Judging from Tuesday morning, it’s easier to herd cats than to herd senators. Every biennium, legislative staff have to refresh the official portrait of each House and Senate member. This task is underway, and in key points throughout the capitol, there are posters urging the elected to cooperate by presenting themselves to have their pictures […]
I was hanging out for the GOP caucus photo because I wanted to talk to Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, who’s the lead sponsor of one of the first bills in the session that’s likely to gain traction. This would be Senate Bill 24, which would cap the number of health-benefit mandates embedded in state law […]
Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, reports that his county’s already hurricane-battered agriculture sector took another blow on Jan. 31 when Apple Wedge Packers & Cider burned down. Henderson County is the center of apple production in North Carolina, accounting for about 85% of the state’s crop, County Extension Director Terry Kelley said. Kelley says there are […]
House members are preparing what would become the fourth hurricane-relief bill legislators have considered since Hurricane Helene laid waste to western North Carolina last Sept. 27. House Bill 47 would move another $500 million into the state’s Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery Fund, the account legislators use to stockpile aid money before they appropriating it for […]
Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Amanda Watson was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks after having an emergency cesarean section to deliver her second son. Her test results showed she had one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, with a high recurrence rate and low survival rate. The following six months of chemotherapy treatments […]
Zachery Eanes/Axios Raleigh North Carolina has the third highest number of birds affected by avian influenza in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Why it matters: The number of reported avian flu outbreaks across the U.S. has increased significantly in recent weeks, with more egg-producing chickens being affected since the start of […]
Cory Turner/WUNC Radio The Trump administration is exploring dramatic cuts to programs and staff at the U.S. Department of Education, including executive action shuttering department programs that are not protected by law and calling on Congress to close the department entirely. The executive action could come as early as this week, according to multiple government […]
WRAL News Children, already traumatized by something in their home life, are spending years in North Carolina’s foster care system after intervention from their local Department of Social Services. Records show some of those children are even shuffled between nearly two dozen homes. Now a new federal lawsuit wants the courts to step in to […]
Vicki Hyatt/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer With President Trump’s promise to streamline government and curb spending, Haywood County’s Congressional House representative said key moves are already in the works, including streamlining the process for budget cutting and identifying allocations for the chopping block. Chuck Edwards, R-Hendersonville, is a member of the House Appropriations and Budget committees, putting […]
Frank Langfitt/WFAE Radio The Sunday after Donald Trump won a second term, Pastor Ben Boswell took to the pulpit at Myers Park Baptist, a liberal church in Charlotte, and delivered the sort of blunt, provocative sermon for which he is well known. Boswell likened the moment to what he called the “gathering dark of Hitler’s […]
Pat Kimbrough/The High Point Enterprise A standing-room-only crowd came to the City Council meeting Monday to weigh in on a request from High Point University to relocate a section of the city’s greenway around the campus. A total of 43 people spoke on a proposal by HPU that would close a 2,300-foot-long section of the […]
Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro The first of two new appointments to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees was made recently, as the UNC System Board of Governors made its selection of Ritch Allison to replace Dave Boliek. Allison — who was formally selected on Thursday and announced Friday by the system’s flagship university — will fill the […]
Wes Platt/Southpoint Access Many Mt. Moriah Road residents may be feeling some relief today after the Durham City Council voted unanimously Monday night to oppose the Moriah Ridge development that would straddle Durham and Orange county lines. The project, proposed by M/I Homes of Raleigh, would’ve brought 1,000 apartments, townhouses, and single-family homes to 168 […]
Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald A 47-year-old man who was listed as Sanford’s traffic services supervisor in a recent Google search was charged with 69 felonies for obtaining property by false pretense and nine felonies for financial identity fraud. The amount of the alleged fraud totaled in the thousands of dollars. Anthony Dean Floyd, 47, […]
Gov. Josh Stein asked legislators to release $1.1 billion from the state’s reserves to fund an assortment of hurricane-relief efforts in western North Carolina through the summer. Stein said the state faces “dire and immediate” recovery needs that can’t wait on larger flows of federal aid to begin arriving. “We cannot remain reactive to temporary […]
