Sometimes the best thing you can do as a journalist is listen.

Case in point: Back in March, we covered it when a North Carolina veteran named Jay Carey was removed from Congressman Chuck Edwards’ town hall in Asheville.

You might remember it. The video went national. Carey was laying into Edwards, claiming that Republican members of Congress hadn’t done enough to protect the military and military families from the Veteran Affairs cuts ordered by President Trump’s administration. 

I’m happy to announce that Carey, and many other veteran advocates in North Carolina, will join us May 20 in Fayetteville to air out their concerns. The Cardinal & Pine team, myself included, will be there to speak as well. The 100% free event runs from 5:30-7:30 pm at Studio 215 in Fayetteville. 

Book your free registration here. 

Jay Carey, the North Carolina veteran bounced from a Republican town hall in March, will speak at Cardinal & Pine’s ‘Voices for Veterans’ event. Click the image to get your free ticket. 

Happy Friday. Does anyone else think it’s wild that Memorial Day is just a few weeks away. 

Here’s the news from North Carolina: 

@cardinalandpine on Facebook

Thousands of people were in the streets of North Carolina cities Thursday evening, participating in a nationwide day of demonstrations. 

They were there to protest Trump’s federal cuts, layoffs, and attacks against the rule of law, as Cardinal & Pine’s Michael McElroy reported.

Among them was Brandon Williams, a resident of Durham whose wife lost her job at the federal agency AmeriCorps because of the Trump cuts. AmeriCorps does a lot, including providing disaster relief, education support, connecting with veterans, and more. 

We talked to Williams to get his 2 cents. Take a look. 

And for more of Cardinal & Pine’s “Mayday” protest coverage, go to our Facebook page. 

A protester waits for Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs to address the crowd in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera)

In their 2018 book, “How Democracies Die,” political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt wrote that democracies don’t always fall down with a boom, like when Adolf Hitler used the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany to seize power. 

“More often,” they wrote, “democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.”

This is what those “barely visible” steps look like. 

On Thursday, an unsigned state appeals court ruling transferred oversight of the state’s elections to a Republican officeholder. The ruling contradicted a century of precedent granting that power to the state’s governor.

Gov. Josh Stein is appealing the ruling, but for now, it appears Republicans will control elections and could intervene to help Jefferson Griffin overcome his loss in the 2024 NC Supreme Court election to Democratic Justice Allison Riggs. 

We stand on the slipperiest of slopes, North Carolina. I wrote about the big picture. 

1. NC Gov. Josh Stein, state Superintendent Mo Green stop in Burlington to highlight school funding. WXII

They will visit Hillcrest Elementary School Friday. Stein is expected to highlight the state’s budget proposal to strengthen public schools, including a $4 billion school bond to address aging school buildings and facilities across North Carolina.

2. Federal cuts threaten to derail NC public health lab upgrades. NC Health News

Work on a major renovation of the State Public Health Laboratory screeched to a halt in late March when the administration of President Donald Trump notified states that the federal government was halting some $11 billion in post-pandemic aid that was scheduled to be distributed to the states. 

3. Still here: A personal reflection on recovery and resilience in western North Carolina. NC Newsline

From the outside, disaster response may seem simple: see a problem, send help. But the reality is far more complex.

Shutterstock

Y’all know your North Carolina. 

Loads of you got the right answer to last week’s edition of “Where Are We in NC?” But the fastest answer came from Mary Lorscheider, who correctly identified the Manteo waterfront. Way to go, Mary. 

This week’s should be a tricky one. Write me and tell me where we are. Fastest is the winner!

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m a NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Cardinal & Pine is happily free to read for everyone. Your financial support means a lot to us. Donate here.

Send us your feedback and news tips to info@cardinalpine.com