July 23, 2025 • 34 mins
A federal audit reveals serious delays at Charlotte’s USPS hub. The NC elections board approves changes for military and overseas voters. Lawmakers will return July 29 for veto override votes. A judge orders a $20K settlement and apology in a school free speech case. A new dashboard boosts budget transparency at the State Auditor’s office. Meanwhile, the U.S. strikes a trade deal with the Philippines imposing 19% tariffs.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's five oh five and welcome into a Wednesday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Our Newstock eleven, ten ninety
nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig. A good morning to you.
A federal audit has uncovered several operational issues at the
Charlotte Regional Processing and Distribution Center, which is one of
the busiest USPS hubs in the Carolinas. The report by
(00:32):
the US Postal Service Office of the Inspector General shows
that the RPDC that's that Regional Processing and Distribution Center,
as well as postal facilities in Concord, Charlotte, and Gastonia,
were responsible for over seventy four thousand pieces of delayed mail.
Delay stead from management's failure to report over seventy four
(00:54):
thousand pieces of undelivered mail, combined with staffing shortages, weak
policy enforcement, and inadequate training, as well as transportation problems
and equipment limitations. The audit evaluated how efficiently the Charlotte
facility managed mail flow, scanning, staffing, transportation, and security procedures.
(01:16):
Of the thirteen recommendations in the Office of the Inspector
General report made by OIG, only three of them had
been fully implemented to date. Among some of the unresolved issues,
late arriving express mail is not being properly flagged by
quality control systems. High rejection rates on package machines are
(01:37):
slowing down operations, and staffing schedules don't align with the
facility's actual mail flow. That's leading to delays and inefficiencies
throughout the system. The report reads, during our observations at
the RPDC on April eight through tenth, twenty twenty five,
we identified delayed mail totaling more than fifty four thousand pieces.
(02:00):
We identified packages in the express Mail Operation Registry cage
and in the manual Package Operation system that were delayed
or at risk of being delayed. Some of this mail
was not properly reported in the Mail Condition of Virtualization
System USPS. Management at the Charlotte facility has already acted
(02:21):
on three of the recommendations, including reviewing and optimizing transportation schedules,
as well as improving employee scanning compliance. These changes are
expected to help reduce mail handling errors and improve tracking accuracy.
The postal service in the area has agreed with all
thirteen of OIG's recommendations and is in the process of
(02:44):
addressing some of those outstanding items. Director of Audit Services
Victoria Smith noted in a letter in response to the
draft of this audit, Management agrees with the five findings
in this report on delayed mail, late mail, canceled mail,
trip scan compliance, secure of registry items, and safety. This
(03:05):
Charlotte distribution Center plays a critical role in mail delivery
for much of North and South Carolina. It is what
the United States Postal Service calls a mega facility. It
was officially opened in twenty twenty three. As the OIG
continues to monitor progress, the report signals that more work
is needed to ensure that the facility can meet performance
(03:27):
standards and maintain the public trust in the United States
Postal Service. We've got some additional details on this audit
and report over on our website this morning. That's Carolina
Journal dot com. The headline audit major delays lapses at
Charlotte USPS Facility. It's now five oh nine. You're listening
to the Carolina Journal News Hour. We've been talking about
(03:50):
the North Carolina State Board of Elections a lot recently.
As they've been there's been a variety of changes going
on there. Earlier this week, discussing some one hundred and
three thousand voters across the state of North Carolina that
are lacking what are known as a have a ID.
The State Board of Elections will be again the process
of sending mail to those individuals to make sure they've
(04:10):
got everything that they need to be in compliance with
not only state but federal law. There's another group of voters, however,
that have some issues that merge all the way back
to the Supreme Court election Jefferson Griffin versus Alison Riggs.
These are overseas and absentee voters without proper of voter identification.
To walk us through some details out of a recent
(04:31):
State Board of Elections meeting, THREESO Opeka Carolina Journal dot
Com joins us on the news hour. Teresa, that was
a hot story for about six months. You have Jefferson
Griffin challenging election results, claiming some impropriety with voter ID.
What's the latest out of the State Board of Elections.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Sure, good morning, Neck, Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, she mentioned that seemed like it was an ongoing
saga for six months. Then that finally came to an
end in May when Griffin conceded. So what he had
protests about several thousand votes, uh, specifically for you know,
military and overseas voters, which the Court of Appeals ruled
(05:11):
on then they must comply with the photo ID requirement
when voting absentee and state and local non federal contests.
Also another thing that came up as well, never residents,
which means they people have either a family connection, parents
were you know, here before moving overseas, and that person
(05:32):
was born overseas. They are also not eligible now to
vote in state and local elections, but they can still
vote in federal elections. That is according to the Court
of Appeals ruling. And the state Board of Elections voted
unanimously affect everything they voted on earlier this week. They
voted unanimously.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
They you know, they were totally agreement with that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I guess they really didn't have much of a choice,
but they did agree to proceed with that ruling.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Let's talk talk about the overseas voters first. From what
I remember back from the Jefferson Griffin Allison Riggs legal
battle in court drama that unfolded, state ID or state
law changed back a couple of years ago Teresa to
mandate those voting in the state of North Carolina were
required to show proper identification. For the vast majority of folks,
(06:20):
of course, that would be a state issue driver's license. However,
that's a little bit tricky when you look at individuals
overseas where they're typically not voting in person. They're doing
it either online if they're in the military, or through
absentee by mail if they're just a resident overseas. How
is the state board going to tackle those voters going forward?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sure, so for the military and overseas voters, they.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Have to conclude a copy of their photo ID, and
maybe necessarily it doesn't have to be a driver's license,
but any photo ID with their ballot or a photo
ID exception form.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
They have to have that in with their ballot, just like.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
A civilian voter, and they can upload the document using
the online portal or they can mail it in. However,
if they do mail it in, there is a curing
process that would be at least three days after election day,
that following Friday at noon, which they have to have
everything in and then county boards are going to use
the same curing process like they do for civilian voters.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So that's obviously a significant change in that process for
some of those overseas and military voters. This group of
never residents. Teresa, this has always been an interesting story.
You kind of walked us through a little bit. If
you're you parents are from North Carolina, but you were
let's say, born overseas, somehow you're able to vote in
North Carolina elections. The whole thing has been rather interesting.
(07:45):
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Sure? Sure so? Exactly what she said.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
State law used to allow them to vote in all elections,
regardless it was a federal election, state local election. They
used to let them do that. But the Court of
Appeals they took a look at the state constitution and said,
you know, there's a residency requirement in the state constitution
for voting in state and local elections. So that they
made that Nolan void as far as going forward, but
(08:13):
they left in place the provision to vote in federal elections.
