Jackson Davenport/(NC State) Technician Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell delivered her first “State of the City” address Wednesday evening, focusing on housing affordability, public safety, transportation, quality of life and resilience in the city. Cowell aimed to highlight the work she and city council have done in the first 100 days...

Brianna Sacks, Brady Dennis & Jake Spring/The Washington Post Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and other Trump administration officials expressed support in meetings this week for dramatically diminishing the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the aim of all but eliminating the embattled agency’s role...

WRAL News The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is planning to cut 80 jobs and will lose more than $100 million in funding. The reductions are due to the federal government’s “abrupt and immediate termination of several federal grants,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. The...

David Mildenberg/Business North Carolina Wolfspeed, the Durham-based semiconductor manufacturer, named Robert Feurle as CEO starting May 1. Predecessor Gregg Lowe, who had led the business since 2017, was fired late last year amid mounting losses. The company is nearing completion of its $5 billion factory in Chatham County, one of...

Lena Geller/IndyWeek As North Carolina restaurants and hotels navigate the pandemic’s lingering effects on worker expectations and wages—and brace for renewed scrutiny of immigrant workers under Trump’s second administration—the hospitality sector finds itself at a critical juncture. Amid these shifting dynamics, Lynn Minges will conclude her 13-year tenure as president...

Emily Thomas/Education NC Gov. Josh Stein signed an executive order on March 25 creating the Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships. The new council will be responsible for identifying workforce needs and amplifying strategies that help North Carolinians access the education and training needed for high-wage, high-demand, and high-growth careers. The...

Richard Stradling/The (Raleigh) News & Observer The N.C. Department of Transportation and its contractors will be able to mine stone from Pisgah National Forest to help rebuild Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge in Western North Carolina, federal officials said Thursday. The stone is needed to rebuild a four-mile...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog In 2024, MANNA FoodBank set an ambitious fundraising goal for the year: $8.4 million. The nonprofit that ensures food security for 16 western North Carolina counties exceeded that target by 340 percent, bringing in $37 million. MANNA, which provides more than 20 million pounds of food a...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily An AI camera pilot program, politicized since its approval by the General Assembly, remained controversial even after the New Hanover County school board voted it down at a Tuesday meeting. At its agenda review meeting this week, the board picked up a conversation on a state-funded...

Jeffrey Collins & Brittany Peterson/The Associated Press When Nicole Taylor and her family moved to their new home in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, the gorgeous view of Table Rock Mountain was the clincher. She ended up with a porch-side seat to one of at least a half...

Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online Addressing PFAS and other emerging compounds is a “top priority” for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Secretary Reid Wilson told the more than 300 attending the N.C. Water Resources Research Institute’s annual conference. “We are spending a lot of time and energy” working on...

Will Doran/WRAL News Dan Bishop, a hardline conservative politician from Charlotte, is now one of the country’s top officials in charge of implementing President Donald Trump’s budget plans. The U.S. Senate confirmed Bishop in a party-line vote Wednesday, 53-45, to be the new No. 2 official at the White House...

Will Michaels/WUNC Radio Dollar Tree has made a deal to sell Family Dollar, the bargain store chain that was founded in North Carolina nearly 70 years ago. The $1 billion sale announced Wednesday comes a decade after Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar for $8 billion. Dollar Tree has struggled to...

Caleb Herrera/The Daily Tar Heel On Friday evening, the Board of Elections announced Leah Frazier as the 2025-2026 Graduate and Professional Student Government president. This announcement came after a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday made almost all the candidates write-ins, and an emergency BOE meeting Friday afternoon that disqualified Nyssa...

Gary D. Robertson/The Associated Press North Carolina government cashed in early when it came to reaping fiscal benefits from authorized sports wagering in the ninth-largest state. A report presented Wednesday to the North Carolina State Lottery Commission, which regulates the betting, says the state expects to have collected $131.3 million...