SUMMARY: Hours after a fire broke out in the vacant, under-construction old Sears building at Haywood Mall in Greenville, an altercation involving juveniles and a restaurant employee escalated to shots fired in the mall parking lot. Fortunately, no one was injured in either incident. Fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze, preventing damage to the occupied parts of the mall. Police located suspects and a firearm linked to the shooting. Despite the chaos, most shoppers were largely unaffected, and mall operations mostly returned to normal by evening. Witnesses described a frightening scene of gunfire and panic near the busy mall.
Shots fired hours after building fire at Haywood Mall
SUMMARY: Former President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into President Joe Biden’s actions, alleging aides concealed Biden’s cognitive decline and questioning the legitimacy of his use of an autopen to sign pardons and documents. Trump claims this covers a major scandal and questions Biden’s authority over executive actions, despite constitutional protections and decades of autopen use. GOP-led House Oversight is demanding testimony from Biden’s aides, citing concerns about Biden’s mental state. Democrats dismiss the probe as a political distraction. This escalation reflects Trump’s ongoing fixation on Biden, who defeated him in 2020, an election Trump falsely claims was rigged.
Sam Hayes, newly appointed Executive Director of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections, played a key role in drafting Senate Bill 382, which shifted election appointment power to the Republican state auditor, leading to a new board majority. Hayes aims to modernize election systems, improve voter registration accuracy, and implement a top-to-bottom audit of the election process, modeling efforts after Florida’s system. He advocates for increased funding and staff, securing early legislative support. Outgoing director Karen Brinson Bell emphasized restoring civility and stressed the integrity of past election practices despite partisan criticisms. Both prioritize ensuring voter access and updating outdated election infrastructure.
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press June 5, 2025
Some might say newly appointed State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes wrote his own job into law.
As general counsel for the Speaker of the House, Hayes had a hand in writing Senate Bill 382, the Tropical Storm Helene relief bill that also shifted election appointment power from the Democratic governor to the newly elected Republican state auditor.
As a result, the State Board of Elections got a new Republican majority that then chose a new executive director. After a state court allowed the law to go into effect, the board chose Hayes, a Republican attorney whose election experience includes defending North Carolina’s voter ID law, legislators’ redistricting plans and most recently, Senate Bill 382.
“So I worked on the legislation, I’ve defended the legislation, and now I’m here,” Hayes said in a recent interview with Carolina Public Press.
Hayes has big plans for the agency, which has been plagued by accusations of partisanship lodged by Republicans in recent years. Former executive director Karen Brinson Bell has taken the brunt of much of that criticism.
Hayes told CPP he plans to approach the job from a strictly legal perspective, while leveraging his relationships with Republican lawmakers to secure the resources needed to support North Carolina elections.
Meanwhile, Bell had one message for North Carolinians on her way out the door — it’s time to restore civility to elections.
“I hope we can get to a place in this country, and especially in this state that I hold so dear, where dedicated, hardworking election workers are supported and rewarded for their work, rather than vilified by those who don’t like the outcome,” she said in her final speech.
While the board’s transition may come with a change in mindset, many of Hayes’ and Bell’s priorities align: modernizing the state’s election systems and ensuring that every eligible voter can exercise their right to vote.
Hayes: ‘A big challenge’
One of Hayes’ first orders of business upon taking office was traveling down to Florida with State Auditor Dave Boliek.
Hayes wanted to talk to Florida’s secretary of state and elections officials to see what they’re doing, “because they get it right,” he said.
“This is a large state, much larger than North Carolina, but they seem to be able to count their votes and to have certainty on Election Night,” Hayes said. “And I’d like to get us to the same place in North Carolina.”
In a sense, Hayes is taking an auditor’s approach to North Carolina’s election apparatus. He plans to call for a top-to-bottom performance audit of the State Board of Elections to help inform his work. And he intends to talk to similar-sized states about their election systems in the hopes of replacing North Carolina’s nearly obsolete legacy system.
“This is a big challenge, but there’s a lot of opportunity here as well,” he said.
“… We’re still looking under the hood — we just got here — but we know that there’s a number of big issues hanging out there that we’re going to have to tackle, and we’re going to tackle them pretty quickly.”
