NC News Roundup: Primary early voting check-ins, U.S. Supreme Court Trump tariffs, U.S. Olympics updates

This is due south on WUNC News. I'm Jeff Tabiri. Today, a major ruling out of Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down much of President Trump's tariff regimen. The 6-3 decision, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, is a major blow to the president's signature economic policy. Ahead reaction and implications for North Carolina in our Friday News Roundup. We'll also turn our attention to the March 3rd primary. Then some analysis of a recent debate about property taxes. I know of one municipality in particular. Wanted to raise their tax rate. This is just recently by 22%. And you know what the justification was? Well, it's been so long since we raised taxes. What the heck is that? Those stories, plus some updates from Milan. Due South begins after the news.

From the studios at WNC News in Chapel Hill, it's due south. It's the North Carolina Friday News Roundup, where we discuss some of the most significant stories in recent days from Cherokee to curry tuck and points in between. Hi there. I'm Jeff Tabiri. As always, glad to have you along here getting us going are some sounds of the week. One of the biggest races takes place center stage right here between two Republican candidates, Phil Berger and Sam Page. Governor Josh Stein comes to Woodfin to announce millions of dollars in new funding for flood mediation projects. It's all part of a statewide effort to reduce future flood damage and protect communities across Western North Carolina. Committee hearings underway at the State House about ways to reduce your property tax bill. The meeting comes as homeowners statewide grapple with higher property tax bills as property values spike. A Republican-led effort to purge roughly 225,000 North Carolina voters from the state's rolls would be largely abandoned under a settlement agreement that national Democrats and Republicans filed in federal court on Monday.

All right. With us for the hour, Don Vaughn. Capital Bureau Chief at the News and Observer, Zachary Eans, reporter, Axios Raleigh and Gary Robertson, State House Reporter at the Associated Press. Hello, everybody. Hello. How's it going? All right. Later, happy Friday indeed. Later this hour, Josh Dan Sullivan, social media producer here at WUNC, joins the roundtable for some Olympic updates. And we would love to hear from you on this Friday. Questions for the panel or comments? Please send them along, do south at WUNC. We're going to touch briefly on this significant story that you listeners have heard about this morning on NPR and also during the roundups on 1A. Scotis, Delta considerable... blow to the Trump tariff agenda. It was a 6-3 ruling that says the president cannot use the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, so called IEPA, as grounds to implement tariffs on imports. This is obviously fresh, but wanted to at least acknowledge it and touch on potential impacts, responses from here in North Carolina. What are you thinking about? What are you hearing? What is the immediate... reaction from your seed zackings well i mean this is a pretty large decision that i mean is really i mean trump's tariffs really threw everybody into a loop to begin with um as part of his effort to really use it as a negotiating ploy with other countries but it had this real you know follow-on effect from everyone from like multinational companies to even like small-scale farmers i know particularly soybean farmers in North Carolina have been really stressed about how this could impact their crop and their businesses in the coming years just because a lot of our soybeans go overseas. You know, one thing I'm, I think we still don't really know exactly how this is all going to shake out. And there is still ways for the Trump administration to, you know, put trade barriers in place or use. trade negotiation ploys in other ways outside of this specific decision. But I think one thing I'm watching is how pharmaceutical companies might react in North Carolina. Certainly biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturing was coming to North Carolina increasingly before these tariffs went into place. But there was sort of... You know, these companies were all in negotiation over what these tariffs might look like, but the Trump administration was promising pretty large-scale tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry. And in reaction, there were a lot of promises to invest in North Carolina and other parts of the country. And I'm curious to know, like, you know, does this change how these companies think about where they should expand, where they should put factories given, you know, maybe they won't have to face some of these really stiff tariffs anymore? I also read this morning that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has signaled previously that if they met this fate or this ruling from the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is ready to appeal on grounds from an earlier act of Congress from the 1960s. So just to your point, Zach, there are several more steps to go here. Sorry, Don't. My question is when are consumers going to actually see any measurable impact from this? Because we're already paying a lot more for everything because of this. Our price is suddenly going to drop. I doubt it. Right.

