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Economic Development
THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: Pharmaceutical company plans $177 million expansion, nearly 400 new jobs near Charlotte
Over-the-counter pharmaceutical company BestCo LLC is investing another $177 million in expanding its Mooresville facilities, according to a Thursday announcement from the Iredell County Economic Development Corporation and state officials.
Education
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL: Though bill is stalled in committee, a transparency bill worries educators
In North Carolina, a bill that would require teachers to post lesson plans used in classrooms online has stalled in a Senate committee. Sponsored by Rep. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke), House Bill 755, also known as an act to ensure academic transparency, passed 66-50 in the N.C. House last May, with all the votes for the bill coming from Republicans.
FOX 46: New contact tracing, quarantine procedures begin in NC K-12 schools Monday
Major COVID policy changes to the StrongSchools NC Toolkit go into effect Monday. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services no longer recommends contact tracing or quarantines for students who test negative, even if they’ve been exposed to a positive COVID case.
Elections
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: Proposed congressional map causes campaign changes. Where are NC candidates running?
State lawmakers approved new congressional districts for North Carolina on Thursday leaving candidates with one week to figure out where to run before filing begins if the new map is approved by the courts. More than 80 candidates already had announced their intentions to run for Congress when the N.C. Supreme Court abruptly announced that it would delay the state’s primary to give judges a chance to review challenges to maps released in November.
THE TIMES NEWS: North Carolina Supreme Court decision on electoral maps gets candidates running again. But when?
After being delayed for months, it looks like the filing for the 2022 elections will resume next week. Filing for both the delayed 2021 municipal elections and the 2022 general election will begin Feb. 24 and end March 4. These include elections for city council, county commissioners, N.C. House of Representatives and Senate seats and all state and district judicial seats.
Environment
COASTAL REVIEW: NC Supreme Court: Environmental grants can continue
Millions in payments by Smithfield Foods to North Carolina can be routed to grants for environmental enhancement projects and are not civil penalties that must be designated for schools, the state’s high court ruled last week. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the North Carolina Court of Appeals acted prematurely when it allowed the New Hanover County Board of Education to raise on appeal a new claim that had not been argued in a lower court.
Government
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: Cooper calls for NC schools, cities to lift mask mandates. Legislators pass mask bill.
Citing the state’s improved vaccination rate and COVID-19’s declining virulence, Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday called on North Carolina municipalities and school boards “to end their mask mandates.”
WRAL: NC branch of U.S. Attorney’s Office launches program to catch people defrauding government using PPP loans
Billions of dollars of federal COVID-19 funds have ended up in the hands of fraudsters, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. U.S. Attorney Michael Francis Easley Jr. launched a new federal task force to go after thieves who are trying to recoup the cash.
Healthcare
THE TIMES NEWS: North Carolina legislative Medicaid expansion panel eyes worker shortages, hospitals
A study panel that could serve as the glidepath for the General Assembly to accept broad Medicaid expansion in North Carolina a decade after it was first offered met for the first time Friday. The Joint Legislative Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion was created in the state budget approved in November.
NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS: State health leaders discuss COVID exit strategy, mental health need
Though many North Carolinians are ready to say so long to the COVID pandemic, Kody Kinsley, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services told lawmakers Tuesday that the state is getting closer to that point but it’s not quite there. Lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services encouraged Kinsley and his team to develop an exit strategy.
Politics
WFAE: North Carolina lawmakers drew new political maps – again – that will now go back to court
The North Carolina legislature on Thursday completed new redistricting plans that Republicans contend will meet fairness directives of state justices who struck down previously approved maps as illegal partisan gerrymanders that penalized Democrats.
Transportation
PORT CITY DAILY: NC Ports, rail advancement contributing to national supply chain solutions
The governor’s office is touting the success of the $158-million Carolina Connector in Edgecombe County as it is already closing gaps in the national supply chain, in part by bridging the Port of Wilmington to new markets.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: NCDOT: More people died on NC roads in 2021 than in any year since the early 1970s
The number of people killed in traffic crashes in North Carolina rose again last year, reaching the highest level since the early 1970s, according to the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program. Highway deaths have risen 45% since 2011, to 1,755 last year. That’s the most in a single year since 1973, when the death toll reached 1,892, according to data compiled by the N.C. Department of Transportation.