Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio When Helene first hit, Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) President Vic Isley announced a “Love Asheville From Afar” campaign to encourage tourists to donate to various Asheville relief campaigns and shop online from local businesses as the region got back on its feet. A month after Helene devastated popular […]
Rusty Jacobs/WUNC Radio Political polls, including the latest from Elon University, show this year’s presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is in a dead heat in North Carolina. Voters are split on issues like the economy, abortion access, immigration, and threats to democracy. You see those same fault lines when talking to early […]
Ayanna Alexander/The Associated Press Strewn across the coastal plains and backroads of North Carolina lie institutions that could be pivotal in the battleground state in Tuesday’s elections — 10 historically Black colleges and universities steeped in a history of activism. Now, local student government associations and other organizations at these schools have mobilized in a […]
WFAE Radio On a late October evening in North Carolina’s capital city, a massive stage in a dark auditorium is backlit by tall screens, and bass-thumping music and vocals are filling the space. There’s a table of judges in front of the stage. Think American Idol but with a clearly religious focus. It’s worship team […]
Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily Recent emails indicate city staff are putting a plan in place should the City of Wilmington become the last North Carolina municipality to relinquish the use of red-light cameras. The city has 13 cameras installed across Wilmington as part of its four-year, seven-month agreement with American Traffic Solutions (now Verra Mobility) […]
Vicki Hyatt/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Canton officials have approved $1 million in budget modifications to cover flood cleanup costs, with some shifts coming even before the storm hit. Half the funds came from the N.C. General Assembly grant to offset mill closure impacts, while the rest were internal budget shifts from fund balance. Most of the […]
Paul Garber/WFDD Radio The High Point Furniture Market is winding down the second of its biannual events this week, and it comes with the return of a major brand founded in North Carolina. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams abruptly ended operations and shut down its factory in Taylorsville in August of 2023. Without warning, more […]
Shigeo Yamada, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, says the two nations’ relationship is stronger than ever. Yamada was a keynote speaker on Tuesday at the 46th Annual Southeast U.S./Japan Conference, which was held in Charlotte and attracted more than 500 people from seven Southern states and the Asian nation. North Carolina was among the […]
Legislators and UNC System officials are trying to help students of the system’s three western universities with their bills in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The second-round relief package included a $5.5 million allocation that will cover spring tuition (or its in-state equivalent) for all students at UNC Asheville, the institution hardest-hit by the storm. […]
North Carolina’s certificate of need law could be living on borrowed time, in the fervent hopes of some doctors and conservative groups, but for now it’s still in place and still something the healthcare sector has to reckon with. The state Department of Health and Human Services received 20 applications in October for certificates that […]
Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & Charlotte Ledger Five hospitals responsible for nearly all of North Carolina’s lawsuits filed against patients for medical debt have committed to erasing all of their existing judgments, The Charlotte Ledger/NC Health News has learned. Atrium Health, the state’s largest health care system, announced in September that it would clear old […]
Mary Helen Moore/The News & Observer Durham County Manager Kimberly Sowell has resigned after over six weeks of unexplained paid leave. County commissioners emerged from a closed session meeting around 9:15 p.m. Monday and voted unanimously to accept her resignation, effective immediately. Chair Nida Allam and County Attorney Larissa Williamson refused to answer any questions […]
Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The washed out road and bridge leading to Kit Gruelle’s house was in such bad shape, she and her Upper Crabtree neighbors feared they might be stranded for days if not weeks. “It was scary because what if someone had a medical emergency, we were trapped,” Gruelle said. But when white […]
John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog Asheville Water Resources faces “a really big week” in its effort to reduce the murkiness in its North Fork Reservoir, department spokesperson Clay Chandler said Monday. Chandler said at the daily Buncombe County Helene briefing that a type of in-lake filtration system — three layers of suspended curtains in the reservoir — […]
Liz Bell & Katie Dukes/Education NC Unlike North Carolina’s K-12 schools or community colleges, child care programs aren’t consolidated under a public system. That makes it harder for early childhood programs to acquire funding and coordinate recovery from disasters such as Hurricane Helene, creating short- and long-term effects on children, families, and communities. The longer […]
