Minority Businesses
In the new state budget, North Carolina lawmakers eliminated the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses, or the HUB office. The HUB office was created in 1999 to help underrepresented businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans to compete for state contracts.
The HUB Office worked closely with more than 6,000 businesses. Many firms received business training, developmental resources, and were put on an easy-to-access database with other vendors, according to the North Carolina Department of Administration (NCDOA).
Despite its elimination in the state budget, Administration Secretary Gabe Esparza wants to continue supporting small businesses by meeting their needs through North Carolina’s Small Business Enterprise program, which is now in the Division of Purchase and Contract within the NCDOA.
“While we mourn the loss of HUB, we want to make the most of this opportunity to continue to support small businesses that want to provide goods and services to state government,” said Esparza. “We’re asking business owners to let us know their needs and tell us what they’d like to see this program become. Small businesses are vital to our economy, and we want to do our part to uplift them and connect them to opportunities.”
To get that feedback, a first forum was already held at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro. Two more will be held this month in Charlotte and Greenville. Another is slated for next month at ReCity in Durham.
Endangered Species
The Trump administration’s top wildlife official issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public. Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn’t killing species. The memo issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik is the most drastic move yet in the Trump administration’s campaign to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife advocates and experts said the nation’s bedrock wildlife conservation law would offer few safeguards under the new federal guidelines. Chris Servheen, who served as grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 35 years, said the agency’s current approach to the endangered species law is “ridiculously extreme.” Earlier this year, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies finalized a rule excluding the destruction of habitat from the definition of “harm” covered by the law. As long as chopping trees or draining a wetland didn’t directly kill animals, the feds said, those actions were legal even if they led to a species’ demise. Wildlife advocates warned that industries using the agency’s new directive to forgo permits may still face citizen lawsuits, and a new administration could reinstate the previous interpretation of the law.
North Carolina’s 58 community colleges experienced significant enrollment growth over the last four years and now exceed pre-pandemic levels.
COVID-19 caused a 17% enrollment decline in 2020. Last fall, the community college system recorded nearly 118,000 full-time students plus 429,000 students who received less than the 512 hours of instruction to be considered full time. Overall enrollment has grown 23% since 2019.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse, an educational nonprofit, community college enrollment has increased only 3% nationally since 2019.
“Enrollment growth is significant and continues to climb throughout the four-year period and even looking into the future,” Kimberly Gold, chief of staff for the North Carolina Community College System, told the state board on Thursday.
Wake Technical Community College saw the greatest growth over the last six years with an increase of 3,300 students. Fayetteville Technical Community College experienced the greatest decline with a loss of 1,000 students.
Historically, community college enrollment increases with a rise in unemployment. North Carolina defied that trend over the last four years as enrollment increased despite a decline in unemployment.
State investment hasn’t totally kept up with the enrollment growth. The General Assembly appropriated $1.67 billion toward community colleges for the 2022-23 school year.
That figure grew to $1.84 billion for the 2025-26 academic year. There has been a dip in funding per student as enrollment has outpaced budgeting, Gold said.
There’s not just more students in the classroom, but there have also been corresponding increases in credentials and course-completion attainment rates.
While college-level English completion rates remain down from pre-pandemic levels, math and science rates have remained stable. Gold said first-year student progression rates are at the highest level in a decade and dually-enrolled students are a source of stability and growth for the system.
Workforce and continuing education courses continue to serve the largest number of students overall. A majority of full-time students, over 92,000, are engaged in curriculum classes that are viewed as a gateway to a bachelor's degree.
A major change over the last four years is how students are engaged in the classroom. Nearly half, 49%, of full-time students receive instruction virtually, up from 31% in 2019.
Another 28% report receiving hybrid instruction, and only 23% of classroom instruction is in a traditional setting as of last year.
The enrollment data is included as part of the final report from the community college system’s 2022-26 strategic plan, which was developed during the height of the pandemic. Work is underway on the 2026-29 iteration.
Three lobbyists agree to civil fines related to bourbon tours
Three lobbyists whose clients helped cover expenses for state lawmakers attending a bourbon tour each agreed to pay a $1,000 civil fine on Thursday and avoid the possibility of a criminal trial.
Attorneys for lobbyists David Ferrell, Douglas Bowen Heath and Douglas Miskew each said their clients agreed in state Superior Court to a deferral of prosecution on the charge of solicitation to commit violations of the offense of giving gifts by lobbyists and lobbying principals. The lobbyists also agreed to undergo education on the lobbying law, and to cooperate with the continuing investigation.
Greater Carolina, a Mooresville-based nonprofit promoting conservative economic development policies, held the 2024 tour in the Louisville, Kentucky area, and an earlier one in 2022.
Ferrell, Heath, Miskew and a fourth lobbyist, Kevin Wilkinson, were indicted in April by a Wake County grand jury. No charges arose out of the 2022 trip because the statute of limitations for misdemeanors is two years, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has said.
Eleven lawmakers went on the 2022 trip, and nine attended the 2024 trip, search warrants say. Only one lawmaker, state Sen. Tim Moffitt, a Henderson County Republican, reported the trip on his annual statement of economic interest, investigators said.
One other, state Sen. David Craven, updated his economic interest statement to show the trip after an earlier statement showed he was an officer with Greater Carolina.
State Sen. Todd Johnson, a Union County Republican, and Rep. Ray Pickett, a Watauga County Republican, were identified as 2022 tour attendees in a search warrant, while Reps. Kyle Hall of Stokes County and David Willis of Union County, also Republicans, were identified in receipts from the 2024 tour.
