LEGISLATURE MULLS HUGE INCREASE IN FEES FOR EVS AND HYBRIDS: A proposal to ratchet up the annual registration fee for a hybrid or an electric vehicle cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday. Senate Bill 446 calls for increasing the fee on electric vehicles from $130 to $275 over the next three years. A new fee for hybrids would be imposed as well, starting at $87.50 and growing to $137.50 by 2022. After 2022, the fees would be adjusted every four years to keep up with inflation. Sen. Joyce Waddell, D-Mecklenburg, said the higher fees could discourage people from buying a hybrid or an electric vehicle. Davis said that isn't his intent, and Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, said the proposal is simply a matter of fairness. "Without any question, on the roads that they travel, [these vehicles] will cause just as much of a problem as my light pickup truck, and I'm paying 36 cents a gallon to ride on that road," Rabon said. "It is only fair that they pay an equal amount."
https://www.wral.com/registration-fees-for-hybrids-electric-vehicles-could-be-going-up-a-lot/18318162/

ANTI-SEMITIC PROPAGANDA PLACED IN UNC CHAPEL HILL LIBRARY: The university did not report what was on the posters. Ari Gauss, executive director of N.C. Hillel, the UNC-based foundation for Jewish college students across the state, said he had seen the posters. He condemned them in a statement on the Hillel’s website. “We are outraged that vicious anti-Semitic flyers, referring to “an evil Jewish plot,” were placed at Davis Library at UNC Chapel Hill this week, the statement said. “We are disgusted by the vile and hateful rhetoric on these flyers. The language is reminiscent of centuries-old, anti-Semitic rhetoric that incited the murder of thousands of Jews in pogroms throughout Eastern Europe and the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. This racist, repulsive language has no place on any campus or in any society.” Unrelated to the discovery of the flyers, Gauss said, the Hillel is hosting a speaker at UNC Thursday night, Dr. Marc Dollinger, a Jewish historian who will talk about the history and impact of anti-Semitism.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article229078544.html

CHARLES TAYLOR CLAIMS HE MADE NO MONEY OFF MONEY-LAUNDERING BANK: A former congressman from western North Carolina says he never made any money off his shares in a Russian bank and sold off his stock before accusations of money laundering by banking authorities in Moscow, WLOS reports. The Bank of Russia revoked the license for Commercial Bank of Ivanovo last week. The Russian central bank said CBI broke money laundering rules “on multiple occasions,” according to a press release. Bloomberg News reported last week that Taylor, a Republican who served in the House for 16 years, owns 80% of the bank. “While I bought stock in the bank of Ivanovo several years ago, I have never been an officer or director in the Bank. Further, the Bank has never paid any dividends fees or other monies to me,” Taylor said in the statement, which he also sent to the Asheville Citizen Times.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article228977419.html

THIS NAVY TEST PILOT SAYS SEN. BROWN'S WIND ENERGY BAN IS MISGUIDED: I served in the U.S. Navy for 35 years as an aviator, test pilot, aircraft carrier commanding officer and commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet, retiring at the rank of vice admiral. I later served as assistant Secretary of the Navy, responsible for all Navy and Marine Corps installations around the world. Nothing is more important to me than protecting the safety of our military aviators and ensuring the continued viability of our military training facilities. With that in mind, Senate Bill 377, the “Military Base Protection Act,” recently introduced in the North Carolina Senate, caught my eye. The bill’s title actually is a misnomer. It has little to do with protecting military bases. Rather, the legislation really is just a ban on wind energy development along North Carolina’s coast. And while it is important that all development (not just wind development) be compatible with critical military missions, this bill is unnecessary.
https://www.wral.com/dennis-mcginn-this-navy-test-pilot-says-sen-brown-s-wind-energy-ban-bill-is-mis...

INDICTED BUSINESSMAN DONATED $2.4 MILLION TO LT. GOVERNOR'S COMMITTEES: Lindberg gave $1.4 million to the North Carolina Republican Council of State Committee, which Forest chairs. For that committee, Forest appeared in a tongue-in-cheek video that instructs voters how to commit voter fraud. Lindberg also gave $1 million to the NC-registered super PAC “Truth and Prosperity,” for which Forest has raised money. But Lindberg hasn’t contributed to Forest’s official campaign account, the Committee to Elect Dan Forest, Weatherman said. However, a party invitation sent by Forest’s committee in 2017 gives the impression that Lindberg donated the legal maximum to Forest’s campaign. The Committee to Elect Dan Forest invited people to celebrate Forest’s 50th birthday in October 2017, according to a digital invitation obtained by McClatchy. The invitation says a donor can be listed as a “co-chair” if he or she gives $5,200. Lindberg is listed as a co-chair.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article228828629.html