our state lines and so I think people are really starting to think about like okay like now's the time to prepare just in case something were to happen like what what does your history look like a lot of people frankly don't know like whether they got two vaccines and you know they didn't even start suggesting two vaccines until like 1989 anyway 20 years, I believe, 20 years or so after the vaccine was initially available. I feel like, and who has, like, nobody, I mean, some people live their whole life in one place and have the same doctor, but a lot of people have moved many times. So you kind of have to think, like, if you're, like, middle age, like I am and think, well, I know I had it as a kid. My parents would have done that. But I do remember getting the MMR booster around college. They were recommending that. But. Yeah, so people need to, I mean, check as much as you can. I texted my mom, you know, but no, I think there's an interesting, like, UNC Health as a webpage you can go on to or NCDHS as does too, like where it kind of puts you through a flow chart. You can certainly get your titers checked if you're not sure, and that should give you an indication. But if you can prove you've had two vaccines, basically health care providers are saying, don't worry about it. Like, we consider you extremely covered. But if you were born before 1957, you're presumed to have been exposed to it and have some immunity? Yeah, all immunity. Okay, okay. But, you know, I think one thing that people are kind of wondering is if pediatrician offices are going to have to. move up the cadence of some of these vaccines. You know, if you are in a hot spot like South Carolina, the debate now is if pediatricians are going to come to you and be like, we typically wait for 12 months, but we'll do it at six months because this is it, you know, it outweighs whatever calculus is going on. And throwing you on the spot here, do you have any sense of whether or not there is the supply for that, right? Like this is a supply chain issue to some degree. If you move the whole thing up and you have tens of, or you just have a greater population seeking it earlier, Can they even acquiesce to that market demand if it becomes a market demand? That's a great question. I don't have a good answer for you at this moment, but I certainly think that, you know, vaccine makers in general are making, like they're not seeing as much demand as they were. So they're all, it's financially kind of tricky right now for a lot of vaccine makers because, you know, they don't want to overproduce and, you know, how all these things that are just sitting on the shelf. So I was born in late 1983. I honestly don't know if I've had one or two inoculations. And I probably got one, unless you got a booster. Yeah. And, you know, I think one vaccine is supposed to give you 93%. Two vaccines is 97% immunity coverage. And, you know, certainly when you look at the people who are being infected right now, it's people who have not gotten vaccines or are unknown status. And so I think it's that people who are in the unknown. and would be willing to get vaccines? Or, you know, I think that's like a significant amount of people. And there's, I mean, the public health element of the, I mean, spread because of not enough, you know, vaccinated people exposing, you know, all these other people, especially children who are so much more vulnerable.

We are going to spend some additional time on measles next Wednesday on the program with Noel Brewer, who is a Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health at the University of North Carolina. So we will go next level on this topic, Wednesday, the 25th, here on due south. In the meantime, it's our Friday news roundup. We're just getting started with... Gary Robertson, Zachary Eanes, and Don Vaughn. Much to discuss on the political front, about halfway through early voting now. We'll also touch on some news updates from Charlotte and Greensboro later this hour. You're listening to DoSouth on WUNC News. Welcome back to the Friday News Roundup on due south. I'm Jeff Tiberi. 78 years ago today, a DC3 aircraft took off from ILM Airport in Wilmington, stopping in southern Pines, Asheville, Tennessee, and Kentucky before reaching its final destination, Cincinnati, Ohio. There was but one paying customer when the aircraft departed the Port City. The rest of the passengers were local officials, dignitaries. It was, after all, the inaugural flight of Piedmont Airlines. The vision of Tom Davis, a Winston-Salem native, Piedmont became an industry leader across the next several decades for its customer service and with its spoke and wheel flying model. Then also on this day, February 20th, 14 years later, 1962, Piedmont retired the DC3 from its fleet. moving from puddle-jumping routes to eventually a fleet of 727 and later 737 aircraft. In time, Piedmont became a publicly traded company. The Winston-based flyer established a hub in Charlotte. It grew to the fifth biggest in America. Piedmont was the first airline to sponsor a NASCAR team in 1981. Piedmont was a national airline, thanks in part to deregulation and an act of Congress. However, four decades later... After becoming an industry staple, Piedmont was taken over. by U.S. Air in 1989. That was a long time ago, but Don Vaughan, you still have some memorabilia. Oh, yeah. Well, first, I want listeners to know that for the occasion, Jeff is wearing a Piedmont shirt that we can see in the studio. I flew Piedmont as a kid. I don't know what it was when I lived at Fort Bragg or in Georgia or something. And they had like really cool just the plastic utensils. They were like this bronze color. And I like, you know, as a kid, I wanted to save them. So those were in our like in the drawer of their regular silver world. for a while. And don't forget on the Saturday ACC Network Telecast back in the day, Piedmont was definitely an advertiser. And so even if you didn't go flying, you knew what Piedmont was. Gary Robertson has been putting up with my Piedmont Airlines love for a long time. Back on the politics podcast days, Piedmont, a vestige of a... Piedmont and Jefferson Pilot and Food Lion. Every now and again, you'll see that Piedmont Airlines vanity plate on the front of a vehicle.

