Mark Bergin/WRAL News The Raleigh City Council unanimously passed a $1.77 billion budget on Monday. The fiscal year 2027 budget includes a 1.7 cent property tax increase per $100 of assessed value. It means about $67 more per year for a median Raleigh home, which costs about $450,000. “The Proposed...

Jennifer Fernandez & Ashley Fredde/NC Health News Outrage over the death of Moore County toddler Rylan Ott in 2016 compelled North Carolina on a path to improve its child welfare system. Nearly a decade later, the state has rolled out several of those reforms — a statewide office focused on...

Lucas Thomae Facebook/Carolina Public Press After an exceptionally dry spring, North Carolina’s farmers are in need of several timely rains. According to state corn extension specialist Ron Heiniger, “that’s like trying to hit the perfect lotto numbers.” Such precision when it comes to the weather usually isn’t required for a...

Mary Helen Moore/Axios Raleigh  In some Wake County waterways, signs announce to anglers that the fish cannot, under any circumstances, be eaten. Why it matters: Eating lots of freshwater fish in North Carolina comes with health risks because of the widespread presence of mercury in the environment. Total bans are...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC News North Carolina’s school calendar law requires most traditional public schools to start no earlier than August 24 this fall. The 2004 law originally came out of lobbying from the coastal tourism industry to extend the summer busy season through August. The state board of education received a...

Brian Murphy/WRAL News A billionaire investor in multiple major U.S. sports teams wants to bring a Major League Baseball team to Raleigh. The news? It’s not Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon, who has long professed his desire to bring a team to the area. Marc Lasry, the co-founder and chief...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Nearly a dozen abandoned marine vessels left to rot in North Carolina’s coastal waters are expected to be removed by July. Crews this week pulled a dilapidated commercial fishing trawler and a sunken cabin cruiser from Wheeler Creek, a working waterway nestled off the New River...

Aaron Keck/WCHL Chapelboro Voicing a desire to better fund its public school systems while managing funding losses for other areas of government operations, the Orange County Board of Commissioners is poised to further raise taxes in its final budget for the upcoming fiscal year. During the board’s budget amendment work...

Mackenzie Thomas/Hendersonville Lightning A former North Carolina resident is asking the state to reconsider criminal charges against her that have been hanging over her head for the past decade. Joanne McDowell, a resident of Hendersonville for roughly five years until December 2012, reached out to the North Carolina Department of...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio Think about how much you’ve spent every time you’ve filled your car up with gas lately. Now, imagine your car is a bus. And you have 178 of them that need to be on the road every day, transporting thousands of kids to and from school. You...

Brian Murphy, Will Doran & Jack Hagel/WRAL News As co-favorites to win the Stanley Cup before the season and the second choice when the playoffs started, the Carolina Hurricanes were a popular pick for bettors. Many fans are invested, through those bets, as the team faces off in the final...

Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News Duke Energy could receive $28.4 million in taxpayer money to upgrade two coal-fired power units in Person County, North Carolina, where residents are already contending with the construction of new natural gas plants, a pipeline and a proposed Microsoft data center. The Roxboro plant in Person...

Kelly Kenoyer/WHQR The analysis indicates that growth within urban areas can be better for cities’ bottom line, compared to building on greenfield sites at the outer reaches of town. New research from the PEW Charitable Trust shows that infill development saves taxpayers money, especially compared to development on the outlying...

Emma Dill/WilmingtonBiz A stretch of ocean off the coast of Brunswick County made national news earlier this year when the Trump administration announced plans to pay French energy company TotalEnergies to relinquish its lease in the area, along with another lease off New York. The deal has drawn mixed reactions...

Taylor Knopf/NC Health News For the third year in a row, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have trended downward. North Carolina had one of the largest year-over-year decreases — a nearly 29 percent drop in overdose deaths from the end of 2024 to 2025. Substance use experts worry these...