Economy
Two weeks after meeting to approve a $1.6 billion package that distributed COVID-19 funds from Washington, the North Carolina General Assembly resumed its annual session on Monday. Republicans in the N.C. Senate unveiled spending priorities on Tuesday for the coming fiscal year, rolling out more than 18 separate bills. The N.C. house has yet to…
Read MoreU.S. Senator Richard Burr is temporarily stepping down as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee as federal investigators look into timely stock sales he and his wife made after receiving coronavirus briefings from U.S. public health officials. This comes after federal agents served a search warrant on the lawmaker and seized a cellphone on Wednesday…
Read MoreAccording to a federal Public Financial Disclosure Act filing, Gerald Fauth, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr’s brother-in-law, sold six stocks valued at between $97,006 and $280,000. The stock sales were conducted on the same day that Burr and his wife dumped over $1.72 million of their stock holdings. All the sales were made after Burr attended…
Read MoreOn May 2, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a $1.57 million COVID-19 relief package. Votes in both the House and the Senate during the Saturday session were unanimous, marking the legislature’s first response to the pandemic. The $1.57 billion package contains funding for education, health care, small business loans, food banks, medical research, testing…
Read MoreAccording to a new report, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis received more than $156,000 from political action committees tied to drug manufacturers in 2019. Sen. Tillis, a chairman of the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, received more money than any other member of Congress from the PAC, according to a new analysis of KHN’s Pharma Cash…
Read MoreFrom Trump’s suggestion of “injecting” disinfectant into the body to arguing with state governors asking for crucial aid, the long list of the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the health crisis continues as the U.S. climbs to over 960,000 COVID-19 cases. Trump, who called for governors to “liberate” their states by lifting lockdown restriction — despite…
Read MoreBy Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter A new coalition of left-leaning groups came together over the last month and a half, and it’s pushing state leaders to address economic inequality as government responds to COVID-19, and longer term. The group, NC United for Survival & Beyond, lists some 200 organizations as members. Many are smaller grassroots operations,…
Read MoreA new report discovers that U.S Senator and Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, sold his D.C. townhouse off-market for above market-price to a donor and powerful lobbyist connected to him, raising possibilities that the purchase could violate Senate ethics rules. In 2017, Burr sold the town house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood to a group…
Read MoreThe COVID-19 outbreak is exposing not only the weakness in the U.S health system and economy but the lack of preparedness plagued by decades of cuts and lack of concern. In North Carolina, working families, vulnerable populations, and children may be victims of a legislature that favored benefits for the wealthy at the expense of…
Read MoreSenator Richard Burr’s illegal stock market trade-offs ahead of the COVID-19 stock market crash, are not the only time the North Carolina senator relied on internal reports for his own personal gains. In 2018, Burr sold off almost $47,000 dollars worth of shares in a small Dutch fertilizer company, just weeks before its stock began…
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