Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press When Shaun Adams was laid off by Stanley Furniture in 2014, he was beyond frustrated. Not only was he losing his job at the furniture manufacturing plant, but Graham County was losing its largest employer and last major manufacturer. In the year after Stanley left,...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News In its first regular meeting since a superior court judge ruled that Head of School Joshua Morgan was responsible for the “improper use of governmental authority to stop or inhibit the public from accessing public records,” Shining Rock Classical Academy’s governing board doubled down on Morgan’s...

Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald An aluminum automotive component manufacturer in Sanford was issued numerous health and safety violations last year. Bharat Forge Aluminum USA, which is located at 777 Kalyani Way on the north side of Sanford between Route 1 and Colon Road, was inspected in late 2023 and...

Olivia Neeley/The Wilson Times Wilson Community College will no longer participate in the federal government’s Direct Loan program in an effort to reduce debt risk for students. The decision does not affect financial aid options, including Pell grants, scholarships or work study. Amy Noel, WCC’s vice president of student development,...

Paul Woolverton/CityView North Carolina’s long-awaited Civil War & Reconstruction history center will open in Fayetteville in spring 2028, project advocates said on Friday. Construction of the 60,000-square-foot museum building is about to begin, museum board Chair Mac Healy told about 50 people gathered Friday for a ceremony on the construction...

Jesse Deal/The Stanly News & Press      At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night, councilmembers were presented with the Speculative Building Feasibility Study conducted for the Albemarle Business Center. Sponsored by ElectriCities of N.C., Inc. in partnership with the Albemarle’s Economic Development Department, the study was designed to determine...

Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio With a grin, former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper hinted Saturday night at the announcement everyone is expecting. Speaking at the N.C. Democratic Party’s annual Unity Dinner fundraiser, Cooper asked everyone who is planning to run for office in 2026 to stand up. Cooper waited a moment and...

Emma Goldberg/New York Times The first thing the mill workers noticed on what they later deemed “Black Monday” was the series of dark SUVs pulling up near the paper mill, at the heart of Canton, North Carolina. The mill’s hulking towers and plumes of smoke were visible for miles, rising...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The Trump Administration has completed its review of a $242 million federal grant for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project, thus allowing the funds to be released for the project. North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesperson Veronica Newsome notified PCD of the status change on...

NC Health News/Asheville Watchdog Just more than a month after judges made what some saw as the final decision in a case over new hospital beds for Buncombe County and the surrounding region, Mission Hospital signaled in the state’s highest court that it’s not giving up a nearly three-year fight...

Cece Nunn/WilmingtonBiz Some Wilmington-area workforce housing advocates say the community needs a combination of public and private efforts to address a growing shortage of affordable dwellings. The New Hanover Community Endowment can’t be the only source of funding, they say, reacting to recent statements and actions by local officials. “You...

Mebane Rash/Education NC After lawsuits, letters, and almost a month of uncertainty for schools and organizations serving communities, on July 25, 2025, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia — who chairs the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) — announced that...

Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press A former custodian at Drexel Elementary is suing the Burke County Board of Education and several school district officials after the district fired her in May. The plaintiff, Taylor Parlier, alleges in the lawsuit the school fired her in retaliation after she raised safety concerns regarding...

Jennifer Ludden/WFAE Radio Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Trump has signed an executive order that seeks to overhaul the way the U.S. manages homelessness. The order signed Thursday calls for changes to make it easier for states and cities to remove outdoor encampments and get people into mental health or...

Bill Moss/Hendersonville Lightning Throughout the mountains, small towns thrashed by Hurricane Helene have it bad. In Henderson County, none was harder hit than Laurel Park, and the mayor is past losing patience with the pace of federal disaster aid. The mayor, Carey O’Cain, vented to his peers during a meeting...