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Durham runs afoul of legislators’ downzoning ban

Durham officials canceled a hearing on a top-to-bottom zoning-law rewrite this week after the owners of a convenience-store chain complained they were about to break the state’s ban on downzoning. The rewritten “land development code” had been scheduled for a planning-board review Tuesday afternoon and evening. But in the face...

By Ray Gronberg

February 25, 2026

Pierce, Wray chart different course on campaign funding

House District 27 incumbent Rep. Rodney Pierce and his Democratic Party primary opponent, former Rep. Michael Wray, are both well-funded but are going about things in different ways. Pierce, D-Halifax, told the State Board of Elections he’s raised $157,388 so far in the 2025-26 election cycle. Wray, D-Northampton, has raised...

By Ray Gronberg

February 25, 2026

Speed victimized by scam, auditor says

Town officials in a tiny Edgecombe County community fell victim to “a common foreign scam” in the course of losing their grip on the use of the town’s bank accounts, State Auditor Dave Boliek and his aides say. Leaders of the town of Speed failed to notice for several months...

By Ray Gronberg

February 25, 2026

Project Kitty Hawk grads to date: 96

To date, 96 people have graduated from the online degree programs some of the UNC System’s campuses are offering through Project Kitty Hawk. That includes 73 from N.C. Central University and 22 from East Carolina, according to data Project Kitty Hawk chief Andrew Kelly’s presenting to the system Board of...

By Ray Gronberg

February 24, 2026

Duke seeking seeking excessive return, advocacy group says

An environmental group is making the case that Duke Energy’s latest rate request is asking too much of the utility’s customers and too little of its stockholders. Duke’s filing seeks a 10.95% return on equity, which the Environmental Defense Fund says is the third-highest that any U.S. power company has...

By Ray Gronberg

February 24, 2026

Cook raises $42K for District 60 primary

State Rep. Amanda Cook, D-Guilford, appears to hold a sizable fundraising lead in her battle to hold on to the District 60 House seat she gained in November after former Rep. Cecil Brockman resigned. Cook told the State Board of Elections she’d raised $42,181 as of the end of 2025....

By Ray Gronberg

February 24, 2026

Get to know Rep. Eric Ager

We’re pulling a Colin Campbell-era feature off the Tribune shelf and resurrecting the regular “get-to-know” series of capsule profiles of legislators, agency heads and lobbyists. Rep. Eric Ager has represented southeast Buncombe County since 2023. His district includes such towns as Montreat, Black Mountain, Fairview and Arden. He’s been one...

By Ray Gronberg

February 23, 2026

Kidwell, Armstrong close in fundraising

Financially, the incumbent and challenger in one of the state’s most-watched primaries are tightly matched. District 79 incumbent state Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Beaufort, reported to the State Board of Elections that he’d raised $66,163 for his re-election campaign as of the end of 2025. His challenger, farmer and seed-store operator Darren...

By Ray Gronberg

February 23, 2026

Budd backs streamlining FAA new-plane certifications

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd has joined eight of his colleagues in sponsoring a bill they hope will streamline the process for certifying new kinds of battery-powered aircraft. The group is bipartisan and includes three Democrats, among them lead sponsor U.S. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. Welch’s state is home to...

By Ray Gronberg

February 23, 2026

Feds planning $34M grant for Belews Creek upgrades

Federal officials want to send $34 million Duke Energy’s way to help pay for upgrades to the gas-and-coal-fired Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County — a facility Duke intends to retire at the end of 2039. The prospective taxpayer subsidy would cover about a third of the project cost,...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

Hall channels campaign money to caucus members

House Speaker Destin Hall has raised $1.2 million so far in the 2025-26 election cycle, his most recent report to the State Board of Elections says. His campaign’s fundraising includes $296,000 in PAC money. Max-level, $6,800 PAC donors in the second half of 2025 include groups representing the Cherokee and...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

The G20 comes to Asheville

Asheville will host some of the preparatory meetings for the annual G20 summit in August and early September, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says. The sessions will begin on Aug. 29 and 30 with meetings between the top deputies of each participating country’s finance ministry and central bank. The actual...

By Ray Gronberg

February 20, 2026

Scout says it’s on track; German publication dubious

Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors says its all-electric pickup and SUV assembled in South Carolina will be on sale next year, firing back at a published report that the multibillion dollar project will be delayed. The report in the German publication Der Spiegel cited unspecified “technical issues” for causing a delay to...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026

Court of Appeals: Duke fuel rider wrongly approved

A bipartisan state Court of Appeals panel says the Utilities Commission erred when it allowed Duke Energy to recover $17 million in excess fuel costs it paid out in 2022 via a surcharge on its 2024 rates. But Judge John Arrowood and his colleagues declined to order Duke to refund...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026

Nonprofit hospitals get $215M in local taxes breaks a year

The House’s property-tax committee is scrutinizing the tax breaks North Carolina gives its nonprofit hospitals, but a couple of its rank-and-file members are speaking up against the idea of making major changes. Legislative staffers on Wednesday told the panel the property and sales-tax breaks the hospitals receive cost city and county...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2026