Freeman has said that none of the “current” lawmakers who went on the tours are facing potential charges. She has also said that the investigation into Greater Carolina goes beyond the bourbon tours.
Search warrants have identified expenses that investigators say appear to be improper, including payments to two businesses that operate adult entertainment clubs and a payment to a medical business that helps men with sexual performance issues.
Water Definition (WOTUS)
Since May 2023, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that wetlands must be connected to navigable bodies of water to be protected under the Clean Water Act, the last two administrations have attempted to align the federal definition of “waters of the United States” with the court’s finding. Most recently, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers announced alternatives to definitions in the draft “Updated definition of ‘Waters of the United States” published Nov. 20, 2025, in the Federal Register. The agencies are asking for comments on “revised definitions of ‘relatively permanent’ and ‘continuous surface connection,’ and adding a definition of the term ‘perennial,'” in the supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking published Sept. 9 in the Federal Register. The 30-day public comment period ends Oct. 9. The supplemental proposal and information on how to comment can be found on the Federal Register. “The EPA’s goal is a durable WOTUS definition that follows the law and ends burdensome regulatory uncertainty,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. The supplemental proposed “reflects our continued commitment to transparency and public input, ensuring we have fully considered a wide range of potential policy options.” Officials clarified that this additional language does not replace anything in the 2025 document but is to be treated as alternative definitions to consider.
Community College Funding
When North Carolina lawmakers finally passed the long-delayed budget this summer, they changed how the state’s 58 community colleges are funded. Previously, two-year schools received money largely based on how many instructional hours students took. Community college leaders said it was to a school’s advantage to enroll degree-seeking students who would likely take more hours than someone in job-training courses.
Under the new model, called Propel NC, schools will receive more money for short-term courses that train students for good-paying jobs, even if they don’t lead to degrees or college credit. Courses in certain high-demand fields, like healthcare, advanced manufacturing and the trades, are prioritized. This year, every state community college will get more money under Propel NC, according to the North Carolina Community College System. System and school leaders have been pushing for this new model since 2024.
Several states, like Texas and Tennessee, have adopted funding structures that award dollars based on graduation rates and job placement rather than enrollment. But system officials say North Carolina’s labor-market-driven approach is very different. It still considers how many students show up to class, but it encourages schools to invest in specific programs where workers are needed the most.
“Propel NC is going to ask us, ‘How can we be more intentional about where we invest our funds?” said Brian Merritt, chief academic officer with the North Carolina Community College System. “It's a whole new business model for us to change our mindset about how we serve North Carolina's workforce needs.”
Sarah Pingel, vice president at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonprofit working with states on higher education policy, said Propel NC fits into a larger national narrative around the role colleges and universities should play in meeting workforce needs.
“It is a way to more tightly align with what many state lawmakers — and federal lawmakers, too — want to see from higher ed,” Pingel said, “which is the production of credentials that lead to more prosperous lives for the people that have them.”
Schools will now be able to use the extra funding they receive to make targeted investments in programs with major employment needs.
Overall, the state Community College System asked for close to $100 million to support the funding shift in this year’s budget. Most of that ask was to help schools realign their offerings within these priority workforce sector programs.
Lawmakers allocated $57.5 million for that purpose, about $10 million short of the legislative request. This year, most schools are receiving between $200,000 and $2 million in new money.
The state also kicked in an additional $6 million to help schools address potential “enrollment spikes” that might occur during the school year, rather than waiting for the next budget to adjust funding.
But they did not fund a $24.4 million request to increase funding for student support services, non-curriculum support that the colleges provide to help students persist and complete their programs.
DMV Stickers
Registering a car or truck in North Carolina has long included two rituals: applying a new sticker to your license plate, and finding a safe, handy place for the paper registration card in case you ever got pulled over. That ends Oct. 1. The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles will no longer send you a sticker for your license plate to show when your registration will expire. And a paper copy of the registration will become optional, something that you’ll have to print yourself or pay extra for. Lawmakers voted this summer to end the stickers and routine printing of registration cards. Both had become redundant. Law enforcement officers in North Carolina already use an electronic system to confirm a vehicle’s registration is valid based on the plate number and don’t need confirmation from a sticker or paper card. The change will save the DMV an estimated $4.8 million a year, said spokesman Marty Homan. That’s about $2 million to print cards and stickers and $2.8 million to mail them. Lawmakers reduced the DMV’s budget by $4.8 million, Homan said, so the savings is not a windfall for the agency.
Mining Education
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson announced $16 million in funding to help universities to produce more mining engineers during a tour Monday of Albemarle’s dormant lithium mine in Kings Mountain. “We graduated 163 mining engineers in this country. China graduated 3,000. They have 16 times the number of (mining degree) schools that we have in this country. And we have to change that,” Robertson said. Albemarle now employs about 190 workers at its 1,200-acre Kings Mountain mine, which was active from the 1950s to early 1990s. The company is still a couple of years away from restarting operations, but expects to employ up to 400 workers once that occurs and another 1,000 during construction. The mine is located about 30 miles west of Charlotte. Albemarle is already developing a workforce training program with Cleveland Community College, but says it will also need more workers with advanced degrees. The funding Robertson announced Monday is part of an overall $100 million initiative announced last month to help universities educate workers for mining jobs and re-shore the nation’s supply chain. The DOE estimates the United States will need approximately 6,000 new engineers in the mining sector alone over the next decade.