Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Apocalyptic. That’s how Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers described the flooding unleashed by the Pigeon River on Friday. Indeed, even for this battle-hardened town that’s been through it before — once in 2004 and once in 2021 — the utter destruction was the worst yet. The river crested higher, and thus the […]
Jalyn Baldwin/Port City Daily Community outcry and the effects of last week’s unnamed storm led one commissioner to propose a halt to all residential development in the county. During Monday’s commissioner meeting in Brunswick County, Chair Randy Thompson introduced a non-agenda item: a motion directing staff to conduct an updated flood study, evaluate the current […]
Cristin Severance/WRAL News With a rise of teens vaping in the state, advocates have called on lawmakers to address what they call a “loophole” in state law that is allowing young people to get easier access to tobacco products. Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill into law in July that allows the state to create […]
Tyler Davis/The (Henderson) Daily Digest The muckraking has begun. Well, the NC House District 32 race has been a little heated for some time now. Democratic candidate Bryan Cohn took a pot shot against incumbent Rep. Frank Sossamon on social media — one post compared the representative to the character Baby Billy Freeman from “The […]
Tom Joyce/Mount Airy News The Renfro company based in Mount Airy long has been known as a producer and marketer of socks and legwear products, but is expanding into the athletic and lifestyle apparel segment. This is occurring through Renfro Brands’ acquisition of MJ Soffe, a strategic diversification move that was announced Thursday. MJ Soffe, […]
Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson went to the hospital Friday evening after being burnt during a campaign event. Matt Hurley, a political consultant recently hired onto Robinson’s campaign, wrote on social media that the Republican gubernatorial candidate was “currently being treated for burns following an incident at a campaign event in Mt. Airy.” […]
Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio Wake Forest University announced Thursday that it would be canceling a campus lecture led by a Palestinian scholar and activist. Rabab Abdulhadi is a professor and founding director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program at San Francisco State University. She was scheduled to speak at Wake Forest on […]
Mark Jurkowitz/Outer Banks Voice By a 6-1 tally at a special Sept. 26 meeting, the Dare County Board of Education approved a motion to ask the Dare County Commissioners to fund a “universal meals” program that would provide free meals to all students in the Dare County Schools. That presentation and request will be made […]
The N.C. Chamber on Thursday released its annual legislative scorecard, which rates General Assembly members on their votes in support or opposition of bills the group deems important to North Carolina’s business community. It probably doesn’t come as news to anyone by now that this mostly rewards Republicans and penalizes Democrats. For example, Senate leader […]
Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Currituck, got an 88% score and the “jobs champion” label despite introducing two bills, House Bills 32 and 393, that the Chamber considers “anti-business.” HB 32 requires a business to credit customers if they don’t show up for scheduled service appointments, and HB 393 is an appliance lemon law. Neither moved, and the Chamber […]
The future of America’s car-dealer networks is a perennial question for North Carolina’s and every other legislature in the country, Congress included, so the National Automobile Dealers Association keeps the wheels of advocacy rolling. To underscore the continuing value of local-level dealerships, NADA asked the OliverWyman consultancy to have a look at how they stack […]
f you want to take the train, instead of dealing with all the hassles associated with air travel, it’s fairly easy to get to major cities like New York and Atlanta from North Carolina. But if your destination is Chicago, it’s been good luck. Up to now. Currently, your only option to get there from […]
A bit of sad news from NPR, WUNC and Scotland: A Charlotte-original institution, The Thistle & Shamrock, is airing for the last time this weekend. The creator and host of the Celtic-music showcase, Fiona Ritchie, announced back in June that she was stopping production as of this fall. Assembling a weekly syndicated radio show is […]
Kevin Hardy & Casey Quinlan/NC Newsline The signs on the empty historic buildings envision an urban utopia of sorts, complete with street cafes, bustling bike lanes and a grocery co-op. “IMAGINE What Could Be Here,” gushes one sign outside the empty, Neoclassical post office. “IMAGINE! A Vibrant Downtown,” reads another mounted on the glass front […]
Emma Dill/WilmingtonBiz The Port of Wilmington has released a contingency plan ahead of a possible strike. Contract negotiations are ongoing between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance Ltd., an entity representing the management of ports, terminals and shipping lines. The current contract is set to expire at midnight on Sept. 30 […]
