Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press The use of school restrooms designated for one sex by transgender individuals who are biologically of the opposite sex has become the subject of a federal investigation in Buncombe and Cabarrus counties. Sarah Michels / Carolina Public Press Two North Carolina school districts, Buncombe and Cabarrus,...

Judith Retana/WNCN One year since Tropical Storm Chantal ripped through Chapel Hill, a small business owner continues to be thankful for the community’s support. Cinderella Riggsbee’s The Shoe Repair has been in Chapel Hill since the early 1980’s. But Tropical Storm Chantal washed away everything she’d work so hard for....

April Laissle/WFDD A survey recently found evidence of plastic pollution in a lake north of Greensboro. Volunteers combed waterways across the state looking for tiny plastic pellets, known as nurdles, as part of the second-annual International Plastic Pellet Count. They surveyed six sites and found nurdles at just one: a...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog You know, I try to be kind to people, because life is a struggle and we’re all doing the best we can. Scratch that. Or part of it anyway. Life is a struggle, but some people are just pigheaded and reckless and really aren’t doing the best...

Aarik Long/The Waynesville Mountaineer While road construction has been a headache all over Haywood County, one Maggie Valley woman is claiming in court that road work caused an accident that resulted in significant physical injuries. Wanda Deutsch is suing the contractor who constructed pedestrian islands and medians down the middle...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  In some hamlets of the mountains, the impact of Hurricane Helene isn’t easily seen anymore. Elsewhere, the need is only in the second of as much as five years of recovery. In the state budget passed by lawmakers and sent to the governor just before the...

Will Doran/WRAL News Wake County will have the most understaffed prosecutor’s office in the state if North Carolina’s new budget plan becomes law. It’s currently the third-worst in the state in terms of staffing levels, according to state judicial reports. But while the budget provides funding to hire new prosecutors...

Riya Manchanda/The Duke Chronicle Five new members have joined the Duke Board of Trustees, University officials announced Wednesday. Effective July 1, the new trustees are Chris Kempczinski, Trinity ‘91; Janine Brown, Law School ‘86; Scott Raney, Pratt ‘91; Belton Moore, Fuqua and Sanford ‘26; and Kaitlyn Williams, Trinity ‘26. The...

Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC More than a year after the original due date, lawmakers have passed a state budget. The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), amid enrollment growth and a pivot to a workforce-driven funding model, saw much of its legislative request met in the 2026-27 budget. The budget...

Chandler Inions/The Salisbury Post Landis’ top law man, Police Chief Matthew Geelen, is stepping away from his role with the town. In a Thursday evening press release, Town Manager Michael Ambrose indicated that Geelen, the police chief and capital projects coordinator for Landis, was taking a town manager position in...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC News A provision in the proposed state budget would require all public school districts to create committees to review book challenges brought by parents, teachers, or local residents. In the last decade, there’s been a rise in public challenges to the books in school libraries and classrooms, especially...

Emma Dill/WilmingtonBiz The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday the publication of its final reports on the proposed deepening of Wilmington’s harbor. The proposed project led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the N.C. State Ports Authority would deepen Wilmington’s harbor from 42 feet to 47...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio In May, the Gaston County Commissioners approved the Gaston County Schools budget. It kept funding flat from last year – and at about $54 million in operating costs, fell below the district’s ask of around $60.4 million. It capped off weeks of tensions around school funding –...

Bill Kirby Jr./CityView Hope Mills soon will be looking for a new town manager to replace Chancer McLaughlin. “The consensus of this board by a three to two vote is the town manager’s contract will not be renewed in March 2027,” Mayor Jessie Bellflowers said after a closed session during...

Eric Medlin/Coastal Review Online The term “skyscraper” often evokes a Northern metropolis full of towering masses of steel, thousands of panes of glass, and the occasional King Kong sighting. In reality, a skyscraper is just a multistory building with a frame made of steel instead of a load-bearing mass of...