Federal jurors convicted a Chapel Hill couple in a sweeping union corruption case after prosecutors said union dues were used to bankroll no-show jobs, luxury travel and expensive meals instead of serving workers.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Newton Jones, 72, former president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, and his wife, Kateryna Jones, 33, were convicted June 5 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. William Creeden, the union’s former secretary-treasurer, was convicted of racketeering, while former vice president Lawrence McManamon was convicted of embezzlement.

Prosecutors said the scheme involved theft of members’ dues through elaborate foreign trips, personal shopping and dinners, unearned vacation payouts, health care fraud and an unauthorized $7 million loan to a union-related bank. Trial evidence showed the union spent more than $5 million on unnecessary luxury international travel and paid nearly $1.8 million to Kateryna Jones for a job in which she performed little to no work, DOJ said.

The case has a direct North Carolina tie. The News & Observer reported the Chapel Hill couple charged more than $160,000 in date-night meals to the union. The outlet reported a federal judge is scheduled to sentence the defendants Sept. 1.

The convictions followed a 2024 indictment accusing seven defendants, including current and former union officials, of participating in what prosecutors described as a 15-year, $20 million embezzlement scheme.

The Boilermakers Union said it supports the verdict and cooperated with the government. The union said its Executive Council has made structural and governance changes to prevent similar misconduct.

Newton Jones, Kateryna Jones and Creeden each face up to 20 years in prison, while McManamon faces up to five years on each count. A federal judge will determine sentences under federal guidelines.

North Carolina Republicans have one of the clearest paths to a Senate pickup in the entire country heading into 2026, but a new poll suggests they may be walking away from it if Senate Republicans don’t deliver on the SAVE America Act.

A McLaughlin & Associates survey of 333 likely North Carolina general election voters conducted April 6-9 paints a sobering picture: the Republican base in North Carolina is motivated, engaged, and fully prepared to stay home if the Senate fails to act on election integrity legislation that has already passed the House.

Among North Carolina Republican voters, 12.1% said they would be less likely to vote if Senate Republicans fail to pass the Save America Act. Another 12.3% said they weren’t sure whether they’d show up. North Carolina showed the highest “less likely to vote” response among general election voters of any state surveyed at 8.6% — a signal that even beyond the Republican base, the state’s electorate takes Senate inaction seriously.

Perhaps most damaging for Republican candidates: 47.6% of all North Carolina voters said they would be less likely to support a senator who voted against the SAVE America Act. That is the highest anti-opposition number of any state in the poll — and it means that in North Carolina, voting against this bill doesn’t just depress your base. It actively costs you votes across the broader electorate.

Making matters worse for North Carolina Republicans, their own senior senator is part of the problem. Sen. Thom Tillis has emerged as one of the most vocal Republican opponents of the SAVE America Act in the Senate; a position that puts him directly at odds with the 92.8% of North Carolina voters who believe only U.S. citizens should vote in federal elections and the 54.7% who want the Senate to pass the bill outright.

North Carolina is one of the most politically competitive states in the country, having voted for Donald Trump by 3.3 points in 2024 while simultaneously electing Democratic Governor Josh Stein.

The poll confirms that. 92.8% of North Carolina respondents agreed that only U.S. citizens should vote in federal elections. 71.6% said proof of citizenship should be required to register to vote. And 60% called photo ID a reasonable requirement, with only 35.2% calling it an unfair barrier.

North Carolina Republican voters are not interested in political theater. When asked whether they preferred a symbolic vote or a genuine Senate floor fight, 87.4% of Republican voters chose the real fight, including doing away with the filibuster, which democrats expressed they are likely to do the next time they are in power. Only seven percent accepted symbolic action.

North Carolina’s Republican base voted in massive numbers in 2024, helping deliver the state for Trump and electing Jeff Jackson as Attorney General by the narrowest of margins — a reminder of just how close these races run. Depressing that same base by 12% through Senate inaction on the SAVE America Act hurts Republican candidates down ballot.

(RELATED: Gov. Stein Demands Pay Raises While Doing Nothing To Break The Two-Year Legislative Stalemate He Helped Create)

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North Carolina Governor Josh Stein doesn’t have the votes to pass a budget. He has no concrete plan to break a two-year stalemate that has left teachers without raises and Medicaid on the brink.

Stein appeared Monday at the North Carolina Education Innovation Lab’s annual meeting in Cary, delivering a polished speech about teacher pay and education funding while offering nothing new in the way of actually moving a budget through the Republican-controlled legislature that has the sole authority to pass one.

“Public education is not a Democratic policy,” Stein told the crowd. “Public education is not a Republican policy. It is a North Carolina policy.”

It’s a fine line — but lines don’t pay teachers. Budgets do. And North Carolina hasn’t had one in over two years.

Stein’s proposed spending plan calls for nearly a 6% average raise for teachers, restoration of master’s degree pay supplements, increased compensation for experienced educators, raises for state employees, and a major infusion of cash into Medicaid — which covers roughly one-third of North Carolinians and is rapidly approaching a funding cliff.

The total price tag: $1.4 billion.

What Stein hasn’t explained is how he plans to get any of it passed. The North Carolina Senate holds a Republican supermajority. The House is Republican-controlled. Neither chamber has shown any interest in rubber-stamping a Democratic governor’s spending blueprint — and Stein has offered no serious public strategy for bridging the gap between his wish list and legislative reality.

North Carolina ranks 43rd in the country in teacher pay, with an average salary of $58,292 — nearly $14,000 below the national average of $72,030 and behind every neighboring state including South Carolina (36th) and Tennessee (38th). Teachers deserve better. That much is indisputable.

But Stein’s repeated public appearances lamenting teacher pay while failing to demonstrate any meaningful progress toward an actual budget deal raises a legitimate question: is this governance, or is it campaigning?

A governor who genuinely prioritized teacher raises would be spending less time at annual meetings and more time in closed-door negotiations with Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall — the two men who actually control the outcome. There is no public evidence that those conversations are happening with any urgency.

The legislature’s two-year deadlock centers on a dispute over scheduled income tax cuts — a policy disagreement between Republican chambers that Stein has little direct power to resolve. But rather than using his platform to push both sides toward compromise, Stein has largely used it to propose more spending, which does nothing to address the core impasse and may actually harden Republican resistance.

Meanwhile, Medicaid funding is running out. Teachers are leaving for better-paying jobs across state lines. Rural districts are making cuts. And the governor is at a conference in Cary talking about cell phone bans.

(RELATED: System Failing Iryna Zarutska: Charlotte Light Rail Murder Suspect Dodges Trial On Mental Health Grounds As Family Waits For Justice)

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