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Duke Energy Accepts Lower Rate Increase, Profit
The nation's largest electric company has agreed to seek a lower rate increase on more than a million North Carolina customers and charge a lower potential profit margin, but still wants nearly $200 million a year to clean up the toxic byproducts of burning coal.
Duke Energy Corp. and consumer advocates working for the North Carolina Utilities Commission said Monday they've agreed to a partial settlement as the company seeks a reduced 13 percent rate increase. The company is now willing to accept a nearly 10 percent potential profit margin, down from almost 11 percent.
The two sides say still at issue is whether the Charlotte-based company's subsidiary in eastern North Carolina will be allowed to charge consumers the full cost of cleaning up its coal ash pits.
House Rep. Susan Martin Says She Won't Seek Re-Election
North Carolina House Rep. Susan Martin has announced she will not seek re-election to a fourth term in the General Assembly in 2018.
Word of Martin's decision came on Monday from the office of State House Speaker Tim Moore. She said in a statement that she looks forward to continuing to affect change.
Martin, a Repbublican, co-chairs the state House Committee on Commerce and Job Development, as well as the state House Committee on Finance. She was drawn into the same district as Democratic Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield of Wilson County during redistricting over the summer.
Former Community College President Says He Was Forced Out
The former president of North Carolina's community college system says he was forced from the post.
The News & Observer reports Jimmie Williamson resigned on July 31 and left the job at the end of September.
In an email sent to the newspaper, Williamson wrote that he believes his job became collateral damage after a battle over Senate Bill 420, which allowed the State Board to replace a local college trustee board with an interim board in "extreme circumstances" of negligence or fiscal mismanagement.
The legislation arose from a crisis involving Martin Community College when the State Board intervened after a negative state audit.
North Carolina Advocate To Meet With Pope Francis This Week
A Protestant minister known as the architect of the Moral Monday protest movement in North Carolina will spend the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend at a Vatican conference dedicated to labor and the workers' movement. The visit will include a meeting with Pope Francis.
The Rev. William J. Barber II told The News & Observer that he received an invitation to the Vatican earlier this fall, along with other worker and labor rights advocates. Barber stepped down as head of the state NAACP last month to focus on his role as president of new social justice organization Repairers of the Breach.
Barber's 84-year-old mother will accompany him.
Hurricane Matthew Victims Can Now Apply For Grant Money
Residents of two of the North Carolina counties hardest hit by Hurricane Matthew can schedule an appointment to apply for reimbursement of their losses starting Tuesday.
The Fayetteville Observer reports state Department of Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry says Cumberland and Robeson counties, for whom the appointment process starts today, will receive 80 percent of the disaster-relief funding from the federal Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program, along with Edgecomb and Wayne counties.
The application center opens Nov. 30.