Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro Two additions to the UNC campus, a cutting-edge health research building and a chilled water plant, earned design approval by the Board of Trustees on Thursday. Meanwhile, two other major projects saw spending approved to advance their planning efforts: a new residence hall and an expansion of the student recreation center at […]
Iris Seaton/Asheville Citizen Times The Centers for Disease Control announced the first human death from H5N1 avian flu or “bird flu” in the United States on Jan. 6 — and the illness continues to spread. In a Jan. 6 news release, the CDC said there have been 66 confirmed cases of bird flu in the […]
Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times On Tuesday, Jan. 14, at a Summerfield Town Council meeting, former NC Auditor Beth Wood – who had been hired by the town – gave her preliminary findings regarding a large number of allegations of financial wrongdoing by former town staff. Claims to be investigated included that some former town employees […]
UNC Chapel Hill trustees have given Chancellor Lee Roberts and his aides permission to spend up to $8 million to begin planning a new, 600-bed dormitory for a site somewhere on campus. Approved Thursday, the move is the first step in a broader initiative that could see the institution add about 3,000 new beds, on […]
Reader Travis Fain, late of WRAL, questioned Thursday’s Trib item on enrollment expansion at UNC Chapel Hill that reported that only 45.4% of recent high school grads enrolled there after receiving an admissions offer. That “seems low for a flagship,” he said. Actually, it’s pretty decent for public-system flagships. In admissions office, this particular statistic […]
Legislators plan to launch the 2025 long session this week with a pair of committee hearings on hurricane recovery. On the docket is a Wednesday afternoon meeting of the House Select Committee on Helene Recovery, and a Thursday morning meeting of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations’ newly expanded hurricane-response subcommittee. The House committee […]
Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio The Beaufort County town of Aurora, population 450, is one of a number of rural communities staking their economic futures on industrial park developments designed to attract employers. Longtime Mayor Clif Williams has been working for years on a 25-acre industrial park that will bring more jobs and a community college campus […]
Tom Fiedler/Asheville Watchdog Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump returned to storm-battered Asheville and Swannanoa on Friday and outlined a vague plan to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency and shift disaster-recovery responsibilities to state governments. Trump said he will issue an executive order “to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe […]
Eric Miller/WRAL News RDU has plans to develop one of Wake County’s most popular parks – and says the federal government is making them do it. The plans would affect 136 acres of Lake Crabtree County Park, including nearly all of the 9.4 miles of bike trails, and a small sliver of lakefront. According to […]
Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online For the first time in more than 10 years, North Carolina land donors may be eligible to receive a tax credit for gifting property to conservation. But there’s a catch. A few, actually. The law that went into effect Jan. 1 includes caveats that were not in the original one that […]
Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline The Republican-led group RightCount Action is running an ad in major television markets opposing GOP Judge Jefferson Griffin’s attempts to discard votes in his race. The ad features Moore County voter James Danz, a registered Republican who says that he voted for President Donald Trump and Griffin. “I voted Republican my whole […]
Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board members and district leaders met with local legislators this week. But while education officials pitched the need for statewide systemic change, representatives said they were there to talk money — not philosophy. School district representatives arranged the meeting on Wednesday in part to highlight the challenges of running […]
Felicia Sonmez/Blue Ridge Public Radio Inside the former United Methodist Church in downtown Swannanoa, local business owners from across Western North Carolina shared their at-times tearful stories of loss, resilience and determination as a crowd including many prominent elected officials looked on. The event, hosted last week by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, took […]
Tomas Murawski/The Alamance News Tuesday night’s snowstorm put the kibosh on what was supposed to have been the first regularly-scheduled meeting of Alamance County’s commissioners since before Christmas. But aside from its import to the commissioners, this gathering had also been something like the equivalent of D-Day for a number of local firearms aficionados. Among […]
Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald Sanford has had an “unprecedented increase in rezoning approvals” over the past five years, but the number of homes has not increased proportionately. That’s the word from Marshall Downey, the city’s planning director. He addressed the city council about the issue during a work session on Jan. 14. Downey said […]
