North Carolina

Parsing the North Carolina connections to the speaker of the House saga

Published

10 months ago

October 9, 2023

Parsing the North Carolina connections to the speaker of the House saga

North Carolina representatives played a range of roles in the short tenure of Kevin McCarthy as U.S. House speaker. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his “On My Mind” commentary, says one in particular is fighting a partisan tide.

The brief and wild reign of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House had North Carolina all over it.

You might remember back in January, when the House had an all-night battle royal over picking McCarthy as speaker to begin with. It took 15 ballots before he was elected. At one point, McCarthy ally Mike Rogers of Alabama lunged at McCarthy critic Matt Gaetz of Florida. The GOP-on-GOP crime was averted by North Carolina’s own Richard Hudson, who put Rogers in a rear chinlock until the honorable representative from Alabama calmed down.

But Hudson played a minor part in this saga. Two other North Carolinians had bigger roles.

Back in May, Rep. Dan Bishop, whose 8^th District includes Monroe and Salisbury, became the first Republican in Congress to publicly support getting rid of McCarthy as speaker. Bishop spent months feeding the chaos that led to last week’s vote to oust McCarthy. But when the time came to back up his talk, Bishop voted not to get rid of McCarthy.

Bishop says it’s partly because he thought the loss of McCarthy would cause trouble, but also because he’s running for North Carolina attorney general and is basically washing his hands of House business. A less charitable view might be that Bishop made a political calculation. If the next speaker is a disaster, Bishop can say he voted for the status quo. If the next speaker turns out fine, Bishop can say he agitated to get rid of McCarthy all along. If it comes up in a later campaign, he can argue whichever side suits him. A classic fork of the tongue.

Now that McCarthy is gone, the interim speaker of the House is Patrick McHenry, the bow-tied rep who grew up in Gastonia. He serves the 10^th District, which swings from Shelby up through Hickory and over to Statesville. McHenry is a strange case for a 21^st-century politician in that he seems to have tacked more to the center than the edge.

When he was first elected to the House back in 2005, he was described as a “bomb-thrower.” But eventually, he decided that throwing bombs wasn’t doing him or anybody else any good. So he decided to focus on learning policy and trying to get things done. As a former roommate told Politico, McHenry committed to “become a serious conservative without being a jerk.”

The results? I’d say a mixed bag. He supported Donald Trump’s presidency, but voted against Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. He has gained respect from Democrats for bipartisan legislation. He was in the middle of that scrum between Mike Rogers and Matt Gaetz, trying to keep the peace. And it turned out that he was first on McCarthy’s secret list of potential replacements — a list created by a law enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

McHenry was so angry that the House got rid of McCarthy that he slammed down his gavel at the end of the session. But the underlying part of that is, it’s his gavel now, at least temporarily. He decided it was better to build than destroy. A lot of his colleagues could learn from that.

Tommy Tomlinson’s “On My Mind” column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.

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North Carolina

North Carolina Zoo celebrates its 50 anniversary

Published

3 hours ago

August 4, 2024

Press Room

North Carolina Zoo celebrates its 50 anniversary

ASHEBORO, N.C. (WTVD) — The North Carolina Zoo is celebrating 50 years.

Located in Asheboro, the zoo houses about 1,700 animals and over 250 species primarily from Africa and North America.

On social media, NC Zoo wrote Friday:

“Throughout our history, we’ve been home to a diverse array of remarkable animals, dedicated keepers, and passionate employees who work tirelessly behind the scenes. Join us in honoring this milestone by visiting the Zoo in 2024!”

The Zoo also mentioned the Zoo’s first animals, which were two Galapagos tortoises named Tort and Retort.

The post said in part: “These two tortoises symbolize the early days of the North Carolina Zoo and are cherished deeply in our hearts.”

The North Carolina Zoo is one of two state-supported zoos in the country. The other is the Minnesota Zoo.

