Michael Tomsic

South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott will become the first ever African-American senator from the state. Governor Nikki Haley appointed him Monday to replace Senator Jim DeMint, who is resigning to run a conservative think tank.

The South Carolina State House was packed with reporters and visitors waiting to watch history.

"It is with great pleasure that I am appointing our next U.S. senator to be Congressman Tim Scott," Governor Nikki Haley said as the crowd applauded and a few even yelled.

South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott will become the first African-American senator from the state. Governor Nikki Haley chose him Monday to replace Senator Jim DeMint, who is resigning to run a conservative think tank. WFAE’s Michael Tomsic was at the announcement in Columbia. Here’s a transcript of his segment with WFAE’s Mark Rumsey:

North Carolina is bringing in a lot more income tax revenue, the state's Medicaid costs are growing significantly, and its unemployment rate will likely hang around 9 percent for the next two years. Those are just a few findings from the state's annual financial report released Tuesday.

North Carolina’s bottom line is looking pretty good.

The report from the Office of the State Controller covers the fiscal year that ended in June. Clayton Murphy works in the statewide accounting division.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an investment banker at Wells Fargo with leading an $11 million insider trading ring while he worked in Charlotte.

John Femenia had access to a lot of confidential information through his job at Wells Fargo. He’s an investment banker (or at least was), and he got the scoop on several mergers because his bank helped with the financing.

That information is as good as money. Mergers often drive a company’s stock price up, so if you buy it before that happens – you're setting up for a nice profit.

Republican state legislators unveiled a plan Wednesday to reduce unemployment benefits and raise taxes on some businesses. They say those are necessary steps to pay back the nearly $2.5 billion the state owes the federal government for help paying unemployment insurance.

North Carolina legislative leaders will unveil a plan Wednesday to pay back a massive debt to the federal government. The state owes nearly $2.5 billion for money it borrowed during the recession to pay for unemployment insurance.

Legislators in charge of the plan to pay that back say the solution will likely include fewer benefits for the unemployed and higher taxes for some businesses.

North Carolina's unemployment insurance is fully funded by businesses. Most of them pay a tax on every employee they have, and that money goes into a giant trust fund.

The Carolina Panthers lost to the Chiefs Sunday in what was an emotional scene in Kansas City. The game was played a day after one of the Chiefs' starting linebackers killed his girlfriend and then himself.

Chiefs' linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend early Saturday morning, and then drove to the team's practice facility and killed himself in front of his coach Romeo Crennel and general manager.

North Carolina leaders are still deciding whether they'll expand Medicaid to cover almost 680,000 more uninsured adults. The expansion became an optional part of President Obama's health care law because of a Supreme Court ruling.

A major goal of the Affordable Care Act is to give every American access to health insurance. For low-income people, the Medicaid expansion is a huge part of that.