Western North Carolina’s regional DWI taskforce has renewed its push to pass several new drunk-driving bills into law during next year’s long session in Raleigh. The bills were discussed at a meeting in May at the Waynesville Police Department headed up by WNC DWI Taskforce Director Ellen Pitt. A variety...

In a community on one end of Chatham County, a major development project is quickly progressing — in another, a symbol from the past is creating debate around its future. While the county is seeing the Wolfspeed manufacturing plant outside of Siler City continue to come out of the ground,...

The town of Stanley has adopted a public records policy that charges a special service fee for access to public records that take time to produce. The new policy, which was approved at a City Council meeting on June 25, will charge $18 an hour service fee for any time...

Local residents and many visitors to Chapel Hill and Carrboro know the towns have a reputation for downtown parking being difficult to find sometimes. While the local governments each have a new parking deck expected to come online later this year, it is not unusual to see people try to...

The name of Gov. Roy Cooper has come up among a handful of state governors as a replacement on the Democratic ticket if President Joe Biden decides not to run, according to recent reports. Carolina Public Press interviewed analysts to understand the likelihood of Gov. Cooper being selected, if the...

After a 10-month hiatus, Asheville city government has resumed discussions of panhandling restrictions. Asheville Police Chief Mike Lamb wants to increase the number of places designated as High Traffic Zones, areas where it is illegal under city code for a person to verbally solicit and/or panhandle. Solicitation with a sign...

Partisan divisions within North Carolina’s Supreme Court are bound to attract attention. That’s especially true in an election year. Voters will choose a Democrat or Republican this fall to serve an eight-year term on the state’s highest court. Republicans will enter 2025 with either a 5-2 or 6-1 majority. As...

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, is planning a campaign fundraiser Tuesday with a secretive religious group that for years has been publicly accused of wielding cult-like control over its followers and of engaging in criminal behavior including slave labor, financial fraud and the sexual...

A month and more than 2,000 community comments later, New Hanover County planning staff are no longer recommending residential and mixed uses be permitted along the western banks of the Cape Fear River. County staff recently released an updated draft version of an amendment outlining a new place type, downtown...

Gov. Roy Cooper late Monday afternoon declined to sign a bill that includes granting a state regulatory agency’s request to delay new mandatory catch-reporting rules for recreational anglers and commercial fishermen. The decision was over unrelated provisions that Cooper described as an “unconstitutional power grab.” A paragraph tucked into Senate...

Nearly 4,000 parcels of land in Stanly County are now in the rural preservation area of the county land plan after a 6-1 decision by county commissioners at Monday’s meeting. A public hearing lasted close to two hours Monday night, with many citizens speaking for and against the proposed amendment....

Residents of East West Asheville say vacant homes now owned by the NCDOT to make way for the upcoming I-26 Connector project have become havens for drug users and people experiencing homelessness. Cathy Sherman said she moved to Asheville eight years ago and bought a house just off Hanover Street...

At the release end of the Jordan Lake Dam in Chatham County, an osprey fishes for its dinner. The bird spins in the air, dives low over the water, and yanks a fish out with its talons. A heron, watching from the riverbank, squawks jealousy and lunges at the osprey....

Weeks before one of North Carolina’s state-supported behavioral health management agencies merged with another one in eastern North Carolina, there was a flurry of questionable financial activity that led to more than $4 million in payments to two top executives and back pay to the law firm that counseled the...

Like child care centers nationwide, St. Stephens Loving Daycare Center in Rocky Mount used the tens of thousands of dollars of federal COVID-19 relief funding it received during the pandemic for far more than cleaning supplies and face masks. Director Carolyn Slade said first she used the quarterly relief checks...