Makiya Seminera, Laura Hackett & Jose Sandoval/Education NC When 12-year-old Natalie Briggs visited the ruins of her home after Hurricane Helene, she had to tightrope across a wooden beam to reach what was once her bedroom. Knots of electrical wires were draped inside the skeleton of the house. Months after...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The concept of “biochar” may dredge up images of ash and blackened organic matter, but the material could be a bright solution to several of the county’s Helene-related problems, especially now that it has been bolstered by a $1 million grant. The recently announced funding from...

Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online Saturday evening was one of celebrating coastal stewards, supporters and volunteers during North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Pelican Awards and Taste of the Coast fundraising event. The nonprofit organization that publishes Coastal Review was established in 1982 with the mission to protect and preserve the state’s...

Mark Jurkowitz/Outer Banks Voice The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced on Friday, Sept. 19 that two significant approvals were issued for the oft-delayed Mid-Currituck Bridge project. According to the announcement, DEQ’s Division of Coastal Management (DCM) issued a Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA)/Dredge and Fill Law permit for...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio A UNC-Chapel Hill program partnering with a dozen community colleges across the state has lost a federal grant to help train future preschool teachers to better serve students with disabilities. It’s part of the U.S. Department of Education’s crackdown on grants promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The...

Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily A recent political cartoon in a local paper has one Pender County commissioner feeling fearful for his life. However, the newspaper’s publisher says the commissioner is misinterpreting the image and its intent. At the Pender County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Sept. 15, Commissioner Jerry...

Sarah Nagem/Border Belt Independent Jarrod Lowery, a Republican who has represented Robeson County in the N.C. House since 2022, said he is leaving the state legislature next month to take a job with the Trump administration. Lowery told the Border Belt Independent on Saturday that Trump appointed him to a...

Helen Chickering/Blue Ridge Public Radio A FEMA funding announcement this week led many to believe the iconic Lake Lure Flowering Bridge would be rebuilt — but town officials now say that’s not the case. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-14th District, issued a press release relaying a FEMA grant...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Lake Logan has some new geographic features thanks to Helene — including an island of sediment, a widened river bed upstream and 4,000 feet of failing banks. But new funding from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality could help revitalize the lake while turning waterway debris...

Nancy McCleary/Sanford Herald The Lee County commissioners unanimously gave the OK on Monday for school officials to apply for a grant to partially fund the cost of building a new elementary school. If the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund request is approved, the county would pay $14,242,470 toward the total...

Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio A bucolic 342 acres between downtown Asheville and Leicester is one step closer to becoming Buncombe County’s newest park. At last night’s Buncombe County Commission meeting, staff shared that by the end of the year, it plans to finalize the purchase of Deaverview Mountain at...

Richard Holm/Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald The Scotland Neck Police Department has cut all part-time positions due to budgetary reasons, and that has raised questions about the state of the agency. According to a letter recently sent out from Chief Austin Holland, the SNPD administration made the decision to cut all...

Elizabeth Ouzts/Canary Media In small communities across North Carolina, data centers are already sparking conflict over land use, water use, and quality of life. Now, the debate over the facilities’ voracious need for electricity — and whether it can be met with clean sources — is heating up in the...

Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio PBS North Carolina has begun laying off employees this week in response to the elimination of federal funding for public media. It’s unclear how many staffers at the statewide public TV network are losing their jobs, or which positions have been cut. Sources familiar with the situation...

Aaron Beard/The Associated Press Fourteen former N.C. State male athletes have filed a civil lawsuit in state court alleging sexual abuse under the guise of treatment and harassment by the Wolfpack’s former director of sports medicine, expanding a case that began with a federal lawsuit from a single athlete three...