North Carolina Lawmakers Get McCrory Budget Presentation
Gov. Pat McCrory's spending plan for the coming year will get scrutiny from legislators charged with assembling North Carolina's budget.
The House and Senate appropriations committee members planned to meet together Wednesday for a presentation on McCrory's proposed adjustments to the second year of the two-year budget approved last September.
HB2 Repeal Sent To Committee
A legislative effort to repeal House Bill 2 has been remanded to a committee that seldom meets.
A day after House Democrats filed a measure to undo the controversial legislation, leading Republicans were focused on finance, a favorable Voter ID court ruling and other matters. House Bill 946, an effort to repeal House Bill 2, now sits in J4 - a Judiciary committee that amounts to legislative Siberia.
If any changes come to House Bill 2, it appears more likely to happen in the courts.
College Free Speech: Hecklers On NC Campuses Under Scrutiny
Hecklers who shout down speakers on North Carolina's college campuses could be punished under a proposal being floated before lawmakers, making the state the latest battleground over free speech at U.S. universities.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is proposing that the state's 17-campus public university system create a policy that includes punishments for "those who interrupt the free expression of others." Lawmakers opening their legislative session this week are expected to join a half-dozen states that have taken up free-speech legislation for public universities.
275 Pharma Jobs Planned Despite Backlash Over NC's LGBT Law
A generic pharmaceutical company plans a North Carolina factory employing 275 workers by the end of 2020, the first substantial jobs announcement since the state last month passed a law limiting protections for LGBT people.
Gov. Pat McCrory's office said Tuesday that Aurobindo Pharma USA planned a new drug research and manufacturing plant in Durham. Company officials didn't return messages seeking comment.
Aurobindo could get nearly $4 million in tax breaks if it meets hiring and investment targets.
NC Sues 14 Months After Audit Finds School Money Mismanaged
North Carolina's attorney general is suing more than a year after state auditors said charter school officials mismanaged taxpayer money before shutting the school down suddenly.
Attorney General Roy Cooper's office filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking triple damages and penalties against the closed Kinston Charter Academy and the individual assets of the school's former CEO and board chairwoman.
The school closed in 2013.
Cooper spokeswoman Noelle Talley says the complex case took time to assemble following a separate investigation by a division of the AG's office.
Christian Student Group Files Lawsuit Against NC State
A Christian student group at N.C. State University is suing the school, saying it selectively enforces a policy requiring a permit for all types of free speech on campus.
Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom are representing Grace Christian Life in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson is among the defendants named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says two Grace representatives appeared at the student union last September to engage students in religious discussion and invite them to Grace events. A school official who saw the two told them they were in violation of the university's Speech Permit Policy. The lawsuit says the policy is applied in a "discriminatory manner."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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