Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority’s 10-year master plan is not just for visitors and the tourism industry. Rather, the plan focuses on quality of life for both visitors and Haywood residents, convinced that what is good for one group will be good for all. The...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online A city-operated wastewater treatment plant in Randolph County discharged substantially high levels of 1,4-dioxane last month into a tributary of the Cape Fear River, the drinking water supply for about 1 million North Carolinians. Several downstream businesses and water utilities, including Cape Fear Public Utility Authority...

Paul Nielsen/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Repairing Interstate 40 so that two lanes can be opened in each direction will require a stunning engineering and construction feat, with work scheduled to begin in March and lasting at least two years. After considering a range of possibilities, including a viaduct and tunnel, engineers...

Rusty Jacobs/WUNC Radio Duke University student Sofia Dib-Gomez was excited to vote in the election back in November. She registered in Durham last August, soon after arriving on campus as a first-year student. As a fellow with the Duke Votes mobilization effort, Dib-Gomez said she had become quite familiar with...

Makiya Seminera/The Associated Press Emily Russell remembers feeling hopeful after she managed to get an appointment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency not long after Hurricane Helene ripped though her home in Swannanoa, North Carolina. But after several assistance requests were denied or left pending, Russell says the agency has...

Zachery Eanes/Axios Raleigh Estella Patterson, Raleigh’s outgoing police chief, says she believes she will have successfully brought the Raleigh Police Department back to full strength by this summer. Why it matters: Like many police departments across the country, RPD has been plagued by a large number of unfilled positions since...

Catherine Muccigrosso/The Charlotte Observer A Formula 1 racing team wants to expand its operations to the center of NASCAR country in Concord, spend up to $85 million and create up to 350 jobs. Not to be outdone, a NASCAR team also is plotting an expansion for a new manufacturing building...

Sammy Fretwell/The (Palmetto) State In a push to help South Carolina meet future energy needs, the state House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a comprehensive bill intended to make building power plants easier by limiting some government restrictions on new projects. The complex bill, which advances efforts to build a...

Kristen Blair/Education NC The North Carolina Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) approved renewals for four public charter schools at its virtual meeting on Monday, Feb. 10. The CSRB delayed its vote on a fifth charter renewal until March, in order to hear from school leaders about financial management issues outlined...

Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro A partnership between the Town of Chapel Hill and the UNC Health system is officially ready to help boost local affordable housing efforts. In a release Thursday afternoon, the local government announced its Affordable Housing Loan Fund with the healthcare system and Self-Help Ventures Fund is launching...

Nick Fogleman/The Watauga Democrat In December, a group of Amish volunteers from Pennsylvania partnered with local organizers in Boone to construct tiny homes for individuals displaced by Hurricane Helene. Now, weeks after their construction, the homes have been successfully delivered to communities in need, marking another success in a grassroots...

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan/The (Raleigh) News & Observer A local sheriff from his district is challenging the most powerful Republican lawmaker in North Carolina. Senate leader Phil Berger, who lives in Eden, will have a primary opponent in the 2026 election if he decides to run for reelection. Rockingham County Sheriff...

Rylee Wilson/Becker’s Payer Issues CVS Health’s new executives are working “tirelessly” to improve margins in the company’s insurance business, CFO Tom Cowhey told investors. The company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2024 Feb. 12. CVS Health reported $4.6 billion in net income in 2024, down from $8.4 billion...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News Nearly $6 million in taxpayer money will be coming back to Haywood County after Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Gov. Josh Stein announced that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit alleging that Pactiv Evergreen had violated the terms of a decade-old economic development grant...

Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio On Tuesday, the Asheville City Council ousted the local housing authority’s chair and vice-chair after Mayor Esther Manheimer changed her mind about using unilateral authority to remove several board members. Council members voted unanimously to eliminate two seats on the Housing Authority of the City...