Sergio Osnaya-Prieto/Education NC Corinne Smith, director of Appalachian State University’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) and deputy director of College Access Partnerships, received the 2025 GEAR UP Professional Leader of the Year award at a ceremony in San Francisco earlier this month, according to a...

Gary D. Robertson/The Associated Press Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, giving Democrats a proven statewide winner in an open-seat race that is expected to be one of the most competitive 2026 contests. Cooper made the announcement Monday with a video released...

Daniel Walton/Blue Ridge Public Radio Asheville city government employees all started getting bigger paychecks July 11, as funded by the $256 million budget Asheville City Council unanimously approved in June. But one group of municipal workers, the officers of the Asheville Police Department, saw proportionally greater gains than their colleagues....

Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily The local water authority is actively seeking advanced solutions to address the challenge of 1,4-dioxane contamination in the region’s drinking water. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s (CFPUA) Long Range Planning Committee convened July 24 to discuss and evaluate potential strategies for improving the removal of...

Zachery Eanes/Axios Raleigh Following in the footsteps of Raleigh and Chapel Hill, Durham has unveiled initial plans for adding a bus rapid transit line through the center of the city. Why it matters: With dreams of light rail and commuter rail across the Triangle seemingly quashed, officials in the region...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press When Shaun Adams was laid off by Stanley Furniture in 2014, he was beyond frustrated. Not only was he losing his job at the furniture manufacturing plant, but Graham County was losing its largest employer and last major manufacturer. In the year after Stanley left,...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News In its first regular meeting since a superior court judge ruled that Head of School Joshua Morgan was responsible for the “improper use of governmental authority to stop or inhibit the public from accessing public records,” Shining Rock Classical Academy’s governing board doubled down on Morgan’s...

Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald An aluminum automotive component manufacturer in Sanford was issued numerous health and safety violations last year. Bharat Forge Aluminum USA, which is located at 777 Kalyani Way on the north side of Sanford between Route 1 and Colon Road, was inspected in late 2023 and...

Olivia Neeley/The Wilson Times Wilson Community College will no longer participate in the federal government’s Direct Loan program in an effort to reduce debt risk for students. The decision does not affect financial aid options, including Pell grants, scholarships or work study. Amy Noel, WCC’s vice president of student development,...

Paul Woolverton/CityView North Carolina’s long-awaited Civil War & Reconstruction history center will open in Fayetteville in spring 2028, project advocates said on Friday. Construction of the 60,000-square-foot museum building is about to begin, museum board Chair Mac Healy told about 50 people gathered Friday for a ceremony on the construction...

Jesse Deal/The Stanly News & Press      At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night, councilmembers were presented with the Speculative Building Feasibility Study conducted for the Albemarle Business Center. Sponsored by ElectriCities of N.C., Inc. in partnership with the Albemarle’s Economic Development Department, the study was designed to determine...

Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio With a grin, former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper hinted Saturday night at the announcement everyone is expecting. Speaking at the N.C. Democratic Party’s annual Unity Dinner fundraiser, Cooper asked everyone who is planning to run for office in 2026 to stand up. Cooper waited a moment and...

Emma Goldberg/New York Times The first thing the mill workers noticed on what they later deemed “Black Monday” was the series of dark SUVs pulling up near the paper mill, at the heart of Canton, North Carolina. The mill’s hulking towers and plumes of smoke were visible for miles, rising...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The Trump Administration has completed its review of a $242 million federal grant for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project, thus allowing the funds to be released for the project. North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesperson Veronica Newsome notified PCD of the status change on...

NC Health News/Asheville Watchdog Just more than a month after judges made what some saw as the final decision in a case over new hospital beds for Buncombe County and the surrounding region, Mission Hospital signaled in the state’s highest court that it’s not giving up a nearly three-year fight...