Month: June 2025

1. Thom Tillis denounces GOP megabill’s Medicaid cuts in fiery speech

Mia McCarthy & Jordain Carney/Politico Hours after announcing his retirement, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis went to the Senate floor and slammed the GOP’s plans for drastic Medicaid cuts — warning Republicans they are about to “make a mistake on health care and betray a promise” if their sprawling domestic policy bill passes. “It is inescapable […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

2. On airport vote, Charlotte’s Democrats move to the right

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, has a far-left mayor, Brandon Johnson. New York City, the nation’s largest municipality, may be governed by self-described democratic socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary last week. But in the nation’s 14th-largest city, Charlotte, the center still holds. And last week, it was arguably […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

3. Agreement being finalized to sustain trails project in Old Fort after Helene devastation

Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press Miles of Pisgah National Forest trails near Old Fort in McDowell County, a cornerstone of its fledgling outdoor economy, remain inaccessible due to damage from torrential rain, high winds and landslides during Tropical Storm Helene. The storm damage, combined with changes in federal policy and the pending expiration of an agreement […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

4. Guilford County Manager Mike Halford exits job abruptly

Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times The Guilford County Board of Commissioners met on Friday afternoon, June 27, to hold a very rare special closed session to discuss a personnel issue and, when the board came out of that closed session, the commissioners voted unanimously to accept the retirement notice of Guilford County Manager Mike Halford. Guilford […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

5. How many teacher vacancies in NC are in Exceptional Children departments?

Chantal Brown/EducationNC An annual report found that about one in five teaching position vacancies in North Carolina were in Exceptional Children’s (EC) departments across the state during the 2023-24 school year. Every spring, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) releases the State of the Teaching Profession report for review by the State Board of Education […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

6. Swain County Sheriff arrested for sexual battery, suspended from office

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran has been charged with several crimes after allegedly soliciting two women for sexual acts and is now suspended from office. Cochran, who was first elected to office in 2006, was charged on June 27 with one count of sexual battery, soliciting a prostitute and assault on […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

7. School leaders discuss state of facilities

Aarik Long/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Haywood County School’s elected leaders are deep into a hard look at the system’s buildings and facilities, and that means a lot of ideas are being tossed up for discussion, from combining high schools to closing a middle school to bringing the football stadiums on campus. Some of the ideas would […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

8. Hearing on mandated wetland redefinition draws no support

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Aligning North Carolina’s wetlands definition with that of the federal government’s would put the state’s waterways at risk, erase nature’s pollution filtration systems from the land, and increase flooding, speakers at a public hearing said. More than a dozen people commented during the Thursday night hearing in Raleigh on the revised […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

9. $15,000 grant loss hits Charlotte Ballet’s scholarship program as federal arts funding shrinks

Emma Kate Williams/Niner Times The Charlotte Ballet lost a $15,000 grant that would have supported the ballet’s Reach program, which provides need-based dance scholarships to students who demonstrate potential for dance training. According to the Associated Press, dozens of arts organizations around the United States have received notifications that grants have been rejected or rescinded […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

10. Woodlake resumes rebuilding

Elena Marsh/The (Southern Pines) Pilot Following weather-related damage last fall that significantly set back rebuilding efforts, the owners of Woodlake Country Club say construction work has now resumed on a new dam that will allow the development to refill its central water feature, Lake Surf. In an update sent last week to residents of the […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

House tries again to loosen credit-union restrictions

House members before leaving for their summer break wrote their approach to a partial deregulation of North Carolina-chartered credit unions into an otherwise-unrelated bill that deals with tax policy. Senators, however, voted 41-1 against concurring with the House’s rewrite of Senate Bill 595. Sen. Gale Adcock, D-Wake, was the only senator present who favored immediate passage. […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

Tillis drops re-election bid

North Carolina is going to have a wide-open U.S. Senate race in 2026. Incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis has announced that he will not run for a third six-year term in the upper chamber of Congress. “I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term,” and the choice is “between spending another six years navigating the political […]

Written by on June 30, 2025

1. Canton secures land for wastewater plant, launches bold bid for economic revival

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News In a move more than a half-century in the making, the Town of Canton has announced the pending purchase of a key parcel of land where it plans to construct a new, state-of-the-art flood-proof wastewater treatment plant — ending a long chapter of dependence on a private system operated by the […]

Written by on June 29, 2025

2. Trump threatens Tillis with primary challenge

Ben Jacobs/Politico President Donald Trump said he would explore backing a primary challenger to two-term Sen. Thom Tillis Saturday — just hours after the North Carolina Republican voted against advancing the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agena. Trump berated Tillis in mutiple Truth Social posts, saying he was making a “big mistake” and that he would […]

Written by on June 29, 2025