Month: December 2025

2. NC House Freedom Caucus leader faces a primary challenge backed by a GOP lawmaker

Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio The leader of the North Carolina House Freedom Caucus is facing a primary challenger backed by one of his fellow lawmakers. Freedom Caucus Chairman Keith Kidwell is seeking a fifth term representing four coastal counties in the state House (Beaufort, Dare, Hyde and Pamlico). He’s now facing a Republican primary challenger, Beaufort […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

3. Exclusive: Justice Berger on challenges, benefits of AI in law

Savannah Cade/The Carolina Journal Artificial Intelligence is affecting every profession and area of modern life. North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger, Jr. joined Carolina Journal to discuss the impact of AI on the future of law in North Carolina from legal deserts to faulty filings. Courts nationwide, including in Raleigh, are seeing a surge […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

4. Dennis Smith Sr. continues fight to overturn Godwin town board election results

Paul Woolverton/CityView The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously to revive Smith’s protest of the municipal election after the Cumberland County Board of Elections rejected his claim during a hearing on December 2. The state board on December 22 directed the county board to consider new evidence that Smith said he did not […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

5. New Medicaid plan aims to untangle care for NC foster children

Jaymie Baxley/NC Health News After years of pleading from the child welfare community, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services recently rolled out a Medicaid plan that’s designed to simplify care for children and young adults in the child welfare system — a population that state officials say has long struggled to navigate a […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

6. Swain County jail’s inspection failures highlight statewide issues

Lily Levin/Smoky Mountain News Between 2017 and 2025, Swain County Law Enforcement Center failed 13 of 16 biannual inspections, according to Disability Rights North Carolina. The existence of one or more documented violations requires the sheriff to submit a plan of correction to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services detailing the steps […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

7. Columbus Regional and Novant Health make their case for new hospital plans

Morgan Casey/Border Belt Independent A year and a half ago, Leslie Malpass had one of the worst days of her life. Her youngest daughter was involved in a four-wheeler accident near their home in Delco in rural Columbus County and needed life-saving care. Emergency workers took her to the closest hospital: Novant Health New Hanover […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

9. School board adjusts SRO separation allowance

Matt Lamb/The (Southern Pines) Pilot The Moore County Board of Education recently passed a new policy that it hopes will bolster school resource officer recruitment and retention. North Carolina law enforcement officers are eligible for a special separation allowance after 30 years of eligible service. Currently, officers who have joined the district’s department and worked […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

10. Elm City Board of Commissioners hires new CPA

Christopher Long/The Wilson Times Members of the Elm City Board of Commissioners are looking to a new certified public accountant to get the town’s books in order. Commissioners unanimously voted in a special called meeting Dec. 16 to hire Beverly Stroud, CPA at the rate of $150 per hour for bookkeeping, consulting and other finance […]

Written by on December 29, 2025

1. Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.

Brady Dennis/The Washington Post A dusting of December snow had turned the mountains around her white, but Elizabeth Clark barely had time to notice. It had been 438 days since Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters wrecked her home’s foundation, inundated the first floor, destroyed the septic system and swallowed their belongings. Her mortgage company agreed to pause […]

Written by on December 28, 2025

2. Preventing the next flood in Clyde — with native plants

Katie Myers/Blue Ridge Public Radio New funding from the state Department of Environmental Quality is set to help a small town slow down floodwaters naturally. Clyde, North Carolina has seen devastating damage from extreme storms over the past twenty years — Helene, in 2024, was just the most recent. Repeated rains from named storms like […]

Written by on December 28, 2025

3. In Brunswick, November home sales outpaced last year as county neared $3B in sales

WilmingtonBiz Brunswick County’s residential real estate market in November racked up a higher number of home sales and higher prices compared to last November, according to a news release. The number of homes sold last month, compared to November 2024, increased by 12.3%, from 438 to 492, while total sales volume climbed 19.7%, from about […]

Written by on December 28, 2025

4. Judges reject arguments against NC Certificate of Need law

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press & NC Health News A challenge of the constitutionality of North Carolina’s Certificate of Need law may be heading back to the state Supreme Court. On Friday, a three-judge panel of superior court judges ruled unanimously against New Bern optometrist Jay Singleton, who alleged that Certificate of Need law restricts […]

Written by on December 28, 2025

5. Highway Patrol errors linked to deaths, injuries

Virginia Bridges/The Raleigh News & Observer State Highway Patrol troopers are supposed to be the guardians of North Carolina’s highways, stopping dangerous drivers and investigating crashes. But court filings, interviews and State Highway Patrol reports show that in a small number of cases, troopers have been accused of negligent and reckless actions that led to […]

Written by on December 28, 2025

6. Memory loss: As AI gobbles up chips, prices for devices may rise

John Ruwitch/WUNC Radio Idaho-based Micron Technology is one of the world’s top makers of RAM chips and it’s benefited from increase demand. The world has a memory problem, thanks to artificial intelligence. The explosion in AI-related cloud computing and data centers has led to so much demand for certain types of memory chips that now […]

Written by on December 28, 2025