Mebane Rash/Education NC After lawsuits, letters, and almost a month of uncertainty for schools and organizations serving communities, on July 25, 2025, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia — who chairs the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) — announced that “the U.S. Department of Education […]
Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press A former custodian at Drexel Elementary is suing the Burke County Board of Education and several school district officials after the district fired her in May. The plaintiff, Taylor Parlier, alleges in the lawsuit the school fired her in retaliation after she raised safety concerns regarding another custodian’s behavior. Her complaint […]
Jennifer Ludden/WFAE Radio Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Trump has signed an executive order that seeks to overhaul the way the U.S. manages homelessness. The order signed Thursday calls for changes to make it easier for states and cities to remove outdoor encampments and get people into mental health or addiction treatment. That includes involuntary […]
Bill Moss/Hendersonville Lightning Throughout the mountains, small towns thrashed by Hurricane Helene have it bad. In Henderson County, none was harder hit than Laurel Park, and the mayor is past losing patience with the pace of federal disaster aid. The mayor, Carey O’Cain, vented to his peers during a meeting last week of the Local […]
Mark Jurkowitz/Outer Banks Voice According to several recent reports, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) is being monitored for information concerning sea rise and shoreline erosion as part of a Trump Administration review of content at all National Park Service (NPS) facilities. On July 22, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) issued a release indicating […]
Jill Colvin/The Associated Press Michael Whatley, chairman of the national Republican Party, plans to run for an open Senate seat in North Carolina in 2026 with the blessing of President Donald Trump after Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, passed on the seat. Democrats see the race as their top chance to flip a seat in the midterm […]
Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Your local radio news briefing, your children’s after-school PBS programming, emergency weather alerts during hurricanes, your tunes during the commute home — all of this could disappear under federal budget cuts to public media heading to North Carolina. That’s thanks to a $1.1 billion cut to the Corporation for Public […]
Lisa Worf/NC Health News & WFAE Radio In the past two years, North Carolina’s stricter abortion law has changed the way Jamila Wade treats a small portion of pregnant patients she sees in the emergency room. They’re clearly losing their pregnancies, but the pregnant patient’s vital signs are still stable. Wade, head of the OB-GYN […]
Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline Local governments across North Carolina are set to receive more than $200 million in loan money to repair and renovate drinking water and wastewater facilities, Gov. Josh Stein’s office announced Wednesday. The awards will fund 48 projects across 27 counties. They’ll seek to improve infrastructure, address PFAS and forever chemicals lingering in […]
Andrew R. Jones & Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog A former University of North Carolina Asheville research assistant alleged in a lawsuit this year that the university dismissed him from his job after he raised concerns about research misconduct to his bosses and a top school official. Aidan Settman, a 24-year-old UNCA graduate, filed the lawsuit against […]
April Laissle/WFDD Radio The Guilford County District Attorney has released new information about her decision not to pursue a full state investigation into the actions of Greensboro’s former City Attorney Chuck Watts. DA Avery Crump says she met with State Bureau of Investigation agents late last week to review misconduct allegations against Watts. Based on […]
Brooks Stevenson/WFAE Radio Gov. Josh Stein visited Charlotte on Wednesday to tour Coca-Cola Consolidated’s new job training program. Stein met with students and other employees in the company’s new apprenticeship program, which trains young people for high-demand jobs. Those include manufacturing, equipment repair, and logistics. Gov. Stein says the program will expand career opportunities for […]
Taiyana Hill/WRAL News Rocky Mount secured a $3 million grant from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to introduce a commuter bus service aimed to assist with easier travel to Raleigh. The city is located on the U.S. Highway 64 corridor of Interstate 95—midway between the Triangle and the coast. The idea continued to […]
Robert Sullivan/The Salisbury Post Salisbury announced Tuesday that it would be purchasing the historic Salisbury Depot from the Historic Salisbury Foundation for approximately $3.5 million. The purchase is an important step in a trio of projects, which include connection of rail service to Asheville, a second platform for the railroad and the city’s planned multimodal […]
Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review A federal court decision issued Wednesday blocks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from using a potentially harmful algaecide at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, a compound that environmental groups argued would endanger the waterfowl the refuge is supposed to protect. Refuge officials had issued a notification in 2023 that it planned to […]