One thing that was discussed at the meeting earlier this week,
the officials they weren't sure of how many never residents
were they are actually the exec number they had anything
from two hundred to under one thousand.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So we'll just say roughly, you.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Know, a couple hundred people are considered ever residents at
this point. But also board member Jeff Carmen asked, going
back to the military, just want to touch on that
for a second. You know, are you letting people overseas
or military, you know, know the changes? And General Counsel
Paul Cox said, yep. We're in talks with the Department
(08:54):
of Defense to let them know. They put a guide
together and they have specific information for each state, so
people overseas and in the military should definitely know what's
going on with the changes.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
THREESA. It's important to note you follow state politics very closely.
You mentioned that this was a unanimous decision from the
State Board of Elections. The other story that we've been
tracking over the last couple of weeks, these have a
ID numbers. That was also a unanimous decision by the board.
There are three Republicans and two Democrats. Do you read
(09:26):
anything into these unanimous decisions? That's not been the case
in a lot of decisions that the State Board has made,
let's just say, over the last twelve or twenty four months,
right right, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know, you know, we do a reversal of how
the board used to look.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Used to be the majority three with Democrat and then
rest for a Republican the two.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
But I think I think maybe the boards as.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
A total, seeing the writing on the wall, this is
the new ruling. You've got to go by the ruling
that came up. And really even Jeff carr And said
he he prefaced one of his votes the other day saying, well,
you know, based on this ruling, I'm going to vote
this way. He actually did say that. So I think
they know that they begrudgingly. Maybe some of them are
(10:13):
saying yes, Maybe the Democrats are saying yes. Can't say
for certain all you know the two, but I know
that statement was made. So I think things have kind
of the tide has kind of turned.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
As far as the way things are going to be
going from here on out.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I'm not saying there won't be differences, but I think
in this case they kind of know they how to
do with this.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We've got a lot more details. Again for those in
these specific voting groups, where can they find those? This morning?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Sure they can head on over to Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
It's five twenty one. Welcome back, to The Carolina Journal
News Our Newstalk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT. The
North Carolina House and Senate or reconvene coming up on Tuesday,
(11:02):
that's July the twenty ninth, aiming to override multiple vetos
issued by Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat who took office
in January. In total, the governor has vetoed fourteen bills
from the state legislature this year, and each chamber will
review seven of those vetos, sending them across to the
(11:22):
other chamber if overridden. Senate Leader Phil Berger, the Republican
out of Rockingham County, sharply criticized Stein's vetos in a
press release this week, saying, by vetoing these common sense bills,
Governor Stein confirms that he is out of touch with
the people of North Carolina. He tolerates criminal illegal aliens
(11:44):
roaming our streets, divisive DEI concepts in our schools, and
government infringement infringements on our Second Amendment rights. I look
forward to leading Senate Republicans and overriding these harmful vetos
and putting North Carolin line of families first. With Republicans
currently holding a super majority in the North Carolina Senate
(12:06):
and being just one vote short in the House, overriding
Stein's vetos will require full attendance and support from at
least one House Democrat. The following bills are on the
Senate calendar for next week or start with Senate Bill
fifty that's the Freedom to Carry n See Act, which
allows permitless concealed carry of handguns for adults aged eighteen
(12:30):
and over. It passed the Senate in a twenty six
to eighteen vote. Then the House followed suit, passing it
one oh seven to fifty nine with no House Democrats
voting in favor. We then moved to Senate Bill one
point fifty three. That's the North Carolina Border Protection Act.
That piece of legislation mandates cooperation with federal immigration enforcement
(12:52):
and empowers residents to sue local governments that adopt quote
sanctuary policies. It passed the Senate in a twenty six
to seventeen vote, and the House voted in favor one
oh six to forty eight, with no House Democrats of
voting in favor of that legislation either. Senate Bill two
twenty seven, eliminating DEI in public K through twelve Education
(13:16):
that legislation would prohibit DEI offices and diversity training in
public schools by targeting divisive concepts like race based meritocracy.
No House Democrats voted on that legislation either. Senate Bill
five point fifty eight eliminating DEI in public higher education
(13:36):
Similar to the last bill, however, this prohibits DEI offices
and statements within the UNC system, campuses, and community colleges.
It passed the Senate on a party line votes, with
opponents arguing it quote chills free speech, while supporters say
it combats divisive campus policies. Once again, no House Democrats
(13:58):
voted in favor. Senate Bill two fifty four Charter School Changes,
expands charter school authority by empowering the Charter School Review Board.
The Board of Education criticized the measure as unconstitutional. However,
this piece of legislation did pass both chambers, with eight
House Democrats of voting in favor. So Senate Bill two
(14:21):
fifty four is going to be an interesting one to
keep an eye on. Senate Bill two sixty six, that's
the Power Bill Reduction Act. It repeals North Carolina's Intern
twenty thirty carbon reduction mandate. Projected to save consumers across
North Carolina some fifteen billion dollars by eliminating costly compliance measures.
(14:43):
It passed the Senate in a twenty nine to eleven vote.
The House also approved it, with three House Democrats voting
in favor, and the final piece of legislation on the
Senate calendar for next week, Senate Bill four to sixteen,
the Personal Privacy Protection Act, bar state agencies from collecting
or disclosing nonprofit donor data, imposing penalties on officials who
(15:08):
disclose that information. The Senate passed it, but as governor
did veto at citing unrelated amendments. GOP lawmakers argues it
protects free speech, and three House Democrats once again voted
in favor of that legislation, so those seven pieces will
be taken up by the North Carolina Senate sometime next Tuesday.
(15:31):
On the House side, lawmakers will consider the following of
vetos for and over following bills for a veto override,
starting with House Built one ninety three. That's the Firearms
Law Revision. This bill passed both chambers, with the House
concurring with changes made by the Senate. The final House
vote was sixty one forty six, with one Democrat voting
(15:53):
in favor. House Built ninety six the Expedited Removal of
Unauthorized Persons Act. The Governor vetoed this legislation, stating that
while he generally supported its core provisions, he opposed an
amendment that the increased regulation of pet stores. The bill
received bipartisan support, with seventeen House Democrats joining Republicans to
(16:18):
pass the measure. House Bill eight h five preventing a
sexual Exploitation of women and miners defined sex and state
law based on biological attributes and bars K through twelve
schools from placing male and female students in the same
sleeping quarters. It also prohibits state funds for gender transition
(16:40):
procedures in correction facilities, as well as increases the statute
of limitation on lawsuits for transaction for a transition surgeries
for up to ten years. Only one House Democrat voted
in favor of House Bill eight oh five. House Bill
one seventy one Equality in State Agencies Slash prohibition on diversity,
(17:04):
equity and inclusion bans DEI initiatives in state government agencies.
