James Farrell/WFAE Radio North Carolina schools saw a decrease in crimes for the third year in a row last school year, according to the latest numbers released Wednesday from the state Department of Public Instruction. The number of crimes reported at North Carolina schools fell by around 6.1% to 11,470. The rate fell by about […]
Clayton Henkel/Coastal Review Online North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey says even as snow from last weekend’s storm begins to melt, his office has received a flurry of calls from business owners and lifetime Outer Banks residents upset to see more homes falling into the Atlantic Ocean. The powerful storm, packing winds of 60 mph, […]
Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio A new audit lists vacant leadership in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools finance department as one of the district’s top challenges in recovering from its financial crisis. Back in September, months after the district’s $46 million deficit was revealed, the State Board of Education voted to hire an auditor to review the school […]
Chantal Brown/Education NC It may sound cliché, but the idea came about during a typical dinner outing in Durham. Duke University professor Dr. Jan Riggsbee and her colleagues at the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences education program talked about how they could make a difference in schools. The conversation swirled around innovation and recruiting […]
Brian Burns/WUNC News This week, PBS North Carolina’s Shaped by Sound returns for a second season. This season will feature 13 performances and interviews from artists from across the state and a variety of genres from indie rock to gospel to jazz. “If this season’s lineup was a festival, I would buy a ticket immediately,” […]
Rep. Erin Paré, R-Wake, a co-chair of the House select committee on property taxes, has been hammering local governments in her county for letting their tax burdens rise. Recent Twitter posts from Paré have singled out tax increases affecting residents of Zebulon and Wendell, eastern Wake suburbs that aren’t in her district. She also criticized […]
Following up on yesterday’s item about Duke Energy’s storm-related pollution waivers, the company says the load on its network didn’t set a record during Winter Storms Fern (ice) and Gianna (snow). The January 2025 record load was almost 37.3 gigawatts and this time around, loads “peaked just shy” of that “on multiple occasions less than […]
Senate leader Phil Berger is following House Speaker Destin Hall in setting up a select committee to deal with rising property tax rates. Unlike Hall, Berger has decided that the Senate’s review won’t be bipartisan. His office announced the appointment Tuesday of an all-Republican panel to conduct the Senate’s review. Its members include Senate Majority […]
Duke Energy sought and received the U.S. Department of Energy’s permission to break air-pollution limits if necessary during the recent winter storms if that’s what it took to keep the lights on. The rulings from Energy Secretary Chris Wright came after Winter Storm Fern (the ice storm predicted for the weekend of Jan. 24-25) and […]
When it comes to building nuclear reactors, a consultant’s advice to legislators is easily summarized: Go big or go home. Elaborating, the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy heard testimony on Tuesday that said small modular reactors can’t match the economic efficiency of the large ones utilities like Duke Energy have relied on for decades. […]
Anne Blythe/NC Health News Many health care systems talk about three main pillars of care for treating cancer patients: medical, surgical and radiation oncology. It turns out that having state-of-the-art radiation technology can not only help heal patients, it can also be beneficial to a hospital system’s bottom line. A high-stakes dispute among three major […]
Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press Elon University is filling a longtime gap in the Charlotte market with the announcement of its new law school program that will accept applications this fall and begin operating in the city in the fall of 2027. The part-time flex program and full-time Juris Doctor program options will both be based […]
Ted Clifford/Asheville Watchdog An 88-year-old woman recovering from hip surgery at Mission Hospital died after going 13 hours without receiving a needed blood transfusion. Another patient’s heart stopped for 15 minutes leading to brain damage after staff didn’t respond to an urgent request for heart monitoring. Short-staffed night shift nurses falsely documented that a 14-year-old […]
Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News An anonymous payment recently applied to decades-old tax bills owed by a sitting Haywood County commissioner presents the appearance of impropriety and may violate campaign finance law and the Board of Commissioners’ ethics policy. Substantial questions about the payment remain, but at least one thing is certain — the long drama […]
Julian Berger/WFAE Radio North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is pressing the Department of Homeland Security for answers about the U.S. Border Patrol’s Charlotte operation last November. In a four-page letter sent Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Tillis asked her to turn over detailed records from “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” Tillis applauded the arrests of […]