Chief among those is the state’s voter registration rolls, which have been the subject of controversy and litigation for a few years.
In 2023, it came to light that North Carolina’s voter registration form used the wrong color-coding on the section requiring registrants to provide a driver’s license or the last four digits of their Social Security number, or if they didn’t have either, to check a box to get a unique voter identification number.
While the State Board fixed the form, they did not call all voters on the rolls without a listed number. That inaction has led to ongoing federal and state litigation, including a high-profile election protest by Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin and most recently, the US Department of Justice.
Curing those deficiencies is at the top of Hayes’ list.
“It’s the law, and I have said all along that we’re going to follow the law here, and we’re going to do things the right way,” he said.
Bell said everyone’s got it wrong. Just because someone’s identifying number doesn’t appear on the digital voter registration rolls doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist — any number of benign data entry or matching issues could be in play, she said.
Also, voters who don’t provide a number have to provide additional documentation at the polls to be able to vote, ensuring election security, Bell added.
“I stand by the fact that we have a verified, audited, well-maintained process in North Carolina,” she said.
A tale of two budgets
It’s budget season in Raleigh, and both Bell and Hayes made attempts to get elections priorities into budget proposals. Hayes appears to have enjoyed greater success with the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
While the legislature is mostly focused on trimming the fat by cutting vacant positions, Hayes asked for a handful of new hires to take on his vision for North Carolina elections.
“Elections are pretty fundamental to the work of government, so I’ve made the case that we need some of those, and I need some more folks around me here to help me in this,” he said.
Hayes is in the perfect position to make his argument. Since 2021, he’s developed election policy and defended state election law for Republican House speakers Tim Moore and Destin Hall.
Before that, he led the Department of Environmental Quality and state treasurer office’s legal departments. Over the past decade, Hayes developed relationships with legislators he now has to pitch to get what he wants in the budget and the law. Before his last day at the legislature, he was already meeting with budget chairs to sell his priorities, he said.
“You’ve got to be able to articulate your vision and the needs there,” he said. “And I’ve worked with these people for many years. I know them very well, and I just think that I’ve hopefully been able to convey the urgency and the needs here.”
Already, he’s seen results. The House budget, released a week after Hayes’ start date, includes $2 million more for the State Board of Elections than the earlier Senate version to modernize the state’s election system, and adds seven new positions to the agency. These positions are exempt from the State Human Resources Act, meaning that political affiliation can be considered in hiring.
Karen Brinson Bell was the North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director for eight years throughout the administration of Gov. Roy Cooper. After new legislation manufactured a partisan shift in the board makeup, she was dismissed. Sarah Michels / Carolina Public Press
Bell wasn’t so lucky on the funding front.
Attempts to meet with Senate budget chairs before the chamber’s proposal came out this session never came to fruition, despite more than a month of attempted scheduling, according to email correspondence between the board and legislators requested by CPP.
Throughout her time at the agency, lawmakers didn’t increase state election funding and federal funding through the Help America Vote Act decreased significantly, Bell said in an interview with CPP. So, she learned to do more with less.
As someone with decades of experience in elections — Bell served as a regional field specialist in Western North Carolina, Transylvania County’s election director and worked for an election administration software company before becoming state director — she said it was frustrating when her case for additional election funding wasn’t always heard.
“It’s my understanding that there’s been some changes in what’s being proposed for elections in the last two weeks since I’ve been gone that seemed very favorable to the agency — a lot of funding that we’ve been asking for,” she said.
Hayes’ other plans
While the budget isn’t finalized, Hayes is optimistic it will include funding to modernize the State’s Election Information Management System (SEIMS), which serves as a one-stop shop for everything from managing ballot styles to processing early voting.
In 2023, the state appropriated $5.6 million toward the project, but the elections board needs an additional $3.89 million to finish the job, according to agency budget requests obtained by CPP in a public records request.
Current software is outdated and will soon be unable to undergo updates or adequately fight cybersecurity concerns, according to one State Board budget request form.
North Carolina’s campaign finance software, developed in 1998, is in a similarly bad state. According to budget request documents, it’s reaching the end of life; the software increasingly doesn’t “talk” to more technologically advanced systems, requiring time-sucking manual work, riskier data-sharing over email and a lot of IT maintenance as a result.
