Mary Helen Moore/WUNC Radio Recreational flounder season is underway in North Carolina, allowing anglers a brief two-week window to catch and keep the popular fish. The state hopes to unlock more fishing opportunities next year by separating the season for southern flounder — which scientists believe has been overfished —...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio Congress has cut federal funding for public media — an $800,000 loss for WFAE. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism. Charlotte Area Transit System interim CEO Brent Cagle said Wednesday that fare enforcement on...

Gerard Albert III/Blue Ridge Public Radio North Carolina’s agriculture commissioner last week started sending checks to farmers who were affected by natural disasters like Hurricane Helene. The payments are part of a $478 million dollar allocation from a statewide Helene-relief bill. The state received more than 8,000 applications for aid...

Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily Residents expressed their concerns to the New Hanover County commissioners this week, urging them to hold Novant Health accountable for patient care and safety standards. About 30 demonstrators gathered outside of the New Hanover County commissioner meeting on Sept. 2 to demand commissioners address poor patient...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The state has issued another environmental violation to the debris landfill in Canton for discharging pollutants into a local river — this time from the solid waste division of the Department of Environmental Quality. This violation was the sixth that Two Banks Development’s landfill received in...

Paul Woolverton/CityView Two more people have dropped out of the November Fayetteville City Council election, Cumberland County Elections Director Angie Amaro told CityView on Tuesday. Khalil Younger, who was running for the District 7 seat, and Robbie Poole, who was running for the District 8 seat, withdrew around August 19,...

Jenna Fryer/The Associated Press A federal judge on Wednesday denied two teams — one owned by NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan — a preliminary injunction in their antitrust suit against NASCAR to be recognized as chartered teams for the remainder of the season. Judge Kenneth Bell of the U.S....

Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News North Carolina students are making big gains in math, though they remain behind the proficiency rates of 2018 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, new data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction shows. Statewide test proficiency rates are still behind pre-pandemic levels across...

Celeste Gracia/WUNC Radio Local governments and environmental advocates are asking the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to establish a preliminary health goal for 1,4 dioxane in drinking water. Similar to PFAS, 1,4 dioxane is a toxic, man-made chemical that can cause cancer over a lifetime of exposure....

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio A Charlotte City Council committee Tuesday approved a framework for appointing board members to a new transit authority, which would be enacted if voters approve a new 1-cent sales tax in November. Some officials, however, were skeptical — even some of those who voted yes. If voters...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily  A transportation sales tax across New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties is in the early stages of research at the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, though elected leaders are looking for constituent feedback before moving forward.  On Aug. 26, members of the WMPO’s Alternative Funding...

Taylor Knopf/NC Health News A new psychiatric hospital in Greenville will begin serving patients in eastern North Carolina later this month. ECU Health Behavioral Health Hospital is a new 144-bed facility intended to provide inpatient and intensive outpatient psychiatric services to adults and children; it will open with a 24-bed...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog Mission Hospital CEO Greg Lowe has told employees the company wants to hire 200 employees over just more than three months beginning on Sept. 22, according to a document obtained by Asheville Watchdog. “You asked, we listened,” Lowe said in a newsletter sent to staff and...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press Mecklenburg County is one of 10 North Carolina counties with primary elections this fall. Charlotte is one of even fewer municipalities with contests set for next week. In the largely Democratic stronghold, the primaries generally decide the overall winner. Turnout is usually low. In the 2023...

Sergio Osnaya-Prieto/EducationNC Four North Carolina community colleges have joined a network spearheaded by the Aspen Institute whose goal is to align these colleges’ programs with available career and bachelor’s degree pathways, according to a press release. The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program announced the 55 community colleges that will join...