Month: September 2025

10. State investigators return to Mission Hospital on same day as group calls for better staffing, patient monitoring

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog State inspectors have returned to Mission Hospital for the second time in four months following complaints from nurses and a coalition of doctors, patient advocates and elected officials about recent deaths they say could have been prevented with better staffing and better telemonitoring procedures. “NCDHHS-DHSR staff are on-site at Mission Hospital,” […]

Written by on September 16, 2025

UNC campuses, taxed

UNC System leaders are poised to take nearly $6.9 million from UNC Chapel Hill’s state-supplied revenue and redistribute the money to 12 of the state’s other public universities. Winston-Salem State, UNC Asheville and the UNC School of the Arts would also lose small amounts of money ($253,288, $177,831 and $75,894, respectively) to a systemwide, $30 […]

Written by on September 16, 2025

Feds reopen part of the Blue Ridge Parkway

National Park Service officials announced Monday that they’ve reopened a 26.7-mile portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs north from Asheville to the entrance of Mount Mitchell State Park. The move follows the completion of landslide-repair projects at mileposts 380 and 375, which respectively are near the Haw Creek Valley Overlook and Rattlesnake Lodge […]

Written by on September 16, 2025

Stein Helene package seeks money for business

Gov. Josh Stein wants Congress to allot another $13.5 billion to hurricane recovery in North Carolina, and the Trump administration to move more quickly to deploy $9.4 billion in existing disaster-aid appropriations. Stein is asking Congress to channel almost $8.1 billion of the additional money through the feds’ Community Development Block Grant disaster relief program. […]

Written by on September 16, 2025

UNC tuitions

UNC System President Peter Hans and his team are signaling a willingness to at least consider requests from the state’s 16 public universities for in-state tuition increases. Their recommended tuition and fee instructions to campuses would allow them to propose in-state tuition increases of up to 3%, for new students only. In other words, they […]

Written by on September 16, 2025

1. Grocery inflation highest since 2022 as Trump tariffs pile up

Kelly Tyko & Ben Berkowitz/Axios President Trump spent his 2024 campaign promising Americans he’d lower grocery prices. Virtually all major grocery categories are now more expensive than they were a year ago, some substantially so. Why it matters: Trump’s economic polling numbers are about the worst they’ve ever been, and almost on par with the […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

2. Land annexation could pave way for more Novo Nordisk jobs in Johnston County

Jack Hagel/WRAL News Officials in Four Oaks are poised to annex an assemblage of farmland east of the town center — a move that could pave the way for more development and jobs in Johnston County. Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which has been growing in the county, has been scouting the property for a possible […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

3. EMC moves groundwater standards, wetlands rules ahead

Trista Talton & Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online The Environmental Management Commission voted unanimously Thursday to send a rule outlining health-based standards for three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the state Rules Review Commission. The 15-member commission also wrapped up the rulemaking process to “clarify” the definition of wetlands, as directed by a summer 2023 session […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

4. New NC Progressive House Caucus sets aggressive uncompromising agenda

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press North Carolina House Rep. Renée Price, D-Orange, used to go home feeling alone after a day in the Republican-run legislature. As a Democrat in a purple state, she sometimes felt like her comparably progressive ideas stranded her on an island by herself, even among members of her own party. But with […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

6. HealthySteps, which supports families in pediatric clinics, looks to expand in NC

Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News Jamestown resident Ashley Robinson’s third child arrived three months early. A micro-preemie, Milo weighed just 1 pound, 2.7 ounces, smaller than an average woman’s shoe. At 3 weeks old, he had his first surgery. Since then, he’s had at least seven others, including for repairs to his intestines and for glaucoma, […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

7. Meet Lindsay Phillips, the 2025 NC Charter School Teacher of the Year

Kristen Blair/Education NC Lindsay Phillips, a kindergarten teacher at Mountain Island Charter School (MICS) in Mount Holly, is the 2025 N.C. Charter School Teacher of the Year. A veteran teacher, she has 20 years of experience in the classroom, having worked for 10 years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System and 10 years at MICS. The […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

8. Alysa Kassay launches campaign for Congress in North Carolina’s 6th District

Salisbury Post According to a release from her campaign, Alysa Kassay announced she will be running for the U.S. House representing North Carolina’s 6th District earlier this week, pledging a “results-driven, people-first approach focused on the middle class and local communities” across the Piedmont Triad and throughout the congressional district. Kassay began federal public service […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

9. Durham Rising pushes council candidates to turn the heat up on Duke

Chase Pellegrini de Paur/IndyWeek Durham labor groups looking to improve wages, housing affordability, and workers’ rights have set their sights on Duke University, the city’s largest employer and private landowner. With local elections getting underway, organizers have found willing partners in the menagerie of Durham council candidates, all of whom seem to agree that Duke […]

Written by on September 15, 2025

10. Sean Guerrero drops from Wilmington council race

Port City Daily A candidate pool of eight has dropped to seven for three open seats on Wilmington City Council. Sean Guerrero, a two-decade resident of Wilmington, informed Port City Daily he was rescinding his candidacy. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, I’m withdrawing my campaign for city council,” he wrote in an email on Friday, Sept. […]

Written by on September 15, 2025