April Laissle/WFDD Radio The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is teaming up with federal wildlife officials to curb the spread of rabies. Starting this week, the United States Department of Agriculture will distribute oral rabies vaccines for raccoons across western North Carolina. Vaccine baits coated in fishmeal...

Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline When Hurricane Helene tore through western Yancey County, Steve Boyd was one of thousands in the area who lost internet access. The 70-year-old retiree, who lives outside of Burnsville, knows he got lucky. He didn’t lose his house, or his belongings — just a couple nearby trees...

Jaymie Baxley/NC Health News Addressing a crowded ballroom at a Raleigh hotel last Wednesday, Gov. Josh Stein said he is “gravely concerned” about congressional Republicans’ plans to slash federal funding for Medicaid. “These proposals would take away people’s access to health care, destabilize rural hospitals and challenge the bipartisan progress...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Corn farmers on food stamps and taking second jobs. Equipment not being repaired. Debts going unpaid. That’s the reality for many North Carolina corn growers this spring. Last year was the worst season for the crop in state history, according to Ronnie Heiniger, a corn...

Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio The town of Spruce Pine’s riverfront park has been under a layer of mud since Helene’s floodwaters receded. North Carolina’s legislature passed more than $1 billion with two Helene recovery funding bills in October, but by mid-February, about two-thirds of that money still hadn’t been spent. The...

Marshall Terry/WFAE Radio As more people enter continuing care retirement communities, a bill in the North Carolina General Assembly would create new rules for those facilities. The legislation is partly in response to serious financial troubles at Aldersgate, which is one of Charlotte’s oldest and best-known retirement facilities. The Charlotte...

Bill Hutchinson/ABC News A massive wildfire burning for more than a week in South Carolina jumped the border Saturday and was spreading Sunday into North Carolina, where firefighters were already battling multiple blazes, officials said. The Table Rock Fire, which started on March 21 in the Table Rock State Park...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online A proposal to limit commercial fishers’ harvest of blue crabs treads rough waters after advisory committees to the state Marine Fisheries Commission agreed the rule should not move forward. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries’ recommendation targets catch of mature female crabs. The proposed move...

Rodney Overton/CBS 17 News There’s been a lot of feedback this week about a new parking plan and payment system at a North Carolina island. Sunset Beach is a community that includes an island with 3 miles of beaches located in far southern Brunswick County. For much of its existence,...

Michael Singleton/The Daily Tar Heel Amid changes in Ph.D. admissions across the country, faculty and prospective students are left wondering what current and future developments might mean for UNC. Last month, the UNC Biological & Biomedical Sciences Program announced a preemptive decrease in admissions for their incoming class. While the...

Paul Woolverton/CityView The 30-day pause on construction of the Cumberland County Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville stems from a $1.9 million “additional architect’s fee” from the EwingCole architecture firm. That is specified in a legal representation agreement, signed March 5, between the Hutchens Law Firm of Fayetteville and the...

Jeff Stein & Theodoric Meyer/The Washington Post President Donald Trump is pushing senior advisers to go bigger on tariff policy as they prepare for what the White House has called “Liberation Day,” the April 2 date he has set for a major escalation in his global trade war, four people...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily Environmentalist groups notified the City of Asheboro and two of its major industries of their intent to sue for violating the Clean Water Act with toxic pollution flowing downstream to the tri-county region. This comes as local officials urge state regulators to enforce 1,4-dioxane limits. The...

Brian Slodysko & Michael Biesecker/The Associated Press A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Just after noon in front of the manufacturing building at Guilford Technical Community College, first-year student Khniya Hames recited her lines. “She has remained dedicated to education and public service throughout her life. … She also served in North Carolina’s House of Representatives. …” Hames gazed...