[Good News Friday is Cardinal & Pine’s weekly roundup of positive news stories from around NC. For past editions, tap here.]
Today’s edition:
- Attorney General Jeff Jackson wins in court against Meta, Trump
- Gov. Josh Stein touts $69 million win for rental housing in western NC
In Monday’s “3 things happening in NC” column, I discussed how NASA astronaut and three-time NC State alum Christina Hammock Koch planned to spend two days on campus. It was her first homecoming since traveling to the moon as part of the Artemis II team.
The university rolled out its reddest carpet for Koch, as NC State Chancellor Kevin Howell announced the renaming of the Engineering Building II to Christina Hammock Koch Hall.
There was also a mural unveiling that surely would have been cool to “pink-haired Hammock, back when she was a ripped-jeans-wearing NC State freshman in 1997,” as the comms department described her, and even a limited-edition Howl at the Moon flavor of Howling Cow ice cream created in her honor.
“Buildings are communities for collaboration,” Koch said of her newly minted namesake hall. “Their names carry the inspiration of a namesake and then take on lives of their own. They start as a person’s story and become the stories they hold.”
And now let’s take a look at three news stories this week has held, as we do on every Good News Friday.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson stops Trump’s mail-in voting rule. For now.
On Wednesday, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that he had joined a coalition of attorneys general from around the country in suing to stop a controversial new United States Postal Service (USPS) mail-in voting rule.
It was set to go into effect only days before North Carolina law requires county boards of elections to begin mailing ballots for the midterm elections.
The rule could mean that eligible voters won’t receive lawfully requested absentee ballots in time to be returned and counted.
Late on Thursday night, Jackson announced that a judge had issued a temporary restraining order in the case.
“That means the Postal Service can’t force a new rule giving it the power to deny your ballot, just one week before ballots go out,” Jackson wrote. “The court said the rule would cause ‘irreparable harm,’ was ‘practically impossible’ to comply with, and likely unconstitutional. It would have caused chaos in our election. We stopped it for now, and we’ll keep defending free and fair elections.”
President Donald Trump’s executive order would require states to implement an electronic portal for mail-in voters that USPS has never used and on which its employees are not trained. The order would force county boards of elections to provide USPS with barcodes for each voter’s ballot envelope and, if they try to mail ballots to voters without barcodes, USPS will refuse to mail them.
“The Constitution is clear on this: The states have the authority over elections, not the Postal Service,” Jackson said upon announcing the lawsuit. “Not only is this last-minute rule change against the law, but it threatens North Carolinians’ voting rights and imposes a whole new process right before an election. We’re taking the Postal Service to court to stop it.”
Meta settles suit. What that means for North Carolina
The same day Jackson’s office joined in launching the USPS suit, he also announced the culmination of a suit his office helped carry out against Meta.
The company, which owns Instagram and Facebook, will pay between $451 million and $645 million to North Carolina and enact new child safety measures on its social media apps as part of the settlement with Jackson and 51 other attorneys general.
North Carolina is slated to receive up to $645 million through 2035 from the settlement, with Jackson encouraging state lawmakers to put that money toward after-school and summer school programs, crisis helplines for struggling children, and hiring school health personnel.
Teens and their parents will also see major changes on the apps themselves, as teens will be limited to two hours of usage per day with no access between midnight and 4 a.m. There will also be an end to push notifications during school hours and the implementation of notifications that encourage kids to stop scrolling after 15 minutes of activity.
Finally, Meta will turn off total counters for likes and reactions by default on all posts, stories, and reels to help prevent teens from comparing themselves to others.
“This is about protecting kids and empowering parents,” Jackson said upon announcing the settlement. “We know that this company built these apps to keep kids hooked and misled parents about what was happening. Today, Meta has to change those features and hand parents the controls.”
Gov. Josh Stein announces $69 million for rental housing in western North Carolina
As we approach the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, there are still many folks in western North Carolina who continue to deal with the storm’s impacts.
On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Stein joined state officials in announcing that $69 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding will be put toward 10 projects comprising 828 new, affordable rental units in western NC at a time when Helene recovery has worsened the housing crisis.
Renters in western NC face some of the highest housing cost burdens in the state, Stein pointed out on Tuesday, emphasizing that affordable rental housing is an important component of a full recovery.
“Getting families back into safe housing that they can afford is critical to the recovery from Hurricane Helene,” said Stein. “This program will ensure these 828 apartments remain financially accessible to people living in the 828 area code for the next 30 years.”
Projects are spread across 10 counties, ranging from the 55-unit Arendell Trace development in West Jefferson to Leonhardt Landing in Morganton, which will include 140 units. Check out Gov. Stein’s release for the full listing.
