Now the company is looking to lawmakers to avoid having to face more consequences for their pollution of North Carolina waters. This legislative session, lawmakers are considering bills to hold polluters accountable, including House Bill 569, entitled “PFAS Pollution and Polluter Liability” and Senate Bill 666, the “2025 Water Safety Act”.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein recently rolled out his first full budget proposal — a $67.9 billion plan that puts education, family tax relief, and student well-being at the center. State Senate Republicans have now responded with their own proposal, a $65.9 billion budget highlighting conservative tax breaks, investments in law enforcement, and a surge in infrastructure spending.
Several hundred people attended a town hall in Charlotte directed at a cardboard cutout of Senator Thom Tillis, who was invited but was not in attendance. A coalition of local groups, including Indivisible Charlotte, Common Cause NC, Red Wine & Blue NC, Democracy North Carolina, and New Rural Project, hosted the “Empty Chair Town Hall.”
Senator Thom Tillis was among 20 Senate Republicans who voted against bipartisan legislation to expand Social Security benefits for over 2 million Americans, including teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers. The bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, passed the Senate in December 2024 in a 76-20 vote and was signed into law by President Biden on January 5, 2025.
Chants echoed throughout communities in North Carolina and across the United States as thousands of Americans spoke out against federal cuts, Constitutional concerns, and human rights violations.
NC lawmakers filed almost 2,000 bills for this session, laying out their priorities for the year, ranging from education to public safety and voting changes. Here’s a look at a few of the bills that made it in on the final day of filing.
The 18 senators who signed the letter warned that without swift intervention, the tariffs could cause lasting harm to North Carolina’s economy.
The bills touch on subjects such as reproductive rights, vaping on school grounds, the practice scope of nurses, and paid sick leave.
In each category surveyed across partisan, gender, racial, and education groups, more people were against permitless carry than in support. 96% of Democrats, 77% of independents, and 60% of Republicans oppose permitless carry, according to the Everytown poll. 85% of women are against permitless carry, as are 66% of men. In addition to the bulk of North Carolinians opposing permitless carry, the Everytown polling found that 66% of gun owners did as well.
Voicing support for the tariffs while it was politically advantageous for him in gaining Trump’s favor and then flipping his script when they went wrong, as predicted–without naming the party responsible–is weak. While Tillis bounces back and forth, desperately trying to balance the extremism of his party’s primary voters with the moderate general electorate of North Carolina, his constituents suffer.