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Gov. Cooper Ready To Give State Of The State Address
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is ready to share his agenda with the public and with a North Carolina legislature that became more Democratic after November election results.
Cooper is delivering the biennial State of the State address on Monday evening to a joint session of the General Assembly at the Legislative Building.
Cooper now has more leverage to push his initiatives. He's likely to press hard on legislators to expand Medicaid through the 2010 federal health care law. Senate leader Phil Berger will give the Republican response after Cooper's address.
Republicans Now Sizing Up North Carolina Congressional Seat
Several Republicans are now looking closely at whether they want to run in a new election for a North Carolina congressional seat.
A current state senator and a recently retired senator both said Friday they are considering seeking the party's nomination in the 9th Congressional District.
State Sen. Danny Britt of Lumberton said dozens of people have called or texted him about the seat but said, "it has to be right for my family." And former Sen. Tommy Tucker of Union County says, "a fresh start for the district would be in order."
School Construction Brings Together Gov. Cooper, GOP Speaker
For the past two years they've been political adversaries. But now Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and a top Republican legislative leader are rare allies on addressing North Carolina public school construction needs.
House Speaker Tim Moore and Cooper want to put a public education construction bond package on the 2020 ballot. That puts them at odds with Senate Republicans, who approved a bill last week to build more by spending more money from existing tax revenues, rather than issuing debt that would be repaid plus interest.
Winston-Salem Moves Forward On Statue Removal
City officials in Winston-Salem have taken another step to move a Confederate statue from its prominent downtown location.
On Sunday morning, workers examined the monument to see how it can be safely taken down.
City officials still say a date for the statue's removal has not been determined.
The city wants to move the statue to a private cemetery because they say its downtown presence is a public nuisance that could spark violent confrontations.
The original owners of the statue, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, are fighting the move.
Duke Undergrad Tuition To Increase To More Than $55K
Parents of undergrad students at Duke University will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets next year.
At its regular quarterly meeting and annual planning retreat this weekend, the school's board of trustees approved a 3.7 percent increase in the total attendance cost for undergraduates during the 2019-20 academic year.
Undergraduate tuition will be $55,880, a 3.9 percent increase, and the total cost for the next academic year, including tuition, room, board and fees, will be $73,519.
Duke say that in the current academic year, it expects to invest about $175 million of institutional funds to support undergraduate financial aid, a 4.2 percent increase over last year.
Poor People's Campaign To Hold Bus Tours Of Poverty Areas
A leader of the Poor People's Campaign says the social justice movement is planning bus tours of poverty-stricken areas in more than 20 states to refocus the country on what he says are its true emergencies.
The Rev. William Barber of North Carolina says the tours will begin at the end of March and continue through April.
Barber says the tours were always planned as part of the revived Poor People's Campaign, which launched last year. But he says President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico added urgency.
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