Cardinal and Pine

NC lawmakers override Josh Stein’s vetoes on climate change, gun laws With some Democratic support, legislators defied Gov. Josh Stein, weakened state climate change laws and made it legal for private school teachers to take guns to school.

NC Republicans overrode eight bills Gov. Josh Stein vetoed, including bills removing climate protections and allowing private school teachers to bring guns to school.

They were able to pass these bills because in each case at least one Democrat voted with them. 👇

cardinalpine.com/2025/07/29/n...

NC lawmakers override Josh Stein’s vetoes on climate change, gun laws With some Democratic support, legislators defied Gov. Josh Stein, weakened state climate change laws and made it legal for private school teachers to take guns to school.

I had to do a double take on this from Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Democrat from Charlotte:

“All cultures are not equal."

The story 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/29/n...

Roy Cooper officially enters US Senate Race Cooper officially announced his candidacy for North Carolina’s US Senate seat in 2026.  He hasn’t lost an election since entering politics in 1986.

He’s running.

Roy Cooper released a video Monday confirming he's running for NC's US Senate seat in 2026. Democrats are confident Cooper, who has never lost an election in his political career, can help them win back the Senate and check President Trump’s policies.

cardinalpine.com/2025/07/28/r...

BREAKING 🔊The Trump administration is releasing all $165 million of education funding meant for NC schools, according to Attorney General Jeff Jackson.

For the latest, click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/25/t...

Good News Friday: A big boost for eastern NC trails This week’s edition of Good News Friday includes a huge boost for recreation on eastern NC trails, some swell news for job-hunters in the Triangle, and one Cary teen’s 100% perfect SAT score.

We like our good news like we like our ice cream—NOW. 😀 In this week's "Good News Friday," a state grant will refresh eastern NC trails, including Greenfield Lake in Wilmington.

For this, and more good news from NC, Click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/25/g...

✊ On Thursday morning, hundreds of Durham residents came out to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the city, after ICE agents were reported near the courthouse Wednesday.
🎥 Heather Rodrigues
bit.ly/4kXyHD8

As expected, former NC Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to run in the 2026 US Senate race, a new Axios report says.

Click the 🔗 below for more.
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/23/r...

Update: The nerds won. 🦸‍♂️ 🚀

GalaxyCon Raleigh returns this week, with a huge list of celebrities, comics, cosplay, nostalgia, and more. Click 👇
bit.ly/3TRezaD

"NC public schools are the beating heart of many communities. They are not charity. They are constitutional. And they deserve better.”

Brittany Gregory is a former public school teacher in NC. To read her op-ed, click 👇
cardinalpine.com/opinion/opin...

NC First Lady Anna Stein announced a program this week called Unshame NC, aiming at reducing the shame around substance abuse disorder and promoting treatment. Click the 🔗 to read 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/22/n...

Charlotte’s hosting the 2026 MLS All-Star Game Big win for the Queen City!

NC's Flyleaf Books has something called a 'silent book club,' a new twist on an old idea. 💆

For this story, and more actual, honest-to-god good news from NC, click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/18/g...

UPDATE: The US Senate has voted to defund PBS and NPR. Here's what that means for rural NC, where internet access is a big headache. cardinalpine.com/2025/07/17/w...

🦞 🐟 Calabash seafood put this small NC fishing town on the map in a big way. Learn more about this style of seafood and where to find it by clicking the link

bit.ly/3TLon5V

🌻 Every spring, Raleigh's @dixpark plants hundreds of thousands of sunflowers. They're blooming right now. Click the link to find out how to see them. 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/14/3...

On Monday, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson said the state will sue Trump over frozen education funds. “The law was broken,” Jackson said. “Our state was hurt, and I can prove both of those things.”

Click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/14/3...

Newsletter No one should have to pay for news they can trustThat’s why we never have paywalls. We do, however, have a really great newsletter.It’s free, and it’s written for North Carolinians, by North Carolinia...

cardinalpine.com/newsletter/

The rainbow after the flood, from Whitted Bowers Farm in Orange County. 🌈 For more views from NC, sign up for our free daily newsletter on NC news, culture, and events at the link !

📸 Cheri Bowers, Cedar Grove, NC

Looking to support your neighbors?

Here are a few trusted local groups across NC accepting donations to help communities affected by the storm.

NC Gov. Josh Stein vetoes a bill allowing guns in private schools. Here’s why. Gov. Josh Stein signed nine bills into law that were approved by the Republican-controlled NC General Assembly, but he blocked several more, including a plan to let guns into private schools.

This week, NC Gov. Josh Stein vetoed four bills that had been passed by the state legislature, including ones that he says would make it harder to control "dark money" and regulate puppy mills. For more info, click👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/10/n...

"Miserable is an understatement." For the full story from NC Health News, click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/10/t...

Doctors and experts warn that a decision by Trump could endanger pregnant patients in medical emergencies. In June, Trump rescinded the federal guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women who need them to save their lives.
cardinalpine.com/2025/06/18/n...

A federal trial wrapping up in Winston-Salem today centers on the claim that NC Republicans suppressed Black voters when they gerrymandered the state. For the full story, click 👇
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/09/n...

Newsletter No one should have to pay for news they can trustThat’s why we never have paywalls. We do, however, have a really great newsletter.It’s free, and it’s written for North Carolinians, by North Carolinia...

For more like this, sign up for Cardinal & Pine's daily newsletter, where we break down the news of the day just like this, by clicking the link below. 👇

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In general, climate change is expected to make bad natural disasters badder—prolonging droughts, increasing the frequency of wildfires, and warming the Atlantic waters that cook up strong storms.

Systematic policy change meant to reduce our carbon emissions is the answer.

Hurricanes and Climate Change

Is there evidence that our warming climate is making these storms more frequent and more powerful? Absolutely.

www.c2es.org/content/hurr...

Tropical storms and hurricanes have been a part of life here since before we started recording things, so it’s not fair to take the impacts of any one of these events on their own and say “thanks climate change.”

But put them together and it tells a story.

Flooding from Chantal's remnants kills one person, forces dozens of water rescues in North Carolina In central North Carolina Sunday, flooding from the remnants of Chantal forced more than 50 water rescues, and left dozens of people to flee their homes. One person was killed in Chatham County.

But three storms—Helene, Matthew, and Florence—can be blamed for NC’s worst flooding ever, and all three of them happened in the last 10 years.

Take “Chantal” too, which is being described as an every “500 -1,000 year” flooding event in central NC.
cardinalpine.com/2025/07/07/f...

You can’t look at a single storm or a single flood and blame it on the big “C.” Climate change doesn’t work like that. It is a thing we observe over time, a story that can only be told with many events over time.

Here’s one of the many problems with talking about climate change:

In theory, you could blame it for almost everything and, perversely, nothing at the same time.