John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers: Question: The Asheville Regional Airport Authority has announced the destruction of several general aviation hangars on the south ramp to allegedly make room for commercial planes. No new hangars seem to be mentioned. Does good planning...

Chris Burritt/Business North Carolina Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer and employer of more than 10,000 in North Carolina, filed for an initial public offering in New York that will return the maker of Farmer John sausage and Gwaltney bacon to the U.S. stock market. The IPO comes 12...

Luke DeCock/The (Raleigh) News & Observer In October 2022, preparing for the $300 million renovation of the Lenovo Center, the authority that oversees the arena heard elaborate presentations from three large consulting firms interested in serving as its representative during the construction process. In the end, the Centennial Authority hired...

Emily Vespa/NC Health News & The Charlotte Ledger As North Carolina’s health care systems increasingly expand their use of artificial intelligence, state leaders say they want to pioneer policy to regulate the rapidly evolving technology. The efforts would be some of the first steps toward placing guardrails on AI in...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog A Mission Hospital pharmacy program that provides and tracks patients’ medications to ensure their safety has been plagued by nearly constant turnover for years, Asheville Watchdog has learned. Despite warnings from a supervisor about dangerous errors that could result from staff departures, hospital leadership did not...

April Laissle/WFDD Radio Nearly two weeks after a cyber attack crippled much of Winston-Salem’s online infrastructure, city officials still don’t know when services will be restored. The December 26 incident shut down the online utility bill pay system and CityLink phone service. At a City Council meeting Monday, Winston-Salem City...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News A man initially convicted in a Cherokee Tribal Court for playing a role in a debilitating December 2019 ransomware attack is suing the tribe. Cody Long, the tribe’s former lead systems administrator for its Office of Information and Technology, was held in jail for 454 days...

Shea Carver/Port City Daily An area of North Fourth Street in Wilmington could be welcoming patrons for the first time citywide to stroll through 10 blocks with open containers of alcohol as part of a new pilot program. Wilmington City Council signed off 4-2 (Kevin Spears and Salette Andrews dissenting)...

Cole Sams/CBS 17 News With 2025 now underway, NC By Train will try to build on the record growth they experienced in 2024. According to the Rail Division of the NC DOT, the state-supported Amtrak service — known as NC By Train — carried over 720,000 passengers in 2024. This...

Nolan McKendry/The Center Square  Lawmakers, free speech advocates and pornography sites across the country are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide on Texas’ House Bill 1181. The high court will hear arguments on Jan. 15 in what could be a landmark case deciding the fate of more than...

Will Doran/WRAL News One of the nation’s biggest growers of sweet potatoes has been put into receivership after defaulting on more than $40 million in loans, Nash County court records show. Now the state senator whose family owns the farm says the bank has been overly aggressive, alleging that it...

Sarah Honosky/Asheville Citizen Times The city estimates $17 million-$18 million in revenue loss for the current fiscal year due to impacts from Tropical Storm Helene, with the biggest hits coming out of its water resources fund. The estimate does not include property tax losses, which are still being assessed by...

Emily Vespa & Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & Charlotte Ledger Faced with a growing health care worker shortage and provider burnout, some North Carolina health care leaders have said there is great promise in artificial intelligence systems. The state’s health care systems have been early adopters of AI tools —...

Gary D. Robertson/The Associated Press North Carolina General Assembly elections were finalized Monday as officials issued certificates to the winners in three close legislative races from November that later became subject to recounts and formal protests. This ministerial action by election administrators also confirms that Republicans have lost their veto-proof...