Rachel Crumpler & Taylor Knopf/NC Health News North Carolina’s three state-run psychiatric hospitals — Cherry, Central Regional and Broughton — serve about 570 patients each day. But hundreds more who need inpatient treatment wait weeks — even months — for a bed to open. The three state-operated facilities are designed...

Will Doran/WRAL News The North Carolina Retirement Systems began investing pension fund money in cryptocurrency in late 2025, after legislative leaders pushed through a law enabling such market bets over the objection of state employees whose paychecks fund the plan. Several months later, the state has seen more than half...

Benjamin Schachtman/WHQR In late January, the City of Wilmington fired the two top employees leading and overseeing the Recycling and Trash Services Division, following an investigation. In early February, the city confirmed that Public Services Director Dave Mayes and Superintendent of Recycling and Trash Rick Porter were no longer with...

Liz Bell/Education NC Miguel Cardona, former U.S. Secretary of Education, encouraged a room of bilingual educators and education leaders on Friday to rally around bilingual students and advocate for policies that strengthen their educational opportunities. During the Biden administration, one of Cardona’s priorities was his 2023 “Being Bilingual is a...

Jose Sandoval/Blue Ridge Public Radio Lake Lure had to be drained 20 feet after Hurricane Helene so engineers could clean out all the silt and grime. The town is slowly refilling the lake, hoping it will be ready for business Memorial Day weekend. The Town of Lake Lure hopes to...

Port City Daily Novant Health’s board of trustees has approved a multi-year master facility plan for the Coastal Region, featuring a new heart and vascular tower and a relocated rehabilitation hospital. The projects, estimated to cost upwards of $1 billion over the next five to seven years, are designed to...

Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro In the current academic year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ total enrollment of roughly 10,700 students is its lowest in two decades. At that time, the district had three fewer schools – with Carrboro High, Morris Grove Elementary and Northside Elementary schools not having opened yet. Now, the...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News Following his first four years as Macon County’s sheriff, Brent Holbrooks is facing a primary challenge as he seeks a second term. Following former Sheriff Robbie Holland’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2022, Holbrooks emerged from a crowded Republican primary field that included multiple...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Ocean Isle Beach hopes to pump tens of thousands of cubic yards of sand onto the beach at the easternmost tip of the island by this spring as an erosion stopgap. The Brunswick County town has asked the Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District for authorization...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio More than 3,400 Winston-Salem/Forsyth County educators have signed a petition demanding an end to staffing cuts, and more. An hour before the school board meeting, teachers, staff and students rallied on the front lawn of the district’s education building. They chanted “no more cuts,” and “a seat...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press The Lumbee Tribe, or “People of the Dark Water,” as they’re sometimes called in reference to the murky waters of the Lumber River, have embraced a new nickname. They are “number 575” — the 575th American Indian tribe, and the second in North Carolina, to be...

Richard Stradling/The Raleigh News & Observer The legal battle over the stone quarry next to William B. Umstead State Park is far from over. A Wake County judge put the quarry’s future in doubt when he ruled in December that the state mining permit expires in 2031. It appeared that...

Paul Woolverton/CityView Residential electricity prices in and around Fayetteville would rise about 13.45% over the next two years under price increases the Fayetteville Public Works Commission is considering. The increase would be split, with a 6.5% boost as of May 1 of this year. In May 2027, the price would...

Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News A Wake County school board committee discussed hundreds of millions of dollars in upcoming facility needs focused mostly on the district’s current schools, as Wake also plans to get rid of nearly 100 trailers hosting classrooms across the county. Wake County has more than 600 trailers housing...

Brian Murphy/WRAL News The NBA’s Trail Blazers have been a fixture in Portland for more than 55 years. But with an aging arena in need of repair and Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s purchase of the team likely to be approved this spring, some in Oregon are worried the franchise...