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...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press As President Donald Trump and his appointees rifle through the country’s balance sheets looking for federal spending to slash, many North Carolina nonprofits are operating in a state of financial uncertainty, hoping they’re not the next target of the administration’s cost-cutting ambitions. While state agencies haven’t...

Haywood County CofC Watco’s Blue Ridge Southern routes in the region have been shut down since Tropical Storm Helene, but that’s about to change. The Canton to Waynesville line is open now, and the route from Asheville to Dillsboro should open by the end of March, said Kyle Ogle, general...

Will Atwater/NC Health News On Saturday, March 15, volunteers gathered at sites like West Point on the Eno River, where cool temperatures and gray skies greeted them. Wearing neon-colored vests and armed with grabber tools and trash bags, they spread out — some working in small groups, others on their...

Elvis Menayese/WFAE Radio A two-day charrette kicked off on Tuesday in Charlotte to gather community input on ways to redevelop Interstate 77 and undo some of the harm it caused by its construction. Consultants and city representatives discussed redevelopment plans with community members near Johnson C. Smith University. They explained...

Matt Lamb/The (Southern Pines) Pilot A once-stalled piece of legislation has been reintroduced in the General Assembly and could affect the Village of Pinehurst’s efforts to regulate short-term rentals (STRs). Sponsored by Pinehurst’s own State Sen. Tom McInnis, S.B. 291 would prevent municipalities across the state from prohibiting the use...