Kelly Kenoyer/WHQR A sign inside the space that Vigilant Hope uses behind the Lake Forest Baptist Church. Vigilant Hope along with many other faith-based organizations provide a wide variety of services including meals, laundry services, and free mobile showers. Saturday marks the one-year anniversary for the Supreme Court’s landmark Grants...

Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio The state legislature gave final approval this week to three different bills to ban diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs. One bill would put the prohibition in state government agencies. Another would ban DEI at public universities and community colleges. And the third would impact K-12...

Sophia Walsh/Port City Daily Brunswick County’s fastest-growing town is poised to expand development rules in its most vulnerable areas — a move that could reshape how and where homes are built across thousands of acres. Following a unanimous approval that was made by the Leland planning board on Tuesday, June...

Pat Kimbrough/The High Point Enterprise Plans to redevelop a former High Point retirement center property have been slowed by high construction costs, contractor disputes and vandalism at the site. John Hannon, whose company owns the long-vacant high-rise portion of the old Presbyterian Home at 2911 Jamestown Parkway (formerly Greensboro Road),...

Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The crucial thoroughfare of Interstate 40 through the gorge between Tennessee and North Carolina has re-opened. North Carolina Department of Transportation workers moved barricades blocking the ramp getting on the interstate at Exit 20 just after noon on Friday. Currently, one lane is open in each...

Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog Than Axtell, a fly-fishing guide who has lived in western North Carolina for three decades, adores the unimpeded wilderness around the south fork of the Mills River — the rare place, he said, where one can spend a weekend backpacking, fishing the whole way, and rarely seeing...

Katie Myers/Blue Ridge Public Radio Hundreds of thousands of acres of public forestland across the Appalachian region could lose some protection under the United States Department of Agriculture’s plan to roll back the “Roadless Rule.” Since 2001, this federal regulation has limited new road construction through protected forestland. The rule...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer When Helene struck last September, Haywood County was just 95 days from completing a four-year property revaluation that would have aligned property values on the tax rolls with increasing market values. Now, the county is regrouping to finish the reappraisal by 2027. However, property owners whose...

Deirdre Walsh, Claudia Grisales & Elena Moore/WUNC Radio Senate Republicans are racing the clock, trying to meet President Trump’s demand that they pass his domestic agenda bill by July 4th as they work to resolve major sticking points inside the GOP conference. While Senate committee leaders have made several significant...

Jill Doss-Raines/Thomasville Times A large contingent of Southmont residents pleaded with the Davidson County Board of Commissioners to reconsider plans to build a $65 million sports complex on 359 acres in the unincorporated community south of Lexington. One after another, speakers told the board during a public hearing June 9...

NBC News Employees at a North Carolina business said they were held inside for hours on Wednesday as ICE executed a search warrant on the property. According to ICE, roughly a dozen people were taken into custody after the operation at Buckeye Fire Equipment Company in Kings Mountain. Dozens of...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog A South Carolina woman has sued Asheville Academy for Girls, its owner and 15 other related programs and entities, alleging abuse, humiliation, sexual assault, forced labor and false advertising during her mental health treatment as a teen. The 51-page lawsuit, filed June 20 in the U.S....

Paul Woolverton/CityView The City of Fayetteville is in negotiations with a Florida company and other parties to build a long-awaited tower atop the downtown Hay Street parking deck next to Segra Stadium baseball park, a lawyer representing the city said in Cumberland County Superior Court on Monday. At least one...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press With less than two weeks before Yancey County officially exits its regional public library system, opponents to the change are making a last-ditch legal effort to force the county to reverse course. The two-year-long debate over the future of the library in Burnsville began with residents’...

Felicia Sonmez/WFAE Radio Catching a flight out of Asheville Regional Airport? Starting today, you’ll pass through a brand new terminal. After nearly two years of construction, the airport’s sprawling new North Concourse is finally open. The terminal, at 136,000 square feet, has floor-to-ceiling windows, new food and retail options, and...