In the News
Rep. Richard Hudson toured the Ingersoll Rand facility in Southern Pines on Wednesday. The company and the National Association of Manufacturers hosted the event.
Hudson, a Republican, also participated in an employee town hall and workforce development roundtable, according to a statement released by his office.
Charlotte took center stage Friday afternoon for a landmark announcement about retirement.
President Donald Trump arrived in Charlotte where he signed an executive order, "Strengthening Retirement Security in America," to make it easier for small businesses to group together to provide their workers with retirement plans.
Mark Harris, who is running for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, was grateful that Trump's motorcade rolled through town Friday, in large part, to host a fundraiser supporting his campaign.
FAYETTEVILLE — Although top national environmental regulators confirmed GenX and related chemical compounds are used to produce solar panel components, they say their research does not prioritize what risks that might pose to the environment and human health.
Peter Grevatt, national director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Washington, D.C., recently told Carolina Journal the GenX solar concern “is one that’s in a much broader set of challenges.”
Waiting is no longer an option, two public utilities in the Cape Fear region have decided. No matter what happens next with GenX and related compounds that are in the river, it’s time to end their customers’ exposure to the toxic chemical soup that’s flowing through the river. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is moving toward installing a granulated activated carbon filtration system on the water-treatment plant serving the Wilmington area to remove GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from its customers’ water.
State and local officials asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to take a stronger role in dealing with potentially harmful compounds such as GenX.
EPA officials say they are working to develop tools to deal with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that contaminate drinking water supplies such as the Cape Fear River. The agency held a forum on PFAS at the Crown Ballroom in Fayetteville. Hundreds of people attended.
LIFE IN THE PFAS LANE: EPA is holding another all-day PFAS engagement meeting this morning — this time in Fayetteville, N.C., where agency officials will hear about the state waterways suffering from contamination of GenX, a PFAS chemical similar to PFOA and PFOS. The chemical turned into a major issue in the state after it showed up in the Cape Fear River. Last December, both of North Carolina’s Republican senators helped sink the administration’s nominee to head EPA’s chemical safety office, in part because of the GenX crisis.
Andrew Brunson, the North Carolina Christian pastor imprisoned in Turkey for nearly two years on terrorism charges, is in much better spirits since being released on house arrest last week, said Sen. Thom Tillis, who spoke with Brunson on Friday.
“He was a very different person than anytime I’d spoken to him since he’d been in prison,” said Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who has visited Brunson in Turkey twice this spring. “I just continue to emphasize how much I appreciate they did that.”
Senate and House leaders came to a compromise on the annual defense spending bill, providing a rare opportunity — at least based on recent years — to provide some fiscal stability in the military.
The House overwhelmingly passed the conference version of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 on Thursday. The final vote was 359 to 54.
The Senate also is expected to approve the NDAA before it heads to President Trump’s desk.