No House Democrats voted to support that legislation. The North
Carolina House will also look at overriding House Bill five
point forty nine that clarifies powers of the State Auditor,
which would give State Auditor Dave Bollock broader access to
(17:26):
state agency databases, digital records, facilities, and property. One Democrat
voted for that legislation. House Bill four h two Limit
Rules Within Substantial Financial Cost originally called the Reins Act.
This bill would require greater legislative scrutiny for rules that
(17:46):
impose high financial costs on state businesses and residents. Important
to note three House Democrats voted in favor of what
was the Rains Act at the time. And finally, the
last piece of legislation on the House override calendar, House
Bill three eighteen of the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act
(18:07):
that tightens the timeline on law mandating that law enforcement
alert ice before an illegal alien criminal suspect is scheduled
to be release. This is one of two bills that
House Republican that the House Republican Caucus is focused on
to target politically vulnerable Democrats ahead of the twenty twenty
(18:27):
six mid term elections. One House Democrat voted in favor
of that piece of legislation. Successful overrides would represent a
significant political win for the GOP led General Assembly. While
Governor Stein and the legislature have so far focused on
hurricane recovery efforts, the high veto precedent set by Stein's predecessor,
(18:51):
Governor Roy Cooper, could reignite partisan tentions as the state
looks ahead to the twenty twenty six mid term elections.
You can read more details on all of these fourteen
pieces of legislation that Governor Josh Stein did to veto.
We've got those over on our website, Carolina Journal dot com.
(19:11):
The headline state Legislature to return July twenty ninth for
vetobride votes. Again those details at Carolina Journal dot com.
It's five thirty seven. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal
News Hour Newstalk eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. A
(19:33):
federal judge signed an order a Tuesday officially settling a
legal dispute between the Davidson County School Board and a
former student suspended over his use of the word illegal
alien in class. We've had some updates on this story
over the last six months or so. US District Judge
Thomas Schroder's order confirmed that the settlement includes a public
(19:57):
apology to Christian McGee that's the student in discussion, and
a twenty thousand dollars payment to his family. Schroiter had
announced in court on July the first that he'd accepted
terms of the settlement for McGee, identified as CM in
the court records. The judge agreed with the McGee's parents
that the settlement is quote fair, reasonable, and in the
(20:20):
best interests of their son. Just a little backstory. Christian
McGee was suspended in April of twenty twenty four after
referencing illegal aliens during a high school class discussion. According
to the Liberty Justice Center, which is which represented the
McGee family, Christian asked during an English class, do you
(20:40):
mean space aliens or illegal aliens who need Green cards?
The school suspended him for three days and added a
note of racial insensitivity to his public and permanent record.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit arguing that
the school's actions violated McGee's f First Amendment rights. Dean McGhee,
(21:02):
senior counsel and director of Educational Freedom at the Liberty
Justice Center, called the court's approval a critical step towards
a finally vindicating Christian's constitutional rights and clearing his record
of false allegations. Christian's mother, Leah told The Carolina Journal
earlier this month that the ordeal forced the family into
(21:25):
a crash course on student rights, telling the Carolina Journal
at the time, it's really opened our entire family's eyes
to the fact that students aren't really being taught their rights.
Arsn learned more about his constitutional rights through this process
than he ever learned from any of his teachers in
high school. She described the case as transformative for Christian
(21:49):
and his families, and in the weeks following his suspension,
the media attention caught the eye of the White House.
Christian received a personal letter of recommendation from President Trump,
and Christian also recently visited the United States Capital to
learn more about individual rights. We've got a lengthy piece
this morning, including all of the backstory and details and
(22:11):
what many are calling a completely ridiculous argument here by
the Davidson County and by the Davidson's County school Board,
and some of the decisions by the school in which
Christian was attending at the time. You can read all
of those over on our website Carolina Journal dot com.
The headline. Judge's order confirms twenty thousand dollars payment public
(22:31):
apology in a legal alien case. It's now five point forty.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. If you
talk to a vast majority of voters, not only here
in North Carolina, but across the United States, they would
probably say that they wanted government to have more transparency
in what it was doing. One of the agencies responsible
for transparency and bringing information to light in North Carolina
(22:55):
is the State Auditor's Office that is now controlled by
State Auditor Dave Bullock after his election and win in
November of last year, and the Auditor's office has rolled
out a new internal dashboard so you can keep an
eye on what's going on in the Auditor's office. To
walk us through some of those details and tell us
exactly what's going on here, Teres Opeka, Carolina Journal dot
Com joins us on the news hour. I guess Teresa
(23:17):
be accurate to say, now the public can see what's
going on in the Auditor's office. That's a pretty substantial
step from my vantage point.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Oh absolutely, absolutely, Thanks Nick for having me so. Yeah,
I mean, you know, he's known.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Or the Auditor's office is known as the watchdog, watching
over everything, watching the spending up all stay agencies and institutions.
And now they kind of flipping the script there with
having the public go ahead and watch what they're doing.
So yeah, Auditor Dave Bullock released this press release yesterday
announcing this that they are going to have a new
(23:51):
budget dashboard.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's up and running on the website.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
In a bit to deliver better government transparency, he says,
you know, he wanted to have opening access to his
office spending. They're leading the charge to create a more
transparent government in North Carolina, and it makes it easily
accessible to the public.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They can take a look at it. You know, he's been.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Fighting for this since he got into office, actually before
he got into office, is what he said. There's plenty
of details when it comes to this, but yeah, it's
he's basically they're shining a line on their own office.
Which is remarkable, right because well, we even have like
the General Assembly who want to do in BEAC did
what close.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Up their records?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You couldn't look up records now that they can maybe
possibly destroy them. So this is like the exact opposite.
So it is refreshing to see that for a state agency,
especially the one who watches over all the other state agencies.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
THREEZA, you follow the Council of State. Very close to
the Council of State includes people like the State Auditor
and other cabinet level officials that many folks who are
voted on every four years here in North Carolina. Do
you think this moved by State Auditor Dave bow to say, Hey,
you know, we're not just going to go around investigating
all of these towns and municipalities, but now you're going
to be able to go and look and see what
(25:06):
we're doing. I think he's maybe trying to force the
hand of some of these other state agencies to maybe
say it stopped, and now here's your opportunity, here's your
time to offer some of the similar level of transparency
to the public as well.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
He might be. I think it's a great idea that
he's you know, taking charge.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
The initiative to do this is a definite possibility, and
I think you are seeing some agencies take a little
bit of attack and doing this. I know Department of
Labor Luke Farley, he's been more active than I can
remember anybody in recent times being active in that department
just as an example and saying what they're doing and
(25:49):
putting more press releases.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Out or going around and doing this and doing that.
