Thursday Wrap: Fish tale

The long-running battle between commercial and recreational fishermen spawned yet another legislative debate this week.

A proposal to mandate minimum sizes for catches of six species of fish caught off the coast narrowly passed the House amid a back and forth about science and whether declining harvests in recent years are truly a product of overfishing.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved legislation allowing terminally or chronically ill people to experiment with adult stem cell treatments.

Legislative action was carried on amid budget negotiations between Republican leaders in the General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's administration. Cooper is so adamant that Medicaid expansion be part of the budget that he split the negotiations into two tracks – health care-related and everything else.

But House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday that lawmakers have no plans to expand Medicaid, which could lead to a protracted standoff unless Republicans can entice enough Democrats to join them in overriding an expected budget veto.