NC News Roundup: State constitutional amendments on the ballot, Tillis balks at Trump DOJ fund

This is due south on WUNC News. I'm Jeff Tiberi. The White House wants a $1.8 billion slush fund available for insurrectionist supporters of the president. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said this. Your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially... compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we're going to pay them for that? We'll hear more about what North Carolina senior U.S. Senator had to say ahead in our Friday News Roundup and also get you caught up on a busy ballot initiative week at the state legislature. The House voting Wednesday to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that would let lawmakers limit how much local governments can raise property taxes. Due South begins after the news.

Please, another thought? So they're not done. No, it's the easy answer. There are four more that are live. Just real quickly here. Yeah, please, please. One would take the Board of Education. It wouldn't be appointed anymore. It would be elected by district across the state. One would, it's a constitutional right to farm. What that means specifically, I'm not really sure. There's those questions in committee. It seems like a messaging bill more than anything, frankly. One would put the right to work in the Constitution. This has been a state law since 1947. Right. That's just further codifying or solidifying something. Making it harder to roll back, hypothetically in the future. Okay. And then the fourth one that is working its way through the General Assembly right now, if someone on the Council of State leaves midterm, the governor wouldn't just appoint that. person's replacement they would be elected or he would choose them from a slate of three people by the party that person is right i want to turn to claudia on that one in a moment just some brief civics here if you were with us by the way yesterday on due south you heard us talk all about these uh tax referenda if you missed that you can find it in our podcast fee but some basic civics here in order to get a proposed constitutional referendum on the ballot. It requires three-fifths of the body. That's more than the simple majority needed to pass a bill. And noteworthy, by virtue of the way the veto is established here in North Carolina, the governor does not get a veto stamp on constitutional amendments. It just bypasses the governor and goes right to the ballot. All right. So one of these proposed constitutional amendments would shrink the governor's autonomy. in the event of a vacancy on the council of state, which Adam just acknowledged here. The council is nine positions in addition to the governor's seat. They're all elected statewide. The referendum would limit the governor to a list of three candidates proposed by the departing member's political party. It seems straightforward to me. Is this one controversial? Well, at some point, currently what happens is that the governor has the power to feel any vacancies on the council without the restrictions of who he can appoint. So this would essentially limit him to this three people that the members of the political party choose. And during the debate on Thursday, one of the Democratic representatives, Charles Smith from Cumberland, he proposed an amendment that would essentially would... have allowed the governor to select that replacement from the same party as the vacancy officer, but allow him to choose whoever he would want to choose. So Smith wanted to take the state party out of this formula. Exactly. I think that's the issue that some of the Democratic... Like, like legislators are saying they are opposing because they don't want the parties to be involved in that decision making. Now, it's important to remember, like, this actually happened in the very recent past. Josh Jobson was the Republican Labor Commissioner. He left before his term ended. Luke Farley had won a prime, won the Republican primary for that seat. When Dobson left, then Governor Roy Cooper appointed a Democrat to fill the rest of that term. Got it. He.

So the governor has or still currently is not bound to party affiliation. The governor can appoint anyone to the open seat. And this would change that. Zachary Eans briefly remind us who the Republicans got a little help from this week because it wasn't just Republicans that backed these proposed constitutional amendments. I mentioned they need that three-fifths threshold and they reached it. Because of whom? That's right. Yeah. I mean, once again, Charlotte Democrats appear to be a font of reliable... A font of the Democratic Party. Or, you know, it was. Or it seems like this is where, you know, from Tricia Cotham down to, you know, Carla Cunningham and Majid, that, you know, this is where, you know, they're finding people that... You know, got into trouble with the Democratic Party, then lost their primaries because the Democrats, you know, wanted to find someone who would tow the line better. You know, certainly not overturned the governor's veto like they did earlier this year. And yeah, so they found them on these two issues. You know, I'm actually really interested how this sort of property tax rate amendment is playing out. I think one of the big reasons that, you know, Republicans are pushing this is because there is, you know. It's popular. I think it's going to be popular with voters. There was some polling out there that was done in March. I'm going to pull it up real quick, but basically they polled voters in North Carolina, and basically 73% of voters were kind of putting in favor of property tax limits. And so I think it is putting some Democrats in a really hard sort of bind because... the messaging around it is so strong. And I do think that these two Charlotte Democrats, you know, kind of have made this argument that, you know, a lot of people are feeling a burden of, of, you know, increased costs. But it's harder to make that case that, like, you know, what's responsible governance, you know, in the face of that. I think it's also worth noting that both representatives Carla Cunningham and Nassiv Magenta changed to unaffiliated recently after losing those. Right. primary. So in that sense, I think the expectations are that for some of this bills, they don't feel tied to the Democratic Party and have been able to just vote with the Republican majority. Yeah. A bit of historical context here. Since North Carolina's most recent constitution was established in 1971. Across the last 50 plus years, there have been 52 proposed constitutional amendments, and voters have backed about 80% of them, 42. So what will happen here is once questions, a to be determined number of questions, go to the ballot. Voters will either thumbs up or thumbs down on them. It needs just a simple majority. And then the issue goes back to the legislature for what's called implementing language, and they can hash out what exactly they're going to do with potentially some of these. You had a thought, Adam Wagner. So we saw this, like, exact same thing play out in 2018. It was the first year, first midterm during a Trump presidency, only midterm president. Sure. And his approval was down. Republicans were.

