Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review Online While state lawmakers consider two bills that would eliminate the state’s longstanding ban on hardened structures along the ocean shoreline, a report providing details about the effects and effectiveness of coastal erosion-control structures is expected to be presented this week during the regular meeting of the...

Liz McLaughlin/WRAL News More than two dozen North Carolina communities have adopted moratoriums or zoning restrictions on data centers as concerns grow over noise, electricity demand and water use. The pushback comes as tech companies plan billions of dollars in new investment across the state and lawmakers debate how tightly...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press Nothing’s ever truly dead in the legislature. Jacksonville residents are learning that the hard way as a previously abandoned bill changing their city election structure returned with a vengeance this week. House Bill 1038 would shift the city’s elections from a hybrid system with two at-large...

Aaron Sánchez-Guerra/WUNC News A shortage of immigrant labor is challenging the economies of North Carolina’s urban metros. A new report by the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explores how a drop in international net migration is cutting into the labor supply...

The Washington Post Just three days after artificial intelligence company Anthropic released its latest and most powerful AI model, Fable, the Trump administration called with an unusual demand: take it offline. Officials offered scant details on the reasons, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the...

Michelle Crouch/Charlotte Ledger & NC Health News After months of scrutiny, Atrium Health announced this week that it has finalized a deal to fulfill one of the affordable housing promises it made in 2021 while seeking public support for The Pearl, its medical innovation district. The agreement calls for the...

Shea Carver/Port City Daily The Southport Historic Preservation Committee has completed its three-and-a-half-year effort drafting regulations for a potential historic overlay district in the city, but one group of residents have considered legal action should it pass an aldermen vote. However, this week the mayor suggested the commission revert from...

Sarah White/The Waynesville Mountaineer An unexpected bump in motor vehicle property taxes has meant more money for local governments, and higher taxes for vehicle owners. That’s because the value of used vehicles has soared. Vehicle taxes are based on the value of the vehicle, so as the price of used...

WCHL Chapelboro As the college sports landscape continues to experience big changes in recent years, the UNC athletics department has tried to adapt while limiting monumental changes itself. But it will begin a new era this summer as athletic director Bubba Cunningham transitions to the new role and makes way...

Bill Moss/Hendersonville Lightning Henderson County is expected to join the city of Hendersonville in offering tax incentives to attract a $124 million manufacturing plant employing 148 workers making an average wage exceeding $62,776, raising the total potential property tax refund to $6½ million over seven years. The Hendersonville City Council...

Lena Geller/Indy Week Property taxes in Durham went up nearly universally last year in the wake of a countywide revaluation. So when City Manager Bo Ferguson announced, last month, that the city faces a $9 million budget deficit due to low property tax revenue—the largest source of income for both...

Ali Swenson/The Associated Press On hot afternoons, DeAnna Brandon’s three dogs zag around while she splashes in a backyard kiddie pool with her grandkids. These are the moments the 48-year-old blood cancer survivor cherishes — and wonders if she will get to have in the years to come. Brandon, who...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Charlotte just became the latest, and largest, North Carolina community to instate a temporary pause on the development of new data centers. Its city council unanimously approved a 150-day moratorium in front of a packed house Monday night, in a scene similar to ones which have...

Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog The town of Woodfin’s largest employer, Silver-Line Plastics, sits snug on the eastern bank of the French Broad River. For years, a grassy embankment separated its inventory — tight curls of black tubing and ramrod lengths of white PVC pipe stacked in chunky rectangular piles — from...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer A century after construction began on the Waterville dam and connecting hydroelectric power station, Duke Energy is looking toward the next phase of the facility’s life. Duke’s license to operate the power plant will expire in 2034 — and while that deadline is almost eight years...