Fabio Cupolo Carrara/La Voce di New York U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday his department has opened talks with leading universities, including Harvard, on agreements that would give the federal government rights to patents from research funded with taxpayer money. “We have given tens, if not hundreds, of billions...

Morgan Casey/CityView Cumberland County will spend $250,000 in unused pandemic-era funds to help residents experiencing homelessness. The money will fund a pilot of the Cumberland County Community Development Department’s Homeless Prevention and Stabilization Voucher Program, which the board of commissioners approved on Aug. 25. The program will pay up to...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Dozens of North Carolina communities are in limbo after FEMA canceled more than $200 million worth of grants for flood-mitigation projects earlier this year in the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant program, also known as BRIC. For Forest City in Rutherford County, the now defunct...

Jane Porter/IndyWeek A dozen black cows graze by the side of Shearon Harris Road, on 189 acres just south of Old U.S. Highway 1 in New Hill, a rural, unincorporated town in western Wake County. Some rustic-looking farmhouse structures sit further back on the property, framed by gently sloping hills....

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Haywood County has turned to a rarely used method to speed up the FEMA buyout process — hiring a consulting group to weed through the paperwork. And ironically, Haywood County can get reimbursed from none other than FEMA for the cost of hiring someone to help...

Evey Weisblat/CityView An independent evaluation of Fayetteville’s use of the automated gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter will test some Fayetteville City Council members’ firm faith in the controversial program. The study found that, at most, 24% of ShotSpotter alerts, when not in conjunction with a 911 call, could be linked to...

Arthur Allen/KFF Health News Don’t get Nathan Jones started on xylitol, the active ingredient in his chewing gum, nasal spray, and other products. He’ll talk your ear off about its wondrous powers against tooth decay, as well as its potential to fight covid, heart disease, Alzheimer’s — you name it....

Brian Murphy/WRAL News Steve Newmark grew up in Chapel Hill surrounded by North Carolina athletics leaders. He was close with the family of UNC-Chapel Hill’s former athletics director, Dick Baddour. His parents were friends with legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith. Smith’s trusted assistant coach, Bill Guthridge, lived a neighborhood...

Regan Butler, Caleb Herrera & Alice Scott/The Daily Tar Heel A mural depicting Palestinian resilience in the Hanes Art Center, which UNC administration directed to be covered with white panels last week, was fully removed from the building over the weekend. Annette Lawrence, chair of the art and art history...

Amy McCraw/Hendersonville Lightning A committee of the Republican Party in Henderson County on Thursday evening named a sheriff’s office captain to the school board. Henderson County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Stephanie Cantwell will fill the seat left open when Henderson County School Board Vice Chairman Robert Bridges passed away earlier this...

Rusty Jacobs/WUNC Radio New guidelines for voting adopted by the state elections board’s Republican majority might conflict with state law. Under the newly adopted rule, around 98,000 North Carolina voters previously eligible to cast regular ballots in state and local elections might now have to vote provisionally. As required under...

Jenna Fryer/The Associated Press NASCAR has promised a federal court it will not re-distribute any charters pending the conclusion of the antitrust suit filed against the stock-car series by two race teams, one owned by Michael Jordan. The Friday filing in the Western District of North Carolina comes one day...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Attorney General Jeff Jackson agrees with the findings of an independent monitor that HCA may be in violation of its purchase agreement of Mission Health, the dominant hospital system in Western North Carolina. This marks the most recent step in a process designed to hold...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC Radio Nearly a year ago, Helene brought unprecedented flooding to western North Carolina – wiping out roadways, triggering more than 2,000 landslides, and taking the lives of more than 100 people. The Swannanoa Valley was especially hard hit, home to a namesake river that broke a flood record...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News Scenic Chimney Rock has historically been an out-of-the-way place, nestled tightly against the Broad River in a narrow valley between lush, towering peaks that peer down at nearby Lake Lure. It’s always been difficult to get there — especially now, with most roads still closed 11...