facing some headwinds heading into an election, and Republicans proposed a bunch of constitutional amendments. Six, to be specific. And four of those passed that year. The state record, I think, is seven and five. So it's just off the state record in 2018. I haven't heard Danielle Batagli's voice, and I want to work it in before we come to a break here. And I'm looking for affirmation or skepticism or something here. But as we think about constitutional amendments driving voter turnout. Is there something to this, or is this like, there's so much going, because I can see it both ways. It's like, all right, it's a tool to get people out. And the other hand, it's like, we've got all this stuff going on. Are people really going to be that motivated by property taxes and the, you know, the constitutional codification of a right to work? I mean, if you told me that you were just going to pitch, hey, a constitutional amendment, that's not going to drive voters out. However, property taxes right now, if we're talking about economic issues, like. what is not affecting somebody's wallet right now or, you know, just trying to feed your family. Like that is probably the number one issue affecting Americans. And it is a big issue. So I think property tax could raise to a level where people are going to pay attention because every dime counts right now in somebody's wallet. Whether the messaging gets out there because our people... actually paid attention to property taxes in the government as a whole other story. But I do think when you start talking about people's bottom line, that's going to get people's attention. It is getting more and more expensive to live from the property taxes that many North Carolinians have seen rise significantly in recent years, something we talked about on the Do South program yesterday, to the cost of driving. We might get to that later in the hours. Zachary Ian's had a report in recent days about how expensive. It is to have a car here in North Carolina. The cost is perhaps the heaviest issue for voters this year, and they'll face you voters, some tax questions at least and at least one more, when those polls open in, oh, just a few months. Do South, Friday News Roundup, we're just getting going. Much more to come, including the back and forth between the president and North Carolina's senior senator. Stay with us. This is DoSouth on listener-supported WUNC.

Welcome back to the Friday News Roundup on due south. I'm Jeff Tiberi. Fifty-nine years ago this week, the state toast was officially adopted. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller. We're going to bring mics up here just in case. Here's to the land of the long-leaf pine, the summer land where the sun... Don't shine. Doth. Doth. The sun does shine here. Where the weak grows strong and the strong grow... Tall. Old. Moreover, two folks. The Strong grow great. Here's to down home, the old North State. Did you know, and I don't think we do because we didn't know that first, first. Did you know there are three more verses? I will not read them all, but perhaps we're going to drop in a little bit of that in a moment. What became... The State Toast was originally a poem, believed to have first been read at a banquet in Richmond, Virginia in 1904, that poem received high praise for its patriotism by the Richmond Times Dispatch. That in the 1930s, a music teacher in Samson County, Mary Burke Carr, composed accompanying music for the poem. The state legislature recognized the tune with a resolution and requested that radio station WPTF play the song to familiarize North Carolinians. A generation of North Carolina school children were then topped the song, and by the time it became the state's toast in 1957, it was well known. This is not from the 1930s, but we're going to play a little bit of that second verse of the state toast.