For example, in the third quarter of 2024, employees spent 370 hours manually importing data files and scanning manually filed campaign finance reports. A modernized system would save the agency 2,220 working hours in an election year, according to the budget request.
Hayes thinks that modernizing SEIMS, and eventually, finding a new system altogether, will help election directors meet new ballot counting deadlines set by SB382.
The law requires county boards to count absentee and provisional ballots much faster than before — by the Friday after Election Day.
Election directors have raised the alarm about this mandate. While some smaller counties may be able to do the job, larger county directors have said they’re not sure it’s possible considering the size of their staffs and the volume of work to be done after an election.
Hayes is also calling on the legislature to amend SB382 to potentially allow elections workers to start counting absentee and provisional ballots earlier, before Election Day.
“Rather than extending it on the back end so that we have these counts that continue for what seems like an eternity, maybe we count more on the front end on a rolling basis,” he said.
Finally, Hayes wants a redo on signature verification. While 2023’s Senate Bill 747 spurred a pilot program to test out the security measure, the procurement process did not go as planned, according to a report.
A mindset shift
Since Bell took the executive director job in 2019, she’s developed Teflon skin. Every time someone made a jab at her for acting in a partisan or biased way, she thought back to the individual interactions with voters that remind her of the difference her work made in North Carolinians’ lives.
For Hayes, he says it’s simple — follow the black-and-white text of the law.
“We know what it says, and I intend to follow it,” he said. “I think where the board lost confidence is when they went astray from that.”
Hayes cited a settlement over absentee ballot acceptance in 2020 and decisions over which political parties qualified for the ballot as decisions seen as partisan.
But Bell’s compass was the voters, not any party, she said. She’s proud of her extensive work — she was told she accepted more hand sanitizer than Texas or California — in 2020 to ensure that voting sites didn’t contribute to the spread of COVID-19.
And she’s glad that her team was able to open early voting sites on time after Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina, and give people the opportunity to retain some normalcy in the midst of tragedy.
Bell doesn’t think the criticism of her is fair. However, she is concerned about elected officials sowing distrust in elections without understanding the full picture.
“For all the attacks, I could lay my head down on my pillows at night,” she said. “I know in my heart of hearts that every day I woke up with one charge: make sure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This article presents a largely factual and detailed account of the recent changes and challenges within North Carolina’s State Board of Elections, focusing on the newly appointed executive director Sam Hayes, who is closely tied to Republican legislative initiatives. The language is generally neutral but does highlight Hayes’ Republican affiliations and legislative work in a matter-of-fact way, while also giving space to the outgoing director Karen Brinson Bell’s more critical perspective. The piece reflects an understanding of the political context but refrains from overt editorializing, leaning slightly toward the center-right given its emphasis on Republican-led reforms and legalistic framing of election administration.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Brett Rowland | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-06-04 11:23:00
Senator Lindsey Graham defended President Trump’s tariff policies as crucial for strengthening U.S. manufacturing and national security, particularly praising tariffs on foreign autos benefiting South Carolina. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick highlighted over $100 billion in investments from German carmakers. However, some senators, like Jeanne Shaheen, criticized tariffs for increasing costs and causing supply chain delays, especially for defense-related steel procurement. Shaheen urged better planning as tariffs stretched lead times from 20 weeks to over two years, impacting national security. Legal challenges question the president’s tariff authority under IEEPA. Trump’s tariffs aim to restore U.S. jobs but face criticism for raising consumer prices.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., defended President Donald Trump’s trade policies Wednesday as legal challenges continue over the president’s use of tariffs.
Graham spoke during a Senate subcommittee meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Even so, it was clear that his colleagues, even members of the GOP, weren’t all on the same page about tariffs. Several senators talked about how tariffs hurt businesses in their communities or how much their states export overseas.
“These tariffs have a purpose: To make us safer and stronger,” Graham said. “We’ve been talking about China, we’ve been talking about getting ripped off. I want to thank you and President Trump for doing something about it.”
