Morgan Starling/The (Jacksonville) Daily News  Tensions were high at the Aug. 12 Holly Ridge Town Council meeting as residents and council members struggled to find common ground on the consideration of a proposed annexation. Holly Ridge Development Group submitted a voluntary satellite annexation request on July 31 to the town...

Will Doran/WRAL News The leader of NCInnovation plans to leave after the end of the year, he told WRAL in an exclusive interview. The group is an ambitious public-private partnership aimed at helping university scientists turn their research into job-creating private ventures. Research Triangle Park has been a key driver...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio The State Auditor’s Office investigation of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools reveals years of overspending, incorrect budgeting practices and a lack of internal controls— but no embezzlement or fraud. The audit was released Thursday morning. It’s a 39-page deep dive into the district’s finances that mostly confirms what officials...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog Asheville Watchdog’s lawsuit alleging the city of Asheville violated North Carolina’s open meetings laws can proceed, a judge has ruled. Judge Robert Ervin filed a brief order Aug. 8 affirming that The Watchdog and fellow plaintiff Sunshine Request, an Asheville-based public interest project that publishes results...

Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio A quarry that had been operating along the Nolichucky River must stop digging up and crushing rock immediately, a Mitchell County Superior Court judge ordered this week. Judge Theodore McEntire issued a preliminary injunction against Horizon 30, LLC, on Monday. McEntire also directed Horizon 30 to establish...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Flooding from Tropical Depression Chantal displaced more than 150 people from their Central North Carolina homes in early July. The storm exposed deep inequities in the region’s housing market, activists and academics say, with a significant focus on Chapel Hill. Rising waters disproportionately affected older...

Rachel Crumpler/NC Health News To give more seriously ill incarcerated people the opportunity to go home before they die, North Carolina lawmakers expanded the eligibility criteria of prison medical release in 2023. But data obtained by NC Health News shows that more people aren’t getting released. Since 2008, medical release...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News The American Flood Coalition’s Recovery and Resilience Partnership is barely six months old, but it’s already helping to deliver results in the form of a $20 million mitigation grant program aimed at helping communities in Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene and prepare for the...

Greg Childress/NC Newsline At Health and Nutritional Development Empowered Education, a Christian-based food assistance program in Spring Lake, there’s been a noticeable uptick in military families seeking help to put food on the table, said Renee Gregory, the program’s leader. “It has increased treNC food banks can’t fill the hunger...

Paul Woolverton/CityView Fayetteville City Council candidate Enrique “Ranger Rick” Murillo is dropping out of the race, he told CityView on Thursday. His decision, which he said he reached on Wednesday, follows the Cumberland County Board of Elections’ vote the day before to allow Murillo to remain in the race for...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Beams of sunlight broke through dark gray storm clouds suspended in the sky above this historic city on a recent August morning. The local forecast was calling for rain, the kind of weather that drives tourists from area beaches to explore other experiences the area has...

Will Doran/WRAL News A powerful state lawmaker whose campaign took thousands of dollars from lobbyists during this year’s legislative session is giving the money back, after drawing concerns over the legality of those transactions. Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry) has spent years as a top member of House Republican leadership in...

Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & Charlotte Ledger Mecklenburg County commissioners chair Mark Jerrell said he is confident that Atrium Health will share data with him on the racial and ethnic makeup of the first class on the Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Charlotte campus — but he doesn’t have...

Michelle Chapman/The Associated Press Gildan Activewear is buying the struggling HanesBrands for $2.2 billion in a deal that gives the basic apparel maker access to household name brands like Hanes and Maidenform. The companies put the transaction’s valued at about $4.4 billion when HanesBrands’ debt is included. Gildan, in addition...

Mebane Rash/Education NC Yesterday, the Trump administration published a report, America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping American Workers for the Golden Age, which details the federal government’s cross-agency approach to workforce development. The report was required by President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Prepare Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,”...