I think Stage Treasurer Brad Reiner has been really forthcoming.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
He's been putting out different videos and announcements and press releases.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I mean, we had Dale folwell and did that as well.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
But I think you're seeing a new trend as far
as transparency is going, and I think Auditor Bullock is
definitely leading the way in that. So hopefully he will
rub off on even more and set a good example.
I mean, it seems to be a really good.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Thing he's doing.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Transparency obviously is the key cornerstone and the very important
part of this. But Teresa, you know, transparency is great,
but the information also has to be digestible. You know,
regular members of the public and even yourself and me.
You look at some of these reports from whether it's
the Auditor's office in the past or other state agencies,
and your eyes just gloss over. It's a seventy page
(26:42):
PDF with information all over the place. Yeah, it's great
that it's out there, but it's incredibly hard to digest
this information. So yes, the transparency is important, but making
it actually available and readily usable by the public, I
think is also a key step in that.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah, where you hearing me talk about my writing a
story the other day, taking time to break things down,
make it actually readable for the public and for yourself.
You're absolutely correct. And the dashboard is it's really nice
how they have it's set up. They have all the
different revenue sources, expenses, spending by a vendor for state
fiscal year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
They've got it all broken down.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
It's easily readable, digestible, you can really understand it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Did a really nice job on it. So you're right.
It's not sifting through seventy pages of what is this
and what does this mean?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And oh god, I'm getting a headache from reading it all. No,
you're right, and it's geared toward the public and public access.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Now, this dashboard, obviously it's new as it's looking at
the spending within the State Auditor's office. But these dashboards
have been something that they Bolick and his team have
been pretty diligent with since the early days in his office.
They've got a couple of these dashboards out right now
tracking similar spending. I know one of the big ones
is Hurricane Helene. These have been pretty impactful from everything
that I've been able to follow.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Oh yeah, yeah again transparency rights.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
He led the way in this as far as I
haven't seen anything like this before, didn't have Hurricane Helene before,
but we haven't really had any different dashboards as far
as State Auditor's office really quickly.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Mentioned the weather.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
One he has is the NC Financial Snapshot Dashboard. It's
from the Office of the State Controllers N see cash
Watch report. Basically how much money the state has. It's
how much is in reserve, how much is available, things
of that nature. But the bigger one, of course, she said,
Helen Recovery dashboard. And you know that's showing you how
many people were housed households seeking assistance, all the different
(28:42):
expenditures when it comes to what's being spent as far
as the budget, and also taking a look at grow
and see. That was the agency set up by Governor
Josh Stein to separate from ENCORE, which has done a
really horrible job. Let's be honest with Eastern and North
Carolina under hurricanes Matthew and Florence. He set that up
(29:03):
as one of his first actions in office when he
took office in January. So there's a growing see tab
that shows you know how many millions of dollars in
payroll expenditures and actual operational expenditures they have.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You can click through all of them.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Again, everything is easily readable, digestible, you understand what's there.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So since here, kudos to.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Auditor Bullet for putting this all together, not only on
his office, but all of the other dashboards including Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, these are great and again really digestible by the public.
We've got links to not only this new dashboard looking
at the auditor's office itself, but some of these other dashboards.
Those are linked in our story this morning over at
Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Tereso Peka
joins us on the Carolina Journal News out It's five
(30:06):
point fifty three. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News
Hour news Stock eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. Yesterday,
President Donald Trump announced that a trade deal pack had
been reached with the Philippines. We've been keeping a very
close eye on tariffs and everything related to tariffs here
on the Carolina Journal News Hour Philippine imports will be
(30:28):
tariffed at nineteen percent. In contrast, US exports to the
Philippines will have zero tariffs, and the nation will and
the nations will cooperate militarily. According to reports, yesterday, President
Donald Trump posting on truth Social Rope, the President Marcos
of the Philippines is just leaving the White House with
(30:49):
all of his many representatives. It was a beautiful visit
and we concluded our trade deal, whereby the Philippines is
going open market with the United States and zero tariffs.
The Philippines will pay a nineteen percent tariff into the
United States. In addition, we will work together militarily. It
(31:09):
was a great honor to be with the President. He
is highly respected in his country, as he should be.
He is also a very good and tough negotiator. We
extend our warmest regards to the wonderful people of the Philippines.
Trump had threatened twenty percent tariffs before the deal in
a recent letter to the President of the Philippines. According
(31:31):
to news reports, he also proposed seventeen percent tariffs on
that country during his Liberation Day announcement that happened back
in April of this year. In twenty twenty four, according
to a Wall Street Journal report, the United States recorded
four point nine billion dollars worth of trade good deficits
with the Philippines, ranking it as its thirty third largest
(31:55):
trading partner in total goods traded earnings. Reports from BLA
trip companies continue to come in, with Coca Cola, General Motors,
and Lockheed Martin among the latest to release results. According
to the Wall Street Journal, despite increased sale, many of
these country and many of these companies that do business
(32:15):
with the Philippines saw profit declines as some of the
TEARFF pressures do continue. According to data from the Economic
Development Partnership of North Carolina, year to date through May,
imports from the Philippines to North Carolina have increased by
thirty four percent from seventy two million dollars last year
(32:37):
to more than ninety six point six million dollars this year.
Exports from North Carolina to the Philippines year to date
through May have decreased slightly by point six percent, from
forty six point four million to forty six point one million,
according to Joseph Harris's fiscal policy analyst at the John
(32:58):
Locke Foundation. He said but In twenty twenty four, the
United States accounted for approximately seventeen percent of all of
the Philippines' exports, making it a top destination for goods,
surpassing Japan at fourteen percent and China at thirteen percent.
Given that more than half of all Philippine exports consisted
(33:19):
of electrical machinery and equipment, it is highly likely that
the Philippines accepted the deal in exchange for guaranteed or
enhanced access to the United States market for its most
valuable export categories. US Trade Secretary Scott Bessett said that
he would soon meet with Chinese officials, noting a yesterday quote,
(33:42):
I think trade is in a very good place with China.
We're going to be talking about a lot of other
things that our countries can do together. He is expecting
a meeting coming up next week July the twenty eighth,
in Stockholm with Chinese officials, leading to extending a trade
deal that currently expose on August the twelfth. This is
(34:02):
following an extension earlier this month to August the first
for imposing looming tariffs. The administration indicated that there would
not be another delay in that tariff deadline. Tariff's been
a major topic of discussion over the last six months
or so. We continue to focus on its impact here
on various North Carolina industries. We've got some details on
(34:25):
this trade deal between the United States and the Philippines.
