Bradley George/WUNC Radio North Carolina’s largest county used to conduct property valuations every four years, but that’s changing after a vote from Wake County commissioners on Monday. The next revaluation will take place in 2027, three years after the previous one. Starting in 2029, the county will move to a...

Nick de la Canal/WFAE Radio The Union County Commission voted unanimously Monday night to ban events from county parks that are judged “obscene,” “sexualized,” or “not suitable for young children.” Commissioners approved the changes with no discussion. Commission Chair Melissa Merrell and other commissioners did not immediately respond to requests...

Todd Miller/Coastal Review Online Dr. Donald E. Ensley, an accomplished public health educator, environmental champion, and steadfast advocate for North Carolina’s coastal communities, is in hospice care, preparing to leave behind a legacy that will forever shape the places and people he touched. Born and raised in rural Belhaven, Don’s...

Pat Kimbrough/The High Point Enterprise Motorists should expect to see more small rubber tubes across High Point streets in the coming months. The devices are being used by the N.C. Department of Transportation to collect traffic counts that are used for a variety of planning purposes. The counters were recently...

Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer It was an icy mid-winter day when 73-year-old Ann Houghton parked her Subaru Outback at the Smokemont campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, shouldered her pack, and tramped into the woods one Tuesday afternoon in late January. Five days later, search-and-rescue workers found Houghton’s...

Joe Bruno/WSOC News A partner who worked with former Carolina Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson is accused of embezzling more than half a million dollars from Thompson’s business, Channel 9 confirmed on Tuesday. Shaquille Dixon is facing a lawsuit in Mecklenburg County for embezzling more than $500,000 from a company. This...

Mebane Rash/EducationNC Education Week recently released its Teacher Morale Index, which helps us understand how teachers in North Carolina and across the United States feel about their profession. What matters to our teachers? Pay, of course, but also acknowledgment of hard work and successes, more school counselors and support for...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Rural hospitals could be putting pregnant women and babies at risk by slashing labor and delivery services across North Carolina. Natasha Fuller delivered her two children at Charles A. Cannon Memorial Hospital in remote and mountainous Avery County in 2011 and 2014. Now, she works...

Rose Hoban/NC Health News After tens of millions of dollars and nearly a decade of false starts, the state Department of Health and Human Services is finally poised to roll out caseload software designed to assess and track children monitored by the state’s child welfare system. The April rollout will...

Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times Former Summerfield Town Manager Scott Whitaker and former Finance Director Dee Hall have lawyered up and appear ready to take legal action in response to what they claim are false allegations made against them by former North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood and some members of...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online A proposed rule to establish monitoring and minimization requirements for PFAS dischargers in the state was crafted largely from input provided by a utility association. A draft of the rule was discussed last week in a meeting of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Water Quality...

Sharryse Piggott/WUNC Radio The State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services received a letter from the United States Department of Agriculture earlier this month stating it will no longer receive funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. The nonprofit Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is one...

Arthur Allen/KFF Health News National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. The mRNA technology is under study at the...

Kathy N. Ross/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer  Maggie Valley aldermen have launched a response to N.C. House Rep. Mark Pless and his proposal to de-annex eight parcels of land from town limits, passing a resolution that called the bill a threat to local control. It was a 4-1 decision, with Pless’ perceived...

John Staton/Wilmington StarNews For decades, Southeastern North Carolina was known for its laid-back, sparsely populated beach towns, their sandy landscapes dotted by low-slung beach cottages with plenty of room between them. Of course, the above description of Wilmington-area beach towns hasn’t been true for many years now. Beach populations swelled...