Neat the murmured fans of the old Lord's day. It continues. Here's to the land where the Gaelax grows with eroded dendrons. rosette glows where sores Mount Mitchell, some are great in the land of the sky in the old North State. I can't tell you if you've heard this before and you're familiar with it or you're like, this is the craziest revelation you've received yet on this Friday. I've never heard the song. I know the first first, but aren't we not supposed to be repeating it because you have to be a member of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine to say the toast? Isn't that the rule, which is why I'm butchering it so badly on air? I have never heard that. I have never heard. I've heard that. I could be wrong. I will. If someone has an answer to that quandary, I'm not going to go to the Google now, but do south at WNC.org. I feel bad if I've been, I mean, I've said this state toast. Before we actually have a framed picture in our house, it's just the first verse that is above a doorway. I'm sure you won't get kicked out. Well, I don't have any. I mean, I can't be kicked out of anything. Maybe it'll expedite your application for the order of the long leaf pie. Maybe. I'm waiting, guys. I don't know if you all have like seen an order of long leaf pie in the wild, but I have seen more in like people's garages than I. I've seen in like a place of prominence in people's houses. Interesting. Very important thing. But like some people have received it, they're just like, all right, into the garage. The long leaf pine for those listeners who don't know is the highest civilian honor in the state. And my loose understanding of it is that it used to be much more of a civilian honor. And now it's become a little bit more of like a connected political honor. And that's my perception of it. I don't have one. No one in this room has one. I don't think unless you. Yes. This was, I don't think order of Long Leaf Pine, but there were a bunch of people getting inducted in North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I didn't realize this, but I was in the legislative cafeteria and getting my beverage and I looked over and I was getting my beverage and to Phil Ford. Phil Ford, the former North Carolina basketball player. North Carolina legend. You're right there at the legislative cafeteria. I did a triple take. It was never that exciting when I was at the legislature. All right, let's go back to news and let's go to the federal level as the White House wants a $1.8 billion slush fund to support those aggrieved souls who stormed the U.S. Capitol and sought to halt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th, 2021. These are the sorts of stories that once would have been hard to accept as nonfiction, but here we are. Danielle, some Republicans were not thrilled with this idea. Tell us, we're going to hear from him in a moment about Thom Tillis's reaction. He's not happy. And if you have followed Senator Thom Tillis on January 6 at all, he says he's one of the last senators to leave the Senate chamber when January 6 happened. And he does not feel like people who stormed the Capitol should be rewarded in any way, including being pardoned. And so I'm not surprised that we got this take from him. This is the take from North Carolina's senior U.S. Senator Thom Tillis. I'm not going to be an attorney and judge its legality, but I think it's stupid on stilts. What?

because it will invariably put us in a position where your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we're going to pay them for that? That's absurd. The American people are going to reject this out of hand. That's Thom Tillis, when asked about this $1.8 billion. Slush fund. Let's back up on the slush fund. Is this, where does the money, this fund stand? So this is interesting, and I had to dig into it this week to figure out where it came from. But so there was a lawsuit filed by the president against the government, which remember he runs. I just want to point that out. This is specific to the IRS. It's to the IRS. And he is suing because they released his tax returns. Is that the right word? Yes. Totally had a brain fog moment. Anyways, so he sued them for releasing his tax returns. And part of the settlement agreement was to set up this $1.8 billion fund to pay people, which it seems to be setting up a promise that he made in campaigns to help the January 6 defendants. Since then, Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that it's for anyone who's been aggrieved by the government and pointed out that Hunter Biden could apply for this, which is interesting because that seems to admit that. Hunter Biden was aggrieved by the government. I'm really curious how that plays out in court. But this money basically was part of the settlement. It's also been agreed to that the government can no longer investigate the Trump's, and I mean Trump and his family members, and also the Trump businesses. And in return, he drops the lawsuit against the IRS. $39 trillion in national debt. I'll just point out that fact. I'm going to jump, Adam, jump in here. One quick little tip of here. We're saying $1.8 billion, but isn't it $1.776 billion? Like, not just a, they didn't pick that number out of thin air. You know, I hadn't thought about that at all, but I'm glad you pointed that out. I just went straight to the rounding up. Okay, so of course, 1.776 is the equivalent of 1776 when our nation was established, and this is all about patriotism, of course, air quotes heavy in the studio here. All right, let me try to dovetail this into the open U.S. Senate race that is playing out here in North Carolina. And I think some of the dance that Republican nominee Michael Whatley is just, it's an ongoing dance, is how to align with, how to distance himself perhaps, perhaps at times from the president. What did Michael Whatley have? to say about this? He seems supportive of it. Punchbowl reported this morning, and I haven't fully looked at this yet, but it seemed like he was very supportive of this number. Michael Whatley's in a very, not the number, but the fund. Michael Whatley's in a very interesting position because his entire last job was to get the president elected. And so, like, he cannot distance himself from President Trump. Like, they are.

