Outer Banks Voice The Town of Duck is pleased to announce the hiring of Connor Winstead as the new Development and Infrastructure Director/Assistant Town Manager. Winstead officially begins with the Town on Monday, July 14. Winstead brings a wealth of knowledge and a strong background in public service to the...

Will Doran/WRAL News North Carolina Democrats’ hopes of weakening Republicans’ legislative power are resting on the shoulders of a Rocky Mount preacher. James Gailliard, a former legislator who was unseated in 2022, is mounting a political comeback that — if successful — could weaken GOP lawmakers’ political power and force...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Asheville-based Mission Health has seen several busy months so far in 2025, with some important wins after facing significant adversity in 2024. Even so, pushback from community leaders, employees and judges continues. While even some of the critics of its flagship Mission Hospital in Asheville...

Mary Helen Moore/WUNC Radio May was North Carolina’s second-busiest month on record for new business starts, new data shows. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall said 17,377 companies launched in May. The only month with more new startups was June 2021, when the economy was roaring back after the COVID-19 pandemic....

Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News Boxy, gunmetal gray buildings loom over a labyrinth of ducts and tubes and catwalks, beyond which 100 train cars loll on their tracks. Smokestacks wait to exhale. This is StarPet, a mammoth factory in north Asheboro that manufactures PET polymers, derived from fossil fuels and used...

Scott Horsley/WFAE Radio Azraiel Raines dreamed of working for the State Department, when she graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in global studies. But the State Department is not hiring. In fact it cut more than 1,300 jobs this past week as part of a broader government downsizing....

Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily More than 400 cities nationwide have a curfew for youth and if one council member gets his way, Wilmington may be added to the list. Councilman Luke Waddell is advocating for action against “lawlessness and severe public disorder” in downtown Wilmington, following the July 4 weekend....

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer A whooping cough outbreak has hit Haywood County, with six cases confirmed as of July 10 — up from five cases when the outbreak was first reported two days prior. County health officials are working to keep that number from growing, but the respiratory infection presents...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News A land purchase approved by Canton’s governing board July 10 will bring more parking to the town’s increasingly popular downtown area near Sorrells Street Park while also marking another milestone in the town’s flood mitigation strategy. “It was actually offered to us by the ABC store....

Pat Kimbrough/High Point Enterprise Alex Dummit says she founded her High Point company to combine business and philanthropy. As CEO of The Sage Plant, she’s putting this principle into practice with the development of a “micro-community” that will include new housing in a distressed part of the city. “I think...

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice After more than a year and a half of discussion and meetings, the Dare County Housing Task Force is transitioning to a housing nonprofit. “It is my goal to have the paperwork filed by the end of the year. So we are actively working on that,”...

Jaymie Baxley & Anne Blythe/NC Health News On Tuesday evening, just days after President Donald Trump signed into law the new federal budget passed by Congress, several dozen people took a seat in the Pullen Park Community Center in Raleigh. Two of the capital city’s Democratic state lawmakers — Sen....

Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio Gov. Josh Stein has vetoed House Bill 96, saying language preventing local government regulation of pet shops had swayed him against the squatter legislation he originally supported. “This bill would facilitate inhumane puppy mills in North Carolina. Without this provision, I would sign the legislation. With it,...

Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press Public school regulation of cellphone use is now law in North Carolina after Gov. Josh Stein signed House Bill 959 last week. The new law prompts public schools to develop a wireless device policy that will limit students’ access to their cellphones and other wireless electronic...

Stella Mackler/WFAE Radio Move over tobacco — there’s a new cash crop in town. Part of the “battery belt,” North Carolina will soon be home to four major factories producing lithium-ion batteries, the power behind electric vehicles. But President Trump’s sweeping federal reconciliation bill eliminated tax credits for purchasing an...