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1 week ago | 
wral.com | Brian Murphy |Jack Hagel
After a lengthy contentious and, at times, angry debate between Republicans and Democrats, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow challenged books to be removed from public school libraries.
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1 week ago | 
wral.com | Jack Hagel
A group of North Carolina voters is suing state elections officials, saying their 2024 ballots shouldn’t be thrown out because they followed elections laws that were in place when they voted. They say officials would violate their constitutional rights if they retroactively enforced a new interpretation of the state’s voter ID rules.
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1 week ago | 
wral.com | Jack Hagel |Will Doran
A plan to build North Carolina’s first standalone children’s hospital — an enterprise that stands to create thousands of jobs in the Triangle and improve pediatric health statewide — would get a massive funding boost under a new state budget proposal. Republican Senate leaders, who released a spending plan late Monday, proposed investing another $638.5 million in the planned 500-bed pediatric hospital, a partnership between UNC Health and Duke Health.
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1 week ago | 
wral.com | Will Doran |Jack Hagel
The North Carolina Supreme Court should decline to hear the legal challenge over an election for one of its own seats in 2024, the Republican candidate in the race — who previously sought a Supreme Court ruling — told the high court Friday. Jefferson Griffin challenged Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs for her seat on the court. Riggs received 734 more votes, recounts have shown, but Griffin is seeking to have more than 60,000 ballots thrown out.
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2 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Paul Andy Specht |Jack Hagel
One evening last month, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein pushed through a gauntlet of lawmakers who had gathered for his first State of the State address, shaking hands with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. As the Democrat neared the lectern, he received something unexpected: a hug from a powerful Republican. “I welcomed him into the building, gave him a little bro hug,” said state Rep. John Bell, a longtime legislator in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.
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2 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Jack Hagel
North Carolina economic development officials have terminated an economic incentives agreement for Novartis Gene Therapies, which hasn’t met hiring targets tied to a package that promised up to $1.5 million in tax breaks. The gene-therapy unit of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG in 2019 said it would create 200 jobs as part of the planned $60-million investment in Durham County. The subsidiary, formerly known as AveXis, exceeded investment targets tied to the grant.
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2 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Brian Shrader |Paul Andy Specht |Jack Hagel
For decades, Johnston County didn’t look all that different from other parts of rural North Carolina. It relied heavily on agriculture and other industries that started to crater at the end of the 20th century. “We really took it on the chin in the mid 90s with the loss of textiles and the offshoring that we saw,” Chris Johnson, the director of the Johnston County Economic Development Office, told WRAL’s “On The Record” program, which aired Saturday. “...
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2 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Will Doran |Jack Hagel
Thousands of votes in the 2024 election may have been counted illegally, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Friday in a case that could determine the outcome of last year’s election for an open seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. The case is almost certain to be appealed. A spokesperson for Griffin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Riggs campaign also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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3 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Will Doran |Jack Hagel
Road crews across the Triangle on Monday were spreading brine on busy roadways in anticipation of the season's third winter weather event. A wide swath of unfilled state government jobs could become available to more applicants, if a bill moving through the North Carolina legislature becomes law. The effort to make applying — and hiring — easier comes as the state attempts to recruit and retain workers across agencies. There are currently about more than 14,300 vacancies across state government.
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3 weeks ago | 
wral.com | Jack Hagel
North Carolina lawmakers advanced a bill that would ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for children who are 14 and 15 years old on Tuesday. The companies that own social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram said they already have a minimum age of 13 to create an account, in compliance with federal law.
