

(32:38):
some big time problems of getting that up to date
and getting some of those restoration projects done due to
some of that aging infrastructure, and likely some financial challenges.
We'll see if we get any additional details on this story,
and we'll continue to track those right here on the
Carolina Journal News Hour. Well, it's been slow in the

(32:59):
General Assembly over the last couple of weeks. However, we
are expecting that to change as we head into next week.
Both the North Carolina House and Senate are set to
gavel back in. They have got a variety of issues
to deal with, including more than eleven veto overrides, discussions
over the full budget, potential discussions over mini budgets. We're

(33:21):
going to have all eyes on the General Assembly as
we head into the latter parts of this week and
early next week right here on the Carolina Journal News
out that's going to do it for a Tuesday edition
at WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning five to six right
here on News Talk eleven ten and ninety nine to
three WBT