Matthew Daly/The Associated Press The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists — 75% of the […]
Ahmed Jallow/NC Newsline When 17-year-old Leon Gu died by suicide in 2020, his parents were shocked to learn they had been in the dark about an academic integrity issue he was facing at Wake Tech Community College, where he was dually enrolled. Dual enrollment allows high school students to take college courses for credit. Leon […]
Anna Pogarcic/Education NC After the State Health Plan’s Board of Trustees voted to allow salary-based premiums earlier this year, Board members recently began discussing what possible changes to the plan could look like. According to the Board, the State Health Plan is facing a $507 million deficit that could grow to an estimated $1.4 billion […]
Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Rob Crane watched his father struggle with lung cancer for months before he died in his mid-60s. It was “really horrendous,” Crane said. As a doctor specializing in family medicine, Crane was inspired by that experience to start raising awareness about the effects of tobacco addiction. He founded the Preventing Tobacco […]
Brian Murphy/WRAL News North Carolina and NC State played for the first time in football in 1894. They first clashed in men’s basketball in 1913. Under a new bill filed Thursday in the North Carolina House, the longtime Atlantic Coast Conference rivals would be required to play each other annually in a number of sports. […]
Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News The Town of Canton is about to receive a huge economic development boost after Rep. Chuck Edwards announced a $41 million appropriation from a Biden-era water resources program. “Our infrastructure is aged. It’s old. It’s falling apart,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers. “This is historic, one of the largest, if not […]
Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online A deal between Southport to sell hundreds of acres of land to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission remains on the table after elected officials there recently agreed to extend the city’s contract deadline with the state agency. Following what was, at times, a contentious discussion March 13 during the […]
Evey Weisblat/CityView The Fayetteville Public Works Commission is unable to access more than $80 million in federal funding the utility was previously awarded for electric, water and wastewater infrastructure projects. The grants and low-interest loans became inaccessible following President Donald Trump’s executive orders and directives PWC said in its annual report to the Fayetteville City […]
Daniel Sheehan/Wilmington StarNews Brunswick County residents are teaming up with an international human rights organization to advocate for access to clean water in historically Black neighborhoods. Several residents from historically Black neighborhoods of Brunswick County attended the board of commissioners meeting on Monday, March 17, to express concern about lack of access to clean water […]
Regan Butler/The Daily Tar Heel On March 19, student advisors from the UNC Office of Student Conduct launched the Student Advocacy Network, an independent defense group aimed at providing more robust representation for students facing charges in the new staff-led Conduct Board System. The group hopes to work around the new system’s restrictions on student […]
It should almost go without saying that GOP legislators are unlikely to go along with Gov. Josh Stein’s idea of putting a moratorium on new private-school vouchers to help pay for a two-year, 10.6% average pay increase for public school teachers. But it remains to be seen how they react to an idea related to […]
We’ve obtained a clarification about the $13 billion estimated savings that Sen. Paul Newton and other advocates of Senate Bill 261 say would occur if the state abandons the 70% interim carbon reduction goal it set for electricity providers. The $13 billion present-value figure is “the cumulative savings over the time period through 2050,” N.C. […]
Gov. Josh Stein’s suggested budget for the 2025-27 biennium is out, and even though it’s dead on arrival in the GOP-dominated legislature, there are still things to learn from it. These start with its economic outlook, which posits that wage growth and consumer spending in North Carolina are both going to cool off. Federal tariff […]
Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio A North Carolina Republican state lawmaker wants to make sure disaster assistance cannot be denied to people based on their political affiliation. Rep. Kelly Hastings, a Gaston County Republican, said he started working on the legislation after reports emerged that a FEMA worker responding to Hurricane Helene in Florida had directed aid […]
Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said last week that he plans to make good on a commitment to revise the “waters of the United States” definition, leading conservation groups to worry what will happen to federally protected waters and wetlands. One advocate says the new administration’s approach turns a blind […]
