James Farrell/WFAE Radio Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has adopted its 2026-27 academic calendar. The school year is set to start Tuesday, Aug. 25. But some local and state leaders continue to call for a change in state law to allow schools to start sooner. A bill to that effect has been introduced...

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi/The (Raleigh) News & Observer It’s been more than six months since Helene tore through Western North Carolina, and five people are still missing — lost in the floodwaters that swept through the mountains in September 2024. The families of those missing still face bureaucratic hurdles to...

Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline The chair of the Republican National Committee said Monday evening he believes recent chaos in global stock markets was an “overreaction” to President Donald Trump’s new tariffs. “I think there’s a lot of false equivocation that the market equals the economy,” argued Michael Whatley, who was elevated...

Iris Seaton/Asheville Citizen Times The cost of gasoline is a common source of anxiety among Americans – but where are average prices resting? An online auto retailer American Trucks study found that roughly 22% of U.S. citizens consider gas their most worrisome household expense. Additionally, 58% of Americans reported driving...

David Beasley/The Center Square Prohibiting hostile foreign governments such as China or Russia from purchasing farmland and property within 75 miles of a miliary installation has cleared a committee in the North Carolina House of Representatives. N.C. Farmland and Military Protection Act, or House Bill 133, would bar governments designated...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio Last month, the family of a 15-year-old Muslim girl accused a 15-year-old Black boy of beating her because of her religion at Ardrey Kell High School. Now, a schism has emerged between some of the city’s Black and Muslim residents and activists, as recriminations and demands for...

Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press A decade in the making, the future of the forest plan to manage Western North Carolina’s national forests is now hazy, threatened by a lawsuit, a presidential executive order accelerating timber production, and the scars of Hurricane Helene, which leveled thousands of acres of forest. Finalized...

Mebane Rash/Education NC In addition to building relationships across party lines, Gov. Josh Stein is creating spaces for cross-partisan cooperation to happen. Stein in his inaugural address said, “North Carolina strong also means working together across our differences to get things done. And so to the members of the General...

WRAL News Following a March decision to pause the $145 million Crown Event Center project for 30 days, Cumberland County has lifted the suspension on the project’s contract. On Tuesday, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners announced the project will resume under contractual obligation. “The Board has taken this action...

Ben Bokun/WNCN News  In its 156-year existence, Durham’s Hayti community has seen its share of changes. And now a fenced-off, vacant shopping mall could be the site of a new development worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But many residents are rallying against a rezoning request that would move the...

Igor Bobic/Huffington Post One of the most vulnerable Republican senators in next year’s election is sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s global tariffs ― and he’s not mincing words about it. “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) asked...

Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review Online Fifty years after the need for a bridge between mainland Currituck County and its barrier island beaches was first identified, and 30 years after a draft planning document for the proposed mid-Currituck bridge was first released, a recent public meeting revealed that the same issues are...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press The Cape Fear River Basin is the source of drinking water for 1.5 million North Carolina residents. It is also where three municipal governments — Asheboro, Greensboro and Reidsville — are legally dumping dangerous levels of 1,4-dioxane, a colorless industrial solvent linked to cancer. But...

WUNC & The Associated Press Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is a challenge, especially for adventurers making the entire run from Southern California to Canada, and Eric Kipperman’s job is to greet them at the start and lay bare the difficulties ahead. He has lately begun warning that the journey...

Rachel Crumpler/NC Health News When the calls from prison suddenly stopped in February 2024, Erik Ramsey’s family started worrying. Frequent communication was their way of trying to help Ramsey, 29, who’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, get through the time until his scheduled release in February 2026. In...