Adam Wagner

House Speaker Hall: Bill seeking to ban virtually all abortions in NC will not advance Members of the NC House Freedom Caucus filed legislation that would ban access to abortion in most cases, including those where a woman is a victim of rape or incest.

"I don't think there's any real desire in our caucus to hear that particular bill," Speaker Destin Hall says about bill filed Monday that would greatly restrict abortions in North Carolina.
From @byadamwagner.bsky.social and Mary Helen Moore. #ncpol
www.wunc.org/2025-04-08/h...

Jaws are dropping at the Env Mgt Commission meeting b/c Commish Keene just acknowledged the Water Quality Assoc wrote 80% proposed rule for #PFAS minimization plan, DEQ just filled in the blanks. WQA has denied this. @newsongs.bsky.social

John Ketchum, CEO of Nextera Energy, talking about need for energy for data centers.

“The cost of gas-fired generation has gone up by more than three fold.”

And takes years to bring online, 2030 or later.

“Renewables are cheaper and available right now”

NEW REPORT: Clean Energy Dominates in 2024 | ACP • 93% of new energy capacity that came online last year was solar, wind, and storage • 49 GW of clean energy installed in 2024 • Clean energy in the […]

“It took more than 20 years for the U.S. to install the first 100 GW of clean power, five years to install the next 100 GW, and three years to install the most recent 100 GW" cleanpower.org/news/market-...
#Upshift
🔌💡

Trump admin through 1 week:
- Pauses all federal grants & loans
- Purges Justice Department career staff, halts civil rights cases
- Purges at least 15 inspectors general
- Suspends USAID staff while halting foreign aid
- Threatens Colombia, Denmark, Mexico, Canada & many more w/ tariffs & sanctions

They are indeed. And they’re in for a very rude awakening.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

Bird Flu Is a National Embarrassment America should have more aggressively intervened almost a year ago.

Essential reading from @katherinejwu.com @theatlantic.com.

For months, we've passively watched H5N1 tear through animals. A year into the cattle outbreak & it remains out of control. H5N1 is everywhere.

If H5N1 causes a pandemic, it will be because we let it.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

FYI, folks from Bluesky. Reporters at The NYT, among other news organizations, are now generating a giant wave of accountability stories about the new Trump era. Reading these stories, sharing them, is a form of accountability as well. It is a form of participatory democracy too. Substance matters.

A map of total snowfall on January 10-11, 2025, across North Carolina

Here's our first draft of the statewide snowfall map from last night's storm. ❄️⛄

It's based on reports from CoCoRaHS observers and local National Weather Service offices this morning.

Stay tuned on Monday for our full event recap! #ncwx

For some reason over the past few weeks the 20th century is finally starting to feel like a period in the distant past rather than recent history.

A rare endangered whale spotted off NC will likely die from fishing gear entanglement There are about 370 North Atlantic right whales alive. In the last week, NOAA has spotted three entangled in fishing gear, two likely fatal.

And now for the bad NC wildlife news.

A North Atlantic Right Whale has been spotted off the Outer Banks with fishing gear wrapped around its head and is expected to die from its injuries.

This is the third NARW spotted in gear in the past week.

www.newsobserver.com/news/state/n...

North Carolina Now Home to Over 11 Million People Recent Census Bureau estimates show North Carolina passes 11 million milestone earlier than expected

www.osbm.nc.gov/blog/2024/12...

‘Shocking’ loss for endangered red wolves: 5 pups die after father was hit by a car The litter of five highly endangered wolves was born in Eastern North Carolina in April. Their father was killed by a car on US 64 in June.

Since September 2023, four wolves have been killed by cars around Alligator River, including three on U.S. 64. That includes a father and a son, as well as a wolf that had just sired five pups who died soon after he did.
amp.newsobserver.com/news/state/n...

This grant also has a climate link, with parts of the low-lying road being raised to install underpasses. That could help with resilience during heavy rains and flooding.

$25M federal grant will help NCDOT protect endangered red wolves along dangerous highway The $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will fund wildlife crossings to protect Eastern NC’s red wolves.