Do you have one? I do not have one. It's a good question. I do have some Piedmont. Gift ideas for Jeff here. I will tell you one funny quick story, which is I do have some like old commemorative Piedmont pins, like bigger than a lapel pin, but like a button, a pin that you'd wear on a shirt or whatever. And I went to interview Phil Berger. This is going back eight, nine years. And I can't remember what the message was, but it was like, I flew on the on the Piedmont, whatever it was. And I sat down in his office and he read it and he you've all heard the burger chuckle. But it was like a good authentic burger chuckling. I was like, you remember Piedmont? He was like, oh yeah, I remember Piedmont. I used to fly Piedmont all the time. So Piedmont Airlines 78 years ago today. All right. We are halfway through early voting. Next stop is the March 3rd primary among the races on the ballot, open U.S. Senate seat with two contested party primaries, collection of congressional races, some notable legislative primaries. Even heated school board races. I want to go around the horn here. A race that you're reporting on or tracking and something notable from recent days. Gary, we're going to start with you at the top because I think you have been focused to some degree on this U.S. Senate race. Oh, sure. I hope. Yeah, we can talk about that. You know, it's... Both of the people who are considered either the front runners or have the highest profile, Roy Cooper, obviously, the former governor and the Democratic primary, and Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for that primary. You know, it seems like things are going according to plan. We won't know, obviously, until next week, but it seems like in terms of fundraising, in terms of just... activity. What's interesting is that neither Cooper nor Michael Whatley is really giving much time to the other candidates in their primary, which I think tells you something. It probably tells them that polling has shown them, you know, probably, you know, ahead. But, you know, some of that's just... You know, who knows. Conjecture, right. Conjecture, thank you. But I think, you know, I think there would be a big surprise come March 4th if these two heavy weights aren't extending their bout for another eight months. Let me ask it this way, though, because there was a pretty big surprise two years ago. The sitting state superintendent, Catherine Truitt, a Republican who didn't think she was going to face much of any kind of challenge, was knocked off in a primary by Michelle Morrow. Michelle Morrow's in this race. She hasn't raised a lot of money. I don't think she's up on TV or anything like that. But how do you view her candidacy? Well, I'm basing this solely on a piece that was done by the assembly, which seemed to indicate that there just wasn't that same vibe compared to two years ago. I think what was different maybe two years ago was that... She was an unknown quantity and people were paying attention. And I'm sure that people know how she operates now. And I assume that Michael Whatley's campaign is better prepared for that. But, you know, it seems like that it's just a different environment too. And I know that the other...

candidate who's making a run for it in the Republican primary Don Brown, who is a former Navy officer. He's been, you know, he's raised decent amount of money. But it seems like that a lot of... Harder-line conservatives who don't necessarily want Wally, many of them are talking about Don Brown. So you also need to think about where is the turnout going to be because if you look at everyone's primary ballot is different. Yeah. And you may not have a primary. I mean, it's, you know, Democratic Republican, nonpartisan, but you know, what were those that, like there's more of a driver for voters to come out? And are they generally Michael Whatley supporters? Could they be like Morrow upset reporter, you know, voters? I think you could see. All right. So U.S. Senate is, as you know, Don, at the top of the ballot, everybody gets to weigh in on either the Republican or the Democratic side, unless they abstain for whatever reason. One of the most interesting races remains this Republican State Senate primary contest in Rockingham County and part of Northern Guilford County, State Senate Leader Phil Berger, opposite Sam Page. You had some recent reporting on this. Please tell us. Yeah. So I think Guilford is going to determine this race because for Rockingham County voters. both Sheriff Sam Page and, you know, Senate leader Phil Berger, they've been in office for about the same amount of time, I think. I feel like Paige was first elected sheriff, maybe late 90s, and then a few years later, you know, Berger to the Senate. Yeah, 2000, even though he wasn't in power, Republicans weren't in power then. But he's... been around for a while. And when you're in, you know, a less populated rural area, you know your state lawmakers because they come to all the stuff, you know. So Guilford is a little bit different. So I think that could be some of, like people know who's Sheriff Pages. They know who Senator Berger is. And I'm saying most people. Some people don't even know who the governor is, you know, like in any given place. But. They've probably already made their decision on who they, do they like Page better? Do they like Burger better? But Guilford is like that's who, you know, Burger and Page are making their pitches to. Burger and Page did a forum a couple weeks ago. The Rockingham County GOP put on and they, you know, sitting next to each other laying out the difference between them and, you know, Burger, you know, touting all the things that he's done and his record in the legislature. And then Page is sort of that, that. alternate. So even if, you know, it's, again, 20, more than 25 years is a long time. Maybe you liked one of them for a while. Then you switch to the other, these candidate questionnaires that we've been doing. And we have done a lot. So anyone wanting to know about local races, statewide races and the NNO and my colleagues at the Charlotte Observer, we have them. And Berger declined to fell ours out. But Paige didn't because, you know, Paige is like the upset potential pushing it. And a lot of his answers, and this just.

