Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press Months after Tropical Storm Helene ravaged Western North Carolina, rural communities, unincorporated towns and small municipalities are still trying to recover and rebuild. They face another monumental challenge: ensuring their homes, businesses, and public spaces are more resilient to future extreme rainfall events, intensified by climate...

WRAL News The downtown Raleigh Holiday Inn on Hillsborough Street will not be torn down. It is going to stay right where it is. Built back in 1969, it’s best known for its circular shape. People who live in Raleigh have described the building at 320 Hillsborough St. as both...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio Intellicor Academy, an Islamic school in east Charlotte, is one of Mecklenburg County’s largest Opportunity Scholarship recipients. The latest data from the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority show Mecklenburg County students received nearly $40 million in Opportunity Scholarship funding this school year to attend private schools....

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The Wilmington City Council took its first of two votes on its 2025-2026 budget Tuesday night, though one council member dissented based on one-tenth of a cent. Highlights of the city’s budget proposal include $8.6 million for increases to salaries, including for first responders, $30.5 million...

The (High Point) Enterprise Novant Health has named new executives to its Triad Region leadership team, including at the health system’s hospitals in Thomasville and Kernersville. Chris Brown became facility president and chief operating officer of Novant Health Thomasville Medical Center effective May 19, and Brown began his health care...

Smoky Mountain News The N.C. Department of Transportation and its partners have selected two sites in the Pigeon River Gorge for extracting and storing material to help rebuild sections of Interstate 40 damaged by Hurricane Helene. A nearly 33-acre site will be used to extract stone, and an adjacent 11.5-acre...

Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press As climate-related disasters grow more frequent and costly, communities and governments face tough questions about how to mitigate future floods. Federal, state, and local decision makers often clash because they’re driven by different incentives, budget constraints and timelines, making coordination among governments challenging. State Sen. Julie...

Eli Chen/WUNC Radio After 35 years, Neo-China, one of Durham’s oldest Chinese restaurants, has closed its doors. The family-owned restaurant grappled with increasing inventory prices caused by the 145% tariff the U.S. imposed on Chinese goods in April. Since then, the trade war has de-escalated and a 90-day pause has...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s board of directors were given the chance to stop a tolled Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in its tracks this week and it chose not to, even after protest from one member. The board voted 8-4 on a resolution to...

John Boyle & Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog After decades of planning and debate, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has said it’s close to starting construction on the long-gestating I-26 Connector project. But community members, including architects and planners, are still asking the agency to reconsider some of its designs, particularly...

Keely Arthur/WRAL News In a one-on-one interview with 5 WRAL On Your Side, newly appointed Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Commissioner Paul Tine promised shorter wait times and fewer headaches for North Carolinians in need of DMV services. “It’s going to get better,” he said. “I wouldn’t be in the...

Chantal Brown/Education NC Some school districts in North Carolina have decided that their best future teacher candidates may already be in the area — just still in high school. These districts have begun their own iterations of teacher cadet programs, where high school students take introductory education courses and are...

Jaymie Baxley, Rose Hoban & Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News The Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a Medicaid program that addressed the nonmedical health needs of low-income North Carolinians, will cease operations July 1, according to an announcement obtained by NC Health News. The first-in-the-nation effort that has drawn national attention and praise...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Coastal communities are inundated more often than previously believed, and floodwaters take longer to recede in rural areas than in urban areas, according to a new study. The study, published Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, also found that the way government agencies gather...

Felicia Sonmez/Blue Ridge Radio The landscape for short-term rentals in Buncombe County has changed drastically since before Hurricane Helene. For years, Asheville and Buncombe County’s market for short-term rentals — such as those found on websites like Airbnb and VRBO — was booming. Things were going so well that some...