They are married. Without pouring water over his own head. Yeah. It looks, it looks strange. It's out of a step with what he's done. I mean, that was his job. That was his career, getting Trump was elected. And he caught into this field of working in that aspect of politics by. Cozying up to Trump is not the right phrase, but that's what I'm going to use here. And so he's kind of rode the coattails by being the party chairman here locally in the state and then on the national level and supported Trump. And now he's running a campaign where when you're trying to win a general election, you also have to capture some of the voters who may not be as supportive of the sitting president as. you want them to be if you were in those positions. And so now he's got to like ride that line, but how do you do that when you were in this position? All right. I feel like I just talked in circles. And briefly, one more in this because we got a lot more to get to, but what did the president have to say after Thom Tillis's remarks? So let me set up to that this completely killed a... rescission bill. That's not the right word either. Why is my brain so? It's okay. I believe just that maybe there was a funding measure. It was a DHS funding. They were trying to fund the Department of Homeland Security's immigration enforcement. Ice. Killed the bill. They thought it would be over the ballroom. But instead of the ballroom, it killed. They were worried about an amendment coming up on this matter with the fund. And so this morning, he basically said that Thom Tillis is a weekend ineffective senator. Nobody remembers him, which is funny because we hear about him. all the time I know because I have to write about him. He called him a nitpicker, a quitter, basically said he threatened him out of the race and it was Trump who pushed him out because he wouldn't support him. And then he said, now Thom Tillis can have all the fun he wants for a few months with some of his rhino friends. messing the Republican Party, messing with the Republican Party. I'm summarizing a little bit here for radio air. And in the end, it will only get bigger and better and stronger than ever before. President, DJT. I do wonder if Thom Tillis is counting down the number of days he has left in the U.S. Senate. I think there's probably more 215 left. I picture him with those, like, paper chains that he rips off one every day. That's what I want for him. It's worth pointing out, though, now there's this whole kind of block of Republican senators who don't know anything to Donald Trump for the first time. Really, since Trump has been president. I mean, we've got John Cornyn who Trump did not endorse this week. We've got Bill Cassidy who Trump champions his opponent in the primary this week. We've always got Lisa Murkowski. We've always got Susan Collins. You've always got Thom Tillis. Majorities are hard in that setting. Well, so that was what was most interesting to me with this election is like now you've taken this from a small minority of people who are not happy with the way Republican parties are playing things to a people who don't have anything to lose at this point because, you know, they aren't coming back. So it's a greater party with a small majority.

Bottom of the hour here on the D-South Friday News roundup on WUNC News. Some breaking news to pass along at this hour. There has been a shooting in downtown Raleigh. According to WRL News, two attorneys have been shot. There is a woman in custody. This shooting happened Friday morning near the Wake County Courthouse. Also, according to... WRL News, the female victim has been taken into surgery, pardon me, and a male victim, an attorney, according to this report, is in stable condition this morning. We will bring you additional information on this shooting in downtown Raleigh during newscasts at the top of the hour, and of course you can head over to WUNC.org as well. All right. Let me shift to the legislature here. A complicated, if not confusing, energy bill dropped late Tuesday. But it's important, I think. It's a meaty one. I think provisions calling for an advancement of nuclear power. Another one on a possible rollback of the state's previously approved carbon neutrality goal. And still, some new guidelines around data centers. Dealer's choice here, Adam Wagner. Where would you like to start? Let's start data centers. Let's do it. So this bill is in the House that the bill writers on this bill have not really discussed it with the Senate yet and it is not clear that it would have support in the Senate. Let's just start there. It's an energy bill, so again, it's kind of a grab bag of policies. On the data center specifically, if a data center wanted to come to North Carolina and it was at least 100 megawatts, so a big data center, it would need to have a closed loop cooling system. It would not be able to condemn land. Local governments would not be able to provide incentives for it, which is new. And the local government would also be able to demand that it study things. What government would have to require that it study its noise impact, but could also demand it that study impact on water, agricultural resources, forestry, things like that nearby. So it's kind of an effort to... show that the state's trying to get its arms around these large data centers. What I will note from the policy standpoint, a little bit wonky, but this is noteworthy here, I believe, unless you tell me I'm wrong, this emerged, this compilation of policy and what you all know well as a proposed committee substitute, shorthand PCS, which basically means the legislation emerges and it cannot be amended. So if this is to be voted through, it's going to be an up or down vote. It can be amended. Yes, it's not. conference report it's not a conference so i'm sorry okay it's but it does mean that there was a bill that made its way from the senate to the house house said we want to do something else okay we wrote it um this bill is going to be amended. This bill is going to change as it works this way through the House. All right. That makes more sense. Okay. I mean, I think a lot of people just haven't even had a chance to wrap their minds around this, certainly whether that's from like commerce down to, you know, just individual counties, for example. And I think it goes to show like whenever there is something driven by the local level, these moratoriums passing everywhere, everyone wanting to have local rules.

