MORNING LINEUP
Housing costs, rising fuel and grocery prices have working North Carolinians feeling stretched this Labor Day. A new ranking by Oxfam lists the state dead last in this year’s 2026 Best States to Work Index.(Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)
By Clayton Henkel
North Carolina is consistently ranked among America’s top states for business. But a new ranking by Oxfam lists the state dead last in this year’s 2026 Best States to Work Index.
Oxfam, a global nonprofit focused on poverty and inequality, examined 37 policies including wages, worker protections, and the right to organize to determine which states do the best job of supporting workers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Bins full of absentee ballots await Wake County Board of Elections review in November 2024. (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)
By Lynn Bonner
A new directive to North Carolina county boards of election puts more ballots in jeopardy of being discarded, though voters will have the chance to fill out another.
Absentee ballots that arrive in the wrong envelope, or that arrive unsealed in the correct envelope, will no longer automatically count but will be rejected and new ballots issued, the state Board of Elections decided in a Friday party-line vote.
By Kevin Hardy
Labor union membership continues to climb in the United States, though the increase remains sharply divided by the politics of individual states.
Last year, the nation added more than 411,000 union members — the largest annual growth since 2008, according to a study published just ahead of the Labor Day holiday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
By Alex Brown
State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided.
But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving states with uncertainty about whether they can expect federal recovery funds.
MORE NEWSLINE
|Ariana Figueroa
Concierges, adjuncts, potato chip tasters: US employers relying more on ‘disposable’ workers |Paul Osterman (Commentary)
MORE HEADLINES
NEWS
As war grinds on, Trump relishes renovation projects |New York Times
Landslide victory for Germany’s far-right AfD in state election piles pressure on Chancellor Merz|APnews.com
NC’s Tillis calls for Hegseth’s ouster after Army secretary’s resignation |Raleigh News & Observer
New absentee guidance takes effect as ballots head to North Carolina voters|WLOS.com
Mail-in voting has begun in NC. Here’s what to know for the 2026 midterms|WRAL.com
New mining rules could limit NC review of forests, mine locations|
Raleigh News & ObserverInvestigators hunt for what went wrong after cargo plane crash in Miami kills at least 5|WRAL.com
Fayetteville police urge community members to carry Narcan due to extreme opioid overdoses|WRAL.com
A Durham-based union worker ends 40-day hunger strike protesting Amazon work conditions|
WUNC.orgCampbell’s layoffs hit Charlotte Lance cracker workers amid $500M in cost cuts |Charlotte Observer
COMMENTARY
Frank Bruni: Is This Democrat Too Good for His Own Good?|New York Times
Mike Kelly: Opinion Pain of Sept. 11 still ripples through America 25 years later |USA Today/Raleigh News & Observer
Tom: Oxholm: Missouri voters rejected a bad tax initiative. North Carolina should, too |Raleigh News & Observer
Adrianna Wright: My night in Gloria Steinem's living room was the ultimate gift|USA Today
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