Pat Kimbrough/High Point Enterprise Supporters of a proposed affordable housing loan fund for High Point say that the city needs to contribute money to it to help it get off the ground. The High Point Community Foundation Housing Impact Fund would comprise mostly private money, but the city would also...

Madison Lipe/Wilmington StarNews PFAS exposure remains a concern for residents of the Lower Cape Fear region, but recent results from an ongoing GenX Exposure Study could provide some assurance for residents that water cleanup has been beneficial. In 2017, residents learned that their drinking water, which is sourced from the...

The Associated Press A North Carolina man whose alias is “AK Guru” has been charged with making and selling hundreds of machine guns built from existing and deconstructed weapons, federal authorities said. Earl Carter Jr., 72, is being held by federal authorities on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and deal...

Port City Daily After an emergency meeting was called, with verbose feedback from Southport City Council against having to put their EMS crews on standby due to a new franchise agreement with the county, the two government entities have come to a resolve. City of Southport and Brunswick County staff...

Sarah Honosky/Asheville Citizen Times Ingles Markets estimates between $35 million and $55 million of inventory and property loss from Tropical Storm Helene, the company said an Oct. 29 release. The Black Mountain-based grocery chain is headquartered along the Swannanoa River, which crested to record-shattering levels, with heavy rainfall, flooding and...

Caleb M. Soptelean/The Sanford Herald “A celebration of something good that a region can do together.” With those words, Sanford Mayor Pro Tem Mark Akinosho encouraged those gathered Tuesday morning for the groundbreaking of the expansion of TriRiver Water’s filtration system, which will serve Sanford, Pittsboro, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs....

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly took its second step in flood recovery on Oct. 24, designating from the state’s $4.4 billion Rainy Day Fund an additional $604 million in funding and resources for disaster recovery in response to Hurricane Helene — far less than the...

Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Cassandra Brooks owns Little Believer’s Academy, which has locations in Garner and Clayton. She operates three NC Pre-K classrooms. But rising costs and stagnant resources have made it hard for her to do business. “Every day is just so stressful,” she said. NC Pre-K serves eligible...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press Like pouring water from a bathtub into a tea cup. That’s how Gaston County Emergency Management Director Scott Hunter described the impact of an inflow of floodwater from Lake Norman to the much smaller Mountain Island Lake, which is situated directly upstream along the Catawba River....

Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio When Helene first hit, Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) President Vic Isley announced a “Love Asheville From Afar” campaign to encourage tourists to donate to various Asheville relief campaigns and shop online from local businesses as the region got back on its feet. A...

Rusty Jacobs/WUNC Radio Political polls, including the latest from Elon University, show this year’s presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is in a dead heat in North Carolina. Voters are split on issues like the economy, abortion access, immigration, and threats to democracy. You see those same fault...

Ayanna Alexander/The Associated Press Strewn across the coastal plains and backroads of North Carolina lie institutions that could be pivotal in the battleground state in Tuesday’s elections — 10 historically Black colleges and universities steeped in a history of activism. Now, local student government associations and other organizations at these...

WFAE Radio On a late October evening in North Carolina’s capital city, a massive stage in a dark auditorium is backlit by tall screens, and bass-thumping music and vocals are filling the space. There’s a table of judges in front of the stage. Think American Idol but with a clearly...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily Recent emails indicate city staff are putting a plan in place should the City of Wilmington become the last North Carolina municipality to relinquish the use of red-light cameras. The city has 13 cameras installed across Wilmington as part of its four-year, seven-month agreement with American...

Vicki Hyatt/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Canton officials have approved $1 million in budget modifications to cover flood cleanup costs, with some shifts coming even before the storm hit. Half the funds came from the N.C. General Assembly grant to offset mill closure impacts, while the rest were internal budget shifts from...