published last night. So it's online now. A lot of his answers were a little more similar to House Republicans' position, which I think is another way of just showing that he, you know, they're both Republicans, both Trump supporters. Berger got the Trump endorsement page didn't, but he got a compliment from Trump as he was endorsing Berger. So I don't know how much of daylight there is. I think it's going to be close. I'm sorry to put you on the spot here. But Guilford, what percentage of the voters live in Guilford? I don't know the exact percentage. Yeah. But just to underscore this for listeners, these legislative districts are drawn funky. They need to be relatively close from a population standpoint. So to balance the district, Berger and Page are both these entities in Rockingham County, but part of the district they represent includes northern Guilford County. And it's not Greensboro. It's not Greensboro. Yeah, those are different representations. All right. Zach looks like he wants to chime in. It's just a fascinating. I just want to remind listeners of this, if anyone is like, why are they, they talk about this one so much. You're on pause until this has figured out, everything in the state. This upends the status quo of North Carolina politics if Phil Berger loses. It's chaos. You want to tick off Samuel Alito. This will be chaos if Philberger loses. Yeah. I thought, Zach. No, I agree. I think I don't think you could underrate how seismic a burger loss would be. Yeah. Just from all the way from like every board that has an appointment in the state to the budget. Well, he's the most powerful politician in the state. Not, I mean, the three most powerful, the House Speaker, the Senate, President, Pro Tem, and the governor. But Burger has had power longer, which. arguably makes it, you know, Stein, Governor Stein is, you know, the face of the state. But, but Berger has different, like, levers that he's pulling. Is he still going to have that power if he finishes out his term and loses the primary? How is he going to use the rest of his tenure? If he loses, who is going to try to replace him? And if he does leave the Senate, that elevates House Speaker Destin Hall, who's a freshman speaker, although he's not a freshman house member, to a higher powerful position. Sure. And one can only imagine. We won't get too far down this path right now. What then happens in the Senate? Who becomes the leader? What is the jockeying for position? It is just to re-up your word. It would be chaos. Bottom of the hour, Friday news roundup here on due south. We're going to turn in a moment to North Carolina's first congressional district. First, though, let me drop in the trivia question. If Josh Dan Sullivan is listening, I suspect he is, no cheating Josh Dan Sullivan, no Googling. Josh Dan Sullivan will join us in a bit to discuss Olympic updates.

But the trivia question has something to do with, you know, Gary was going, I could tell you're going to the music. I can't sing it, so I won't. Please send correct responses to do south at WNC.org. Today's question, named the Durham native who won gold at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics in snowboarding. Again, name the Durham native who won gold at the 20. 10 and 2006 Olympics in snowboarding. We'll give you that answer later in the program. You send your correct response in. We send you, if we pull your correct response, a snazzy due south mug. All right, let's go from the state. Don's like, what are you talking about? A snowboarder from Durham? It's a real thing. I swear I checked it on the internet today. The internet never lies. All right, let's go to the first congressional district. And we're going to lead into this with this. I believe there are five Republicans seeking the nomination to try to win the seat. The seat is currently held by Don Davis, a Democrat, but it has been redrawn. It's more favorable to Republicans. But listen carefully here. This is just a smattering of these candidates from a recent town hall. Trump secure the border just like that overnight. We've got to push the Trump-America First Agenda without compromise. Pushing the America First Agenda. forward is what I've been doing for the last 10 years. It's been a long time since we've seen a true leader, and that's what we got with Donald Trump. And people don't recognize it. He's the best president that we've had in my lifetime, and what he's done is incredible. I stand behind him 100%. Okay, those are five different candidates saying the same thing. I offer this as just a point of, I don't know, levity, illustrativeness. Gary, you're tracking this race. This is a serious question. How are these candidates trying to stand out from one another? Because you can all get on the same page, but then something has to distinguish you if you're going to win, I think. I mean, I... I assume there's some experience issues. And I know, for instance, Bobby Hanig has been in the legislature and he's represented the area. Obviously, Lori Buckhout, who is a former military colonel. Former candidate in this race as well. Yeah, and ran and almost beat Don Davis two years ago. I'm sure she has a lot to offer there. And then we have Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck, who is in the race. He's been a sheriff for 20 years. So he certainly knows a lot of people and has that law enforcement. some angle. We also have small business owner Eric Rouse, who seems to be trying to make a splash, and then Ashley Nicole Russell, who is a local attorney. So it seems like that, you know, experience in some ways and willingness to work, obviously willingness to work with the Trump administration is not a problem based on their comments. You know, I'm curious about the Bobby Hainig of it all because in some ways he's only in this race because of the shrimp issue, making him sort of a, you know, not favorable in the Republican Party and the General Assembly because he went against sort of leadership on that. But like, is that something voters actually, you know, care about? Did he earn so much good grace that he is maybe a sneaky?

