Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press North Carolina voters are partial to purple — in a political sense, at least. In last year’s statewide elections, they opted for six Democratic and eight Republican outcomes. While Republican President Donald Trump carried the state by three points, voters also chose Democrats Josh Stein for governor and Jeff Jackson as […]
Derick Lee/EducationNC With National Poetry Month just around the corner, EducationNC is highlighting the students who will represent North Carolina at the national Poetry Out Loud competition. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership between The Poetry Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts. The national program promotes arts in education, indulging students in literature […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner says his quarrel with Gov. Josh Stein over state pension funding is more a question of timing than about their ultimate aims. On the campaign trail last year and since taking office this year, Briner has said the treasurer’s office has to boost the pensions’ investment returns to ease their bite […]
A trio of state senators are trying to clamp down on Charlotte’s quest to gain a larger share of the Catawba River’s water. Filed Monday, Senate Bill 428 would alter the state’s interbasin transfer law to create a new “major transfer” category and subject it to stricter rules. Sen. Warren Daniel’s bill defines major as […]
Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online A federal grant awarded last year to improve drinking water quality in hundreds of rural Brunswick County homes made U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s round of funding cuts earlier this month. But Zeldin’s plan to terminate the nearly $20 million grant awarded in December to The Working Lands Trust […]
Mila Mascenik/WCHL Chapelboro When an email with the subject line “Music Education Program Update” popped up in Corey Sheppard’s inbox last March, he said he couldn’t have prepared himself for the news it held about his chosen field of study. Sheppard, a junior music major at UNC-Chapel Hill, would be part of the last cohort […]
Mebane Rash/EducationNC On March 20, 2025 — two months after he took office — President Donald Trump signed a presidential action, also called an executive order, titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” In part, the order says, “The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, […]
Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Kristin Goforth and Lauren Cox, twin sisters aged 49, moved their father into a Piedmont Triad-area assisted living facility on March 13, 2021. Rick Goforth, then 75, was in good health; he was an avid walker who enjoyed being outside. But he was exhibiting signs of dementia — he had wandered […]
Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio Gov. Josh Stein’s newly released budget recommendations include a plan to increase starting teacher pay above $50,000, with the goal of making it the highest in the Southeast. Stein noted in his State of the State address that Republicans in the N.C. House have already filed a similar teacher pay bill. That […]
The Associated Press Wildfires forced a mandatory evacuation Sunday in a North Carolina county still recovering from Hurricane Helene, and South Carolina’s governor declared an emergency in response to a growing wildfire in that state. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 8:20 p.m. Saturday for parts of Polk […]
Peter Castagno/Port City Daily An international advocacy group is partnering with Brunswick County residents pushing county officials to ensure safe water for African American and low-income residents. This comes as federal spending cuts reduce grant opportunities, leading some to argue the county should directly fund water extensions. International human rights organization EarthRights joined Brunswick County […]
Paul Nielsen/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The idea of banning new vacation rentals in certain Waynesville neighborhoods appears to have fizzled out. A surge in homes being converted to vacation rentals and the associated problems that come with that prompted Waynesville last year to consider whether it’s time to rein them in. The Waynesville planning board has […]
Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog In 2004, David Clarke, a botanist who teaches in the biology department at the University of North Carolina Asheville, bought a house on Dortch Avenue, on an edge of the Five Points neighborhood that bleeds into campus. The home was still under construction when Clarke set his eye on it, he said, […]
Nick Fogleman/The Watauga Democrat The Blowing Rock Town Council has tabled a proposed rezoning and redevelopment project for further discussion following concerns over building height, aesthetics and overall community impact. Chris Barefoot of Oak Hill Management presented plans to redevelop the Shoppes on the Parkway property into a mixed-use residential and retail space. The first […]
Gov. Josh Stein wants former federal workers laid off in the DOGE process to know they can perhaps land on their feet by going to work for North Carolina. His administration launched a new help-wanted website on Friday that stresses that many state jobs are open and well-suited to experienced professionals. “Whether you were displaced due to Hurricane Helene […]