The General Assembly is going to step in at some point, I think, and this is, I think, where the urgency is coming from. So this bill does not address the moratoriums piece, but it does address the incentives. There's been a lot of anger about... Why are we giving away things to data centers? So local governments wouldn't be able to do that anymore. I think that's pretty significant. Chatting with Adam Wagner, Zachary Eanes, Claudia, and Danielle Bataglia here on the North Carolina Friday News Roundup. Trivia time. It is the final weekend of the college lacrosse season. Final four is on the men's and women's side playing out. This week's trivia question, how many lacrosse national titles does our state lay claim to? men's and women's, UNC and Duke, total national championship trophies lacrosse in our state. Please send your answers to do south at wunc.org. Clue, it's a few. All right, let me turn to Claudia. State House members moved to override a gubernatorial veto for the first time this short legislative session. It happened this week. Claudia, what does the bill do that they overrode and why was the governor against it and veto it in the first place? Yes, so this bill would allow the state to participate in a federal program that supports private school scholarships through tax credit for donations funding scholarships. So essentially, this bill would allow North Carolina to be in this. choice school program. And starting from 2027, people that donate money to scholarship granting organizations would receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for up to 1,700 a year. And then the scholarship granting organizations could use this money to fund education-related expenses like private school tuition, tutoring, homeschool, materials, transportation, testing fees. And to your other question of, like, why Stein had vetoed it, essentially what he said is that it's giving away. to wealthy donors, the money that could go to public schools. And that's essentially what also the Democrats during the debate this week were echoing on their arguments against it. If you can speak to it. So the veto override vote happens in the House. Now it needs to go to the Senate in order to be overwritten completely and enacted. Is that going to happen? Yeah, it should go back to the Senate. And in the House, as it happened with the amendments, it was supported by the two unaffiliated representatives from Mecklenburg County that we talked about earlier. And in the Senate, it could just pass with the majority that it has from the Republican Party. I would anticipate that it does. I think it's got it pretty clear.

They like overriding the governor. That's not news, but just to reiterate that. All right, got an email here from Loy, who writes in and says, in no way, shape, or form, is it a settlement? Trump is calling it a settlement. They wrote settlement at the top of what Trump wanted. You were very misleading. Close quote. Loy, thank you for the email. For the record, I called it a slush fund. So I don't... I called it a settlement as me. I mean, yes, that is what they are presenting it as. Our reporters are going to present as we're going to add context as best we can. I call it a slush fund, and I'm going to stand by that is what I'm going to do. All right, Dan Bishop, the former state legislator and congressman who ran for Attorney General two years ago was confirmed to a new post this week. Bishop is the new U.S. Attorney... for the Middle District of North Carolina significance or what else should listeners know about this? So he, I was going to call him Representative Deamb Bishop, which gives you that teaser. He is our former congressman from the 8th Congressional District. I think he also was the 9th Congressional because we redistrict a lot. So state senator, house member. He's been all over the place. He's been in politics a while. He was also Mecklenburg's accounting commissioner at one point. He is an attorney. He is also recently asked by Pam Bondi to. research whether there was any fraud in the 2020 election. And so he's got some national, you know, Press and headlong. Oh, sure, sure. I was going to say work to do. But yes, press and headlines, too. He also just came from the Budget and Management Office as well. So Dan Bishop's been around a lot of places lately. Well known for authoring House Bill, too, carrying that through the legislature. He also was an outward and known election denier in 2020. Yes. He absolutely denied the election, still denies the election of President Joe Biden. And I think that is why he got this position from Pam Bondi to go ahead and look in. to the 2020 election. Very interesting. There was a article recently, I want to say in the New York Times, where he was told that one district in particular did not have any fraud, but he's using AI to prove otherwise. So I think that's something to watch. Dan Bishop, the new U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of North Carolina. A quick heads up for you, loyal listeners. Next week on Due South. Richard Burr, the longtime Republican member of Congress, is scheduled to chat with us next week. We're going to bring that conversation to you on Thursday. Burr spent three terms in the U.S. Senate, five in the U.S. House, and he was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee for his final five years in the upper chamber. Senator Burr was also one of just a small number of Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection during Trump's second impeachment trial. Looking forward to that conversation with Senator Burr next week. And if you got any questions, you want us to consider? Send them along. Doosouth at WUNC.org. That's Thursday on Due South. And, of course, for more, do South, head over to wunc.org, backslash, do South. And you can subscribe to...

