Lewisville Republican Rep. Jeff Zenger and nearly two dozen of his colleagues want local officials to face civil-court liability, for actual and punitive damages, if they treat land-use permit decisions as political matters. House Bill 765 would give “any person with standing” a green light to go after city council members, county commissioners and even […]
Senate leader Phil Berger isn’t signaling any intention to go to bat with the state’s Congressional delegation for the international students at North Carolina universities that have lost their visas in recent days. “Those are federal issues,” he said. “We just have to see how things play out.” A database maintained by Insider Higher Education […]
The Senate will release its draft of the budget for the 2025-27 biennium Monday night, Senate leader Phil Berger says. Leadership in the Senate and the House has agreed that the budget can grow by 2.75% in fiscal 2025-26 and 2.25% above that in fiscal 2026-27, Berger said. For reference, the current budget appropriated $29.7 […]
The Senate’s getting into the pharmacy benefits manager game. On Thursday, the chamber’s Health Care committee endorsed Senate Bill 479, which on its face is an alternative to the House’s approach the last couple of sessions to the quarrels over PBMs and their role. Notably, the Senate bill omits a House provision that in practice […]
Aaron Sánchez-Guerra/WUNC Radio Several North Carolina universities have announced that the U.S. government has terminated the visas of some of its international students. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte confirmed to WFAE on Wednesday that the visas of six international students were terminated. On Tuesday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced […]
Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Accusations of understaffing. Weekend pay bonuses slashed. A death in the emergency room. It’s been an exhausting start to 2025 for nurses at Mission Health in Asheville. Mission Health operates the hospital in Asheville and five smaller, rural hospitals across the North Carolina mountains. The health system has faced extreme […]
Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio The chief financial officer for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools resigned Tuesday night in the wake of a significant budgeting error. An audit found that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools overspent its budget last year by about $16 million. Chief Financial Officer Thomas Kranz presented that information to the school board two weeks ago, and said […]
WRAL News A Durham nonprofit announced more layoffs Thursday following the Trump administration’s reduction in federal funding. FHI360 said it will reduce its workforce as a result of “the U.S. government’s reduction of federal funding and termination of projects,” reducing 144 employees in North Carolina and another 340 staff members in the United States. The […]
Jonah Valdez/The Intercept The Trump administration is expanding its campaign against international students to target not just those active in pro-Palestine advocacy, but also students entirely uninvolved in protests and campus activism. With little or no justification, the Trump administration is revoking the visas and immigration statuses of hundreds of international students under the Student […]
Morgan Casey/CityView Fort Bragg’s over 50,000 active-duty military personnel, and their families, are gaining an additional local support system. Blue Star Families, a national nonprofit military family support network, is launching the Fayetteville Greater Region Chapter to help the families of service members build community. The chapter provides seven counties — Cumberland, Bladen, Harnett, Hoke, […]
Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer A non–profit is sounding alarm bells on the state of housing in Haywood County. Rent prices have become increasingly unattainable for the working class. Making matters worse, the federal government has frozen funds for a voucher program that covers the gap between what low-income renters can afford and the cost of […]
Paige Gross/NC Newsline The next time you’re on a Zoom meeting or asking ChatGPT a question, picture this: The information zips instantaneously through a room of hot, humming servers, traveling hundreds, possibly thousands of miles, before it makes its way back to you in just a second or two. It can be hard to wrap […]
Mebane Rash/Education NC North Carolina’s community college system is 58 colleges strong, and no longer are they the state’s best kept secret. April is Community College Month, according to the Association of Community College Trustees, and this year EdNC is surfacing stories about why attending community college is the “best decision ever.” “Everywhere I go, […]
Heidi S. Skinner/Coastal Review Online Often mistaken for moss, lichens are actually quite different. Like mosses, lichens are found all over the world, with somewhere between 12-18,000 known varieties. The number is probably way more, as new specimens are being discovered every year. America has 3,600 different named lichens, while North Carolina has 1,500 all […]
Advocates for the solar-power industry are deploying property-rights arguments to oppose a bill pending in the House Agriculture and Environment committee that would put some regulatory roadblocks in the way of new solar farms. House Bill 729 would forbid the N.C. Utilities Commission from certifying a solar project capable of sending 2 to 80 megawatts […]
