When Frances Acuña received her flood insurance quote for the coming year, she got a shock: it would be increasing from $450 to $1,893 (£355 to £1,490). “I couldn’t pay it,” she says. “And so now I don’t have flood insurance. But I don’t feel alone as most of my...

There’s no doubt it was hot outdoors the day José Arturo Gónzalez Mendoza died after falling ill while harvesting sweet potatoes from a Barnes Farming field in Nash County. The heat index, which factors in humidity with the temperature, measured 96 in that part of eastern North Carolina on Sept....

Durham County’s abuse, neglect, and dependency court effectively prohibited anyone involved in child welfare cases—including parents—from discussing their cases with the media, under a new rule issued in late February. The rule change, approved by Chief District Court Judge Clayton Jones Jr., appears to be a response to our three-part...

An upcoming legal action in North Carolina will test how federal courts interpret a 2023 decision by the Supreme Court of the U.S. The ruling in Sackett v. EPA narrowed the definition of wetlands that qualify as waters of the United States. Father and son Melton E. “Val” and Skip...

With new national clean air protections in place, a UNC-Chapel Hill study suggests that future air quality measures may need to be more localized. The study, led by professor Sarav Arunachalam with UNC’s Institute for the Environment, looked at the national trends of tiny air-polluting particles known as fine particulate...

Huddled in the back of a fruit and vegetable stand in the south of Culiacán, the hitman scanned the area as he described the order he received regarding fentanyl producers operating on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital city. “They told us to kill anyone still producing fentanyl,” he explained. “There...

President Joe Biden came out in opposition to the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, saying on Thursday that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers.” In a statement, Biden added: “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel...

Nearly 5,000 students received a total of approximately $3 million in aid through the short-term workforce development grant program during the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to a legislative report approved by the State Board of Community Colleges March 15th. Approximately 1,136 students have received $510,712.83 in aid during the 2023-24...

A Virginia Commonwealth University-led project cataloging dementia cases and other neurodegenerative diseases across the state is poised to be codified into law, pending Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature, through a bill passed by the General Assembly this year. Founded in 2021 by now-VCU professor Dr. Annie Rhodes, the Virginia Memory Project...

Two women convicted in federal court of fraud while working at the Chatham County Housing Authority continue to hold key positions at a locally and federally funded nonprofit that helps low-income residents. Central Piedmont Community Action Inc., based in Siler City, assists people in Chatham, Durham, Orange and other counties...

The fight over whether Republicans keep their supermajority in the General Assembly will come down to just a handful of legislative districts. There are 120 seats in the House. Almost all are preordained in terms of who will win. The GOP has 72 of them — the minimum number needed...

Flicking heads off shrimp is one of the first jobs you learn when you’re born a Davis. Joseph “Jody” Davis remembers filling up a bucket of beheaded shrimp for his grandmother for a quarter when he was just 4 years old. “It wasn’t bad money in the ’70s,” he said,...

LaChunda Hunter was sitting at her dining room table one February morning when her phone rang. It was the hospital. The doctor on the phone told Hunter that things were looking up for Legacy, the tiny, premature girl Hunter had delivered at Novant Presbyterian nine days earlier. Hunter said she...

Dollar General is backing away from the self-checkout trend in retail. The company is pulling out self-checkout stands in 300 stores that have the highest levels of shoplifting and merchandise losses. In 9,000 other stores, Dollar General is converting some or all of its self-checkout registers to regular checkout with...

People in North Carolina may have a little more riding on this year’s NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as they will be able to legally bet on the games through their smartphone apps and computers for the first time. For the sixth straight year, the number of states allowing...