Molly Wilhelm/Wilmington StarNews The North Carolina State Ports Authority has submitted an application for a rail line upgrade to improve storage and switching at the Port of Wilmington. Alongside two other ongoing projects, the expansion could help to alleviate traffic congestion on local roadways. The project proposes an upgrade to the existing rail line across […]
John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers: Question: The Asheville Regional Airport Authority has announced the destruction of several general aviation hangars on the south ramp to allegedly make room for commercial planes. No new hangars seem to be mentioned. Does good planning require building replacements before destroying […]
Legislators have to “tread very carefully” when it comes to regulating the uses of artificial intelligence, Senate leader Phil Berger says. Still, “I know that there are concerns out there,” many of them “legitimate concerns, about the impact of artificial intelligence on all manner of things,” Berger said. His comments reacted to a question about […]
A trio of Raleigh-based advocacy firms joined forces to launch a new partnership they say will move beyond “the antiquated model of lobbying.” Integrated Advocacy Partners is the fruit of a collaboration between Walk Up Advocacy, Capitol Resources of North Carolina, and Kohn Associates. Walk Up’s co-founders, Abby Hammond and Kim Crouch, are also the […]
New Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch has taken a page from Hall’s book by keeping some of predecessor Dan Blue’s aides, supplementing them with a few of her own hires. Batch’s chief of staff and general counsel, Lisa Stifler, was Sen. Blue’s deputy chief of staff and general counsel after joining his office in 2021. […]
In his opening comments to the House, Hall said one of his priorities as speaker is finding ways to stem the hollowing-out of rural North Carolina. “We’ve got to figure out ways to incentivize people like me from rural North Carolina who left to go get an education, incentivize them to go back to rural […]
The 2025 long session of the General Assembly is officially underway, following the swearing-in of House and Senate members on Wednesday and the approval of operational rules in both chambers. Senate leader Phil Berger said committee assignments in his chamber should be announced later this week. Over in the House, they’re due in the next […]
Chris Burritt/Business North Carolina Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer and employer of more than 10,000 in North Carolina, filed for an initial public offering in New York that will return the maker of Farmer John sausage and Gwaltney bacon to the U.S. stock market. The IPO comes 12 years after Hong Kong-based WH […]
Jimmy Potts/The Mountaineer A last-minute rush for small business owners to apply for low-interest loans as part of the hurricane relief effort became a more personal and intimate affair Monday after federal officials extended the deadline to Feb. 6 for businesses physically impacted by the floods. Instead of toiling through lines of small business owners […]
Luke DeCock/The (Raleigh) News & Observer In October 2022, preparing for the $300 million renovation of the Lenovo Center, the authority that oversees the arena heard elaborate presentations from three large consulting firms interested in serving as its representative during the construction process. In the end, the Centennial Authority hired CAA ICON, which had earlier […]
Emily Vespa/NC Health News & The Charlotte Ledger As North Carolina’s health care systems increasingly expand their use of artificial intelligence, state leaders say they want to pioneer policy to regulate the rapidly evolving technology. The efforts would be some of the first steps toward placing guardrails on AI in health care at the state […]
Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog A Mission Hospital pharmacy program that provides and tracks patients’ medications to ensure their safety has been plagued by nearly constant turnover for years, Asheville Watchdog has learned. Despite warnings from a supervisor about dangerous errors that could result from staff departures, hospital leadership did not take significant action to recruit […]
April Laissle/WFDD Radio Nearly two weeks after a cyber attack crippled much of Winston-Salem’s online infrastructure, city officials still don’t know when services will be restored. The December 26 incident shut down the online utility bill pay system and CityLink phone service. At a City Council meeting Monday, Winston-Salem City Manager Pat Pate said staff […]
Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News A man initially convicted in a Cherokee Tribal Court for playing a role in a debilitating December 2019 ransomware attack is suing the tribe. Cody Long, the tribe’s former lead systems administrator for its Office of Information and Technology, was held in jail for 454 days and was in solitary confinement […]
Shea Carver/Port City Daily An area of North Fourth Street in Wilmington could be welcoming patrons for the first time citywide to stroll through 10 blocks with open containers of alcohol as part of a new pilot program. Wilmington City Council signed off 4-2 (Kevin Spears and Salette Andrews dissenting) on Brooklyn Arts District becoming […]