our podcast, wherever you do that on-demand listening. Hanging out with Adam Wagner, Claudia Rivera-Coto, Danielle Bataglia, and Zachary Eans until 1 o'clock. Hope you'll stick around. More to come in a moment here on WDUNC News. Welcome back to listeners supported WNC News. It's due South Friday News Roundup. Drey Bly has birthday candles today. One of the best UNC football players ever. Bly was a two-time consensus All-American and later 2014 inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame. He also won a Super Bowl as a pro. Happy 49th birthday, Dre Bly. All right, on the sports front, it started well for the Canes last night. Seth Jarvis scored 33 seconds into the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals. However, lousy ice from there, Montreal found the net four times across the next 10.5 minutes, scanning its way to a 6-2 victory game two at the Lenovo tomorrow 7 p.m. puck drop. Do you watch hockey? It was disappointing to watch. After 11 days off? Yeah. Yeah. It didn't appear there was any rust, and then it was like, oh, no, there's actually a lot of rust under that coat of paint. I think we're still feeling pretty good. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's early. I mean, it's the least important game of a seven-game series, the first game. I would have told you they needed a loss at some point. Going to shake things up. Okay. All right. I like that. All right. Meanwhile, sports front this weekend marks the final four in college lacrosse. The Carolina women's team faces Maryland this afternoon. Winner gets either Johns Hopkins or Northwestern in the title game. UNC trying to run it back, by the way, Carolina defending national champ. On the men's side, Duke meets Princeton tomorrow at noon. If the Blue Devils win, they'll get either Notre Dame or the finest institution in central New York, Syracuse for the Natty. That trivia, I went to Syracuse, so if you're like, why did he just say that? All right. The trivia question was, how many lacrosse national titles does the state of North Carolina lay claim to between UNC and Duke and the men? And the women. I don't think we have anything in our inbox yet. You have a moment here, listeners, but any guesses? I'm getting blank looks. I mean, you said a few. 1776. 1776. That's cute. And no, there have not been that many lacrosse championships given out. UNC Women's has a fair few. I couldn't get, I'm going to guess seven. The answer? It's 12. Oh, my real guess was 23. I don't know why. Well, that's cute. That's a Jim Jordan. It's a Jim Jordan-themed guest. Five for the UNC men, four for the UNC women, and three for the Duke men. The Duke women have not won a national championship. But 12. I thought that was fairly impressive. So there you go. Best of luck on trivia next week, because I think I stumped Central North Carolina on that one.

All right, we did lacrosse. Let me move to this is an unfortunate news update. Sad and shocking news from the world of stock car racing, Kyle Bush, a two-time Cup series champion, and one of the most successful drivers of all time has died unexpectedly. According to the Associated Press, Bush was driving in a race last weekend when he radioed to the pit and requested medical assistance for the end of the event. He was dealing with some sort of infection. Then on Wednesday, he was found unresponsive in a driving simulator in Concord. His death was announced yesterday. Bush is survived by his wife and two children. He was just 41 years old. We don't have a cause of death. I imagine we'll learn more in the... the days to come, but very surprising news. He was in Durham just a few days ago for this, there's a new go-karting facility out near the top golf by the airport. And he was just in Durham, you know, taking photos with people. I mean, I don't know what this is. It's frankly terrifying that someone could be. As a 42-year-old, yes, terrifying is the right word. I'm 42. And I think it's hard to understand. I mean, he's one of the most successful, you know, NASCAR drivers of his generation. Yeah. Just, yeah, I mean, a stunning development. I heard it this morning before I saw it. And I said, what? Wait, what's going on here? All right. An economic courtship that once promised thousands of jobs and a multi-billion dollar plant. is now heading to court, it would appear. This week, Attorney General Jeff Jackson filed suit against Vietnamese electric carmaker Vinfast, asserting the company has not met its end of an agreement to bolster manufacturing in Chatham County. State and local governments pledged $1.2 billion to the car company. The lawsuit is being used to try to reacquire about 1,800 acres in Chatham County. This is not a good barometer for how economic things and production things are going. Certainly the EV world has been very shaky, and we'll see if gas prices maybe change that going forward. But this company, it's also, they were making a big bet themselves that they could. be a no name in the North American space and make a market share. I mean, they've also gone under some restructuring back in Vietnam, too. So there's a lot going on there. But I think this was one of several big bets or big swings the state made during sort of, I would call the pandemic era of time where, you know, they're like, we have this big piece of land. We want a EV car maker because that's the future. They did not get maybe Rivian, which went to Georgia. But they did get, you know, VINFAST. I think obviously there's a lot of money that was put like that billion dollar marker that's dependent on them meeting hiring goals. But the state did put hundreds of millions of dollars getting this site ready, getting roads ready, which is why I think they put this language in there that, you know, if you don't meet these certain milestones, we won't. I mean, this land is value. And I'll tell you, there could be another shooter for land down the road. I mean, I think that.

