Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Two months after the first floor of their home beside Mountain Island Lake was filled with 4 feet of floodwaters, Robert and Linda Brown’s floor is still covered with a layer of mud, half an inch thick and cemented in place. The Browns have lived in their modest riverside home since […]
Mebane Rash/Education NC On Nov. 19, 2024, in a statement posted on Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, 76, to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education in his administration. His statement says she is a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights.” It says she will “fight tirelessly” to expand school choice. It says her […]
Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News Whooping cough cases in North Carolina have risen sharply in 2024. There have been close to 600 reported cases — 6.4 times more than last year at this time. Nationally, cases are 4.8 times higher, federal data shows. The highly contagious respiratory illness tends to rise and fall in cycles as […]
Lora Lavigne/WRAL News The City of Raleigh is moving forward with the Western Corridor of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. The Western corridor is approximately 12 miles. It is proposed to operate in both dedicated transit lanes and mixed traffic between the GoRaleigh station in downtown Raleigh and downtown Cary. The transportation department is […]
Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio The car line at Sherwood Githens Middle School wrapped out to the street on Monday morning. At 8 a.m., the school doors opened and for the next half hour, students streamed out of cars. Millicent Rogers, chair of Durham Public Schools’ board of education, was one of the many parents dropping off […]
Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The New Hanover County Commissioners had the swearing-in of its new members Monday, while also recognizing the work of an exiting member who has served for 16 years. Jonthan Barfield Jr. — a commissioner since 2008 who lost his re-bid this year’s election — received an appreciation of honor for his […]
Carolina Journal The North Carolina Court of Appeals has rejected a lawsuit alleging that Pinehurst officials broke the state’s open-meetings law in 2021 by conducting business via email. Major state media outlets had filed paperwork earlier this year supporting plaintiffs in the case. Former Pinehurst Village Council member Kevin Drum and his group NC Citizens […]
Gilat Melamed/CBS 17 News The City of Raleigh has new leadership. Mayor Janet Cowell was sworn-in Monday evening alongside the City Council. The new mayor’s top two priorities have been major focal points in the city in recent years: housing and public safety. Cowell said she’s already had conversations with Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson. […]
Joseph Williams/The (Whiteville) News Reporter Whiteville City Council rejected a request Tuesday night that would have expanded where stores can operate in town, citing concerns about retail businesses opening next to residential properties. Despite voting down the measure, council expressed interest in permitting more properties for retail use on a case-by-case basis. The requested change […]
Senate leader Phil Berger says he’d been “unaware” of the defacto open-admissions practices at East Carolina and several UNC System universities, but he’s not seeing a need for legislative intervention. “We’ve charged the Board of Governors and the individual campuses with certain responsibilities,” the Rockingham County Republican said on Monday. “I think if there are concerns […]
A bit of good news for Duke Energy Progress customers: Duke is cutting their residential rates in North Carolina by 4.5% this week via its annual adjustment for power-plant fuel costs. The typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month will see an overall decrease of $7.34. That average customer will be charged $154.63 versus […]
Monday saw the state Senate return to Raleigh for a veto override and some unexpected constitutional-amendment business. The chamber’s override vote on Senate Bill 382 went as expected, a 30-19 split along partisan lines that left the fate of the omnibus measure in the hands of the House. It will take it up next week. […]
Monday also yielded a shakeup among Senate Democrats, with Wake County Sen. Sydney Batch getting elected by her caucus as minority leader for the 2025-26 sessions of the General Assembly. She replaces Sen. Dan Blue, a 75-year-old party stalwart who’d held the post for a decade and before that also served as speaker of the […]
Will Doran/WRAL News (Editor’s note: Griffin is challenging 60k ballots statewide, not just in Wake County.) The Wake County Board of Elections is meeting Monday to consider claims that it improperly counted some ballots in this year’s elections. The claims were made by Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for a seat on the North Carolina […]
Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog Mission Health has permanently closed Asheville Specialty Hospital, the only long-term acute care hospital in western North Carolina, less than two months after suspending its services following Tropical Storm Helene. “We have made the difficult decision to not reopen Asheville Specialty Hospital, a small, long-term acute care facility located inside the […]