Additional coverage over on our website This morning, Carolina Journal
dot com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday
edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, WBT News is next.
Follwed bye, Good morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning,
five to six. Right here, Bob News Talk eleven, ten
and ninety nine three WBT
It's five oh five and welcome into a Wednesday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Our Newstock eleven, ten ninety
nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig. A good morning to you.
A federal audit has uncovered several operational issues at the
Charlotte Regional Processing and Distribution Center, which is one of
the busiest USPS hubs in the Carolinas. The report by
(00:32):
the US Postal Service Office of the Inspector General shows
that the RPDC that's that Regional Processing and Distribution Center,
as well as postal facilities in Concord, Charlotte, and Gastonia,
were responsible for over seventy four thousand pieces of delayed mail.
Delay stead from management's failure to report over seventy four
(00:54):
thousand pieces of undelivered mail, combined with staffing shortages, weak
policy enforcement, and inadequate training, as well as transportation problems
and equipment limitations. The audit evaluated how efficiently the Charlotte
facility managed mail flow, scanning, staffing, transportation, and security procedures.
(01:16):
Of the thirteen recommendations in the Office of the Inspector
General report made by OIG, only three of them had
been fully implemented to date. Among some of the unresolved issues,
late arriving express mail is not being properly flagged by
quality control systems. High rejection rates on package machines are
(01:37):
slowing down operations, and staffing schedules don't align with the
facility's actual mail flow. That's leading to delays and inefficiencies
throughout the system. The report reads, during our observations at
the RPDC on April eight through tenth, twenty twenty five,
we identified delayed mail totaling more than fifty four thousand pieces.
(02:00):
We identified packages in the express Mail Operation Registry cage
and in the manual Package Operation system that were delayed
or at risk of being delayed. Some of this mail
was not properly reported in the Mail Condition of Virtualization
System USPS. Management at the Charlotte facility has already acted
(02:21):
on three of the recommendations, including reviewing and optimizing transportation schedules,
as well as improving employee scanning compliance. These changes are
expected to help reduce mail handling errors and improve tracking accuracy.
The postal service in the area has agreed with all
thirteen of OIG's recommendations and is in the process of
(02:44):
addressing some of those outstanding items. Director of Audit Services
Victoria Smith noted in a letter in response to the
draft of this audit, Management agrees with the five findings
in this report on delayed mail, late mail, canceled mail,
trip scan compliance, secure of registry items, and safety. This
(03:05):
Charlotte distribution Center plays a critical role in mail delivery
for much of North and South Carolina. It is what
the United States Postal Service calls a mega facility. It
was officially opened in twenty twenty three. As the OIG
continues to monitor progress, the report signals that more work
is needed to ensure that the facility can meet performance
(03:27):
standards and maintain the public trust in the United States
Postal Service. We've got some additional details on this audit
and report over on our website this morning. That's Carolina
Journal dot com. The headline audit major delays lapses at
Charlotte USPS Facility. It's now five oh nine. You're listening
to the Carolina Journal News Hour. We've been talking about
(03:50):
the North Carolina State Board of Elections a lot recently.
As they've been there's been a variety of changes going
on there. Earlier this week, discussing some one hundred and
three thousand voters across the state of North Carolina that
are lacking what are known as a have a ID.
The State Board of Elections will be again the process
of sending mail to those individuals to make sure they've
(04:10):
got everything that they need to be in compliance with
not only state but federal law. There's another group of voters, however,
that have some issues that merge all the way back
to the Supreme Court election Jefferson Griffin versus Alison Riggs.
These are overseas and absentee voters without proper of voter identification.
To walk us through some details out of a recent
(04:31):
State Board of Elections meeting, THREESO Opeka Carolina Journal dot
Com joins us on the news hour. Teresa, that was
a hot story for about six months. You have Jefferson
Griffin challenging election results, claiming some impropriety with voter ID.
What's the latest out of the State Board of Elections.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Sure, good morning, Neck, Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, she mentioned that seemed like it was an ongoing
saga for six months. Then that finally came to an
end in May when Griffin conceded. So what he had
protests about several thousand votes, uh, specifically for you know,
military and overseas voters, which the Court of Appeals ruled
(05:11):
on then they must comply with the photo ID requirement
when voting absentee and state and local non federal contests.
Also another thing that came up as well, never residents,
which means they people have either a family connection, parents
were you know, here before moving overseas, and that person
(05:32):
was born overseas. They are also not eligible now to
vote in state and local elections, but they can still
vote in federal elections. That is according to the Court
of Appeals ruling. And the state Board of Elections voted
unanimously affect everything they voted on earlier this week. They
voted unanimously.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
They you know, they were totally agreement with that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I guess they really didn't have much of a choice,
but they did agree to proceed with that ruling.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Let's talk talk about the overseas voters first. From what
I remember back from the Jefferson Griffin Allison Riggs legal
battle in court drama that unfolded, state ID or state
law changed back a couple of years ago Teresa to
mandate those voting in the state of North Carolina were
required to show proper identification. For the vast majority of folks,
(06:20):
of course, that would be a state issue driver's license. However,
that's a little bit tricky when you look at individuals
overseas where they're typically not voting in person. They're doing
it either online if they're in the military, or through
absentee by mail if they're just a resident overseas. How
is the state board going to tackle those voters going forward?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sure, so for the military and overseas voters, they.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Have to conclude a copy of their photo ID, and
maybe necessarily it doesn't have to be a driver's license,
but any photo ID with their ballot or a photo
ID exception form.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
They have to have that in with their ballot, just like.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
A civilian voter, and they can upload the document using
the online portal or they can mail it in. However,
if they do mail it in, there is a curing
process that would be at least three days after election day,
that following Friday at noon, which they have to have
everything in and then county boards are going to use
the same curing process like they do for civilian voters.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So that's obviously a significant change in that process for
some of those overseas and military voters. This group of
never residents. Teresa, this has always been an interesting story.
You kind of walked us through a little bit. If
you're you parents are from North Carolina, but you were
let's say, born overseas, somehow you're able to vote in
North Carolina elections. The whole thing has been rather interesting.
(07:45):
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Sure? Sure so? Exactly what she said.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
State law used to allow them to vote in all elections,
regardless it was a federal election, state local election. They
used to let them do that. But the Court of
Appeals they took a look at the state constitution and said,
you know, there's a residency requirement in the state constitution
for voting in state and local elections. So that they
made that Nolan void as far as going forward, but
(08:13):
they left in place the provision to vote in federal elections.
