Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online The state’s Coastal Resources Commission has unanimously adopted a proposed permanent rule to protect the tallest active sand dune on America’s eastern sea board from, among other things, sand mining. During their quarterly meeting Thursday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, commissioners unanimously approved a permanent rule...

Colin Campbell/WUNC A WUNC review of this year’s campaign finance reports show the Democratic Leadership Committee directed more than 80% of its fundraising total to the campaigns of Josh Stein and attorney general candidate Jeff Jackson. But it gave none to the campaigns of State Auditor Jessica Holmes, labor commissioner...

WilmingtonBiz Frontier Scientific Solutions, a temperature-controlled storage and transportation company serving the life sciences industry, announced its plans to develop new state-of-the-art facilities at Wilmington International Airport (ILM) and Shannon Airport (SNN) in County Clare, Ireland. The cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) projects, including a 500,000-square-foot facility at ILM’s business...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press From monitoring suspected child abuse and neglect cases to accounting for children in foster care to taking on additional emergency responsibilities and maintaining essential services amid power and communication outages, county Department of Social Services offices faced major disruptions as a result of Tropical Storm Helene...

Maggie Newland/CBS 17 News A video going viral on TikTok is raising questions about a North Carolina lawmaker’s alleged response to a constituent. The video claims to show an email from North Carolina state Sen. Danny Britt responding to a woman raising concerns about abortion policy by suggesting she leave...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog A third round of in-reservoir turbidity treatment started Wednesday at the North Fork Reservoir, as a crucial measurement on the path toward potable water continues to drop. Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler said at Wednesday’s daily Helene briefing that the turbidity measurement, Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs),...

Anne Blythe/NC Health News As President-elect Donald Trump announces key members of his next administration, many in the oral health profession across North Carolina are brushing up on the facts and figures in fluoride studies and research. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a member of Trump’s transition team who could have...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education voted to approve a compensation plan that would put $500,000 from the county toward increasing pay for teacher assistants. The district completed a market study looking at compensation for classified staff across other North Carolina districts. The findings show it...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily A prominent land developer in the tri-county region faces a stop-work order for excavating dirt and filling wetlands without proper permits in Brunswick County. At the same time, New Hanover County has issued violations against him in recent months for at least five projects. In August,...

Aarik Long/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Six barricades: that’s how many barricades the driver circumvented before plowing off a missing section of Interstate 40 to her death. Additionally, new information has come out about the daring rescue to attempt to save the woman. The driver, now identified as 62-year-old Patricia Ann Mahoney...

Jacob Biba/Asheville Citizen Times HCA Healthcare is asking a judge to dismiss a federal lawsuit Buncombe County filed against the Nashville, Tennessee-based health care system earlier this year. In its original complaint, filed Aug. 6 in state superior court and later moved to U.S. District Court for the Western District...

Taylor Knopf/NC Health News Just as substance use experts celebrated a somewhat mysterious drop in drug overdose deaths across North Carolina, Hurricane Helene blew through the western part of the state, causing death and widespread property damage. In the storm’s aftermath, many residents found themselves without homes and businesses and...

Cece Nunn/WilmingtonBiz Local and state election results will hopefully give a boost to homebuilders – and housing affordability – in the Wilmington area, according to participants in a panel discussion on Friday about the post-election market. Shawn Horton, owner of Wilmington-based Trusst Builder Group, said, “It’s really local that matters,...

The Carolina Journal Greg Lindberg, once North Carolina’s top election campaign donor, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges connected to a scheme government officials described as a $2 billion fraud. The conspiracy and money laundering charges stemmed from a case separate from Lindberg’s conviction in May on bribery and fraud...

Colin Campbell/WUNC Radio Tens of millions of dollars were spent on this year’s North Carolina campaigns, and much of it came from outside the state. Here’s a look at some of the biggest donors and who they supported, according to the latest campaign finance reports released late last month: Michael...