Laura Leslie at WRAL has the details:

An ambitious attempt to rewrite state laws to expand the solar industry and lower its cost may be in trouble after Senate leaders made big changes to the carefully negotiated deal.

The most controversial provision added by Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown has nothing at all to do with solar energy. It's a moratorium on state permitting for wind-energy projects through Dec. 31, 2020. That provision, filed by Brown as a standalone bill, was also included in the Senate's budget proposal but was not part of the final budget deal.

I would hope that every single Democrat who voted for the earlier versions of this bill will strongly oppose it now, but Republicans should too. It couldn't survive as a standalone piece of Legislation, and it didn't survive being included in the Budget. Brown is basically thumbing his nose at his own people with this move, and they need to put him in his place. And while they're at it, try and figure out what his obsession with destroying wind energy in our state is all about.

Because you better believe Republicans are looking at this:

North Carolina’s two largest metropolitan statistical areas – Charlotte-Concord and the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) – have driven much of North Carolina’s total growth since 2010, accounting for 72% of the state’s 611,000 person growth. For every one-year period since the last census (e.g. 2010-2011, 2012-2013, etc.), the cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, and Cary have reported the largest numeric gains in population, typically in that order. Greensboro and Winston-Salem of the Triad, and the port communities around Wilmington, have also made significant gains since 2010.

Granted, this is no "stunning revelation," it aligns with previous growth numbers and forecasts. But much of the discussion (I've read/heard) on tactics to strengthen the Democratic Party has focused around energizing rural Democratic operations into a viable alternative in deep-red territory. And that should be done. But the infusion of large numbers of "new" people (not native North Carolinians) into metropolitan zones, provides not only a lot of potential voters, but also a lot of potential grass roots volunteers. But before we do what I heard somebody suggest recently, "Send them out to the rural areas to spread the messages," the real work that needs to be done is a lot closer to home:

Republicans should be ashamed of themselves:

Here in North Carolina, the news been similarly discouraging as lawmakers have mostly abandoned the idea of taking affirmative public action to promote women’s health. Remarkably, this is true despite the presence of data showing a number of poor health outcomes for the women of North Carolina as compared to other states. Unfortunately, one “women’s health” initiative the North Carolina General Assembly has managed to find money for is the anti-abortion ministry of so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

In 2015, despite making cuts to social safety net programs that many North Carolina women and children depend on, lawmakers managed to increase this funding to $300,000. And in this year’s budget, it appears they are appropriating $1.3 million in state general funds for CPCs, in addition to $400,000 in federal maternal health grant money.

Aside from being a coldly calculating attempt to undermine women's rights, it is also a patently irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars. These "centers" offer very little in the form of maternal health, and zero assistance in helping make child birth affordable, not to mention the costs of raising those children:

Refusing to acknowledge dictates from judges is becoming a habit with Republicans:

The ban also applies to 31 other protesters arrested that day during a health-care sit-in after they refused to clear the hallways outside legislative leaders’ office. The ban was a condition of the protesters’ release from jail, set by Wake County magistrate Jeffrey L. Godwin as he charged them with second-degree trespassing. General Assembly Police Chief Martin Brock said Friday that his agency didn’t ask the magistrate to set those conditions, but he said he plans to make the request for future arrests of protesters.

Geeta Kapur, an attorney for Barber and the NAACP, says the ban is unconstitutional. She points to the provision in the state constitution that says “the people have a right to assemble together ... to instruct their representatives, and to apply to the General Assembly for redress of grievances.” She pointed to a 2013 decision by a judge to throw out a similar ban on arrested protesters. Since then, most arrests at “Moral Monday” protest events have not included a ban on entering the Legislative Building as a condition of release.

The GOP is notorious for resurrecting bad ideas and questionable legal practices every few years or so, just to see if they will stick, and this ban is no different. And if another judge throws it out, they'll do it again next year or the year after. Precedent? We don't need no stinking precedent, we make this shit up as we go.