One thing that was discussed at the meeting earlier this week,
the officials they weren't sure of how many never residents
were they are actually the exec number they had anything
from two hundred to under one thousand.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So we'll just say roughly, you.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Know, a couple hundred people are considered ever residents at
this point. But also board member Jeff Carmen asked, going
back to the military, just want to touch on that
for a second. You know, are you letting people overseas
or military, you know, know the changes? And General Counsel
Paul Cox said, yep. We're in talks with the Department
(08:54):
of Defense to let them know. They put a guide
together and they have specific information for each state, so
people overseas and in the military should definitely know what's
going on with the changes.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
THREESA. It's important to note you follow state politics very closely.
You mentioned that this was a unanimous decision from the
State Board of Elections. The other story that we've been
tracking over the last couple of weeks, these have a
ID numbers. That was also a unanimous decision by the board.
There are three Republicans and two Democrats. Do you read
(09:26):
anything into these unanimous decisions? That's not been the case
in a lot of decisions that the State Board has made,
let's just say, over the last twelve or twenty four months,
right right, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know, you know, we do a reversal of how
the board used to look.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Used to be the majority three with Democrat and then
rest for a Republican the two.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
But I think I think maybe the boards as.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
A total, seeing the writing on the wall, this is
the new ruling. You've got to go by the ruling
that came up. And really even Jeff carr And said
he he prefaced one of his votes the other day saying, well,
you know, based on this ruling, I'm going to vote
this way. He actually did say that. So I think
they know that they begrudgingly. Maybe some of them are
(10:13):
saying yes, Maybe the Democrats are saying yes. Can't say
for certain all you know the two, but I know
that statement was made. So I think things have kind
of the tide has kind of turned.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
As far as the way things are going to be
going from here on out.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I'm not saying there won't be differences, but I think
in this case they kind of know they how to
do with this.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We've got a lot more details. Again for those in
these specific voting groups, where can they find those? This morning?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Sure they can head on over to Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
It's five twenty one. Welcome back, to The Carolina Journal
News Our Newstalk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT. The
North Carolina House and Senate or reconvene coming up on Tuesday,
(11:02):
that's July the twenty ninth, aiming to override multiple vetos
issued by Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat who took office
in January. In total, the governor has vetoed fourteen bills
from the state legislature this year, and each chamber will
review seven of those vetos, sending them across to the
(11:22):
other chamber if overridden. Senate Leader Phil Berger, the Republican
out of Rockingham County, sharply criticized Stein's vetos in a
press release this week, saying, by vetoing these common sense bills,
Governor Stein confirms that he is out of touch with
the people of North Carolina. He tolerates criminal illegal aliens
(11:44):
roaming our streets, divisive DEI concepts in our schools, and
government infringement infringements on our Second Amendment rights. I look
forward to leading Senate Republicans and overriding these harmful vetos
and putting North Carolin line of families first. With Republicans
currently holding a super majority in the North Carolina Senate
(12:06):
and being just one vote short in the House, overriding
Stein's vetos will require full attendance and support from at
least one House Democrat. The following bills are on the
Senate calendar for next week or start with Senate Bill
fifty that's the Freedom to Carry n See Act, which
allows permitless concealed carry of handguns for adults aged eighteen
(12:30):
and over. It passed the Senate in a twenty six
to eighteen vote. Then the House followed suit, passing it
one oh seven to fifty nine with no House Democrats
voting in favor. We then moved to Senate Bill one
point fifty three. That's the North Carolina Border Protection Act.
That piece of legislation mandates cooperation with federal immigration enforcement
(12:52):
and empowers residents to sue local governments that adopt quote
sanctuary policies. It passed the Senate in a twenty six
to seventeen vote, and the House voted in favor one
oh six to forty eight, with no House Democrats of
voting in favor of that legislation either. Senate Bill two
twenty seven, eliminating DEI in public K through twelve Education
(13:16):
that legislation would prohibit DEI offices and diversity training in
public schools by targeting divisive concepts like race based meritocracy.
No House Democrats voted on that legislation either. Senate Bill
five point fifty eight eliminating DEI in public higher education
(13:36):
Similar to the last bill, however, this prohibits DEI offices
and statements within the UNC system, campuses, and community colleges.
It passed the Senate on a party line votes, with
opponents arguing it quote chills free speech, while supporters say
it combats divisive campus policies. Once again, no House Democrats
(13:58):
voted in favor. Senate Bill two fifty four Charter School Changes,
expands charter school authority by empowering the Charter School Review Board.
The Board of Education criticized the measure as unconstitutional. However,
this piece of legislation did pass both chambers, with eight
House Democrats of voting in favor. So Senate Bill two
(14:21):
fifty four is going to be an interesting one to
keep an eye on. Senate Bill two sixty six, that's
the Power Bill Reduction Act. It repeals North Carolina's Intern
twenty thirty carbon reduction mandate. Projected to save consumers across
North Carolina some fifteen billion dollars by eliminating costly compliance measures.
(14:43):
It passed the Senate in a twenty nine to eleven vote.
The House also approved it, with three House Democrats voting
in favor, and the final piece of legislation on the
Senate calendar for next week, Senate Bill four to sixteen,
the Personal Privacy Protection Act, bar state agencies from collecting
or disclosing nonprofit donor data, imposing penalties on officials who
(15:08):
disclose that information. The Senate passed it, but as governor
did veto at citing unrelated amendments. GOP lawmakers argues it
protects free speech, and three House Democrats once again voted
in favor of that legislation, so those seven pieces will
be taken up by the North Carolina Senate sometime next Tuesday.
(15:31):
On the House side, lawmakers will consider the following of
vetos for and over following bills for a veto override,
starting with House Built one ninety three. That's the Firearms
Law Revision. This bill passed both chambers, with the House
concurring with changes made by the Senate. The final House
vote was sixty one forty six, with one Democrat voting
(15:53):
in favor. House Built ninety six the Expedited Removal of
Unauthorized Persons Act. The Governor vetoed this legislation, stating that
while he generally supported its core provisions, he opposed an
amendment that the increased regulation of pet stores. The bill
received bipartisan support, with seventeen House Democrats joining Republicans to
(16:18):
pass the measure. House Bill eight h five preventing a
sexual Exploitation of women and miners defined sex and state
law based on biological attributes and bars K through twelve
schools from placing male and female students in the same
sleeping quarters. It also prohibits state funds for gender transition
(16:40):
procedures in correction facilities, as well as increases the statute
of limitation on lawsuits for transaction for a transition surgeries
for up to ten years. Only one House Democrat voted
in favor of House Bill eight oh five. House Bill
one seventy one Equality in State Agencies Slash prohibition on diversity,
(17:04):
equity and inclusion bans DEI initiatives in state government agencies.