you know, potential winner here over a buck out? Or does it not matter? I deferred. He didn't run for Congress until after a Shroomgate? I thought it was. But he also, well, he crossed the caucus by voting against the budget over a ferry. So like he, so he went, if you think about what he did, right? The two times he went against were about things for his district. So is that going to be enough? Or, you know, are they? Is that going to drive people there? The buckout name, though, people who voted for her last time want to make sure she gets, you know, across the finish line. But if it's all, right, it's turnout, you know, is there enough of a driver to vote in your primary? Like, do you have someone that you like so you're going to go to make sure that they get through or someone that you don't like so you want to vote against them? You know, what are as far as the drivers in the district? And Hennig only represented a... A section of this district, too. It's a huge district. Right. 25 counties. Yeah. Almost, I think it's 23, but it's like a quarter of all North Carolina counties are included in the first. And you think about all the different communities that are, I mean, Aza Buck is a known entity in Carteret, and Lori Buckout's a known entity over here. And Bobby Hanning is a known state senator up in the northeast corner of the, but like the whole district. I mean, you've got to use a paintbrush and cover a third of the state. And I believe it covers three television. markets too. So very expensive to run in, particularly in a general election. As a reminder, candidates need 30% of the vote plus one to avoid a runoff. This could be a race where nobody gets 30% because nobody has been able to distinguish him or herself from the pack. We will see. Don't know. We're about halfway through early voting here, March 3rd primary, quickly approaching. Zakeans wanted to at least give you the floor. Any other races of note from your perspective? If not, there's plenty that I can. Yeah, actually there's a really fascinating one in the triangle. The fourth congressional district is one of the really few competitive primaries here in the triangle. And it's sort of, this is a... really heavily left-leaning districts. So whoever wins this should be the representative next. And this is going to be a rematch of 2022. Representative Valerie Fushi beat Durham County Commissioner Nita Alam in 2022. The boundaries for this district are significantly different now in this year. Durham and Orange County are still the center of this district. But they've traded sort of Alamance County. The person county for parts of Chatham, part of Apex. So this district looks a lot different. So it's kind of not as comparable. You know, she caught in the big guns. Bernie Sanders came down. So this is a very much a progressive versus a establishment Democrat. I think my terms here. I mean, I think Fushi. You know, a lot of people would still consider her very left. But I think she is, like you said, more establishment running with the Coopers and Bidens of the world. But, you know, this is the thing. If you go back to 2020, you know, Biden beat Bernie Sanders in the primary in Durham and Orange County. It was close, but he's still won. So I think it's really, I think this will be kind of a, a.

a weather vein for, you know, what sort of Democratic voters are looking like going into 2028? I think one thing that's important to note is that a lot of black elected officials joined together from, you know, local and state level to throw their continued support behind Fushi as the incumbent and his black woman and that they want her to stay in office. So there's, we're in. you know, like strict party areas, endorsements carry more weight, I think. So I don't know if that endorsement will carry, you know, down to voters or you have the voters who are like, you know, I want to change. And that's and that will help a law them out quite a bit. I was at last Friday's rally. And for the, the non-Berny speakers, there seemed to be a lot of frustration about the current Democratic Party. the hopes that they would be, that number one, that they should have done a better job in 2024 and that they're not pushing hard and pushing back hard enough against Trump. And so, again, are the people in the Bernie at the Bernie rally proportional to what the entire district feels? You know, it's probably a little disproportional towards Alam. I do think if we're going to see a Zohran Mamdani type, moment in North Carolina. This would be it. This is the one place it could happen. I think. I think so. Or has the makings of it at the moment. But like you said, I mean, Fushi has got a lot of... I mean, she's been, I mean, for better for words, she's been around in this establishment for a long time. She is a well-known quantity. Her family is in North Carolina politics, has been, as we talked about on the show last week. Definitely a litmus test of sorts for progressive politics, and that can differ from bunkum to Durham to Wilmington to Raleigh. But this, as you all are noting, is one of the most left slices of our state. Coming up on a break, we'll be back in a moment to discuss some of the Olympic happenings. You're tuned into the Friday News Roundup on listeners-supported. WUNC News.

