Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily The battle over “forever chemicals” continues with federal regulators seeking to reverse course on three chemical compounds with established regulations, while a chemical company pursues a permit to increase production of PFAS compounds at a North Carolina plant. (Port City Daily photo / CFPUA) After issuing...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News The signs are still there lining the fragile bank separating Interstate 40 from the Pigeon River — chunks of jagged asphalt, wayward pipes, rusty cables bent into submission by nature. Just 11 months ago, as Hurricane Helene mercilessly swamped the whole region, the river, now low...

Aarik Long/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Another GOP challenger is throwing his hat in the ring for Rep. Mark Pless’s seat representing Haywood and Madison counties in the N.C. House of Representatives. Haywood County Board of Education member Jimmy Rogers has more than two decades of experience as a representative for the...

Aidan Lockhart & Regan Butler/The Daily Tar Heel School of Civic Life and Leadership Dean and Director Jed Atkins fired David Decosimo from his associate dean position on Aug. 8. Decosimo remains a tenured associate professor in the school. In addition to the change in leadership, SCiLL’s faculty retention issues...

Trey Nemec/CityView Fayetteville City Council members on Monday voted 8-2 to approve a $220,500 contract to renew the city’s use of automated gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter for one year. Council Members Mario Benavente and Deno Hondros voted against the contract renewal. ShotSpotter, which is owned by SoundThinking, covers areas of...

Nick Fogleman/Watauga Democrat North Carolina’s Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley recently visited Watauga County, beginning his trip by delivering school supplies collected through the Governor’s School Supply Drive. The supplies were specifically designated for Watauga County Schools to help relieve pressure on teachers, who often spend out-of-pocket to equip their...

John Staton/Wilmington StarNews Take a walk around downtown Wilmington and, most of the time, it’s bustling. Not just with patrons of bars and restaurants, something downtown has long been known for, but also with shoppers. For many retail merchants downtown, high traffic “translates well to sales. It’s busy,” said Jake...

Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & The Charlotte Ledger For years, Charlotte’s health care market has been dominated by two names: Atrium Health and Novant Health. Between them, the two hospital systems hold a near lock on the region’s hospitals, a growing share of its doctors and much of its specialty...

Celeste Gracia/WUNC Radio Under the Trump Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, a conservation policy that protects undeveloped areas in national forests. The deadline to submit public comment is Friday, September 19 – three weeks after the comment period opened. “To avoid public...

Ben Humphries/Education NC At the State Board of Education’s meeting last Thursday, the Board voted 5-4 to extend an interest-free grace period on the remaining $3.4 million debt in state funds overdrafted by Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS). Starting Oct. 1, per the vote, interest will accrue at a rate of...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online When the proposed flood insurance rate maps for Onslow County were released back in 2016, Jacksonville officials were surprised to say the least. The preliminary maps created under North Carolina’s Flood Plain Mapping Program shifted more than 800 additional structures in downtown Jacksonville into a high-hazard...

Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Operate a hotel for long enough, and eventually you feel like you’ve seen everything. But for Pisgah Inn owner Bruce O’Connell — in the hospitality trenches since 1979 — the last year takes the cake. “I’ve been through sewer plant failures, rockslides, other parkway closures that...

Jessica Stump & Anna Oakes/Watauga Democrat This fall, Appalachian State University reports continued steady growth, welcoming a record-setting enrollment of 21,798 Mountaineer students — a 1.1% increase over fall 2024. Fall 2025 enrollment at App State was boosted by a 28% rise in online students and the highest-ever number of...

Ashe Post & Times After a year of recovery and New River-clean ups, the New River Conservancy (NRC) and The Conservation Fund are donating a three-acre parcel property to Ashe County to serve as the first public access on the North Fork of the New River. Utilizing donations from across...

Jule Hubbard/Wilkes Journal-Patriot Wilkes County’s labor force, defined as the number of people working plus those unemployed but looking for work, reached a record low of 24,969 in July. The N.C. Department of Commerce listed Wilkes with 1,012 people unemployed and an unemployment rate of 4.1% in July. The state...