VOLUME 10 ISSUE 41 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2025
NSJONLINE.COM
CORY LAVALETTE / NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Quick response A fire truck is parked at the intersection of McDowell and Cabarrus streets near the Raleigh Convention Center after firefighters and police responded to a rooftop fire at the 500,000-square-foot building Monday night. Crews were able to extinguish the fire, which officials said was caused by a “natural gas incident,” in less than an hour. No one was injured, but damage has been estimated at $2 million.
Jackson takes on Trump as AG
the
BRIEF this week
The former congressman has involved the state in more than a dozen actions since taking office in January
U.S. envoy Witkoff meets Putin in Moscow Moscow U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, taking a draft peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Ahead of the talks, Putin accused Ukraine’s European allies of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the war, calling their demands “absolutely unacceptable.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to join the meeting, a Kremlin spokesman told reporters. Talks were to involve only Witkoff, Kushner and an interpreter from the U.S. side.
Costco demands refund of Trump tariffs Washington, D.C. Costco is joining other companies that aren’t waiting to see whether the Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump’s most sweeping import taxes. They’re going to court to demand refunds on the tariffs they’ve paid. The specialized U.S. Court of International Trade in New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled earlier this year that Trump’s biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. The case is now before the Supreme Court. In a Nov. 5 hearing, several of the high court’s justices expressed doubts that the president had sweeping power to declare national emergencies to slap tariffs on goods. If the court strikes down the tariffs, importers may be entitled to refunds on the levies they’ve paid.
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By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
Legislative America 250 Committee hears updates Revolutionary War Trail opportunities and website additions were discussed By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The North Carolina Semiquincentennial Committee heard presentations and updates on Amer-
ica 250 celebration planning during its November meeting. The meeting, opened by Committee Co-Chair Rep. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke) and Sen. Ted Alexander (R-Cleveland), lasted several hours and included multiple presentations. Mike Leonard, senior adviser to the Conservation Fund and a ninth-generation North Carolinian with personal ties See AMERICA 250, page A3
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson has racked up participation in at least 17 lawsuits against the Trump administration over his first 11 months in office. The cases Jackson entered the state into have had mixed results, with several of the lawsuits still active in various courts. In the AmeriCorps funding pause case, Jackson joined the suit on April 24, an injunction was issued in June, and on Aug. 27, the Office of Management and Budget released $185 million, rendering the suit moot. A June lawsuit involving grants to law enforcement agencies was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Also from June, the lawsuit over PBS and NPR funding is still
Judges OK NC’s new map “North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map reflects that support.” N.C. Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Kings Mountain)
Republicans altered two districts in an effort to claim another seat in Congress The Associated Press RALEIGH — A federal three-judge panel last Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of President Donald Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections. The map targets the state’s only swing seat, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 northeast counties. The 1st District has been represented by black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.
The three-judge panel unanimously denied preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, helping Republicans gain three more congressional seats. Trump broke with more than a century of political tradition by directing the GOP in North Carolina and several other states this year to redraw maps at mid-decade — without courts requiring it — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms. See MAP, page A3
active even though Congress eliminated $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funds this summer. The U.S. Department of Education freezing $6.8 billion in federal education grants for a review on June 30 occurred the day before the funds were scheduled to be released to states July 1. Jackson issued a press release about joining a lawsuit on July 14, but 10 days later, the department released the funding. Jackson’s participation in the SNAP lawsuit didn’t have long to make an impact and was preceded the prior day by Jackson issuing a “warning” to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He also issued a statement on the SNAP case when a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued, as well as a statement on Nov. 3 following the USDA indicating partial payments were coming. The U.S. Supreme Court put the TRO order on hold Nov. 7, and with the federal government shutdown at an end, the Trump administration withdrew its motions and benefits have resumed. See JACKSON, page A2