Welcome back. It's Due South on listeners-supported WUNC Friday News Roundup. Happy birthday to Greensboro native, Riannon Giddens, a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who turned solo performer. Giddens is a two-time Grammy Award winner and I learned this this morning. I should have remember this. recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music. She is 49 years young. Happy birthday to Riannon Giddens. All right, let us welcome in Josh Dan Sullivan, WUNC Digital Producer, also known to shred on a slope near you. Hi, Josh. How are you? Good. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I'm going to check the slack here and see if we had any correct responses to our trivia question. And it looks like the only correct response so far came from you in the control room. Let me run the question back here. It's named the Durham native. who won gold at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics and snowboarding. Any guesses from this crew right here? I mean, I came up with this this morning. How old did they live in Durham? Not long. Yeah, there you go. Who's our answer? Seth Westcott. Seth Westcott. Who was raised where? Do you know this? Raised in Maine. Raised in Maine. Oans a bar outside Sunday River in Maine now. Great bar. Yes, raised in Farmington, Maine and was... A gold medalist in Snowboard Cross? Snowboard Cross. All right. And for us, lovers of winter, but not snowboarders, what is snowboard cross? Snowboard cross? It's like essentially motorcross, but on a snowboard instead of a bike or a motorcycle. There's bumps, there's jumps, there's tables. And, you know, there's usually four at a time. There's a starting gate. And, yeah, the U.S. has historically done really well. Our team is at a weird crossroad right now where... The oldest member is in his mid-40s. He's 44. The youngest member is 19. And so, you know, no medals this year in Snowboard Cross, but last year, one mixed snowboard cross, which is when one man and one woman combined to race together. Nick Baumgartner finished in 7th this year, his counterpart, his female counterpart, Fay Teelan, also finished in 7th on the woman's side. They teamed up. They didn't meddle, but pretty hard fought. all made it to finals. Josh Dan Sullivan is with us. So too is Don Baumgartner Vaughn. There's no relation to. No, but the Baumgartner, when I heard about this other Baumgartner, it is the correct spelling of Baumgartner. I appreciate that. No relation, but I really was pulling for him. I thought, you know, just for the Baumgartner, so he would do it. But, you know, see me next time. We're going to circle back. This is an open Olympic discussion for the record here. Well, let's circle back to snowboarding in the second. First of two semifinals in men's hockey is on. underway right now. Canada in Finland, third period. Canada's trailing 2-1. They're trailing 2-1. It's a little bit of a surprise? Very much a surprise. Yeah, I think everyone thinks Canada is a... You know, I talked to Craig McBorris of the CBC, and he said it's not whether they meddle, it's what medal. And that was back in October. But they were down early to Czechia. They were. They went over time in the quarters. They pulled it out. Yeah. So maybe they're just, you know, playing for the dramatic right now. Seth Jarvis, Ford for the Carolina Hurricanes, is playing for Team Canada. Any notes on the young up-in-coming NHL star, Seth Jarvis? Yeah, for sure. I mean, he was a late ad. I think a lot of people were pretty upset.

left off the team. I think, you know, my humble opinion, it's that they were looking for a little more grit. You know, they've got like the Tom Wilson's on the team, which if you're listening to this show, you probably hate him because he's a Capitals player. And they have Brad Marshawn back for probably his final Olympics, and not that he wasn't worthy. He just might not have had the right spot. He sat out the first game. He got an assist on Nick Suzuki's goal. All right. And the last game, and he's playing pretty well. But definitely a pivot and roll for him. He's not necessarily a top liner. He's got 11 minutes last game. So this is one semi. The winner goes to the gold medal game. Loser goes to the bronze medal game. The second semifinal today, puck's supposed to drop 310 hour time, eastern time. The U.S. and Slovakia, winner again moves on to the gold medal game. Who do you like here? I mean, I like the U.S., but I'm for sure biased. I'm not going to pretend to hide that fact. But yeah, the U.S. is playing really well right now. A couple of hiccups in the goaltending, they've kind of relied on Connor Hellebuck. UMass Lowell graduate Connor Hellebuck he's been playing pretty well They know they squeaked it out in overtime Quinn Hugh's goal About four minutes into overtime in the last game And, yeah, I mean, they're playing really well. They're playing defensive hockey. Carolina Hurricanes own Jacob Slavin. Correct. Big reason for that. He had 18 minutes of ice time, which is a lot of ice time for sure. That's a lot of ice time. Yeah. So, you know, they're playing like a defensive-minded game. It's, I would say atypical of the U.S. to do so, but it's obviously working so far. Let me ask you this. What is your setup? as somebody who has consumed too much sports in my life, I just, I imagine you really, you love these two weeks. Like, do you have multiple screens up or you, have you used some sick time? I'm not trying to get in trouble with your job, but like what's the setup for you here? No, I'm waking up like super early to watch a lot of the events live. Like four in the morning early. Like four or five in the morning. And, you know, I have like a big TV in my living room. I have a, you know, a medium sized TV in my office. If there's like something that needs to be done that can't wait, then, uh, You know, I'm usually in the office. Legs propped up on the desk chair sitting on the couch facing the medium-sized TV. And then usually, like, I'll wake up early in the morning, watch, you know, whatever's going on at five in the morning. And then I'm like, I'm up. I'm going to start working and I'll start doing some work. But yeah, the YouTube TV picture and picture has been a huge friend this Olympics. I'm a fan of that for sure. Josh Dan Sullivan, WUNC, social media producer here with us on Mike DeWine South Friday News Roundup. We talked men's ice hockey yesterday on the ice on the women's side. The Americans claim their third gold of all time.

