Nick Fogleman/Watauga Democrat  Local leaders and business owners are raising alarms over a planned closure of the Blue Ridge Parkway between Blowing Rock and Linville later this year. They cite potential devastating economic impacts and urge the National Park Service to reconsider the project’s timing. Jesse Pope, President and CEO...

Colin Campbell & Mary Helen Moore/WUNC Radio The N.C. House began releasing its budget proposal Thursday, and Republicans are planning cuts in what’s expected to be a tight budget year. Lawmakers got their first look at parts of the spending plan during a series of subcommittee meetings. The full budget...

Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC The North Carolina Republican-led Senate unveiled its 2025-27 budget proposal on Monday night, calling for pay raises for teachers and most state employees and additional funds for Hurricane Helene recovery, among other things. Most state employees would receive an across-the-board raise of 1.25% in FY 2025-26,...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press In 2021, after months of tough negotiations over clean energy policies, North Carolina lawmakers, Gov. Roy Cooper and public energy utilities made a commitment: by 2050, North Carolina’s largest electric generating facilities would reach carbon neutrality. By then, facilities would offset each ton of carbon dioxide...

Tyler Davis/The (Henderson) Daily Dispatch Monday morning, Henderson city council members received word of a complaint made by a city employee as well as the results of an employee survey administered by the city’s human resources department. Though they didn’t discuss specifics at the regular meeting that afternoon, it would...

Joseph Williams/The (Whiteville) News Reporter Faced with a projected sevenfold increase in property tax collection fees from Columbus County government, the City of Whiteville has made the first step to start its own in-house collections later this year. During its Tuesday meeting, city council authorized staff to move forward after...

Morgan Casey/CityView Almost 300 children are waiting for a spot to open at First Adventures Child Development Center, a child care center under Cape Fear Valley Health that serves the health system’s employees. Some of them won’t have to wait much longer. Cape Fear Valley Health is expanding the center,...

Port City Daily New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise and City of Wilmington Councilmember Luke Waddell have been appointed to serve four-year terms on the UNCW Board of Trustees. Starting their terms in July, Waddell and Scalise were appointed by the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors on...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio When the North Carolina lottery began in 2005, the idea was that all money would go to public education. The public believed the lottery dollars would supplement money already spent on K-12 schools. But over the last two decades, critics say the lottery money has, in part,...

WRAL News The North Carolina Museum of Art is undergoing a major renovation project that will involve the park amphitheater and many spaces within the museum’s East building. “It involves multiple sp aces within our original East building, including our conservation lab, an addition above the conservation lab on the...

Gerard Albert III/Blue Ridge Public Radio Western North Carolina is witnessing a “remarkable” natural event this spring as thousands of cicadas emerge from a 17-year stint underground. With a buzz that is louder than a lawnmower, these cicadas have been waiting almost two decades to surface. And, despite a Bob...

Nathaniel Weixel/The Hill The Medicaid portion of the House GOP’s massive domestic policy bill would result in 10.3 million people losing Medicaid coverage by 2034 and 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to a partial (CBO) Congressional Budget Office estimate. Republicans released the estimates just ahead of the start of...

Amudalat Ajasa/The Washington Post The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it plans to rescind and reconsider limits on four “forever chemicals” under a landmark drinking water standard implemented last year by President Joe Biden. The drinking water rules were adopted as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to limit...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press This was once a quaint, coastal town, all cobblestone and sand dunes. When Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo graduated from high school in 1978, the vast majority of the graduating class hightailed it out of here as fast as they could. There were no jobs and...

Zachery Eanes/Axios Raleigh For the second time in two years, the North Carolina House has voted to require insurance companies to cover supplemental breast cancer exams — but it remains to be seen whether the bill will make it through the Senate. Why it matters: For many women with dense...