Lejeune Settlements
President Donald Trump stood on stage in Greenville last week and said if Republicans didn’t win the House and Senate, victims of Camp Lejeune’s water contamination won’t get their money.
“Tonight, I’m pleased to announce that my administration has delivered $1 billion in cash settlements to these veterans and their families, most of whom are based here,” Trump said. Trump said if Republicans win the House and Senate he will direct the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible. “If we don’t win, there’s no money,” Trump said. “If we do win, you’re getting it.”
At the White House, he explained further what he meant: “If we’re not there somebody else is going to have to settle it, and I can’t speak for another administration. So if we do badly or the people we need surrounding us can’t get it done because you have a lot of congressmen up, you have a lot of senators up, you have a lot of people involved in that whole situation, so if Republicans don’t do well then I would say maybe they won’t get their money.”
In 2022, Congress passed the PACT Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden, authorizing members of the military and people who lived and worked on Camp Lejeune between Aug. 1, 1953 and Dec. 31, 1987, to sue the government after being diagnosed with various severe illnesses including cancers and death. And the money being used to compensate the Camp Lejeune victims is from a trust fund created by the government in 1956 for this very type of lawsuit, so the money itself already exists and is authorized for settlements.
At the time of Trump’s original comments, he was stumping for Senate candidate Michael Whatley, a Republican from Gastonia, running against former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat from Raleigh. WSOC-TV reporter Joe Bruno asked Whatley about Trump’s statements later in the week. “We have to take care of the families,” Whatley said. “We have almost 10% of all of the Armed Forces in the United States — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard — are based here, and making sure we take care of them is obviously a priority.”
When Bruno asked Whatley if the president was serious in what he said at the rally, Whatley said: “The president talks a lot about the campaign. He talks a lot about these types of issues. The key is that we’ve got to make sure that our military families are going to be taken care of, and our veterans.”
McClatchy asked Cooper about Trump’s comments at a rally Thursday evening. “Shameful comments,” Cooper said, “These claims should have been paid and settled long ago, and when service members sign up, they don’t sign up for partisanship. They don’t sign up based upon the outcome of an election. They sign up to defend our country, and to extort them like that is wrong on multiple levels. And I find it disgusting.”
Battery Disposal
North Carolina residents must soon follow a new law when discarding used lithium-ion batteries. Starting Dec. 1, it will be illegal to dispose of lithium-ion batteries in landfills and incinerators. That means you can't throw these batteries in your household trash. Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric vehicles, cellphones, security systems, and many household appliances. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service has printable and digital resources to promote safe disposal of batteries. The law updates the state's General Statute G.S. 130A-309.10, which already prohibits disposing items such as lead-acid batteries, televisions and antifreeze in landfills and incinerators. The National Institute of Standards and Technology found that lithium-ion batteries can emit flames over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit almost instantly after ignition. Battery Safety Now counted 448 reported fires at waste and recycling facilities across North America in 2025 and at least 89 deaths directly related to lithium-ion batteries since 2020. The Triangle has reckoned with the effects of improper battery disposal before. A fire broke out at North Wake Household Hazardous Waste Facility in January 2025 after someone improperly tossed their lithium-ion battery. The damage is estimated to cost the county more than $1.5 million in repairs.
Fairground Underpass
The years-long delay in completing an underpass near the N.C. State Fairgrounds was largely caused by the challenges of working in an active railroad corridor, according to a new report from the State Auditor’s office. Contractors for the N.C. Department of Transportation initially had difficulty gaining access to the site where they are building the underpass to carry Blue Ridge Road under Hillsborough Street, Beryl Road and a pair of tracks owned by the N.C. Railroad, according to the report. Once work started in late 2022, “railroad reviews and approvals” caused further delays, according to the report. The underpass is now not scheduled to be finished until next summer, nearly three years longer than expected when work began. The auditor’s report faults NCDOT for not adequately tracking the source of delays and reporting them to the public. It says the added time has increased the cost of the project by 41%, to nearly $72 million. “This is a complex project and railroad issues have delayed it from the start, but the need for this underpass hasn’t gone away,” Auditor Dave Boliek wrote. Another big factor is that the soil where contractors set out to build a temporary set of railroad tracks was not dense enough to support trains. The auditor’s report acknowledges the soil problem but says it was exacerbated by delays in getting clearance from the railroads to access the site.
Quartz Plant
At a rally in Greenville on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced a new manufacturing plant in North Carolina that would provide raw materials for semiconductors. Sibelco, the mineral company that Lutnick said was behind the new plant, hasn’t confirmed any details of the federal officials’ announcement. But if such a project is on the horizon, it could bolster a global hub for mining in Western North Carolina, which produces 70% to 90% of the world’s high purity quartz — a key raw material used in semiconductor chips and solar panels. A Sibelco spokesperson told The News & Observer the company is “awaiting the official communication from the U.S. Government and are therefore not in a position to comment or provide information beyond what has been publicly announced through official channels.” At Trump’s rally on Tuesday, he said he had “just been informed” by Lutnick of a new project, inviting Lutnick up onstage. Lutnick shared very limited details on the project. Gov. Josh Stein’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.