Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer A civil lawsuit involving Shining Rock Classical Academy charter school concluded Tuesday following five days of both tense and emotional testimony, but a verdict could be weeks away as the presiding judge sorts through the mountains of conflicting evidence and testimony. The lawsuit and countersuit center...

Jennifer Berry Hawes/ProPublica In their last phone call before bed, Janicke Glynn tries to reassure her husband. He is away visiting a sick relative, and a Weather Channel forecast of Hurricane Helene’s imminent collision with the North Carolina mountains is leaving him uneasy. The storm, more than 400 miles wide,...

Paige Gross/NC Newsline A footnote in a budget bill U.S. House Republicans are trying to pass before Memorial Day is the first major signal for how Congress may address artificial intelligence legislation, as they seek to create a moratorium on any AI laws at the state level for 10 years....

Will Hofmann/Asheville Citizen Times Estimates indicate eight major transportation corridor projects in Western North Carolina will cost $2.6 billion as the N.C. Department of Transportation seeks to repair roughly 90 miles of road catastrophically damaged by Tropical Storm Helene. The projects were presented during the May 12 Governor’s Recovery Office...

Gerard Albert III/Blue Ridge Public Radio Farmers in Western North Carolina are still hurting after Hurricane Helene. Between debris cleanup and lost crops, small farms throughout western North Carolina are on the hook for an average of $70,000, according to a study published this month. Most farmers had damage to...

Will Atwater/NC Health News People who have been struggling to clean up decades of industrial pollution in the lower Cape Fear River basin are expressing their dismay and anger at a federal delay announced Wednesday on a crackdown on so-called forever chemicals that have fouled their drinking water. That day,...

Liz Bell/EducationNC In the last 18 years, Wilkes County has lost 56 child care programs, 67% of its child care capacity. This year, thanks to a scrappy community effort, local leaders saved the county from losing another. Sharon Phillips and her daughter Katy Hinson, owners of PlayWorks Early Care and...

Max Tendler/WUNC Radio Some 148 acres of multi-use trails in Wake County’s most popular park close permanently June 1 to make way for an entertainment development from the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority. Trail users are devastated. “When I heard that they were closing, I was very upset, very sad,” said Tres...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press  This summer, 5 million tourists will descend on 200 miles of remote North Carolina coastline. The Outer Banks are idyllic — and popular. But for both those visitors and the area’s 38,000 year-round residents, the vacation paradise has one serious problem: health care access. Dare...

Claire Cranford, Ana Despa & Ishita Vaid/The (Duke) Chronicle Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) sent a letter to President Vincent Price May 14 requesting Duke formally end its joint venture with Wuhan University — Duke Kunshan University. The Chronicle has reviewed several of the claims made...

Jonathan Bym/The (Southern Pines) Pilot Paul Ross was tired of his weekly cross-country commute for work, so he’s moving his gun manufacturing company closer to where he lives. Ross, who lives in Moore County and runs his Carthage Cattle Co. with his wife, also is president of OA Defense, which...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC Radio The North Carolina Senate’s proposal for the upcoming biennial state budget includes more than $180 million in cuts to the state’s public universities. The reductions could impact several higher education initiatives, ranging from tuition and academic centers to scholarship programs. One proposal, a $9.5 million cut to...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The focus of conversation surrounding the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge has largely taken place on the Wilmington side of the platform, though it shifted west earlier this week as Leland Town Council received an update on progress. Trevor Carroll, North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 3...

Rebecca Pifer/Healthcare Dive There’s still significant support in Congress for overhauling the pharmacy benefit manager industry, after reforms almost made it across the finish line late last year but died at the 11th hour, lawmakers said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. “Americans are fed up… they’re eager...

Mark Hibbs/Coastal Review Online The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaking Wednesday during a Senate budget hearing in Washington, D.C., dismissed reports that the agency was weakening standards on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called “forever chemicals.” During questioning by the chair and ranking member, respectively, Sens. Lisa Murkowski,...