
Dan Way - Carolina Journal News Service
Supreme Court upholds congressional maps, calls gerrymandering ‘political’ issue
In a landmark victory for N.C. Republican lawmakers, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled gerrymandered congressional districts are a political issue, which federal courts should not decide as a matter of law.
Physicians group will participate in state-health plan reform
RALEIGH — The largest physicians group in eastern North Carolina has agreed to participate in State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s cost-saving Clear Pricing Project.
Lawmakers making last-ditch effort to reform certificates of need
RALEIGH — Republican senators are making one last push to ease anti-competitive health-care laws before the legislative session ends.
General Assembly releases budget plan, prepares to battle governor
RALEIGH — Legislative leaders released highlights of a $24 billion spending plan for 2019-20 while girding for a budget battle with Gov. Roy Cooper.
Lawmakers won’t release budget until governor makes counter offer
Cooper, NCGA leaders still at odds over state budget
RALEIGH — Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper finally sat down with Republican legislative leaders Wednesday, June 19, less than two weeks before the end of the fiscal year, to negotiate a budget.
Big physician network signs onto state treasurer’s pricing program
RALEIGH — State Treasurer Dale Folwell has reeled in a big fish.
With a deadline just 13 days away, Community Care Physician Network, North Carolina’s largest network of independent physician clinics, announced Monday, June 17, it signed on to the State Health Plan’s cost-cutting Clear Pricing Project.
Bill requiring safe disposal of spent solar panels gets hearing
RALEIGH — If all the solar panels from industrial-scale electric plants in North Carolina were laid end to end, they would stretch from Raleigh to San Francisco and back nearly four times. Yet the state has no plan to handle the 475,000 tons of panels once they wear out and become waste.
N.C. has issued more than $1 billion in renewable energy tax credits
RALEIGH — Benefit or boondoggle? That’s the billion-dollar question.
North Carolina surpassed the $1 billion mark in renewable energy investment tax credits issued in 2018 — three years after the lucrative subsidy program to stimulate solar development expired. Taxpayers have picked up the bill, and could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of more tax credits in coming years.
U.S.-trained foreign docs could fill family practice needs
RALEIGH — While North Carolina continues to seek ways to fill medical provider voids across the state, government regulations block one partial solution.