No House Democrats voted to support that legislation. The North
Carolina House will also look at overriding House Bill five
point forty nine that clarifies powers of the State Auditor,
which would give State Auditor Dave Bollock broader access to
(17:26):
state agency databases, digital records, facilities, and property. One Democrat
voted for that legislation. House Bill four h two Limit
Rules Within Substantial Financial Cost originally called the Reins Act.
This bill would require greater legislative scrutiny for rules that
(17:46):
impose high financial costs on state businesses and residents. Important
to note three House Democrats voted in favor of what
was the Rains Act at the time. And finally, the
last piece of legislation on the House override calendar, House
Bill three eighteen of the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act
(18:07):
that tightens the timeline on law mandating that law enforcement
alert ice before an illegal alien criminal suspect is scheduled
to be release. This is one of two bills that
House Republican that the House Republican Caucus is focused on
to target politically vulnerable Democrats ahead of the twenty twenty
(18:27):
six mid term elections. One House Democrat voted in favor
of that piece of legislation. Successful overrides would represent a
significant political win for the GOP led General Assembly. While
Governor Stein and the legislature have so far focused on
hurricane recovery efforts, the high veto precedent set by Stein's predecessor,
(18:51):
Governor Roy Cooper, could reignite partisan tentions as the state
looks ahead to the twenty twenty six mid term elections.
You can read more details on all of these fourteen
pieces of legislation that Governor Josh Stein did to veto.
We've got those over on our website, Carolina Journal dot com.
(19:11):
The headline state Legislature to return July twenty ninth for
vetobride votes. Again those details at Carolina Journal dot com.
It's five thirty seven. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal
News Hour Newstalk eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. A
(19:33):
federal judge signed an order a Tuesday officially settling a
legal dispute between the Davidson County School Board and a
former student suspended over his use of the word illegal
alien in class. We've had some updates on this story
over the last six months or so. US District Judge
Thomas Schroder's order confirmed that the settlement includes a public
(19:57):
apology to Christian McGee that's the student in discussion, and
a twenty thousand dollars payment to his family. Schroiter had
announced in court on July the first that he'd accepted
terms of the settlement for McGee, identified as CM in
the court records. The judge agreed with the McGee's parents
that the settlement is quote fair, reasonable, and in the
(20:20):
best interests of their son. Just a little backstory. Christian
McGee was suspended in April of twenty twenty four after
referencing illegal aliens during a high school class discussion. According
to the Liberty Justice Center, which is which represented the
McGee family, Christian asked during an English class, do you
(20:40):
mean space aliens or illegal aliens who need Green cards?
The school suspended him for three days and added a
note of racial insensitivity to his public and permanent record.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit arguing that
the school's actions violated McGee's f First Amendment rights. Dean McGhee,
(21:02):
senior counsel and director of Educational Freedom at the Liberty
Justice Center, called the court's approval a critical step towards
a finally vindicating Christian's constitutional rights and clearing his record
of false allegations. Christian's mother, Leah told The Carolina Journal
earlier this month that the ordeal forced the family into
(21:25):
a crash course on student rights, telling the Carolina Journal
at the time, it's really opened our entire family's eyes
to the fact that students aren't really being taught their rights.
Arsn learned more about his constitutional rights through this process
than he ever learned from any of his teachers in
high school. She described the case as transformative for Christian
(21:49):
and his families, and in the weeks following his suspension,
the media attention caught the eye of the White House.
Christian received a personal letter of recommendation from President Trump,
and Christian also recently visited the United States Capital to
learn more about individual rights. We've got a lengthy piece
this morning, including all of the backstory and details and
(22:11):
what many are calling a completely ridiculous argument here by
the Davidson County and by the Davidson's County school Board,
and some of the decisions by the school in which
Christian was attending at the time. You can read all
of those over on our website Carolina Journal dot com.
The headline. Judge's order confirms twenty thousand dollars payment public
(22:31):
apology in a legal alien case. It's now five point forty.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. If you
talk to a vast majority of voters, not only here
in North Carolina, but across the United States, they would
probably say that they wanted government to have more transparency
in what it was doing. One of the agencies responsible
for transparency and bringing information to light in North Carolina
(22:55):
is the State Auditor's Office that is now controlled by
State Auditor Dave Bullock after his election and win in
November of last year, and the Auditor's office has rolled
out a new internal dashboard so you can keep an
eye on what's going on in the Auditor's office. To
walk us through some of those details and tell us
exactly what's going on here, Teres Opeka, Carolina Journal dot
Com joins us on the news hour. I guess Teresa
(23:17):
be accurate to say, now the public can see what's
going on in the Auditor's office. That's a pretty substantial
step from my vantage point.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Oh absolutely, absolutely, Thanks Nick for having me so. Yeah,
I mean, you know, he's known.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Or the Auditor's office is known as the watchdog, watching
over everything, watching the spending up all stay agencies and institutions.
And now they kind of flipping the script there with
having the public go ahead and watch what they're doing.
So yeah, Auditor Dave Bullock released this press release yesterday
announcing this that they are going to have a new
(23:51):
budget dashboard.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's up and running on the website.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
In a bit to deliver better government transparency, he says,
you know, he wanted to have opening access to his
office spending. They're leading the charge to create a more
transparent government in North Carolina, and it makes it easily
accessible to the public.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They can take a look at it. You know, he's been.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Fighting for this since he got into office, actually before
he got into office, is what he said. There's plenty
of details when it comes to this, but yeah, it's
he's basically they're shining a line on their own office.
Which is remarkable, right because well, we even have like
the General Assembly who want to do in BEAC did
what close.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Up their records?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You couldn't look up records now that they can maybe
possibly destroy them. So this is like the exact opposite.
So it is refreshing to see that for a state agency,
especially the one who watches over all the other state agencies.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
THREEZA, you follow the Council of State. Very close to
the Council of State includes people like the State Auditor
and other cabinet level officials that many folks who are
voted on every four years here in North Carolina. Do
you think this moved by State Auditor Dave bow to say, Hey,
you know, we're not just going to go around investigating
all of these towns and municipalities, but now you're going
to be able to go and look and see what
(25:06):
we're doing. I think he's maybe trying to force the
hand of some of these other state agencies to maybe
say it stopped, and now here's your opportunity, here's your
time to offer some of the similar level of transparency
to the public as well.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
He might be. I think it's a great idea that
he's you know, taking charge.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
The initiative to do this is a definite possibility, and
I think you are seeing some agencies take a little
bit of attack and doing this. I know Department of
Labor Luke Farley, he's been more active than I can
remember anybody in recent times being active in that department
just as an example and saying what they're doing and
(25:49):
putting more press releases.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Out or going around and doing this and doing that.
