Josh Shaffer/The (Raleigh) News & Observer North Carolina “must fix its broken health care system” to prevent more violent attacks, Gov. Josh Stein said Monday, urging change two days after police charged an ex-Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder with killing three people in a popular Southport bar. The governor...

Dedrick Russell/WBTV North Carolina Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Democrat, has represented District 106 in Mecklenburg County since 2013 — but she will have a Democratic challenger in 2026. Cunningham has recently made headlines for partnering with Republicans to override a bill that North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed. Cunningham also...

Zachary Turner/WFAE Radio Black Mountain volunteer firefighter David Billstrom hails the fire chief on a handheld radio. “401 from 494 on VHF,” Billstrom said into the radio. It clicks as he releases the push-to-talk button. The number 401 is the fire chief’s callsign. He’s at Fire Station 4, so the...

Katie Myers/Blue Ridge Public Radio When Darlene Kurkendall closes her eyes, she imagines the walls of her house falling away. She sees the people in her community — friends, neighbors, family — swept out of sight by a horrendous heap of moving earth. Her household only just survived the landslides...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online An overwhelming majority of litter captured over the course of three years by in-stream traps set up in watersheds throughout the state was plastic waste, according to a recently published study. About 96% of litter North Carolina waterkeeper organizations and their volunteers removed from trash traps...

Drew C. Wilson/The Wilson Times A cloud enshrouds the operation as field workers pull bucket after bucket of sweet potatoes out of the dusty ground just off Webb Lake Road in Wilson County. “It is just extremely dry. We need rain,” Diane Vick of Vick Family Farms said while truckloads...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The UNCW Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution in support of a pedestrian bridge across S. College Road for North Carolina State Department of Transportation consideration. “UNC Wilmington has an opportunity to advance a long-discussed pedestrian bridge project across South College Road adjacent to campus,”...

Kyle Ingram/The (Raleigh) News & Observer The former director of the North Carolina Republican Party has a new role: election oversight for the state auditor’s office. Dallas Woodhouse, who led the state GOP from 2015 to 2019, will serve as the election liaison in Auditor Dave Boliek’s office. The newly...

Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times High Point University under the leadership of President Nido Qubein has been growing like kudzu, spreading across the city and drawing attention far outside of North Carolina’s borders. The latest sign of the university’s momentum is the announcement that the university has secured nearly $200 million...

ProPublica & The Assembly Slogging through a thick slop of mud and rock, Brian Hill passed the roof that Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters had just ripped off someone’s barn and dumped into his yard. Then he peered into the unrecognizable chaos inside what had been his family’s dream home. The century-old...

Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald A former Harnett County commissioner said he plans to run for the Republican nomination for state Senate in District 12, which includes Harnett and Lee counties and small part of Sampson County east of Dunn. Timothy McNeill, 68, told the Sanford Herald that it’s time...

Ronny Reyes/New York Post The madman who “targeted” a crowded dockside restaurant in a “highly premeditated” mass shooting in North Carolina once identified himself as a wounded Iraq veteran and filed a slew of conspiracy-laden lawsuits earlier this year, according to authorities and records. Nigel Edge — who​ changed his...

Celeste Gracia/WUNC Radio A judge is considering Duke Energy’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by the town of Carrboro. The town filed suit last December, claiming the utility giant engaged in a public deception campaign for decades to dismiss concerns around climate change, all while allegedly knowing...

Claudia Rivera Cotto/Enlace Latino NC & NC Health News At L. Gilbert Carroll Middle School in Robeson County, Principal Zach Jones watches the lunch line carefully, ensuring every student gets a tray. Many arrive hungry; breakfast and lunch at school may be the only meals they can count on. “Every...