NC Newsline

The next time someone tries tell you that the North Carolinians with Medicaid health insurance are lazy slackers who participate in a wasteful program that warrants the massive bloodletting President Trump just approved, tell them talk to an actual frightened person who depends on the program. Someone like Maddie Wertenberg. She’s a Wake County mom who had private health insurance, but who still only avoided being stuck with life-altering hospital bills for the care of her premature baby, because he was so tiny he qualified for Medicaid. Or someone like Crystal Upchurch. She’s a lifetime Raleigh resident who is only alive because Medicaid covers the cost of the daily dialysis treatments she receives. The bottom line: Proponents of Trump’s big bill may say they have no intention of cutting off people like Maddie and Crystal, but the massive funding cuts make it inevitable that vast numbers of people with similar stories will be sentenced to crippling debt and premature death. And the sheer cruelty at work here, and the terror its inflicting on millions of good people, is hard to overstate. For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

At a time in which our nation continues to experience the regular horror of school shootings, it’s understandable that everyone grasps for ideas – anything – that seems like it might prevent or reduce the terrifying carnage. The gruesome notion of a disturbed killer gunning down innocent children is enough to make anyone wish that they could be present with a weapon of their own to stop them. Unfortunately, as understandable as that instinct is, it simply can’t be the basis of public policy. That should be based on a dispassionate assessment of the facts and data, and it’s for that reason that Gov. Josh Stein did the right thing last week by vetoing a bill that would allow private school personnel and volunteers to carry loaded firearms on campus while children are present. The bottom line: As the Governor rightfully noted, it’s one thing to have armed law enforcement officers with hundreds of hours of training on campus. Turning security over to volunteers with just a few hours as the bill permits would be much more likely to compromise school safety than enhance it. For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The new state fiscal year started July 1, and the state legislature is on vacation for most of the month, but that doesn’t mean we have a new state budget. Thanks to big disagreements between NC House and Senate Republicans, the state is listing along on its old budget and several major decisions – most notably around teacher and state employee pay – remain on hold. Lawmakers will return to Raleigh the week of July 28th and at that time they’ll have a long list of potential agenda items, including the budget, several gubernatorial vetoes, Hurricane Helene recovery issues and an ambitious GOP sponsored election law overhaul. Recently Newsline’s Rob Schofield sat down with politics and state government reporter Galen Bacharier to learn more. Click here to listen to the full interview with NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier. [https://ncnewsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/News-and-Views-for-7-13-2025-SegmentOne_Galen.mp3]

Despite their failure to agree on a new state budget, North Carolina lawmakers are taking most of the month of July – the first month of the new fiscal year – off. Not surprisingly, this is not a situation that’s sitting particularly well with a lot of state employees as they wrestle with another year of declining pay, staff shortages, and soon-to-be-announced premium hikes for the State Health Plan. NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield got the chance to discuss some of these issues and concerns with the executive director of the States Employees Association of North Carolina, Ardis Watkins. And as Watkins told Newsline, the fix for what ails much of state government – improved appropriations — is no particular mystery. The question is whether lawmakers will ever muster the courage to honestly confront this hard truth. Click hear to listen to the full interview with States Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Ardis Watkins. [https://ncnewsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/News-and-Views-for-7-13-2025-SegmentTwo_ArdisWatkins.mp3]

North Carolinians received another powerful reminder recently that their state’s electoral politics are never boring, when Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis suddenly announced he will not seek reelection next year. The announcement has set off a flurry of activity in which it has sometimes seemed that more politicians are considering entering the 2026 Senate race than not. So, what should we make of Tillis’s announcement and what it portends? And what do the latest polls say voters are thinking about Tillis and the people who might succeed him? Recently, NC Newsline caught up with the Director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College, Prof. Michael Bitzer, to find out. We also discuss the Catawba College-YouGov survey of 1,000 North Carolinians on their confidence in President Trump’s decision-making [https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/new-polling-shows-north-carolinians-divided-on-trumps-stance-on-tariffs-deportations-and-more/] across different policy issues. Click here to listen to the full interview with Professor Michael Bitzer of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College. [https://ncnewsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/News-and-Views-for-7-13-2025-SegmentThree_MichaelBitzer.mp3]