Jacob Hancock-Hernández/WFDD Radio Six months after Helene wreaked havoc on Western North Carolina, roughly one-third of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway remains closed. But the National Parks Service has begun projects to repair the damage. While there are areas all throughout the parkway that need to be addressed, these projects...

Doug Bock Clark/ProPublica For years, North Carolina’s Republican-majority Legislature has taken steps big and small to wrench power from Democratic governors and the agencies under their control. One move that didn’t get much attention — tucked into a 628-page budget bill four years ago — was to direct $15 million...

Willie Daniely/WRAL News Sunday marks the last day of service for 42nd Street Oyster Bar in Raleigh. The southern seafood restaurant opened in 1931. According to an employee of 42nd Street Oyster Bar, the famed Raleigh restaurant will close its doors on Sunday, March 30. The news was first reported...

Wes Platt/Southpoint Access Pickett Road Apartments, a project whose consideration was postponed from February to allow developers to collaborate with opponents on points of compromise, on March 17 won approval from a divided City Council. Chin Page Road Apartments, expected to add about 360 apartment units across the road from...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog Melanie Wetmore’s tenure as chief nursing officer spanned some of the most tumultuous years in the history of Asheville’s Mission Hospital, including the COVID-19 pandemica mass exodus of nurses in 2022 and 2023, and a finding of immediate jeopardy in 2024, the most severe federal sanction...

Jackson Davenport/(NC State) Technician Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell delivered her first “State of the City” address Wednesday evening, focusing on housing affordability, public safety, transportation, quality of life and resilience in the city. Cowell aimed to highlight the work she and city council have done in the first 100 days...

Brianna Sacks, Brady Dennis & Jake Spring/The Washington Post Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and other Trump administration officials expressed support in meetings this week for dramatically diminishing the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the aim of all but eliminating the embattled agency’s role...

WRAL News The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is planning to cut 80 jobs and will lose more than $100 million in funding. The reductions are due to the federal government’s “abrupt and immediate termination of several federal grants,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. The...

David Mildenberg/Business North Carolina Wolfspeed, the Durham-based semiconductor manufacturer, named Robert Feurle as CEO starting May 1. Predecessor Gregg Lowe, who had led the business since 2017, was fired late last year amid mounting losses. The company is nearing completion of its $5 billion factory in Chatham County, one of...

Lena Geller/IndyWeek As North Carolina restaurants and hotels navigate the pandemic’s lingering effects on worker expectations and wages—and brace for renewed scrutiny of immigrant workers under Trump’s second administration—the hospitality sector finds itself at a critical juncture. Amid these shifting dynamics, Lynn Minges will conclude her 13-year tenure as president...

Emily Thomas/Education NC Gov. Josh Stein signed an executive order on March 25 creating the Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships. The new council will be responsible for identifying workforce needs and amplifying strategies that help North Carolinians access the education and training needed for high-wage, high-demand, and high-growth careers. The...

Richard Stradling/The (Raleigh) News & Observer The N.C. Department of Transportation and its contractors will be able to mine stone from Pisgah National Forest to help rebuild Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge in Western North Carolina, federal officials said Thursday. The stone is needed to rebuild a four-mile...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog In 2024, MANNA FoodBank set an ambitious fundraising goal for the year: $8.4 million. The nonprofit that ensures food security for 16 western North Carolina counties exceeded that target by 340 percent, bringing in $37 million. MANNA, which provides more than 20 million pounds of food a...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily An AI camera pilot program, politicized since its approval by the General Assembly, remained controversial even after the New Hanover County school board voted it down at a Tuesday meeting. At its agenda review meeting this week, the board picked up a conversation on a state-funded...

Jeffrey Collins & Brittany Peterson/The Associated Press When Nicole Taylor and her family moved to their new home in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, the gorgeous view of Table Rock Mountain was the clincher. She ended up with a porch-side seat to one of at least a half...