News You Can Use - November 3, 2025

Chatham/North Carolina

Budget

• WUNC: Why state employee raises could cause a budget deficit

Chatham Development

• The News & Observer: Showdown Continues Over Chatham Park’s 5,000-Acre ‘Small-Area Plan’

Courts

• NC Newsline: Rural NC Legal Aid Offices Close After General Assembly Freezes Public Assistance Fund Over Politics

Economy

• Carolina Public Press: No Progress for Poor Areas Despite Years of NC Tier System Designed to Spark Growth

• Carolina Public Press: Flawed Economic Distress Tier System Not Opening Doors for Growth in Struggling Communities

• Carolina Public Press: Seeking Better Options for NC Economic Development

Education

• NC Newsline: Some Head Start Programs in North Carolina Poised To Shut Down as Federal Funds Dry Up

• The Assembly NC: UNC System Faculty Seek to Define ‘Academic Freedom’

Elections

• Cardinal & Pine: Opinion: From Firehouses to Schools, North Carolina’s Small Towns Run on Local Elections

Government Shutdown

• Cardinal & Pine: How the Shutdown is Impacting Military Families in North Carolina and Beyond

Health Care

• Cardinal & Pine: NC House Votes To Block Medicaid Patients from Getting Care at Planned Parenthood

• Cardinal & Pine: Medicaid Funding Shortfall Shutters Statewide Program Helping Moms and Babies

• NC Health News: ‘We’re Gonna Be There’: NC Counties Rethink Overdose Response

• NC Health News: Medicaid funding gap forces closure of NC perinatal group

• WFMY: 2025 State of Caregiving Report: 2 Million People in NC Provide Care to a Family Member or Friend

• WRAL: It’s Official: Nearly 1 Million North Carolinians Will Pay More for Obamacare in 2026

Redistricting

• Carolina Forward: The Case for Independent Redistricting

• NY Times (Gift Article): Opinion | For Shame, North Carolina. For Shame. 

• The Assembly NC: Democrats’ Deep Hole

• The Assembly NC: Rep. Don Davis Says He Won’t Go Down Without a Fight

• The Assembly NC: They Called Their Shot: The Babe Ruth Era of Redistricting is Here

• WUNC: New NC Congressional Map Faces First Lawsuit, More Anticipated

SNAP Benefits

• Cardinal & Pine: Millions Could Go Hungry in NC if SNAP Benefits Are Paused During Government Shutdown

• Chapelboro: ‘The Needs Keep Growing’: Local Non-Profits Discuss Impact of Lack of SNAP Benefits

• Governor Josh Stein: Governor Stein Announces Nearly $18 Million in Contributions for North Carolina Food Assistance

• IndyWeek: Triangle Food Banks Brace for Increased Demand as SNAP Cutoff Nears

• NC Newsline: NC Officials Warn Federal Food Aid Programs Will Be Suspended Within Days

• The Assembly NC: North Carolina Joins Bipartisan Suit Over SNAP

• The Assembly NC: How SNAP Delays Could Impact NC College Students

• WLOS: SNAP Benefits in North Carolina Will Be Paused on Nov. 1: Here’s What This Means

• WUNC: North Carolina Joins Other States in Lawsuit To Protect SNAP Benefits, Prevent ‘Major Hunger Crisis’

• WUNC: Virginia Will Use State Funding To Keep SNAP Running, But NC Leaders Aren’t Proposing That

Social Services

• Carolina Public Press: DSS Directors Across NC Concerned By State Interventions, Letter Reveals

State Supreme Court

• ProPublica: God’s Chief Justice

U.S./International

Agriculture

• Politico: Farm-state Republicans finally reach their breaking point

AI

• NY Times: The Morning: An A.I. Bubble?

China Trade Deal

• NY Times: The Morning: A Trade Deal With China

Democratic Party

• Politico: Centrist WelcomePAC charts path for Dems, with help from Axelrod, Plouffe and others

• Washington Post (Gift Article): Chris Murphy Needs Blue America To Wake Up

Disability Eligibility Rules

• Politico: Red States to Be Hit Hard by Trump Disability Eligibility Rules

Elections

NY Times: On Politics: Why Tuesday’s Elections Are Still About Trump

Government Shutdown

• ABC News: Americans increasingly concerned about government shutdown, more blame Republicans and Trump than Democrats: Poll

• CNN Politics: Rank-and-file senators engage in ‘shadow negotiation’ in search for shutdown end

• CNN Politics: Vance and Duffy warn Thanksgiving travel ‘could be a disaster’ if shutdown barrels on

• NOTUS: ‘More Determined Than Ever’: Democrats Refuse to Budge As Shutdown Approaches One-Month Mark

• NOTUS: Democrats Say Federal Workers Don't Want Them to Cave. Their Union Says Otherwise. 

• NOTUS: Head Start Programs Are Closing Down as Shutdown Funding Lapses Grow

• NOTUS: Millions of Americans Risk Having Their Power Shut Off as the Shutdown Drags On

• NY Times: On Politics: Pain Points

• Politico: Democrats unflinching in shutdown strategy, blaming Trump with millions at risk of losing food aid

• Politico: 6 ways the shutdown is about to get worse

• Washington Post (Gift Article): Report: Government Shutdown Will Cost the Economy Up to $14 Billion

Health Care

• Associated Press: Trump Administration Moves To Overrule State Laws Protecting Credit Reports from Medical Debt

• CNN Politics: Obamacare enrollees get first look at 2026 prices as premiums soar

• NOTUS: Democrats’ ACA Subsidy Fight Is Really About Red States

• NY Times: The Evening: Obamacare Prices Rise

• NY Times (Gift Article): Opinion | The Doctor Who Hates Medicine

• Politico: Obamacare sticker shock is more shocking in some states than others

Immigration

• NOTUS: Local Officials Try to Resist ICE Raids

• Politico: What I Saw at the Epicenter of Trump’s War on ‘Illegals’

Justice

• NY Times (Gift Article): Opinion | All It Took for Trump to Dismantle the Justice Dept

• Politico: Trump appeals his criminal conviction in New York hush money case

  
  

Nuclear Testing

• NY Times: The Evening: Trump Calls for Nuclear Tests

• Politico: Resuming nuclear testing is not as easy as you think

Pentagon

• Politico: DOD can’t say who it killed in military strikes against drug smugglers

Redistricting

• Columbus Dispatch: Ohio politicians approve new congressional map in bipartisan deal

• NOTUS: Democrats Are Looking at California’s Prop 50 Campaign as a Blueprint for Redistricting

• Politico: White House targets voting. But Trump is sitting out California’s redistricting war.

• Politico: The Republicans thwarting the White House’s redistricting hopes

• Politico: Top Maryland Democrat torpedoes state’s redistricting push

• Time: Why Barack Obama Got Off the Bench For Next Weeks' Elections

SNAP Benefits

• NY Times: The Evening: U.S. Ordered To Pay Food Stamps

• Washington Post (Gift Article): Who Receives SNAP? Food Aid for 1 in 8 Americans is Threatened in November

Supreme Court

• NY Times: The Morning: Liberal Justices are Split

Tariffs

• Washington Post (Gift Article): The Supreme Court Won’t Hurt America if it Strikes Down the Tariffs

Trump Presidency

• NY Times: On Politics: ‘I Would Love To Do It’

Voting Rights

• Politico: Red states are preparing for an end to the Voting Rights Act

White House Construction

• Politico: Americans oppose Trump’s White House ballroom by 2-to-1 ratio, new poll finds