Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Flooding from Tropical Depression Chantal displaced more than 150 people from their Central North Carolina homes in early July. The storm exposed deep inequities in the region’s housing market, activists and academics say, with a significant focus on Chapel Hill. Rising waters disproportionately affected older...

Rachel Crumpler/NC Health News To give more seriously ill incarcerated people the opportunity to go home before they die, North Carolina lawmakers expanded the eligibility criteria of prison medical release in 2023. But data obtained by NC Health News shows that more people aren’t getting released. Since 2008, medical release...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News The American Flood Coalition’s Recovery and Resilience Partnership is barely six months old, but it’s already helping to deliver results in the form of a $20 million mitigation grant program aimed at helping communities in Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene and prepare for the...

Greg Childress/NC Newsline At Health and Nutritional Development Empowered Education, a Christian-based food assistance program in Spring Lake, there’s been a noticeable uptick in military families seeking help to put food on the table, said Renee Gregory, the program’s leader. “It has increased treNC food banks can’t fill the hunger...

Paul Woolverton/CityView Fayetteville City Council candidate Enrique “Ranger Rick” Murillo is dropping out of the race, he told CityView on Thursday. His decision, which he said he reached on Wednesday, follows the Cumberland County Board of Elections’ vote the day before to allow Murillo to remain in the race for...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Beams of sunlight broke through dark gray storm clouds suspended in the sky above this historic city on a recent August morning. The local forecast was calling for rain, the kind of weather that drives tourists from area beaches to explore other experiences the area has...

Will Doran/WRAL News A powerful state lawmaker whose campaign took thousands of dollars from lobbyists during this year’s legislative session is giving the money back, after drawing concerns over the legality of those transactions. Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry) has spent years as a top member of House Republican leadership in...

Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & Charlotte Ledger Mecklenburg County commissioners chair Mark Jerrell said he is confident that Atrium Health will share data with him on the racial and ethnic makeup of the first class on the Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Charlotte campus — but he doesn’t have...

Michelle Chapman/The Associated Press Gildan Activewear is buying the struggling HanesBrands for $2.2 billion in a deal that gives the basic apparel maker access to household name brands like Hanes and Maidenform. The companies put the transaction’s valued at about $4.4 billion when HanesBrands’ debt is included. Gildan, in addition...

Mebane Rash/Education NC Yesterday, the Trump administration published a report, America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping American Workers for the Golden Age, which details the federal government’s cross-agency approach to workforce development. The report was required by President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Prepare Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,”...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press A lawsuit alleging that the Moore County Department of Social Services unlawfully institutionalized two siblings with intellectual disabilities will move forward, a federal judge in Winston-Salem has ruled. Disability Rights NC filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of Moore County mother Rumina Slazas and her...

Shea Carver/Port City Daily With a few boos from the audience following a tight vote, a site plan to bring almost 1,700 homes to Brunswick County passed earlier in the week. On Monday, the Brunswick County Planning Board voted 4-3, with Chair Clifton Cheek having to weigh in to break...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Helene didn’t help Haywood’s declining property tax collection rate. The county’s tax collection rate dropped for the third consecutive year in 2024 since rookie Tax Collector Sebastian Cothran took over, despite ramping up more aggressive enforcement actions. The rate fell from 98.19% in 2023 to 98.04%...

Lily Levin/Smoky Mountain News Cannabis regulation was again debated by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ leadership on Aug. 7 as tribal council considered two resolutions — in both instances, council representatives overwhelmingly favored the status quo. Nonetheless, a few questions were raised in the process. First on the cannabis docket...

Hendersonville Lightning Lynne Russo on Wednesday launched her campaign for the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 117. Touting a platform built around public-school funding, rural recovery, disaster relief and veteran support, Russo, a Democrat, promised leadership focused on action, not partisanship. “There’s too much talk in Raleigh and...