Each week, staff at Carolina Journal looks back at the week in N.C. politics and chooses several interesting, relevant stories you may have missed.
Biden appointee: The Biden administration is tapping North Carolina’s top environmental official to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to multiple reports. Michael Regan, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, was nominated as the next EPA administrator, reported McClatchy and
The
New York Times. Regan created part of North Carolina’s Clean Energy Plan, which called for drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the private sector by 2030. The plan hoped to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Regan also won a legal settlement from Duke Energy, which agreed to excavate almost 80 million tons of coal ash.
Governor pardons five innocent prisoners including one who spent 44 years behind bars yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ronnie Long (left) walks out of prison in August 2020.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has granted a pardon to Ronnie Long, reaffirming Long s innocence and making him eligible for up to $750,000 in restitution for the decades he spent in prison for a rape he did not commit.
The pardon was issued Thursday in the first series of pardons to come from the governor s office since Cooper took office in 2017.
His wife recorded the moment Ronnie long found out he would be pardoned. @wcncpic.twitter.com/Dv2RULydLC MichelleBoudin (@MichelleBoudin) December 17, 2020 Today is a day for celebration. We re elated for Ronnie, said Long s attorney, Jamie Lau. When I broke the news to him that he was receiving a pardon today, he was elated and ran through the parking lot from the video that I received from his wife.
NC governor pardons 5, including man wrongly imprisoned for 44 years 790wpic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 790wpic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated December 17, 2020 7:04 p.m. EST
By Matthew Burns, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor, & Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter
Raleigh, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday issued pardons to five men who spent years in prison for crimes they didn t commit. We must continue to work to reform our justice system and acknowledge when people have been wrongly convicted, Cooper said in a statement. I have carefully reviewed the facts in each of these cases, and, while I cannot give these men back the time they served, I am granting them Pardons of Innocence in the hope that they might be better able to move forward in their lives.