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Another NC legislative finally comes to a close with Medicaid expansion unrealized

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Another NC legislative finally comes to a close with Medicaid expansion unrealized


By Anne Blythe

North Carolina lawmakers had been again in Raleigh on Tuesday for Senate and Home periods during which Republican leaders of every chamber used completely different methods for conducting the day’s enterprise.

Phil Berger, the Republican from Eden who leads the state Senate, used a fast gavel for a so-called “skeletal session,” with the naked minimal of members or process: Open for a prayer, the pledge of allegiance, then adjourn once more till 11 a.m. Friday.

No time even for Sen. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from Wake County, to make a valedictory speech from the Senate ground. He requested to take a “level of non-public privilege” to record accomplishments throughout his three two-year phrases, in addition to record his hopes for these following him as he strikes to the U.S. congressional seat he gained in November. However Berger minimize him off when he made the request, telling him that in skeletal periods, there have been no alternatives for private privilege.

As an alternative, Nickel, who begins his congressional time period subsequent month, met with reporters earlier than the Senate session together with his spouse Caroline, daughter Adeline and son Prescott on the press room podium with him. There, one of many achievements he listed was the Senate’s vote earlier this 12 months to increase Medicaid, a thorny matter for Republicans that Democrats have advocated for a few years.

In June, Berger informed his chamber that increasing Medicaid “is the suitable factor to do, and it’s not even shut.”

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But it surely was to not be.

Medicaid enlargement stalemated

Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain), Speaker of the North Carolina Home of Representatives talks with Greensboro Democrat Dear Harrison after the chamber’s session Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. Credit score: Anne Blythe

The enlargement, one thing made potential by the 2009 Reasonably priced Care Act, would permit some half million or extra low wage staff onto this system to achieve entry to well being care. Normally, Medicaid is restricted to low earnings kids, a few of their dad and mom, individuals with disabilities and low earnings seniors.

Moore asserted all through the summer time that the Home may come again in late November or December to take a vote on Medicaid enlargement, as soon as the election was over.

In June, Moore put ahead a proposal to create a legislative committee with members from each chambers that might hear a Medicaid Modernization Plan to be developed by the state Division of Well being and Human Companies. This committee would come on the heels of a distinct examine committee that met six instances from February to April. 

The Home by no means took a vote on the invoice adopted by the Senate and championed by Berger. Embedded within the Senate’s proposal was a measure to weaken North Carolina’s certificates of wants system, a set of legal guidelines and laws meant to chop down on well being care competitors. Additionally a part of the Senate’s proposal was a provision to offer superior observe nurses extra latitude of their observe.

Speaker Tim Moore, the Republican from Kings Mountain who leads the Home, stated his chamber doesn’t assist the proposed certificates of want modifications, which face opposition from the highly effective foyer of the North Carolina Healthcare Affiliation. In the meantime, the North Carolina Medical Society opposed modifications to how nurses observe.

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Berger was unwilling to maneuver ahead with enlargement with out modifications to the opposite proposals. So the 2 chambers remained in a stalemate that lasted for the remainder of the 12 months, leaving enlargement tantalizingly out of attain for advocates.

This implies the enlargement of Medicaid in North Carolina can be delayed till not less than 2023 as all these low earnings staff, household caregivers, college students and others who might qualify for the publicly-funded well being care proceed ready on the subsequent step.

What’s forward in 2023?

Moore, who gave members of the Home the chance to offer goodbye speeches and phrases of appreciation to colleagues and legislative employees they’d labored with, met with reporters afterward to speak about what’s subsequent for his chamber.

After the 2023 legislative session opens in January and lawmakers start to get right down to critical enterprise someday in February, Moore stated he anticipated there to be speak amongst Republicans about new legal guidelines proscribing abortion in North Carolina, a testing of the urge for food for medical marijuana entry and, as soon as once more, the perennial problem — Medicaid enlargement.

The Home will get 30 new members in January, and Moore stated Tuesday he doesn’t have an amazing sense of the place all of them stand politically.

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If the lawmakers in his chamber vote a straight occasion line, there will not be sufficient votes to overturn any legal guidelines that Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has generally been a thorn of their aspect on politically divisive points.

Cooper has stated he meant to veto any payments that might limit abortion entry.

Moore informed reporters he thought he may be capable to deliver some Democrats together with him on some points, however declined to disclose who these members is likely to be and exactly which social points he thought they could take part with the bulk.

“We’ve got, basically what I’d name a governing supermajority,” Moore stated.

He hopes.

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North Carolina

Apex father of 3 represents North Carolina in 2025 Presidential Inauguration

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Apex father of 3 represents North Carolina in 2025 Presidential Inauguration


APEX, N.C. (WTVD) — Colonel Josh McConkey has spent more than two decades serving our country, in both the Army and Air Force Reserve. He’s now a Commander at Andrews Air Force Base of the 459th Aeromedical Staging Squadron.

“I’ve got to do some pretty special things. I spent time with combat search and rescue. I’ve flown as a flight surgeon, spent time in Rwanda with the State Department,” Col. McConkey told ABC11.

On Monday though, he’ll get to do something that will mark a first for the decorated servicemember, leading the Air Force Reserve delegation at the 2025 Presidential Inauguration.

