Chase Pellegrini de Paur/IndyWeek Second-term state Senator Graig Meyer is vacating his seat this week to take a job as executive director of the North Carolina Justice Center. Four candidates—including State Rep. Allen Buansi, State Rep. Renée Price, and state Democratic Party Vice Chair Jonah Garson—are vying to finish Meyer’s...

Wyatte Grantham-Philips/The Associated Press U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war pushes fuel prices higher worldwide. According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.02 —...

Moss Brennan/The Watauga Democrat While it’s been more than a year and a half since Hurricane Helene ripped through the High Country, the Watauga Long Term Recovery Group is still active and working to help those in need. “There’s a tremendous amount of what I would call a hidden need...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily A local push to establish a Bible study program during the public school day has split the New Hanover County Schools community since the proposal was brought up at a school board meeting a month ago. On Monday, two members of the program’s steering committee explained...

Drew C. Wilson/The Wilson Times Wilson County Schools will ask the Wilson County commissioners for $39,772,359 for its current expense fund and $1.5 million in capital outlay funds for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. Wilson Medical information Last year’s county appropriation for the current expense fund was $26,292,960. The capital outlay...

Elena Marsh/The Southern Pines Pilot Local tourism officials are beginning to see greater revenue totals flowing in following January’s increase of the room occupancy tax rate. The Board of Commissioners last year approved raising the rate from 3 to 6 percent per night on accommodations. From the start of its...

Chase Pellegrini de Paur/IndyWeek  The Durham County government has spent the last month practically begging the Durham Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education to lower its expectations for county funding. Take DPS’s $11 million continuation request—the funding increase that administrators say would do nothing except maintain DPS services at their...

WSOC News The Catawba County Board of Education unanimously approved a plan Monday to begin contract negotiations for a middle school expansion project. The additions and renovations are estimated to cost between $120 million and $140 million, officials said. The board selected LS3P as the design firm and Hickory Construction...

Thérèse Boudreaux/The Center Square  Only 10 U.S. senators voted against the bipartisan housing bill that restricts large institutional investors from buying up single family homes and requires investors to sell build-to-rent homes within seven years. Those lawmakers also each received tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2024...

Paul Woolverton/CityView The Fayetteville Public Works Commission voted on Wednesday to hire Harper General Contractors for $133.7 million to build “forever chemical” filtration systems at the utility’s two water treatment plants. The action is to comply with anti-pollution regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The filtering systems, which will...

Brian Murphy/WRAL News  The University of North Carolina has suspended discussions about the future of the Smith Center until the Tar Heels hire their next men’s basketball coach and that coach has had time to develop his program, potentially pushing any decision on a basketball arena decision into the future....

Kate Denning/Carolina Public Press In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Tim Hall, a K-12 Social Studies Instructional Specialist at Vance County Schools and former president of the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies, learned in real time that he didn’t know how to teach...

Andrew Marshall/The Waynesville Mountaineer A tear-jerker of a video extolling the virtues of Haywood County has won two major national awards, and if you watch it, you’ll see why. The video, produced by the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority as part of its 2025 rebranding, took home Gold and Best...

Emma Cooke/WCHL Chapelboro Orange County’s Board of Commissioners recently met with Mebane to discuss ways to plan for the future of the city and how to accommodate its growing population. Although currently the county’s smallest municipality, it is also its fastest growing one. In Dec. the city’s council adopted “Mebane...

Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio An estimated 130 people in Buncombe County are still homeless as a result of Hurricane Helene. And the total number of unhoused people has increased to 824, a 9% uptick from last year. That’s according to the Point-in-Time Count, an annual, HUD-mandated survey that relies...