I think Stage Treasurer Brad Reiner has been really forthcoming.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
He's been putting out different videos and announcements and press releases.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I mean, we had Dale folwell and did that as well.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
But I think you're seeing a new trend as far
as transparency is going, and I think Auditor Bullock is
definitely leading the way in that. So hopefully he will
rub off on even more and set a good example.
I mean, it seems to be a really good.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Thing he's doing.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Transparency obviously is the key cornerstone and the very important
part of this. But Teresa, you know, transparency is great,
but the information also has to be digestible. You know,
regular members of the public and even yourself and me.
You look at some of these reports from whether it's
the Auditor's office in the past or other state agencies,
and your eyes just gloss over. It's a seventy page
(26:42):
PDF with information all over the place. Yeah, it's great
that it's out there, but it's incredibly hard to digest
this information. So yes, the transparency is important, but making
it actually available and readily usable by the public, I
think is also a key step in that.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah, where you hearing me talk about my writing a
story the other day, taking time to break things down,
make it actually readable for the public and for yourself.
You're absolutely correct. And the dashboard is it's really nice
how they have it's set up. They have all the
different revenue sources, expenses, spending by a vendor for state
fiscal year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
They've got it all broken down.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
It's easily readable, digestible, you can really understand it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Did a really nice job on it. So you're right.
It's not sifting through seventy pages of what is this
and what does this mean?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And oh god, I'm getting a headache from reading it all. No,
you're right, and it's geared toward the public and public access.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Now, this dashboard, obviously it's new as it's looking at
the spending within the State Auditor's office. But these dashboards
have been something that they Bolick and his team have
been pretty diligent with since the early days in his office.
They've got a couple of these dashboards out right now
tracking similar spending. I know one of the big ones
is Hurricane Helene. These have been pretty impactful from everything
that I've been able to follow.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Oh yeah, yeah again transparency rights.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
He led the way in this as far as I
haven't seen anything like this before, didn't have Hurricane Helene before,
but we haven't really had any different dashboards as far
as State Auditor's office really quickly.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Mentioned the weather.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
One he has is the NC Financial Snapshot Dashboard. It's
from the Office of the State Controllers N see cash
Watch report. Basically how much money the state has. It's
how much is in reserve, how much is available, things
of that nature. But the bigger one, of course, she said,
Helen Recovery dashboard. And you know that's showing you how
many people were housed households seeking assistance, all the different
(28:42):
expenditures when it comes to what's being spent as far
as the budget, and also taking a look at grow
and see. That was the agency set up by Governor
Josh Stein to separate from ENCORE, which has done a
really horrible job. Let's be honest with Eastern and North
Carolina under hurricanes Matthew and Florence. He set that up
(29:03):
as one of his first actions in office when he
took office in January. So there's a growing see tab
that shows you know how many millions of dollars in
payroll expenditures and actual operational expenditures they have.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You can click through all of them.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Again, everything is easily readable, digestible, you understand what's there.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So since here, kudos to.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Auditor Bullet for putting this all together, not only on
his office, but all of the other dashboards including Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, these are great and again really digestible by the public.
We've got links to not only this new dashboard looking
at the auditor's office itself, but some of these other dashboards.
Those are linked in our story this morning over at
Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Tereso Peka
joins us on the Carolina Journal News out It's five
(30:06):
point fifty three. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News
Hour news Stock eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. Yesterday,
President Donald Trump announced that a trade deal pack had
been reached with the Philippines. We've been keeping a very
close eye on tariffs and everything related to tariffs here
on the Carolina Journal News Hour Philippine imports will be
(30:28):
tariffed at nineteen percent. In contrast, US exports to the
Philippines will have zero tariffs, and the nation will and
the nations will cooperate militarily. According to reports, yesterday, President
Donald Trump posting on truth Social Rope, the President Marcos
of the Philippines is just leaving the White House with
(30:49):
all of his many representatives. It was a beautiful visit
and we concluded our trade deal, whereby the Philippines is
going open market with the United States and zero tariffs.
The Philippines will pay a nineteen percent tariff into the
United States. In addition, we will work together militarily. It
(31:09):
was a great honor to be with the President. He
is highly respected in his country, as he should be.
He is also a very good and tough negotiator. We
extend our warmest regards to the wonderful people of the Philippines.
Trump had threatened twenty percent tariffs before the deal in
a recent letter to the President of the Philippines. According
(31:31):
to news reports, he also proposed seventeen percent tariffs on
that country during his Liberation Day announcement that happened back
in April of this year. In twenty twenty four, according
to a Wall Street Journal report, the United States recorded
four point nine billion dollars worth of trade good deficits
with the Philippines, ranking it as its thirty third largest
(31:55):
trading partner in total goods traded earnings. Reports from BLA
trip companies continue to come in, with Coca Cola, General Motors,
and Lockheed Martin among the latest to release results. According
to the Wall Street Journal, despite increased sale, many of
these country and many of these companies that do business
(32:15):
with the Philippines saw profit declines as some of the
TEARFF pressures do continue. According to data from the Economic
Development Partnership of North Carolina, year to date through May,
imports from the Philippines to North Carolina have increased by
thirty four percent from seventy two million dollars last year
(32:37):
to more than ninety six point six million dollars this year.
Exports from North Carolina to the Philippines year to date
through May have decreased slightly by point six percent, from
forty six point four million to forty six point one million,
according to Joseph Harris's fiscal policy analyst at the John
(32:58):
Locke Foundation. He said but In twenty twenty four, the
United States accounted for approximately seventeen percent of all of
the Philippines' exports, making it a top destination for goods,
surpassing Japan at fourteen percent and China at thirteen percent.
Given that more than half of all Philippine exports consisted
(33:19):
of electrical machinery and equipment, it is highly likely that
the Philippines accepted the deal in exchange for guaranteed or
enhanced access to the United States market for its most
valuable export categories. US Trade Secretary Scott Bessett said that
he would soon meet with Chinese officials, noting a yesterday quote,
(33:42):
I think trade is in a very good place with China.
We're going to be talking about a lot of other
things that our countries can do together. He is expecting
a meeting coming up next week July the twenty eighth,
in Stockholm with Chinese officials, leading to extending a trade
deal that currently expose on August the twelfth. This is
(34:02):
following an extension earlier this month to August the first
for imposing looming tariffs. The administration indicated that there would
not be another delay in that tariff deadline. Tariff's been
a major topic of discussion over the last six months
or so. We continue to focus on its impact here
on various North Carolina industries. We've got some details on
(34:25):
this trade deal between the United States and the Philippines.
Additional coverage over on our website This morning, Carolina Journal
dot com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday
edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, WBT News is next.
Follwed bye, Good morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning,
five to six. Right here, Bob News Talk eleven, ten
and ninety nine three WBT
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