Mebane Rash/EducationNC Stephanie Sneed, the chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education, sent a letter on Feb. 21 to three members of the U.S. Congress, expressing concerns about possible cuts to Medicaid and school meals currently included in the House Concurrent Resolution Budget moving through the legislative process. “These...

Mike Schuler/gCaptain The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has announced sweeping new measures targeting China’s growing dominance in global maritime sectors, including potential fees of up to $1.5 million per port call for Chinese-built vessels and mandatory U.S.-flag shipping requirements. The proposed actions, published to the Federal...

Max Tendler/WUNC Radio After two decades of development, a new lightweight metallic material created by North Carolina State University engineering professor Afsaneh Rabiei and her Raleigh-based company Advanced Materials Manufacturing (AMM) has hit the industrial market. Likening it to a metal bubble wrap, AMM says their “composite metal foam” design...

Pat Kimbrough/High Point Enterprise  The city says statewide transportation needs are impacting its top legislative goal from a year ago. Securing state funding for the widening of E. Lexington Avenue is not on High Point’s newly adopted list of 2025-26 legislative priorities. City leaders said this is because the N.C....

David Beasley/The Center Square Paying into a fund monitoring an eradicated insect that nearly wiped out North Carolina’s cotton crop a century ago could easily be translated to a tax. This one is pretty good for the nation’s fifth leading producer of the soft, fluffy staple fiber. “In North Carolina,...

Elena Marsh/The (Southern Pines) Pilot It will be another year or more before Woodlake’s central water feature, Lake Surf, is filled again. The dam reconstruction project is seeing significant setbacks in construction following damage sustained during the last hurricane season. A media release sent late Friday afternoon from Atlantic National...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily The state’s monopoly utility cites surging demand from data centers in North Carolina as a top reason for its multi-billion investment in new gas plants and pipelines projected to spike ratepayer bills in coming years. But a new Duke University study casts doubt on the need...

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Local governments in Haywood County have been hemorrhaging cash to pay for flood recovery and repairs, with no clear timeline for when FEMA reimbursements will start rolling in. Towns and the county have been footing the bill for everything from roadside debris pick-up to bridge repairs...

Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline After Hurricane Helene left his Asheville store beyond repair, Russ Towers had a plan — and the good fortune — to relocate. Second Gear, his outdoor gear shop, was almost entirely submerged at the peak of the storm’s flooding. When the waters receded, the roof of the...

Michaela Ratliff/WGHP News The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended a scholarship program that serves students from rural or underserved communities pending further review, according to its website. The USDA 1890 National Scholars Program was established in 1992 as part of the partnership between the USDA and the 1890 land-grant...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog A patient in Mission Hospital’s emergency room died in the bathroom last week after calling for help but getting no immediate response. Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Lindell confirmed the incident to Asheville Watchdog on Thursday and said one employee has been fired and more action may be...

Renuka Rayasam & Sam Whitehead/NC Health News President Donald Trump’s return to the White House sent a clear signal about Medicaid to Republicans across the country: Requiring enrollees to prove they are working, volunteering, or going to school is back on the table. The day after Trump’s inauguration, South Carolina...

Mebane Rash/Education NC For 25 years, funding for what’s called Secure Rural Schools (SRS) has made a difference to schools in counties where a large percentage of the land is owned by the federal government and thus tax exempt. In North Carolina, 26 counties receive this federal funding, and 19...

Paul Specht/WRAL News Anderson Clayton became North Carolina Democratic Party chair on a promise: to boost its members’ representation — and performance — in statewide elections. Democrats had just lost every statewide race in the 2022 midterm elections. And instead of sticking with Clayton’s predecessor — a former state legislator...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio Inside a colorful classroom in Williams Academy in Avery County, Kindergarten Teacher Charlene Gragg welcomes her students back to class after lunch. There are only a handful of kids, which is pretty typical around here. Today, though, she’s got her eye on one little girl who just...