There probably would have been a suitor in the past couple years. And I think there's been some frustrations that they've just had to wait along for this company to either build or not build and not build in this case. What's kind of striking reading even the lawsuit and the press release is that the state is like kind of actively marketing the site throughout this stuff. It's like shovel ready. It's a tremendous manufacturing site. And there's all these little. Hand-tint. Yeah. And so. You can tell why they want it back. You can tell that they want a big, specifically manufacturing project there. It's a sitting asset that is not generating revenue. There was some big names that were looking at this, too, that they didn't land. I mean, Intel was looking at this land at one point for a chip factory. That fell through. But, like, yeah, I think, and there's a lot of arguments in this lawsuit about, like, what counts as vertical construction. And I would say Vinvast as being a little, they've not replied to comment because I don't know. who their media people are at this point because this company is, like I said, restructuring. And, yeah, I think, I think there was just patience has wore thin a long time ago. The global demand and market for electric vehicles has shifted drastically here in the last few years. Just in the last week or so, Honda reported a, I believe it was a multi-billion dollar deficit. It was the first time Honda has reported deficit in like seven decades. And it's part of a larger theme, Adam. It'll be interesting to see. So I think the other thing about VINFAST is VINFAST was always a bet. I mean, it's always like, what is this company's track record? How much can we trust this? If we're looking for a silver lining here, not that long after that North Carolina landed Toyota, which was like the established version of VINFAS. A battery plant. And really got a real car company. A more established car company. This land is still attractive. I mean, they put $400 million into getting the roads and the site prepped. So like, you could say that. That is a silver lining in some ways. Like that's the argument the state would make that, hey, this didn't work out. It's not an entire waste of money, but it is a delayed source of growth and economic development. And did you miss potential big fish out there? Along the way. More track now, though, right? Because now we've got roads going in there. We've got sewer and water. We've got a site cleared. So it's ready to go. It's kind of the argument the state's making. All right, I got one more for you. The city of Durham is not getting good marks for its park system. In fact, the marks are bad. The trust for public land has released its annual park scores for the nation's 100 largest cities. Durham is dead last. Poor investment, limited acreage, and challenging access are part of the low score. Durham has also closed five parks in the last few years due to lead and soil contamination. Your Durham, you want to take issue with this ranking? You know, I think people feel it. People are frustrated that there are parks they can't go to at the moment, that it seems very unclear when there will be things fixed. They look at Raleigh, they look at Carrie, and they see downtown Kerry Park, they see Dix Park, and they think, you know, what is Durham's signature park?

And I think you'd say Durham's signature part might be Duke Gardens, which is a privately held. Correct. That's not a dude. Yeah. And those. So, and I get it. Like I talked to the mayor about this. And I was like, what's your response? And he's like, look, we're, we've passed a bond. That bond has been delayed by this, you know, remediation issue. Right. We have these greenways we're investing in. Obviously, he thinks the American Tobacco Trail and some other trails are underweighted in these things. And they're like, we have the Eno River State Park, which, so there are, like, green spaces. But, like, I do think that, like, if you're just talking about, like, where's the park I can walk to? I think Durham's got some challenges right now. Raleigh, if you're wondering, ranked 49th in the nation in parks. And I was, I mean, I was okay with that I was okay, I'm going. I'd like to go to some of those spots. So. And I think that it also says a lot about like the investment on those parks as well. Like I know in 22, 275 million park bond was passed in Raleigh. So that really says a lot about like the priorities. Right. What the voters are back in that money, I believe Claudia is going right back into the parks in Raleigh and Wake County. I've seen some of the construction. Yeah. All right. I do want to touch on. This long obfuscated Democratic National Committee autopsy. It's from the 2024 election. And it was released this week. And there are some portions about this document that looks at why Kamala Harris lost the election. why Democrats didn't perform all that well. There are some portions related to North Carolina. Donald Trump, as a reminder, carried North Carolina for the third consecutive election in 2024. That was not all that surprising. Daniel, what does this electoral autopsy have to say about NC? I'm going to borrow the words I've got from political scientist Chris Cooper. And he said he doesn't know because it was so confusing and not well. written that he didn't have a good takeaway from it because down to the numbers of the percentages of which Roy Cooper and not Roy Cooper Josh Stein and and Mark Robinson won it wasn't right and it changed throughout the document. And so like when you can't even get your data right, it's hard to know if you're the body of what you came away with is right. I will say Josh Stein was lifted up as the model of how you run a race going forward for other Democrats, which I think says a lot about Josh Stein as a person. Again, this document. Very butchered. There was no conclusion on it. There was no introduction on it. It was not finished. There was data errors all over the place. But it did say Josh Stein is the model. And so that's great for him. Okay. So this, I mean, what you're telling me, and full disclosure, I have not consumed this document at all. That just strikes me as very sloppy. Like, was this not released because it needed an editor? Or was this not released because there are secrets in here or embarrassing notes? No, it was because it needed an editor. And I don't think.

