Deirdra Funcheon/Hendersonville Times-News For one day only visitors can access the village of Chimney Rock to see how it has been recovering from Tropical Storm Helene and patronize local shops. “A Christmas Event for Chimney Rock Village” will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14. During Tropical...

Vicki Hyatt/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Haywood residents who took a chance on investing in Pactiv Evergreen when it went public in 2020 can cash out at a significant profit, as the company is about to be sold. Pactiv Evergreen will be acquired by Apollo Global Management’s Novolex for $3.2 billion, according...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog Asheville’s Water Resources Department announced Monday that the first batch of lead tests for residential customers is back, and the results are favorable. After announcing Nov. 14 that tests had found detectable levels of lead in seven local schools, the city has been inundated with requests for...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio The state Board of Education met last week — you may have heard some of my stories on cellphone use in the classroom and changes to how the state classifies students who are English learners. But I want to dive into some new state data on learning...

Pat Kimbrough/The High Point Enterprise An expansion by a technology company that city leaders hoped would be one of the largest economic development projects ever in High Point has not gotten off the ground more than four years after it was proposed. DC Blox said in a statement last week...

Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News When the remnants of Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, nurses based in schools and medical personnel from school-based health centers jumped in to help. One counselor and a colleague visited a family in a home that had been washed downriver, where they listened to...

WRAL News The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Board voted to remove Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) from membership following its annual meeting in Austin, Texas. However, SACSCOC found that SAU resolved all issues except those related to finances. SACSCOC’s policies will allow Saint Augustine’s University...

Alexa Wandersee/Port City Daily A 135-acre recreation complex is coming to New Hanover County, making it the second mega-sports facility project announced recently for the area. While downtown’s Northside could potentially have Optimism Oasis, another facility in the northern part of the county is looking to become a mini Olympic-like...

Coastal Review Online The renewable energy company building the 45-turbine Timbermill Wind facility in Chowan County has secured construction financing. Apex Clean Energy, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, announced last week that institutions leading the construction financing are German-based Helaba, Japanese-based SMBC, and BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, both based in...

John Staton/Wilmington StarNews Wilmington lost another historic building last month when the former home of longtime newspaper The Wilmington Journal, a landmark in the Black community, was torn down. Located at 412 S. Seventh St. downtown, the building dated to 1903 and for most of last century served as the...

Trey Nemec/CityView The Spring Lake Board of Commissioners held a strategic policy planning session Wednesday night, collaborating with town department representatives to create a blueprint for the next phases of the town’s development. The meeting was focused on identifying key priorities for the future as the board works to refine...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press  When was the last time you knew the full cost of a medical procedure before going under? Hospital price transparency has been enforced by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare since 2021, but whether the law is functioning as intended is a topic of heated...

Phil Galewitz/KFF Health News With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block. More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health...

Jacob Biba/Asheville Citizen Times When Tropical Storm Helene swept through Western North Carolina in September, the storm’s torrential rains triggered massive floods and landslides that tore through thousands of miles of the region’s roads and bridges. Highways collapsed into rivers, bridges and culverts washed out, and roadways, covered in mounds...

Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News Marian Spicer, 72, was treated for a kidney stone at Duke Health in late October. During the procedure, the doctor accidentally tore her bladder, and she didn’t get out of the hospital until early November. The pain of the experience was compounded by stress over the...