This was a late comeback. This was very exciting. I caught it later on the... I'm hoping you saw it live. Yeah, I watched the whole thing. This was pretty awesome. Incredible game. Did anyone else get to watch it? No. Saw the highlights. Us suckers were working. Yeah, I can't play. Yeah, I think, like, you know, the U.S. had such an easy road. I don't want to say easy, but they just dominated the whole Olympics, right? And a lot of times, like, you could see it. There'd be a one-on-one or a two-on-one, and the U.S. would try and, like, kind of go in between the two players instead of, like, playing a grittier game where they're dumping the puck in and trying to make stuff happen. And I think at one point, it kind of was like... Look, they've been able to kind of score at will. They beat Canada 5-0, the first game that they played against them. And I think that if you don't have a lot of grit that you have to, like, overcome and on your way to the gold medal game, then, like, there's a good chance you might get caught by surprise. And I think that's kind of what happened with Canada, but both goalies played unbelievable. Canada's and Renee Desbians and... the United States, Aryan Frankel, who went to the same high school that Sidney Crosby did to give you a little insight on how, you know, promising her career was. But, um... They found a way. The veteran, Hillary Knight, probably her last Olympics, who also got engaged that weekend. She proposed to her longtime girlfriend speed skater before the gold medal game. So got the biggest thing out of the right. And this was Hillary Knight's fifth Olympics. And the goal that tied it yesterday in the third period gave her the all-time record for. Goals. She's now the highest scoring woman in American history. Yes, for hockey. Two minutes remaining, goalie was pulled. I don't know. I'll be honest, like watching the game, I just kind of felt like the U.S. didn't have it. Like, they were all over, but Canada was getting their sticks in passing lanes. A lot of shots were deflecting wide. A lot were being covered up by desbians for no rebounds. And it didn't really think, like, it didn't feel like it was going to happen until it did, right? We could talk Olympics. I could talk Olympics for a while here. I'm going to get myself in a little trouble. But live update, Canada has scored to even things with Finland to two in the third period of one of these men's semifinals. I want to pose a question to the group here. This is one that I had on the group chat with some of my buddies. I feel like it's one we review every four years or so. Like the summer is the summer, but the winter, I mean, we've got biathlon and we've got the monobob. We've got all these crazy, my word here, just wild disciplines. If you were going to do one of these winter sports, being assured that you would not have a heart attack or break your neck or suffer any kind of.

similar catastrophic injury. And you, my friend, Josh Dan Sullivan, you're not allowed to say snowboarding because that's your, like, I'm sure that you just can't. I'm not going to accept that as an answer. What would be the winter sport that you would do for a day? Double luge with you, Jeff. Double luge is one, isn't it? No, you can do double as well. Stack them up. God, my answer is the two-person bobsled, but I mean, you and I, we could end up dead. Don't we need like a, I think we would, we'll stay in the bobsled with helmet song. All right. I think snowboarding would be fun. Snowboarding would be blessed. I think biathlon is amazing how you cross-country ski for a long time and then you sit down and have the presence of mine and your heartbeat low enough to like shoot at, you know, shoot a target. Hit a target. It's amazing. Seeing as people ski up. like hills and like thinking to myself when I ever try to go up any type of hill on it like when I go skiing I'm like this is impossible go eight feet I was like take the lift it's it's truly one of the most impressive feats I've saw I've seen this year I would say speed skating. Yeah, that's high on my list. Short track or long track? Probably short track. I don't know. I'm not. Talk about chaos. Short track is chaos. Glutton for punishment. It's like the closest thing to hockey. I grew up playing hockey too. Okay. All right. It's just wonderful. Anything specific. I know you'll be watching a lot this weekend. We will have the gold medal game in hockey. What else will you be watching this weekend? Yeah, that's a good question. Honestly, like, I'm pretty focused on hockey right now. There's a few more short track speed skating events left. I think it's the 1500 and the 5,000 meter. On the women's side? On the women's side. Okay. Actually, sorry, both for both. Yeah, so pretty excited for that. But I think at this point, yeah, like all roads are kind of pointing toward hockey for me. A few days left in these 2026 Olympics. It has been a lot of fun. We're going to pivot. We're going to thank you, Josh Dan Sullivan, for the knowledge and the enthusiasm. Is there a little, I'll end with this. What else have we not touched on? Yeah. Honestly, I'm most excited to, well, talk about women's hockey. Layla Edwards, first black woman ever played for the U.S. team. Not only is she now a gold medalist, but she assisted on the Megan Keller goal that won it for the U.S. in overtime. Real long pass. Overtimes three on three in the Olympics. And it was unbelievable, kind of like a really good exclamation point to put on that. But honestly, like we could talk snowboarding. All day, you know, the woman's slope style team, there is a really big legacy. A lot of, you know, the best slope style rider ever, Jamie Anderson, didn't make the team this year after having her second child. Two 16-year-olds made the team instead. Both of them made finals, one finished and sixth. Pretty much one jump away from podiuming. I don't know if that's a word, from making the podium. And so look out for Jess Perlmutter and Lily DeWarnaway in the future. They're both going to be, like, here for a very long time.

