Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News Maymead, a company that plans to build a controversial asphalt plant south of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is suing a consulting firm and one of its former employees, alleging they committed fraud, civil conspiracy and deceptive trade practices in spearheading opposition to the project. The former employee,...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC News UNC-Chapel Hill is in the early stages of a ten-year plan to increase its enrollment. By 2034, the university wants to add 5,000 students to its undergraduate class. So far, the school has reached about a quarter of that goal after enrolling its largest first-year class in...

Trevon Spencer/NC Newsline At Kate’s Korner, the day begins early – children arriving, classroom doors opening, small voices calling for teachers, parents saying quick goodbyes before heading to work. For the childcare center’s staff, the morning comes with one less worry: they don’t have to figure out how to pay...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  Born just 14 miles across the state line, country music queen Dolly Parton will be honored by multiple entities in North Carolina on Friday on a date coinciding with one of her most iconic, socially impactful and commercially successful anthems. On the calendar it is 9/25,...

WFAE Radio Former Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown is speaking out after a federal judge sentenced her Tuesday to 10 months in prison for wire fraud. In a 27-minute video posted to social media, Brown said she accepts responsibility for her actions but argued that more serious criminals receive...

Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press An annual survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, ranks and scores hundreds of universities across the country based on free speech policies and student perception on the state of free expression on campus. North Carolina universities have topped the list in...

Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News Wake school board members Tuesday questioned how the district would pull off an ambitious proposed academic improvement plan for special education, which would require significant training and a shift in responsibilities. Most Wake students with disabilities aren’t passing their state standardized tests, and Wake school leaders want...

Xuan Thai/ESPN Authorities confirmed the arrest of former NC State sports medicine director Robert Michael Murphy on Wednesday evening after a grand jury indicted him last week on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts involving the sexual abuse of male athletes he had treated. The grand jury handed down sealed indictments...

Amy Diaz WFDD Radio The Guilford County Board of Education voted to extend the superintendent’s contract through 2030. Superintendent Whitney Oakley has served in the role since 2022. At a school board workshop this week, Chairperson Deena Hayes praised Oakley’s “thoughtful, student-centered leadership” and cited recent academic gains. The latest...

WSOC News Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested department safety specialist Wilson Rivera Espinosa on Thursday on one count of embezzlement following a financial crimes investigation. Rivera Espinosa, who worked in the department’s Passenger Vehicle for Hire Unit, was placed on administrative leave without pay as formal termination proceedings...

Colin Campbell/WUNC News A coalition of left-leaning groups is suing to block new absentee ballot guidelines approved by the State Board of Elections, arguing that mail-in voters could be disenfranchised. The legal challenge involves a new directive from the elections board to reject mail-in ballots that aren’t sealed properly, forcing...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  Mass grant terminations will not be carried out by AmeriCorps, and large-scale staff cuts beyond those already planned will not be executed as well, according to a settlement involving the federal agency for national service and volunteering and North Carolina. AmeriCorps, annual recipient of $1 billion...

Greg Childress/NC Newsline There will be much at stake in November when North Carolinians go to the polls. The state has one of the nation’s most closely-watched U.S. Senate races. A win by former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — a Democrat matched against Michael Whatley, former chairman of the...

Walker Livingston/Carolina Public Press When Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, 2024, a longtime text message group chat of a few friends who all attended Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville in Yancey County became a lifeline for checking on the status of loved ones, since...

Destinee Patterson/WRAL News The owner of Florida-based sports development company 50-Plus-1 now faces federal fraud and money laundering charges for a $6 million scheme. The company’s failed $70-million deal with Saint Augustine’s University would have leased the school’s property for mixed-use development. In a similar agreement, prosecutors say owner Lamonica...