We were told that ahead of time. And I will gladly say I was not following this as closely as I should have been, except I'm a North Carolina reporter. So like DNC documents are not totally top of mind for me. But until we get to the North Carolina angle. But there was a giant push for it because Ken Martin had, Ken Martin, who's the DNC chairman, he had asked for this report so that they could learn from it going forward. It took from him coming into office in February to December to get this report back and it wasn't finished. He didn't get notes. He didn't get the interviews. He didn't get any copies of any like transcripts or anything. So when it wasn't finished, he couldn't make it himself, like go back and reproduce what he needed to get the data correct or the finished copy. And so he didn't want to put it out to the public. My understanding of CNN got a copy of it. yesterday, put it out, and then he followed quickly behind with the annotations in it. And so we have now seen how botched this is and people are calling for his resignation. So Martin's point, I'm paraphrasing what I saw on social media is basically, look what a mess this was. Yeah. This is why you haven't seen this. And kind of following up on that point. If you were holding up the Stein, Mark Robinson race as an example of how to campaign, there was... There was an exceptionally poor Republican candidate. Not that hard to run against someone like Mark Robinson. It is hard to draw sweeping conclusions from that. Well, and something that stood out to me in that paragraph was they were saying that because of comments that he has made, he was not electable. But it was comments he had made before he was elected in the first place. And so, like, that stood out to me as not knowing what you're talking about with our election because we've proven he's electable on his comments. It wasn't until he wrote on a. porn forum called nude Africa that he became he here being mark robinson sorry yeah thank you for that that's not how you're like that's when he became unelectable right um but like that wasn't really spelled out it was the comments he had made prior to that so like i thought it was very interesting to take a look at this and see what was produced for dnc my i guess my takeaway from all this is that there isn't really a clear, concise takeaway that the Democrats, I mean, I'm not saying there isn't one behind closed doors, but a year and a half after this defeat, after this, this quick exit from from Biden stage right, Harris Center stage, like they just. It doesn't seem like they've really recalibrated or understood how they screwed it up or what they might be able to do better next time. I think their takeaway at this point is we don't have time to find the takeaway. So we have to move forward and look through the windshield instead of the rearview mirror because we don't have the report we wanted. When I was a little boy, I was taught we try to learn from our mistakes and that will help you in the future. And that's something I've carried with me.

Yeah, go ahead. I'm old enough to remember the Republican autopsy. From 2020? 2012, I think it was. 2012. Yeah, and that argued that they needed to lean into immigration and like, I don't know, I'm just, you know, some of these autopsies, the conclusions don't end up actually being the conclusions that work politically sometimes. The opposite on immigration they are right now. Yes, exactly, the exact opposite of where the party is at the moment. I'm coming up on the clock. I'm going to round table it for you. I'll give you this fork in the row. You can tell me something that's on the horizon for you in work, or you can tell me about your Memorial Day weekend and something you're looking forward to. I'm going to go to Zachary Ian's first. We read about this in the newsletter a little bit today, but the topic I'm interested in is this. You hear about the YIMB movement. This is the other one is called Yigby, yes, in God's backyard, that a lot of interesting city officials are interested in right now. There's a lot of excessive land owned by faith institutions, excessive, underused land, I should say. And a lot of faith institutions are now thinking, can we use this for affordable housing or other community needs? And I think there's some interesting momentum in that space in the triangle at the moment. Adam Wagner, briefly. They're not paying property taxes on that land, right? Not currently. Sorry. Okay. I am interested in finally having a minute to come back to some of the story ideas that haven't been able to get to because it becomes so busy. One of those is a look at the Wake Mad Atrium strategic combination is what they want us to call it. Merger, I believe, is the Claudia Rivera-Cota. So I think one of the things I'll be following up is on the budget for a rally. They will be... I think discussing it throughout like May and then in June we'll have a vote on it. So that would be something interesting to look into. Danielle. I didn't know about Representative McHenry's former rep, his ties to cryptocurrency and gambling. And so I'll be looking into that for you guys. Former U.S. House member Patrick McKenry, a consultant for Kalshi. Everybody gets a cut these days. All right. Thanks to Zachereens. Claudia Rivera-Koto, Adam Wagner, and Danielle Bataglia. My name is Jeff Tiberi. This is Due South, a production of WNC in a broadcast service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our producers, Station Brown, Coldale Charco, Rachel McCarthy. Rachel Hernandez is our intern. Denarius Thomas is our technical director. Aaron Kiever is the executive producer. Wishing you all a enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. We'll talk to you again on Monday at noon.

Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs? Why are groceries so expensive? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's Planet Money wherever you get your podcast and start seeing how the economy really works.