(The Center Square) – Transportation energy prices skyrocketed over the weekend in North Carolina, with a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline up 6 cents on average in the past week.

In some locations, the rise from Friday to Monday was 17 cents.

The state’s $2.92 average remains 30 cents below the national average of $3.22, with the highest averages in central northern border counties and along the coast. One stretch with the lowest is from Fayetteville to the southeast toward South Carolina’s perennially lower costs.

Combustion engine consumers, which make up more than 8 million vehicle registrations, are paying $3.53 on average for diesel. Nationally, it’s $3.67.

For those traveling out of state, among border states Tennessee ($2.85) and South Carolina ($2.89) are less on unleaded gasoline, and Georgia ($2.96) and Virginia ($3.09) are more. In three weeks, Georgia is up 8 cents, South Carolina 12 cents, Tennessee 15 cents, and Virginia 14 cents.

At the turn of the calendar new year, the statewide average was $2.86, and the national average was $3.04.

North Carolina’s electric vehicle charging rate average, according to AAA, is 33.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. The national average is 36.1 cents per kwh. More than 100,000 zero emission vehicles are registered in the state.

Eleven states have lower average prices for a gallon of unleaded; 19 are lower for diesel; and nine are lower in electric.

Among 14 major metro areas, the least expensive average for unleaded gas is in Jacksonville at $2.84. Most expensive is the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area ($2.97).

Diesel is the most consumer-friendly ($3.43) in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton.

North Carolina’s 40.3 cents per gallon tax rate for 2025 is topped by California (59.6), Pennsylvania (57.6), Washington (49.4), Illinois (47), Maryland (46.1), and New Jersey (44.9).

The motor fuel excise tax rate in the state is the amount for the preceding calendar year (40.4), multiplied by a percentage. The percentage is plus or minus the sum of the annual percentage change in state population for the applicable calendar year, multiplied by 75% and the annual energy index percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, multiplied by 25%, the state Department of Transportation explains on its website.

Motor fuel taxes in the state go to the Department of Transportation’s highway and multi-modal projects, adding up to just more than half of the state transportation resources. Specifically, the revenues go into the Highway Fund and the Highway Trust Fund.

Trump on Striking Iran: ‘Peace or Tragedy for Iran’

President Trump: “A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive, precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.

Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.

Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. Future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.

For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.

I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.

Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so. I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.

With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.

Tomorrow, General Caine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon. And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.”

(The Center Square) – Litigation cannot be pursued by a disabled Florida firefighter against the city of Sanford under the Americans With Disability Act, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Karyn Stanley, in Stanley v. City of Stanford, sued the city after officials said that her disability entitled her to only 24 months of insurance coverage. Stanley was hired by the city as a firefighter in 1999 and was forced to retire in 2018 due to a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. 

The city changed its policy in 2003 to provide health insurance for retirees with 25 years of service up to age 65, while those who retired due to disability only received two years of coverage after leaving city service. 

Writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed with the District Court ruling that said the ADA didn’t give Stanley the ability to sue since she was not a “qualified individual” because “she was not someone ‘who with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires.'”

That ruling was affirmed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Gorsuch also said “other avenues may exist for retirees like Ms. Stanley to seek relief” and that other laws might protect retirees from discrimination with respect to postemployment benefits. 

In a dissent, Associate Justice Kentajii Brown Jackson said “retirement benefits are essential building blocks of the American Dream. Workers typically earn these benefits on the job and reap the rewards after leaving the workforce. Congress has long understood that, by enabling workers to retire with dignity, independence, and security, retirement benefits are a critical aspect of job-related compensation.”

She also said in her dissent that the court ignored those rights. 

“It (the court) reaches out to cut off postemployment protection against disability discrimination in a case that does not require us to decide that question; seizes upon the inapposite text of the qualified-individual definition; and converts that text into a temporal limit it was never designed to be,” Jackson said. “Worse still, by doing all this, the court renders meaningless Title I’s protections for disabled workers’ retirement benefits just when those protections matter most.”

In a concurring opinion with the majority, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, took exception with what he termed “a bait and switch” where the plaintiffs asked the court to resolve what he termed a “discrete circuit split” and then asked the court to resolve “an entirely different legal question.” 

“Redirecting us to a different legal question at the merits stage can be disruptive, inefficient, and unfair to all involved,” Thomas said.