Christopher Long/The Wilson Times Officials in Wilson believe that now’s the right time for downtown to undergo a rebrand, and they’re looking to residents to determine what that rebrand should look like. “Rebranding now is a strategic decision driven by several factors: community identity, economic development, highlighting assets and future...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily A former lead regulator of the commission charged with overseeing Duke Energy joined a law firm that frequently represents Duke and other utilities in rate cases and other matters before the agency. International law firm McGuireWoods announced it hired former North Carolina Utilities Commission chair Charlotte...

Adam Wagner/WUNC Radio A $10 million budget appropriation that city of Oxford leaders say is key to a regional water project would be shifted elsewhere under a legislative technical corrections bill, a move Democrats allege is revenge for winning a competitive election in the N.C. House of Representatives. House Bill...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Of all the companies that have come to North Carolina in recent years, from Toyota to Google to Amazon, cryptomining operations don’t exactly spring to mind. But the state, because of its vast swaths of land, is increasingly being targeted by these outfits looking to...

Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC State Board of Education Chair Eric Davis and state Superintendent Mo Green recently sent a letter to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education asking members to address reports of a $16 million budget shortfall for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-25. The letter also raises concerns about the...

Jakob Emerson/Becker’s Payer Issues Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is seeking sanctions against LifeBrite Community Hospital of Stokes (N.C.) in a longstanding legal dispute that centers around allegations of fraudulent billing practices. The dispute began in 2018 when LifeBrite accused BCBSNC of withholding at least $15.5 million in...

Bill Moss/The Hendersonville Lightning The N.C. Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that the city calls an “unnecessary and troubling overreach” to “circumvent local control” of Hendersonville city utilities, the latest salvo in the long-running conflict between the Henderson County Board of Commissioners and the City Council over growth on...

Dan Kane/The (Raleigh) News & Observer Two years ago, Senate leader Phil Berger sought to pass legislation to bring casinos to North Carolina, including one to his home county to counter a gambling complex opening just across the border in Danville, Virginia. That was big news. North Carolina had banned...

Lena Geller/IndyWeek The Durham County Farm Campus project—a long-awaited agricultural education center and incubator farm—passed a milestone Monday as county commissioners received the final feasibility study for the 129-acre Orange Factory Road property. A presentation of the study revealed both ambitious plans and looming challenges for the project, which has...

Evey Weisblat/CityView After numerous and prolonged difficulties with recent capital projects, the City of Fayetteville has hired an engineering consulting firm to help improve its Construction Management Division. The Fayetteville City Council made the decision to hire the firm, Freese & Nichols Inc., at its work session on Monday, after...

Tyler Davis/The (Henderson) Daily Dispatch In short order during a brief meeting Wednesday afternoon, the four-strong Henderson-Vance Industrial Park Board approved moving forward with a sale of the shell building to Linde Gas and Equipment. The Ireland-based global gas and gas supply company offered $3 million even, a figure that...

Gary D. Robertson/The Associated Press The Republican challenger for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat conceded last November’s election on Wednesday to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, two days after a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands of disputed ballots challenged by Jefferson Griffin must remain in the final tally. In...

WRAL News North Carolina’s tourism economy remained strong in 2024, despite Hurricane Helene’s impact on many popular destinations in the state. Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday that travelers spent more than $36.7 billion on trips to and within the state in 2024. That is a new record for tourism spending....

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News   North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson visited Canton last week, meeting with local officials and new mill site owner Eric Spirtas, who gave tantalizing tidbits of what’s in store for the 185-acre parcel and promised a bold master plan within six months....

Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review Online Amidst the tedium of a generally uneventful two-day meeting of the state Coastal Resources Commission last week, embers of prior tensions flared anew when Commissioner Jordan Hennessy contended that the panel had not properly authorized its lawsuit seeking to restore a protective environmental rule for Jockey’s...