Keely Arthur/WRAL News In a one-on-one interview with 5 WRAL On Your Side, newly appointed Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Commissioner Paul Tine promised shorter wait times and fewer headaches for North Carolinians in need of DMV services. “It’s going to get better,” he said. “I wouldn’t be in the...

Chantal Brown/Education NC Some school districts in North Carolina have decided that their best future teacher candidates may already be in the area — just still in high school. These districts have begun their own iterations of teacher cadet programs, where high school students take introductory education courses and are...

Jaymie Baxley, Rose Hoban & Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News The Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a Medicaid program that addressed the nonmedical health needs of low-income North Carolinians, will cease operations July 1, according to an announcement obtained by NC Health News. The first-in-the-nation effort that has drawn national attention and praise...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Coastal communities are inundated more often than previously believed, and floodwaters take longer to recede in rural areas than in urban areas, according to a new study. The study, published Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, also found that the way government agencies gather...

Felicia Sonmez/Blue Ridge Radio The landscape for short-term rentals in Buncombe County has changed drastically since before Hurricane Helene. For years, Asheville and Buncombe County’s market for short-term rentals — such as those found on websites like Airbnb and VRBO — was booming. Things were going so well that some...

Paul Woolverton/CityView The Fayetteville Public Works Commission has not given up on its plan to build a $9.5 million solar farm off Ramsey Street just north of Fayetteville after the Cumberland County Commissioners on May 19 threw a roadblock in the project’s path. The electric utility’s board held a closed-door...

Liz McLaughlin/WRAL News When Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters finally receded last September, Alex Webber thought the worst was over. The co‑owner of On Your Bike Café and repair shop had fled New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, searching for higher ground in the North Carolina mountains. Instead, she found 3 feet of mud, a...

Luke Garrett/NPR The fate of legislation to enact President Trump’s domestic policy agenda moves to the GOP-controlled Senate this week, where a handful of Republican spending hawks are criticizing the price tag of the president’s mega-bill, which would grow the national debt by trillions of dollars, and calling for changes....

Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Jennifer Burch is a second-generation pharmacist who’s been working at Central Pharmacy in Durham since she was a teen. Some of her current customers have been coming to the store since the days when she still worked with her father. In those days, when they worked...

Vicki Hyatt/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer A Republican business owner from Maggie Valley has announced his intention to challenge N.C. House Rep. Mark Pless, also a Republican, for the seat representing Haywood and Madison counties. It’s rare for a sitting legislator to face opposition in a primary.  The challenge is a reflection...

Jonathan Bym/The (Southern Pines) Pilot Rockingham Speedway is back on the market after Rockingham Properties LLC listed the track for sale last week, less than two months since NASCAR racing was brought back to the venerable track in April. The track was purchased by Rockingham Properties and owner Dan Lovenheim...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  Only 21,559 voter registrations separate Republicans from catching Democrats, the weekly update from the North Carolina State Board of Elections says. The final day of May listed 7,522,857 registrations split 37.8% unaffiliated, 30.7% Democrats and 30.4% Republicans. The trend is a continuing a turn of two...

Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press Tropical Storm Helene underscored the dangers of aging dams and flood-control infrastructure in Western North Carolina. Leading up to the storm, some signs already indicated that something more needed to be done should a natural disaster strike. A substantial number of aging dams are in poor...

Paul Garber/WFDD Radio Poultry and livestock are important drivers of North Carolina’s economy. A new technology from Appalachian State University will help keep the animals safe from parasites. Researcher Zach Russell recently earned a grant from NCInnovation to develop his lab’s AI-driven robotic microscope. The $2.3 million grant is the...

Paul Woolverton/CityView A walk through downtown Fayetteville shows the city’s former commercial heart presents a mixed picture of its health, but signs of growth. A passer-by might find homeless people wrapped in blankets, surrounded by battered baggage filled with their belongings, snoring in the evening in a doorway. A promised...