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NC's Blue Cross Cutting 'Obamacare' Prices Despite Changes
North Carolina's largest health insurer says it's cutting some individual premiums for the first time in over a quarter century, but the savings on subsidized "Obamacare" coverage would have been much larger if Washington had left the law alone.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said Tuesday it proposed prices to state insurance regulators that could lower rates for next year's Affordable Care Act policies by 4.1 percent on average. About 85 percent of the savings comes from last year's federal income tax cut and Congress suspending a tax on insurers for 2019.
Blue Cross says it could have lowered average rates by another 18 percent if Congress and the Trump Administration hadn't eliminated the penalty for people who don't buy health coverage and a subsidy to insurers.
Democrats Call Amendment Referenda Questions Misleading
The first meeting of a panel charged with explaining North Carolina constitutional amendments on November's ballots turned into sharp critiques of the referenda when the panel's lone Republican declined to attend.
The Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission scheduled a meeting Tuesday but couldn't take official action because only two of the three members attended. GOP member Paul Coble decided to stay away until after the General Assembly convened this weekend to decide whether to override a veto that would narrow commission duties.
Cooper: Endangered Wolf Protection Should Stay
North Carolina's governor is urging federal authorities not to reduce protections for endangered red wolves that can only be found in the state.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday, Gov. Roy Cooper asked the agency to maintain the current five-county conservation area for the wolves.
Only about 35 red wolves remain in the wild, all in eastern North Carolina.
In June, the federal government proposed shrinking the current conservation area and lifting restrictions on shooting wolves that leave it. North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Susi Hamilton says such changes could lead to the species' extinction.
Public Schools Owed 750 Million By State To Bring Lawsuit
North Carolina school districts are set to sue for hundreds of millions of dollars a court previously ruled was owed them.
The North Carolina School Boards Association scheduled a Wednesday news conference in Durham to announce a complaint reviving a decades-long legal battle over nearly $750 million in civil penalties.
The state constitution requires certain fines and forfeitures collected by state agencies go to public schools. School boards sued the state in 1998, arguing that agencies hadn't sent along the monetary penalties.
The case reached the state Supreme Court, and a trial judge ultimately determined in 2008 how much districts should receive. But the judge stopped short of ordering the legislature to pay up, saying it was beyond the scope of his powers to do so.
Man Gets 6 Months For Impersonating General
A judge had stern words as he sentenced a man to six months in prison for impersonating an Army general while landing a chartered helicopter at a North Carolina corporate headquarters.
U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle also imposed a year of supervised release for Christian Desgroux on a charge of impersonating a military officer. Desgroux, who pleaded guilty in June, will be credited for more than five months in jail since he was arrested last year.
Federal agents say Desgroux landed the helicopter last November at the corporate campus of SAS Institute, saying he was on a mission authorized by the president. Authorities say the false story was meant to impress a woman who worked there.
Boyle sharply questioned Desgroux about why he wore a general's uniform despite never serving in the U.S. military.
The judge said: "So it was like Halloween every day of the week?"
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