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Duke files resource-plan update in S.C.

The second shoe of Duke Energy’s long-term construction program has dropped, with the company’s filing of an updated version of its Carolinas Resource Plan in South Carolina. Duke officials say they expect the Palmetto State’s Public Service Commission to rule on the proposal by June 2027. North Carolina’s Utilities Commission...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Avery town used an unlicensed contractor for park work

Officials in Newland, a town of about 715 people in Avery County, gave $418,658 in maintenance work to a contractor who wasn’t properly licensedfor the job, State Auditor Dave Boliek says. It also looks like the contractor defied a stop-work order Avery County officials slapped on a park-repair project after...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Pembroke: Precedent for fundraiser meet-and-greets

UNC Pembroke officials say they set up public meet-and-greets for the finalists vying to become the university’s chief fundraiser because of the inherently “public-facing” nature of the job. They’d previously done the same thing for their athletics director search, says Jennifer McCarrel, Pembroke’s vice chancellor for communications and marketing. The...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Military Games on the way to meeting incentive targets

It’s already looking like next summer’s Military World Summer Games in the Charlotte area will attract enough participants to qualify for $17.5 million in state subsidies. The money’s contingent on organizers signing up at least 7,500 participants and at least 50 different countries. That appears to be on track. “While...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Chamber report calls for repealing franchise tax

A new report commissioned by the NC Chamber contends state leaders should repeal North Carolina’s franchise tax on business net worth, arguing that it punishes innovative start-ups that have yet turn a profit. The tax is expected to raise $851.2 million in fiscal 2026-27, according to the state budget. That’s...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Pembroke unveils finalists for fundraising post

UNC Pembroke officials are holding a string of public meet-and-greets starting today with three people who are in line to become the university’s next chief fundraiser. The sessions will give alumni and other members of the university community a chance to “learn more about their experience and vision for the...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Court overturns ski-town eminent-domain ruling

Court of Appeals judges have overturned a ruling that could’ve left Beech Mountain’s government on the hook for paying the “lost rental value” of some vacation homes next door to a prominent ski resort. The door was open to that because the Watauga County town, located in North Carolina’s northwest...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Toyota wins state Supreme Court case

State Supreme Court justices have sided with Toyota and another Japanese carmaker in a a product-liability case stemming from a fatal car crash that happened in Columbus County back in 2021. Its 6-1 opinion, authored by Justice Anita Earls, overturned procedural rulings from trial Judge James Gregory Bell and the...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Hardister, King now have JetZero as a client

JetZero has added former state Rep. Jon Hardister and one of his former aides to its team of lobbyists. Recent filings with Secretary of State Elaine Marshall’s office show that Hardister, R-Guilford, and Sebastian King joined the JetZero team on Aug. 13. King and Hardister are managing partner and COO,...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Judge says state fishery management falls short

North Carolina’s coastal-fisheries management is such an across-the-board failure that it amounts to a violation of the state constitution, a Wake County judge says. Issued this week, Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins’ ruling points the finger of blame squarely at the state’s failure to control shrimp trawlers and gillnetfishers. Excessive...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Stein vetoes judges’ bill

Gov. Josh Stein has vetoed House Bill 377, siding with House Democratic Leader Robert Reives and other critics who oppose a provision that would allow judges to be suspended without pay. The power is one “no other [state supreme court] chief justice in the country has,” Stein says in his...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

A Powell-ful incentive

The state has not one but three pressure points to try to induce Charlotte’s City Council and other local governments to reconsider their recent rejection of the controversial I-77 South Express Toll Lanes. After the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted in May to withdraw its support of the 11-mile,...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Supreme Court sides with Charlotte Latin critics

The N.C. Supreme Court’s five Republican justices agree that a Charlotte-area couple’s lawsuit against a private school that expelled their children can continue, at least into the fact-gathering stage. Writing for the group, Justice Richard Dietz conceded that Nicole and Doug Turpin’s case against Charlotte Latin probably would get tossed...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

NC State and Gaston land military textile funding

NC State University and Gaston College’s Kimbrell Campus in Belmont will lead a Department of Defense initiative aimed at improving production and performance of textiles used by the military. The FutureTEX award launches the Defense Department’s ninth Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and includes $36 million in the first year and has...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

Auditors: CATS riders jump fares as often as not

As of late 2025, about 45% of the people who ride Charlotte’s buses and trains weren’t paying the CATS system’s fares, State Auditor Dave Boliek and his aides say. This costs the system between $5 million and $6.5 million a year in revenue, they say, basing both findings on the...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026