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North Carolina

NC has some of the most dangerous roads in the US: See how Wilmington-area counties rank

Published

10 hours ago

August 4, 2024

Press Room

NC has some of the most dangerous roads in the US: See how Wilmington-area counties rank

With a recent study revealing North Carolina as one of the states with the riskiest roads to travel, some may wonder how safe the roads are here in the Cape Fear region.

MarketWatch Guides, a site that provides “reviews of consumer products and services to help readers make educated purchasing decisions,” focuses in part on car insurance comparisons, vehicle safety and more.

A recent study by the site analyzed factors including annual miles driven per 100,000 system miles, percentage of rough roads and fatal injuries per 100,000 licensed drivers. States were given a rating out of 10 points, with 10 being the most dangerous.

More: Distracted driving in Wilmington: How big of a problem is it?

North Carolina’s ranking among the most dangerous

According to the study, the states with the most dangerous drivers based on the factors studied are:

Louisiana – 7.55/10

California – 7.21/10

New Mexico – 6.74/10

Hawaii – 6.73/10

Delaware – 6.67/10

New Jersey – 6.53/10

Mississippi – 6.47/10

North Carolina – 6.39/10

Massachusetts – 6.33/10

Maryland and Texas – 6.26/10

According to the study, North Carolina had 32.5 fatal injuries per 100,000 licensed drivers, but only 2.1% of rough roads, which was the lowest percentage out of the other ranked states.

For a more localized perspective, the North Carolina Department of Transportation releases annual traffic crash facts data. The most recent 2022 report includes a ranking of counties based on several factors, including reported crashes, crash severity, crash rates based on population, registered vehicles and estimated vehicle miles traveled.

The most dangerous county for drivers, ranked at No. 1 for the past five years, was Robeson County. The county had 60 fatal crashes in 2022 with 1,136 non-fatal injury crashes. The rest of the total 4,056 crashes were property-damage-only. The county with the best ranking was Hyde County, coming in at No. 100. The county had one fatal crash in 2022 and 10 non-fatal injury crashes. The county had a total of 45 crashes, the rest of which were property damage only.

More: MyReporter: Which intersections see the most red-light camera violations in Wilmington?

Here’s where the Cape Fear region counties ranked.

Brunswick County

Ranked No. 76 in 2022, Brunswick County had 25 fatal crashes and 715 non-fatal injury crashes. The total crashes for that year were 3,146. The remainder of the crashes were property damage only.

New Hanover County

Ranked No. 58, New Hanover had 19 fatal crashes and 1,313 non-fatal injury crashes, both of which went down from 2021. The total crashes in New Hanover were 5,617. The remainder of the crashes were property damage only.

Pender County

Ranked No. 47, Pender County had the worst ranking despite having the lowest number of crashes. The county had 12 fatal crashes and 374 non-fatal injury crashes, and a total of 1,156 crashes. The rest of the crashes were property damage only.

Iris Seaton, USA Today Network, contributed to this report.

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North Carolina

Tropical Storm Debby expected to bring rainfall to Virginia & North Carolina

Published

17 hours ago

August 3, 2024

Press Room

Tropical Storm Debby expected to bring rainfall to Virginia & North Carolina

Tropical Storm Debby already has parts of Florida under tropical storm warnings. The Florida Big Bend is currently under a Hurricane Warning. Debby is forecast to briefly strengthen into a category 1 hurricane as it moves over the Gulf of Mexico where water temperatures are near 90 degrees.

As it continues its path over land it is expected to dial back to tropical storm strength as it reaches the Carolinas mid to late next week. Moderate rainfall is possible for northeast North Carolina and southern Virginia by the end of the week.

Higher amounts of rain are possible for southernmost portions of the Outer Banks but generally models show 2-4 inches for northeast North Carolina and 1-2 inches for southern Virginia through Thursday.

Stay with News 3’s First Warning Weather Team for the latest updates as the storm develops.

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