as long as they want, really. And honestly, the thing I'm most fired up about right now is Alyssa Lou, the figure skater. Oh, man. Thank you for mentioning this. This was last night, first American woman in more than two decades. Unbelievable. Twenty years since American woman had won. And it wasn't, I mean, yeah, she won. And she was nearly flawless. But remind us real quick just the journey. Because to me, the journey outpaces even the incredible performance. Yeah, national champion. 13, went to her first Olympics at 16 in Beijing, 2022. We all know those Olympics were pretty weird because of COVID. And finished in sixth, really underperformed, retired at the age of 16. Retired. She wasn't having any fun. Came back at 18 and kind of like really changed up her mindset and came to these games and basically was like, I just want to put on the best performance I can. If I meddle, I meddle. If I don't, I don't. It's not a big deal. And she's like, You know, she's unapologetically from the Bay Area. She's like pretty punk rock. She's got she pierced her own gums. She's got like this crazy halo hairstyle. And, uh, she just like. finally figured out that, like, if I can pick the music I get to skate to, if I can really, like, shoot involved in the crowd like most people never have. Yeah. It felt like a gymnastics floor routine, you know. That's a good comp. I like that. It was, like, really, really cool to see, like, people in the background, like, cheering and clapping along with the song and, like, being a part of the whole performance. I don't skate well, but my days of watching women's ice skating go back to Saria Bonalee and Aksana Bail and Nancy Kerrigan and, like, deep cuts. I have enjoyed watching. women's ice skating since I was a little kid. What to me stood out from about her was there's generally just this tension. There's artistic. It's beautiful, but like she was free. Like she was having so much fun out there, which is not common. I think people really need to, there's millions of dollars to be made to be a sports psychologist in the world of the winter and summer Olympics, right? And judge sports are really tough because like when you're snowboarding or when you're skiing or when you're. ice skating, you're probably not thinking about a whole lot, right? You've got to be kind of hollow-headed to do that and have fun as like a hobby. And all of a sudden, like... the rest of your career is supposed to, you know, rely on, like, all these it factors, and you can't really have much going on up there. And I think, like, that's, you know, people talk about Michelle Kwan, never getting gold, even though she's the best figure skater to ever do it. Like, there's a lot of weight around the Olympics. Like, you look at the snowboarding events, Maddie Mastro, unfortunately didn't land any of her runs in the half pipe final. She was in every commercial, every time they cut them a commercial break for, like, four or five different products, you know? That's a lot to deal with. There's a lot of stress coming up to that. And, yeah, for Alyssa, I mean, it probably helps that she's 20 and is like, I could finish and last. And I probably have a long life ahead of me doing whatever the heck I want. That probably helps a little bit, right? But, yeah, she just.

forgot about all the, you know, all the stress behind it and really just was like, I'm going to go have fun, I'm going to put on a show, and I'm going to get the crowd involved. And she won gold. Josh Dan Sullivan, social media producer here at WNC, he's unaware, but I have signed him up for a due south correspondent role. We're working on 2028 in Los Angeles, 2032 in Paris and France, and we'll come up with the game plan to get you and maybe all of us there. I mean, I can wish, right? I can dream. All right. Josh, thank you. We are coming up on just about our final moments here on the New South Friday News Roundup. I would love to hear from everybody one more time, something that is in the docket for you in the days or week to come as we barrel a little bit closer to this March 3rd primary. We've got legislative happenings, whatever it may be, trying to give you a beat to think about it here. But Zachary Eans, what's on the horizon for you? Well, you know, I think there's a really interesting trend happening in North Carolina right now where at the county level, a lot of people are trying to pass moratoriums on data centers, cities too, and coming into conflict with some state laws that came up sort of about like whether or not you can downzone properties and stuff of that nature. But I just, this data center stuff is not going away and is going to be. something I think communities are having to take a stance on this year. Gary Robertson. Keeping an eye on early voting and obviously any changes in the Senate race coming up in the coming days. But, you know, there are for the other districts, other races that we were talking about. And there's a handful of other, especially legislative races that could see some incumbents lose potentially. Final word, Don Vaugh. Primary countdown. Down to the next week is the final week. Simple as that. Week from Tuesday is the March 3rd primary here in North Carolina. First primary in the country along with Texas and Arkansas. Big thanks to Don Vaughn, Capital Bureau Chief at the News and Observer, also hosted the Under the Dome podcast. Zachary Eans, reporter at Axios Raleigh and Gary Robertson, Statehouse Reporter Associated Press and the de facto mayor of the Capitol Press Corps. Josh Dan Sullivan joined us as well. Social media producer at WNC and Avid Shredder. Big thanks to all of them and to you for tuning in. This is Due South, a production of WUNC and a broadcast service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our producers are Stasia Brown, Cole Del Charko, and Rachel McCarthy. Rachel Hernandez is our intern, Denarius Thomas, as the technical director, Aaron Kiever, is executive producer, theme music from Quilla. For Leonita End, I'm Jeff Tevere. Enjoy your weekend. The end of the games. We'll talk to you Monday at noon.

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