Month: October 2024

7. Pender, Onslow towns seek moratorium on shellfish leases

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Topsail Island towns and their counties have joined forces in asking state legislators for a moratorium on shellfish leases in their waterways. The Pender County Board of Commissioners last week adopted a resolution calling for the state to pump the brakes on issuing new shellfish lease permits, particularly water column leases, […]

Written by on October 21, 2024

8. VP presidential nominee JD Vance slams federal Helene response at Wilmington rally

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily One of the focus points of vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s Wilmington rally Wednesday evening was Helene recovery response. Meanwhile, former officials seeking to influence a second Trump administration want to eliminate the National Weather Service and FEMA disaster grants. Vance, currently a Republican senator from Ohio, held a rally at […]

Written by on October 21, 2024

9. Liquid gold: Waynesville water becomes hot commodity in Asheville

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer As the dire lack of water in Asheville dragged on, convoys of tanker trucks have been tapping Waynesville’s pristine and plentiful water supply. “Within two to three days after the flood, we started getting inquiries,” said Waynesville Public Services Director Jeff Stines. “There are numerous tankers from different companies coming in […]

Written by on October 21, 2024

10. CRC continues quest to reinstate Jockey’s Ridge protections

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice As the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) seeks to again reinstate Area of Environmental Concern (AEC) protections for Jockey’s Ridge State Park that the state’s Rules Review Commission (RRC) removed in October of last year, the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management (DCM) held a public hearing at Jockeys Ridge […]

Written by on October 21, 2024

1. ‘Off the charts’: How Trump tariffs would shock U.S., world economies

Jeff Stein and David J. Lynch/The Washington Post Former president Donald Trump is campaigning on the most significant increase in tariffs in close to a century, preparing an attack on the international trade order that would probably raise prices, hurt the stock market and spark economic feuds with much of the world. Trump’s trade plans, […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

2. Privately-run toll lanes for I-77 South advance in key vote

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio A regional transportation planning organization Wednesday voted to advance a plan for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to partner with a private company to build express toll lanes on Interstate 77 in south Charlotte. Under the proposal, a private company would build the toll lanes, which are expected to cost $3.7 […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

3. A contest is on for the best ideas to fix I-40

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer All options are on the table for the monumental task of fixing collapsed portions of Interstate 40 along a four-mile stretch through the Pigeon River Gorge. The N.C. Department of Transportation will use a novel approach to expedite the job and attract the best and brightest civil engineering minds. Design firms […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

4. Water back to majority of Asheville customers, but higher elevations still waiting

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog About 75 to 80 percent of Asheville’s water customers again have city water, albeit a non-potable variety that has sedimentation in it. At the Wednesday morning daily Helene briefing, Asheville Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler gave that estimate on restoration to the system’s 63,000 customers, with the caveat that pockets of customers […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

6. DEQ establishes interim groundwater limits to guide clean-up for 8 PFAS compounds

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily The Department of Environmental Quality enacted temporary rules to guide the remediation of PFAS groundwater contamination for eight substances this week. The Department of Environmental Quality implemented Interim Maximum Allowable Concentrations Tuesday after receiving a public request from a Greensboro firefighter in July. At least a hundred North Carolina residents sent […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

7. Commissioner Wortman accuses Laura Blackwell Lindsey of undermining school system, county

Christopher Miller/The Independent Tribune In an explosive moment during Monday’s Cabarrus County Board of Education meeting, a county commissioner called out a school board member for not being forthright with the public. Commissioner Kenny Wortman singled out Laura Blackwell Lindsey, who is running for a seat on the county commission, for impropriety related to the […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

8. Voters in western North Carolina will go to the polls amidst recovery from Helene

Rusty Jacobs/WUNC Radio On Thursday, Sept. 26, John Noce was in Graham County, just above Cherokee, on the southwestern tip of North Carolina, the part that pokes into Tennessee. Noce had been helping the county’s small local elections office prepare for the start of in-person, early voting, which was just a couple of weeks away. […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

9. City mulls future of century-old Durham Athletic Park

Zachery Eanes/Axios Raleigh For nearly 100 years, the Durham Athletic Park, the well-known setting of the movie “Bull Durham,” has been a dominant fixture in downtown Durham. It was for years home of the Durham Bulls and N.C. Central’s baseball team. But with the Bulls no longer using the stadium and N.C. Central’s team discontinued […]

Written by on October 18, 2024

N.C. unemployment benefits expanded

Gov. Roy Cooper has signed an executive order expanding the state’s weekly unemployment benefit by $250, to a maximum of $600 a week. Cooper said the move is a response to Hurricane Helene and the concerns he’s heard about job losses due to temporary storm-related business closures in Western North Carolina. The increase applies across […]

Written by on October 17, 2024