Will Hofmann/Asheville Citizen Times Black Mountain-based grocery store chain Ingles confirmed to Buncombe County staff that it plans to build a new Swannanoa location, according to a county commissioner, providing the clearest details about the future of the store that has caused confusion and frustration among residents. In a July...

Liz McLaughlin/WRAL News When torrents of muddy water filled the Trader Joe’s parking lot at Chapel Hill’s Eastgate Crossing this month, sending shopping carts clattering downstream, business owners were frustrated but not surprised. The shopping center, built beside Booker Creek, already sits inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s special flood hazard area...

Aaron Keck/WCHL Chapelboro It has now been more than two weeks since Tropical Depression Chantal dropped a record amount of rain on the western Triangle, leaving six dead, hundreds displaced, numerous businesses devastated, and tens of millions of dollars in overall damage. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen countless...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio The left has been rejuvenated in the first six months of the Trump administration, defying predictions that the Democratic Party would counter the MAGA movement by scrambling to the center. That’s best seen in the surprising New York City primary victory by Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio The U.S. Department of Education is expected to release some of the federal funds for public schools today that were previously frozen nationwide. On July 1, the Department withheld about $6.8 billion in federal funds to schools nationwide for review – with $165 million dollars in funding...

Rickie Houston/WilmingtonBiz The film industry in Wilmington has encountered a slowdown, and it’s uncertain when things will pick back up. While the state has its own film incentive, the slowdown has affected the number of projects being shot in the area, and more attractive incentives offered by other countries have...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Last month, Jackson became the second county in Western North Carolina to vote to exit its library system following local controversy over books with LGBTQ+ content. The move is the latest example of public libraries in the region being turned into political battlegrounds over such issues....

Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online The state has the protocols in place for successful fisheries management, but North Carolina is missing the mark, recently released state-mandated research concludes. A top recommendation: Hire more fisheries scientists. And the head of the state body formed to coordinate scientific research for the legislature, in...

Frank Daniels IV/The (Southern Pines) Pilot It’s important to stay sharp through one’s years, especially if you run a knife-making company like Southern Pines-based Spartan Blades. After 30,000 blades, Curtis Iovito and Mark Carey, who founded the company in 2008 in an old mule-barn, continue to keep the company honed...

Gareth McGrath/USA Today Network Imagine featureless plains of sand extending for as far as the eye can see. Now imagine them underwater. While a simplistic visualization, that’s basically what the ocean bottom off North Carolina’s coast looks like for roughly 40 miles until it hits the deep water and canyons...

Giselle Jimenez Del-Carmen/Niner Times The Bobcat Company and UNC Charlotte’s William States Lee College of Engineering partnered to provide academic opportunities for engineering students through Bobcat’s student development program and a $200,000 scholarship fund. Bobcat is a growing company that has been seeking future engineers to expand its workforce further....

April Laissle/WFDD Radio It’s been a turbulent summer at Greensboro City Hall. Earlier this month, City Attorney Chuck Watts abruptly resigned. A day later, the State Bureau of Investigation announced plans to review the activities of a member of the city council. Now there’s talk of a separate investigation into...

Shea Carver/Port City Daily More consideration is being made on an ordinance intended to strengthen protections for homes built in a floodplain in one Brunswick County town. After Town of Leland council members heard from area constituents regarding a change to chapter 26 of its town ordinance, they tabled moving...

Will Doran/WRAL News When North Carolina legalized smokable hemp in 2018, police and prosecutors spoke frequently and clearly about their biggest fear: It would effectively legalize marijuana in North Carolina, they said, due to the fact that hemp looks and smells exactly like marijuana. Those similarities, the thinking went, would...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press  North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes is setting off on a mission to correct 103,000 North Carolinians’ voting records from which some information is missing. He maintains that the process, dubbed the Registration Repair Project, will not remove any eligible voters from...