The NC General Assembly kicked off its short session on Tuesday and it took less than 24 hours for some major moves to be made — a surprise following an infamously uneventful long session in 2025.
As reported by Cardinal & Pine’s Michael McElroy this week, Republican lawmakers broke through one stalemate on Tuesday when they finally agreed to fully fund Medicaid.
As I discussed on Monday, however, North Carolina remains the only state in the Union without a budget in place and that’s a pretty big matzah ball hanging out there. With Republican infighting still standing between North Carolinians and a properly funded state, Gov. Josh Stein released his own proposed budget on Tuesday.
While the ones with the power to pass a budget continue to squabble, let’s take a second on Good News Friday to explore what possibilities our governor sees for North Carolina.
Gov. Josh Stein releases proposed budget
Gov. Josh Stein announced his recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2026-27, nearly 10 months after that fiscal year technically started. Stein proposes raising the starting pay for teachers to the highest in the Southeast while providing meaningful tax relief to working families.
His proposed budget also invests in public safety, child care, public education, workforce development, and health care.
With North Carolina currently ranking second-to-last in the country in per-pupil investment and lower than all of its neighboring states on starting teacher pay, Stein’s budget invests nearly $2.3 billion to support educators and improve student outcomes.
That money would also go toward expanding child care access by increasing subsidy rates, establishing a statewide subsidy reimbursement rate floor, and funding NC Pre-K.
The budget would increase personal income tax deductions, something we could all have used earlier this month, while preserving current individual and corporate income tax rates. His proposed budget also includes more than $970 million in targeted investments to support law enforcement, address root causes of crime, and keep people healthy.
You can check out the full document here while daydreaming about what it would be like to have lawmakers in power who were ready to act on their constituents’ needs.
Two films set to start filming in Wilmington
We’re bringing it back to the days when they called it “Filmington.”
OK, that’s never been Wilmington’s nickname, but names like Hollywood East and Wilmywood really were thrown around in the not-so-distant past when flicks like Iron Man 3, The Conjuring, Blue Velvet, and I Know What You Did Last Summer were filmed in the Port City.
Now Wilmington’s film industry is scratching its way back after “a historic low year” in 2025. This week saw the announcement of two new projects that will start filming soon in the city.
The first film, Half-Life, is a female-led project centered on a woman’s journey to escape an abusive marriage, based in part on the professional experiences of former divorce attorney and screenwriter Mary Craven Adams. Produced by Honey Head Films, Half-Life is directed and co-written by Erika Arlee and produced by Kristi Ray, who will also star in the film.
The second is a student-driven film from Cape Fear Community College that aims to spotlight the college’s Career and Technical Education programs in action. The filmmaking process will integrate real students, instructors and hands-on training environments, serving as both a creative endeavor and a showcase of workforce development pathways available in southeastern North Carolina.
“These films are a testament to what can happen when communities come together around a shared vision,” said Susi Hamilton, president and CEO of the Film Partnership of North Carolina. “They demonstrate that filmmaking is not just an art form — it’s a vehicle for education, advocacy, and economic opportunity.”
WWII veteran to be laid to rest after 80+ years
William Burns of Evergreen, an unincorporated community in Columbus County, died aboard the USS Glennon off the coast of Normandy on June 8, 1944, during operations that followed D-Day. Eighty-two years later, he will finally be laid to rest near his hometown in Chadbourn, the US Navy announced this week.
Confirming Burns’ remains was a strenuous, years-long identification process. He will be buried with full military honors at Chadbourn Memorial Cemetery on Saturday, May 9.
Burns was a Carpenter’s Mate 2nd Class, tasked with fixing up ships during long deployments, doing carpentry work, caulking seams, maintaining ventilation systems and repairing wooden construction, among other jobs. He was serving on the USS Glennon at the time of his death, killed when the Greaves-class destroyer struck a mine during Operation Neptune, the naval component of the allied landings on D-Day.
Human remains were found in the ship when it was salvaged and broken down for scrap in 1957. The Department of Defense and American Battle Monument Commission exhumed the remains in 2022 and sent them to a lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for analysis.
“After further analysis, the mitochondrial DNA sequence information obtained, when compared with 15 Sailors associated with the incident, was consistent with only the mtDNA sequence information obtained from CM2c William Burns’ maternal relatives, and he was positively identified on March 26, 2025,” read a report from the Navy this week.
Burns’ family, which resides in High Point, is expected to be on hand for the ceremonial burial on May 9.
