Elena Marsh/The (Southern Pines) Pilot The Moore County Board of Commissioners has called upon federal authorities to aid them in stopping the removal of the High Falls Dam. At the board’s Tuesday meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to send a letter to U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, whose district includes Moore County,...

Gareth McGrath/USA Today Network Beach nourishment projects are becoming increasingly expensive, forcing some towns to make difficult decisions about funding. When the Army Corps of Engineers announced in May that a contract had been signed for fresh sand to be pumped onto Pleasure Island’s beaches, Carolina and Kure beach officials...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog  If you’re like me, you avoid driving I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge like warm beer on a hot summer day. Hey, if I have to circle through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas to enter Tennessee from the west and then drive east back to Knoxville, I’ll...

Zachary Turner/WFAE Radio N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined nearly 20 other states in filing a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday, three months after the federal agency terminated hundreds of flood mitigation grants in April. Last week, Tropical Storm Chantal may have foreshadowed the future costs...

Bradley George/WUNC Radio A new, regional bus station will open in Downtown Raleigh next week. But the adjoining mixed-use development by Hoffman & Associates has scaled back its affordable housing component. RUS BUS (pronounced “russ bus”) will serve GoTriangle commuter routes to Durham, Chapel Hill, and Research Triangle Park. It’s...

Makiya Seminera/The Associated Press North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Josh Stein decided Wednesday against appealing a trial court ruling that did not go in his favor last month, securing a small victory for Republican lawmakers whom the governor was challenging. The case focused on whether Stein has the authority to choose...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press “The state is not your friend,” a local social services director told employees as she urged them not to cooperate with a NC Department of Health and Human Services probe into her agency’s child welfare operations, Carolina Public Press has learned. Surry County Department of Social...

Cheyenne McNeill/Education NC The State Board of Education’s virtual meeting on Thursday covered multiple topics, including policy amendments, a review of the Charter Schools Annual Report, and an update on cut scores for the edTPA exams. To start, the Board welcomed three new advisors: Freddie Williamson, Superintendent of the Year...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The City of Wilmington’s investment portfolio, at least the portion it has direct control over, now is intended to be free of fossil fuel assets. At its Tuesday meeting, the Wilmington City Council voted 5-2 for a resolution directing the city manager — the newly appointed...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online When contractors began cleaning up debris from the grounds of a former wood treatment plant in Navassa last year, they expected they’d be removing old railroad ties, pieces of treated wood and tires. “We didn’t expect to see a tank there,” Ngozi Ibe said of the...

Caleb M. Soptelean/Sanford Herald The largest residential annexation in recent years in Sanford, but maybe ever, was approved 6-1 Tuesday, July 15, with Councilman Charles Taylor voting no. The Cherokee Land Co. and the Dalrymple and Moore families requested it for 470 acres east of Colon Road between Post Office...

Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News About nine hours after Tropical Depression Chantal inundated central North Carolina last week, Jeff Mahagan’s phone woke him at 3 in the morning. The person working on call at the Hillsborough wastewater treatment plant was scared. Mahagan, the town’s deputy utilities director for water treatment, didn’t...

Will Doran/WRAL News North Carolina Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives say they voted for the new budget plan backed by President Donald Trump largely because of its large income tax cuts and ramped-up federal spending on immigration enforcement. They also said its large cut to Medicaid funding “restores...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The New Hanover County Board of Education heard several options for long-needed repairs to the 104-year-old New Hanover High School last week, yet how those capital projects would be funded may be more complicated than expected. The master plan, which Port City Daily first reported about...

Adam Wagner/WFAE Radio The most recent Helene relief package included $15 million to bolster the N.C. Forest Service’s efforts to fight wildfires in western North Carolina. House Bill 1012, which Gov. Josh Stein signed into law in late June, provides the funds for wildfire assets and preparedness, as well as...