Paul Specht/WRAL News More North Carolina property owners would get new freedoms under a bill proposed by North Carolina state lawmakers. The House Committee on Regulatory Reform on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would allow many North Carolinians to build at least one 800-square-foot accessory dwelling unit...

Adam Wagner/NC Newsroom The North Carolina Senate has included a proposal to toll four ferry routes and raise fares on four others in its proposed budget. Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Powells Point Republican, opposed the provision. A proposal to toll the last free ferry to Hyde County’s Ocracoke is causing...

Will Atwater/NC Health News  Rural residents often face significant barriers to accessing health care. Power outages, challenging travel and extreme weather events — such as hurricanes, heat waves and floods — only worsen the challenges posed by limited access to clinics and medical specialists. This scenario recently played out in...

Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro The Haw River Assembly hosted a public information session alongside TriRiver Water representatives at Woods Charter School in northeastern Chatham County on Wednesday, April 23 to assuage citizens’ concerns about an upcoming utility merger. Following the delivery of letters by TriRiver Water to Chatham County utility customers,...

Ben Humphries/Education NC Book Harvest, a Durham-based nonprofit organization, recently announced a partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) to bring books to families across the state. Book Harvest runs initiatives that promote youth literacy, including sending newborns home from hospitals with a starter...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily A forested property in the heart of Wilmington — once posed for intensive development before plans were pulled — is one step closer to conservation, six months after Commissioner Dane Scalise invigorated a community movement by calling for its preservation. New Hanover County commissioners will vote...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily Under a recently introduced bill, state regulators would only have five days to review and approve certifications for projects that discharge dredge or fill material into public water bodies. This would apply to activities including developments in wetlands and pipeline construction. Under the Clean Water Act,...

Jack Brook/The Associated Press The textile mills that once served as the backbone of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, have long been shuttered, and officials believed federal money would be key to the town’s overdue revitalization. They hoped an improved stormwater drainage system and secured electrical wires — funded through a...

Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer It’s 6:30 a.m., and the trucks that have been lining the shoulder of Champion Drive for the last few minutes rev engines and begin crawling up the hill towards the intersection with Thickety Road in Canton. It takes a minute to get going; they are loaded...

Chloe Courtney Bohl/IndyWeek About 70 people packed a conference room at NC State University on Wednesday night to debate a proposed housing development at West and Peace Streets on the northern edge of downtown Raleigh, near the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood. Raleigh Development Company (RDC) wants to upzone the land and build...

Mebane Rash/Education NC On April 23, President Donald Trump signed seven executives orders impacting elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Leaders from the departments of labor, commerce, and education, including Secretary Linda McMahon, joined the president in the Oval Office. The orders address school discipline, artificial intelligence (AI), workforce development, apprenticeships,...

Bill Moss/Hendersonville Lightning Delegates elected Merry Guy as chair of the 11th Congressional District Committee on Saturday, ousting two-term incumbent Michele Woodhouse in a race that pitted two party activists from Henderson County against one another. A past chair of the Henderson County GOP, Guy takes the reins as party...

Korie Dean/The (Raleigh) News & Observer The visas of six international students at UNC-Chapel Hill have been restored after the Trump administration initially terminated them, according to the university. Chancellor Lee Roberts said Friday that five students’ immigration records were restored, out of the total of six students who were...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press Ashe County public schools are going to have a full house this summer. After a mix of bad weather and severe storms closed schools there for 47 days, Superintendent Eisa Cox plans to take full advantage of a Helene learning loss summer school program. The legislature...

Grace Vitalione/NC Health News North Carolinians are getting older, but there aren’t enough people getting trained to care for them. The population of people ages 65 and older in North Carolina is expected to nearly double to 2.7 million in the next couple decades. Many of those older adults will...