“I marched a lot when I was a kid and grown up in marching band. So, this is a lot of fun for me, but being able to take part in something like this, being a part of history is pretty special,” Col. McConkey said.

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He leaves Thursday to head to Washington DC with months of preparation leading up to this once-in-a-lifetime moment.

ALSO SEE: Biden, in farewell address, warns about dangers of unchecked power in wealthy

“A lot of logistics and security: we received a 108-page PowerPoint presentation just to go over. There’s a lot of history behind that, a lot of procedure and then the security concerns alone. So, you know, things have been very tight lipped on that, but the practices we’ve done three or four practices and you’re marching out in the cold and the snow. Hopefully it’s going to be above freezing on Inauguration Day,” McConkey said.

When not serving in the Air Force Reserve, Col. McConkey is an ER doctor in the Triangle, an author, the founder of a non-profit organization – and his proudest titles: husband and father of three.

He’s excited to represent North Carolina next week.

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“I grew up in a very small town in rural Nebraska and always looked up to military veterans,” he said. “Just to be a part and represent the military and something this historic is, you know, for me is pretty special.”

Copyright © 2025 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Sources: Belichick adds 2 veteran coaches to staff

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Sources: Belichick adds 2 veteran coaches to staff


Bill Belichick’s first coaching staff at North Carolina continues to come together.

Longtime NFL special teams coach Mike Priefer and veteran SEC offensive line coach Will Friend are expected to finalize deals to join Belichick’s staff, sources told ESPN.

After coaching for nearly a decade in college, Priefer started in the NFL in 2002 and was a special teams coordinator in the NFL from 2006 to 2022. He is noted in Browns history as serving as the head coach in a January 2021 wild-card victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is the franchise’s only postseason win since the 1994 season. Priefer stepped in for Kevin Stefanski, who watched the game at home with COVID.

Priefer was the special teams coordinator for the Chiefs (2006-08), Broncos (2009-10), Vikings (2011-18) and Browns (2019-22). He brings ties to the Naval Academy, something he shares with Belichick and his family. Priefer is a Navy graduate and served as a graduate assistant there.

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Friend worked last season as Western Kentucky’s offensive coordinator. He brings strong recruiting ties in the South, having worked at Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn and Mississippi State as the offensive line coach. He has also worked as the offensive coordinator at Colorado State and WKU.

Friend has a long history of developing linemen for the NFL.

With Priefer and Friend, there are six known members of Belichick’s staff, which includes longtime NFL coach Freddie Kitchens as the offensive coordinator and veteran NFL coach Stephen Belichick as the defensive coordinator.

The hires line up the objectives of Belichick, who has stressed that he wants to run the Tar Heels like a pro program.

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Before taking the UNC job, Belichick told ESPN’s Pat McAfee that if he were to run a college program, it would be a “pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL.”

He added: “It would be a professional program. Training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football.”



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Dozens in western NC kicked out of hotels Tuesday despite FEMA extending deadline, officials say

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Dozens in western NC kicked out of hotels Tuesday despite FEMA extending deadline, officials say


Despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) extending the deadline, dozens of people in western North Carolina were left without shelter Tuesday night after being kicked out of the hotels FEMA provided as temporary housing for those impacted by Hurricane Helene.

On Monday, FEMA announced it was extending the deadline for its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program for victims of Helene in western North Carolina.

Through the program, FEMA paid for hotel and motel rooms for thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Helene.

Tuesday just before 3:30 p.m., FEMA said on X that “current eligible occupants can remain in their lodging through the end of March 2025.”

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But hours later, Senator Ted Budd posted this message on X:

“My office is hearing from dozens in WNC who have been kicked out of their hotels tonight, despite FEMA’s announcement yesterday that they were extending Transitional Sheltering Assistance through January 25.

“This is unacceptable. This needs to be fixed TONIGHT.”

Senator Thom Tillis also called out FEMA Tuesday night on X:

“My office has been helping dozens of Helene victims today who have been told their hotel vouchers expired despite not having a safe and livable home to go back to. Their homes have mold and broken windows…it’s 20 degrees tonight. Hotels are trying to help them, and a number of nonprofits are stepping up to pay for victims to stay in their hotels so FEMA has another day to get its act together.

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“This is a total breakdown on the part of FEMA.”

This comes after Governor Josh Stein was in western North Carolina that same day.

On Tuesday, Stein posted a photo of himself eating a BBQ sandwich at JRO’s in Canton.

Gov. Josh Stein eating sandwich in Canton Tuesday (Photo: Josh Stein Facebook)

“My team and I have been working hard to maintain temporary housing assistance for people in western NC,” the governor said Monday, one day prior, on X.

Senator Budd said later on Tuesday that he had been in contact with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and encouraged those in need of assistance to contact his office at budd.senate.gov.

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WRAL News reached out to FEMA, and this was the agency’s response:

“If any survivors still need housing assistance or feel their TSA eligibility ended in error, they should immediately call the FEMA helpline at 1-800-621-3362.”

If you were impacted by this situation and would like to share your experience with WRAL, go to wral.com/reportit.



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