Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & The Charlotte Ledger Rebecca Smith, a breast cancer survivor, didn’t think much about it in 2018 when Novant Health bought Lake Norman Oncology, the practice in Mooresville where she had regular checkups with her cancer doctor. Then Smith, 51, received a medical bill that left...

Liz Bell/Education NC Since the start of July — right after the legislature approved state money to replace federal child care funding as it expired — the state has had a net loss of 69 licensed child care programs. That’s almost double the state’s net loss over the previous three...

Jonathan Bym/The (Southern Pines) Pilot The Moore County Planning and Zoning Board has recommended the Board of Commissioners reject plans for a high-end motorsports park in northern Moore County. Thursday night’s hearing was a colorful one, in that a number of attendees boasted either red “stop” stickers or green “go”...

Jennifer Allen/Coastal Review Online The federal agency that identifies offshore wind energy areas is in the early stages of siting another possible commercial lease sale for the East Coast. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an open house last week at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City,...

Gerard Albert III/Blue Ridge Public Radio An “unnecessary” medical process is doubling costs for some rural hospital patients and adding to emergency room overcrowding at Asheville’s Mission Hospital, according to a lawsuit moved to federal court this month. Buncombe County government leaders initially filed the lawsuit against health care giant...

Aidan Lockhart/The Daily Tar Heel The School of Civic Life and Leadership, which is offering classes for the first time this semester, has undergone significant faculty turnover since its inception. The nine inaugural faculty members of the school were announced in an email by Jim White, dean of the College...

Olivia Neeley/The Wilson Times Wilson Medical Center’s interim CEO is anticipating another immediate jeopardy status from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services following an August visit for a complaint investigation at the facility. Lindy White said the hospital took immediate corrective action following a weeklong unannounced visit from the...

Paul Woolverton/CityView It’s now expected to cost almost $111.2 million for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission to build a filter system to extract PFAS “forever chemicals” from its drinking water, according to PWC documents. This is $30.2 million more than a previous estimate of $80 million. The PWC is Fayetteville’s...

Randy Foster/Cherokee Scout A long-awaited meeting between county commissioners and school board members Monday night included sometimes angry comments from the public and an agreement for further meetings to map out the future for the building-rich, cash-poor school system. Cherokee County Schools has 13 schools spread out over 12 campuses,...

Liz Bell/Education NC Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday vetoed House Bill 10, the “mini budget” bill Republican legislators passed last week to clear waitlists for the private school voucher program, among other items. “We know that private school vouchers are the biggest threat to public schools in decades,” Cooper...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily The state’s chief administrative judge ruled against the Department of Environmental Quality in a dispute over regulation of a toxic chemical contaminating the tri-county region. Some critics argue the decision may also present a conflict of interest. Sandra Van der Vaart is the spouse of Chief...

Jane Winik/Carolina Public Press Pressure is mounting on HCA’s management of Mission Health in Asheville from all sides. The hospital responded with a change in leadership this week. This round of renewed urgency comes from a new Buncombe County lawsuit and unproductive bargaining with the nurses union. The union indicated...

Nathan McDermott/The Bulwark North Carolina gubernatorial candidate and current lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, already under fire for a series of racist remarks, once waxed nostalgically about the Jim Crow era of intense segregation. “During Jim Crow, you can go back and you can look at it and the record will...

Paul Specht/WRAL News A series of racist and lewd posts on a pornographic website more than a decade ago, unveiled last week, have produced a surreal scenario: The election to decide the next leader of the free world could be upended by a down-ballot candidate in the ninth-largest state in...

Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro The UNC Board of Trustees met Wednesday and Thursday in the Spangler Center in Chapel Hill for its regular bi-monthly meeting — the first of which since Lee Roberts was formally selected as Carolina’s permanent chancellor. Though he took over as interim chancellor in January, Roberts still...