WUNC Politics

North Carolina's vaccination rate ticked up last week, but millions of the state's residents are still not vaccinated. WUNC's Dave DeWitt talks to Rose Hoban from North Carolina Health News about the doubts, the data and the Delta variant.

North Carolina's Republican-led legislature will soon start the decennial redistricting process. WUNC's politics reporter Rusty Jacobs looks at lessons learned from the past decade's legal battles over North Carolina's voting maps.

Parents across the country began receiving monthly payments from the federal government this week. Meanwhile, the North Carolina legislature considers legislation about critical race theory and medical marijuana. Host Jeff Tiberii reviews the week in politics with Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation and Rob Schofield from NC Policy Watch.

Nikole Hannah-Jones' bombshell decision to reject UNC's offer of tenure makes it easy to draw some parallels between the journalist's very public fight with the university and another Black scholar who took the school to task for equitable treatment decades ago.

Reporter Rusty Jacobs speaks with two North Carolina lawmakers about controversial GOP-backed voting legislation.

Reporter Will Michaels interviews Jeff Tiberii about the state Senate's budget proposal and explains the many steps left in the budget reconciliation process.

Republican state senators passed three new measures along party lines that aim to change North Carolina election law. Meanwhile in the state house, a long-awaited 47-page energy bill made a controversial debut, and municipalities around the state celebrate Juneteenth for the first time against the backdrop of ongoing conversations about how to teach history in public schools.

Host Charlie-Shelton Ormond explores how a multimillion dollar jail expansion proposal in Haywood County is causing a rift within the community and raising questions about the importance of rehabilitation and the effectiveness of incarceration.

It is a busy week in North Carolina Politics. Former President Donald Trump headlines the NCGOP Convention in Greenville; there are new revelations in the Nikole Hannah-Jones saga; and at the General Assembly: the governor’s pick to oversee environmental issues was turned away as budget talks remain stalled. Host Jeff Tiberii talks with Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch and Becki Gray of the John Locke Foundation about the state political stories of the week.

Host Dave DeWitt speaks with WUNC education reporter Liz Schlemmer about the ongoing tenure controversy involving Nikole Hannah-Jones and UNC-Chapel Hill.