Brian Burns/WUNC Radio With its new partnership with Secretly Group, Merge Records hopes it can better serve its artists. “Merge artists already know our enthusiasm and love for their music and what they’re doing,” Merge Records co-founder Mac McCaughan said. “And I think this will also give them some assurance...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News A pair of local bills pushed by Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) — one welcomed by most, another, not so much — took important steps through the General Assembly earlier this week but still have a long way to go if they’re to become law. The first,...

WRAL News A man who died in a highly publicized shooting believed to be politically motivated has a Triangle connection. Democratic former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in their Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, home early Saturday. Mark Hortman was a Raleigh native, according to a...

Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily The recent issuance and subsequent lifting of a stop-work order at The Haven at Galleria, prompted by the removal of several oak trees, has brought renewed attention to Wilmington’s ongoing efforts in tree preservation. This incident, while specific to one development, underscores the complexities of Wilmington’s...

Sarah White/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Electric service providers in Haywood County are working around the clock to meet demands for electric generators following Hurricane Helene. Since Hurricane Helene ripped through the region last September, the demand for residential electric generators has skyrocketed. Scarred by days or weeks spent without power after...

April Laissle/WFDD Radio North Carolina’s job market is continuing to outpace much of the nation — and Winston-Salem is leading the way in the Triad. New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows total employment in the Winston-Salem metro area rose nearly 2% over the past year. That’s about...

Zachary Turner & Stella Mackler/WFAE Radio Hurricane Helene destroyed thousands of state-maintained roads and bridges. But the storm washed away even more private crossings, leaving homeowners stranded. Nine months later, many folks still aren’t able to access their homes. A new engineering class at UNC Charlotte aims to fix that....

Pat Kimbrough/The High Point Enterprise  A High Point company that supports the technology industry says federal tariffs on imports have impacted a planned expansion. Pioneer Square Brands, or PSB, in 2023 moved its corporate headquarters from Seattle to 1515 W. Green Drive and announced a project the city said would...

Anna Claire Vollers/NC Newsline Nine months after Monroe County Hospital in rural South Alabama closed its labor and delivery department in October 2023, Grove Hill Memorial Hospital in neighboring Clarke County also stopped delivering babies. Both hospitals are located in an agricultural swath of the state that’s home to most...

Paul Garber/WFDD Radio North Carolina’s wine business has grown tenfold since the start of the century. But the industry as a whole is flat and facing concerns it hasn’t seen in decades. The state’s growers face their own set of challenges, including the lingering effects of Helene and an invasive...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio A group of students from North Carolina’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) spent a day at the state legislature Wednesday to advocate for funding and policies to support their education and voting access. At a press conference hosted by members of North Carolina’s HBCU Caucus on...

Mike Walden/WRAL News Although I have lived and worked in North Carolina for almost 50 years, I wasn’t born in our wonderful state. I was born and raised in Cincinnati. Like many people, I continue to root for the professional sports teams of my youth. In my case, in the...

Taylor Herzlich/The New York Post Popular Southern-based fast-food chain Bojangles is exploring a potential sale of its business as demand for fried chicken heats up, according to a report on Wednesday. The company could fetch more than $1.5 billion – three times what it sold for in a 2019 buyout,...

Paul Nielsen/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Waynesville is hoping to tap into hundreds of millions of dollars of available Helene related state recovery funds to pay for a needed sewer repair. The town is also seeking state help from a smaller pot of money in the form of an interest-free bridge loan...

Emma Cooke/WCHL Chapelboro Chapel Hill’s effort to rewrite its Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO) is now behind schedule, and the Chapel Hill Town Council recently heard an update on the plan to revise it at a work session on May 28. The council also discussed the need for more public...