Graham said Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign automobiles and auto parts is helping his state, South Carolina. The senator said that leaders of major car companies in Germany came to the U.S. to meet with Trump to talk about making more cars in America.
Lutnick said those car makers agreed to invest more than $100 billion in U.S. operations.
“The American dream is to own a German car,” Graham said with a laugh.
“As long as it made in South Carolina,” Lutnick responded.
Graham said Trump’s trade policies are working.
“What you’ve done is you’ve got people to come here and talk to us differently,” Graham said. “They’re talking about making the engine in South Carolina. They’re talking about making more content in South Carolina.”
He added: “So this is working folks.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told Lutnick she saw things differently. She talked about a New Hampshire-based company that makes ball bearings for the aerospace industry. She said the company, which does business with the U.S. Department of Defense, was concerned about steel tariffs, which were not only pushing up prices but also taking longer to obtain.
“Not only has their cost gone up, but the lead time to get the steel to make the bearings – they only have one domestic supplier … they said the lead time has gone from 20 weeks to two and a half years because of the tariffs,” she said. “I think this creates a real challenge with respect to our national security.”
Shaheen asked if Trump and Lutnick had considered the national security supply chain before implementing tariffs. She also said the Pentagon seemed unaware of Trump’s tariff policies’ impact on the defense industry.
Lutnick said the Pentagon was consulted before the higher steel and aluminum tariffs were announced last week. Those 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum went into effect on Wednesday.
Lutnick said the issue was related to cost of the products and not access to it. When Shaheen said it was indeed an access issue, Lutnick pushed back.
“That would be illogical,” he said.
Shaheen wasn’t having it: “Their lead time has gone from 20 weeks to two and half years. At that rate, it’s hard for me to understand how we can continue to support our defense industry when we don’t have the ability to get the supply chain that they need to operate.”
Lutnick said it would be impossible to fight a war without the ability to make steel and aluminum domestically.
“That is what the president is doing. He’s trying to make sure that we make sufficient steel and aluminum to protect our defense industry,” he said.
Shaheen said she didn’t agree with the way the tariffs were being handled, especially if re-shoring industry jobs will take years.
“Because we’re not going to have the steel that we need immediately to provide the supplies we need immediately,” she said.
Shaheen said better planning was needed before tariffs were put in place.
On April 2, dubbed “Liberation Day” by the president, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on scores of other nations, but suspended those higher rates for 90 days while his trade team went to work. Since then, Trump’s team has announced a limited trade deal with the United Kingdom and a tariff truce with China while talks continue.
Those “Liberation Day” tariffs face legal challenges from states and small businesses. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled last week that Congress did not give the president tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The court gave Trump 10 days to unwind all the tariffs he issued under IEEPA. The administration appealed that decision and asked for an emergency stay. The appeals court granted that request, putting the Court of International Trade ruling on hold while the appeal continues.
In his second term, Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his foreign and domestic policy efforts. He has repeatedly announced tariffs, only to suspend them days or sometimes hours later. It started in February when Trump threatened to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trump later reversed course after reaching limited deals with those neighboring countries.
The most significant switch was on his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, when he announced higher reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations. Seven days later, he suspended those higher rates for 90 days to give his trade team more time to make deals. After a weekend of talks in Geneva, he also backed off 145% tariffs on China. So far, Trump has kept a 30% tariff on imports from China and a 10% baseline tariff for all imports.
Economists, businesses and some publicly traded companies have warned that tariffs could raise prices on a wide range of consumer products.
Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families, and pay down the national debt.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods paid by the person or company that imports the goods. The importer can absorb the cost of the tariffs or try to pass the cost on to consumers through higher prices.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This article presents a generally factual report on the debate surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, highlighting perspectives from both Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. The coverage provides detailed quotes from Graham defending the tariffs as beneficial to U.S. manufacturing and national security, while Shaheen expresses concerns about negative impacts on businesses and supply chains. The framing slightly leans toward a pro-tariff viewpoint by emphasizing Graham’s positive framing and administration responses, but it also fairly includes critical viewpoints and legal challenges. Overall, it reports ideological positions without overt editorializing, with a modest tilt toward Center-Right due to the sympathetic treatment of GOP policy defenders and emphasis on protectionist rationale.