Today’s shaping up as a big one in NC wildlife news.

First, Eastern NC’s endangered red wolf population is getting a huge boost with NC DOT receiving $25M from the Federal Highways Administration to build wildlife crossings on 2.5 miles of U.S. 64.
www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

Screenshot with incorrect journalist in citation.

Pretty sure I wrote this one, @triangleblogblog.bsky.social.

How Are States Spending Opioid Settlement Cash? We Built a Database of Answers - KFF Health News From addiction treatment to toy robot ambulances, we uncovered how billions in opioid settlement funds were used by state and local governments in 2022 and 2023. Find out where the money went.

NEW: Database by @kffhealthnews.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social & Shatterproof tracks 7,000+ ways opioid settlement money has been used, shining light on public health settlements worth $50B kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

In this 🧵, I’ll share a bit on how we built this & what we found.

Twitter punishing linking, which has encouraged people to just screenshot/steal stuff w no sourcing or credit, really sapped my interest in posting more

Invisible peril? Some NC communities stuck with higher pollution exposure risks. NC environmental activists focuses on cumulative impacts in rural areas. But some people in urban corridors live near multiple sources of pollution emissions too.

Last year, Gavin Off & I featured the Southwest High Point neighborhood that is receiving a significant grant here in Exposed & Overlooked, a feature looking at NC regulators' inability or unwillingness to consider existing pollution when granting new permits.
www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

EPA just made the largest-ever environmental justice grant. Here’s what it means in NC. The EPA’s Community Change Grants include funds for a neighborhood that has more toxic release permits than any other in North Carolina.

The EPA is announcing $1.6 billion in climate and environmental justice grants today. That includes three projects in NC. Here's what you need to know about them.
www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

Yesterday, a House committee heard a stark update on the post-Helene state of agriculture in Western North Carolina.

"The next few years we’re going to spend a lot of time trying to keep our farmers in business. That’s the task at hand."

The Passion Pit/xx pairing on an old school iPod was so perfect.

“And everything is going to the beat…”

Amid the collapse of the Assad government in Syria, Biden says of Austin Tice, “We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back. But we have no direct evidence of that yet.”

Tice, a journalist, was taken captive in 2012 while reporting on Syria’s civil war.

www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

North Carolina health officials have been surprised at slower-than-expected demand for well water testing and disinfecting in the wake of Helene. According to estimates, as many as 19,619 wells could be in flooded areas, with another 87,000 nearby.
www.newsobserver.com/news/state/n...

Side by side screenshots of identical BlueSky and X posts both feature the text: "Mississippi opened its public reefs for a short oyster season for the first time since 2018 after decades of natural and human-made disasters." The BlueSky post has 2 comments, 22 reposts and 124 likes; the X post has 0 comments, 1 retweet and 0 likes

I'm not sure how much longer our Mississippi Free Press account will post to X, but for now it makes a good case study—and a good case for why other newsrooms shouldn't fear moving to BlueSky.

Look at the difference in engagement for identical posts with the same links.

Left: BlueSky, Right: X 🧵

Republicans take power away from Stein, Jackson with new Helene bill Podcast Episode · Under the Dome · 11/25/2024 · 25m

And here’s the Apple Podcast link.

Also, if you listen to the very end you’ll hear me talk about one of Wilmington’s best restaurants and the very cool thing they’re doing for Thanksgiving: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

I jumped on the @underthedome.bsky.social podcast this week w/ @dawnbvaughan.bsky.social, @kyleingram.bsky.social and Avi Bajpai to talk about what last week's NC General Assembly legislation and what it says about different approaches to NC's "rainy day fund."
www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

Trump health picks largely untested in fighting disease outbreaks They have questioned vaccines and other interventions overseen by the health agencies they have been tapped to lead.

When the next pandemic strikes, Americans will again depend on a cadre of senior health officials to steer the nation’s response and reassure the public.

But the team rapidly assembled by President-elect Donald Trump is largely untested.

Netflix is so wild to me. There’s a first rate production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington and I only know about it because of a post on BlueSky.

Like, I’m watching it now while reading along and it’s BRILLIANT.