Claire Cranford & Ana Despa/The (Duke University) Chronicle The federal government terminated the visas of two Duke graduate students and an alumnus on Optional Practical Training, according to a Monday morning email sent to international students. The email, sent by Kevin D’Arco, senior associate dean of international students, and Duke Visa Services Director Dylan Sugiyama, […]
Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC Last fall, the General Assembly established a Hurricane Helene Emergency Grant Program for postsecondary students to provide grants of up to $2,500 to eligible students experiencing financial hardship due to Helene. At the time, the General Assembly allocated $10.5 million in funding for emergency grants for affected community college students “for […]
Lucille Sherman/Axios Raleigh North Carolina’s state health department has ordered the Vance County jail to drastically reduce the number of inmates it houses — from more than 140 to just 20. Why it matters: The order, detailed in a letter sent to county officials April 1, comes after the department found what it described as […]
Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog For nearly 18 years, Eric Penland Jr. has heard the monotonous sound of the ventilator that keeps him alive. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, its swoosh-swoosh is as regular as a metronome in the stillness of his semi-dark, seventh-floor room at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Small cardboard […]
Alan Wooten/The Center Square Hugo and Helene are rare, as is the ever-dangerous tornado outbreaks that sometimes plague the South. Charlotte, regardless of frequency, remains in a dangerous gap every day. U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., has introduced the Radar Gap Elimination Act as a vehicle to close it. Bipartisan support includes Reps. Deborah Ross, […]
Helen Chickering/Blue Ridge Public Radio A key corridor in Asheville is back in service as of Friday afternoon, as Swannanoa River Road (N.C. 81) reopened between Biltmore Avenue and Bleachery Boulevard. The reopening follows six months of cleanup, restoration and construction after Hurricane Helene flooded the Swannanoa River and destroyed much more than just the […]
Some of the UNC System’s academic programs struggle to enroll students even though their graduates likely would see a high return on their investment. According to a report to a Board of Governors committee, these include the undergraduate electrical engineering programs at UNC Charlotte and Western Carolina. Their enrollment dropped by 26% and 25%, respectively, […]
A parental-rights-in-education bill would bar K-12 school libraries in state and charter schools from carrying books that are beyond the grade levels of the students they serve. House Bill 595 requires school officials to assign library books a “contact access designation” tied to whether a school offers the elementary, middle or high-school grades. It states, “a school […]
UNC Chapel Hill is in the midst of changing provosts. The incumbent, Chris Clemens, is stepping down on May 16. Former Provost Jim Dean, who’s also a former dean of the Kenan-Flagler business school, will take over on an interim basis while a national search for a permanent replacement unfolds. The announcement of the move […]
The Southeast’s major utilities are lagging when it comes to planning regional transmission lines and connections that could improve the efficiency and reliability of the power grid, a new report argues. A contributing factor to the problem, it says, is that the Southeastern Regional Transmission Planning process does little more than aggregate the individual plans […]
Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press More than 61,000 voters challenged by NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin have 15 business days to prove their eligibility, or have their ballots removed from the count in Griffin’s 2024 bid to unseat Justice Allison Riggs, according to a Friday ruling from a three-judge panel of the NC Court of […]
Brian Shrader/WRAL News For decades, Johnston County didn’t look all that different from other parts of rural North Carolina. It relied heavily on agriculture and other industries that started to crater at the end of the 20th century. “We really took it on the chin in the mid 90s with the loss of textiles and […]
Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily Special-use permits are on the chopping block as Wilmington city council and staff feedback favors conditional zonings instead. However, the planning commission has chosen to go through another month of analysis before it issues any recommendation. Aside from the approval of two Kerr Avenue developments — one senior living complex at […]
Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog A series of deals between federal and state agencies, finalized last week, will allow the North Carolina Department of Transportation to mine rock on more than 600 acres of the Pisgah National Forest as part of its efforts to rebuild I-40 along the Pigeon River Gorge. The NCDOT will seek “approximately three […]
Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Lindsi Franklin’s son, Isaac, was 9 years old in June 2024 when doctors found an abscess in his stomach and a section of diseased bowel. He was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s disease — Isaac’s immune system had decided that his own intestines were an enemy. Franklin’s insurance company required prior approval […]
