A divided Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a controversial proposed Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan that would have provided billions of dollars to help address the nation’s opioid crisis in exchange for protecting the family that owns the company from future lawsuits. The justices ruled that U.S. bankruptcy code does not...

North Carolina’s contentious restrictions on public mask-wearing became law on Thursday after GOP lawmakers successfully overrode a veto by the state’s Democratic governor. The Senate gave its final stamp of approval in a 30-13 override vote along party lines. The state House initiated the process Wednesday when it voted to...

Cumberland County Schools Associate Superintendent of Business Operations Jay Toland gave school board members a harsh reality check Thursday morning. “Currently, we are operating at a structural deficit,” Toland said during a special work session held at Fayetteville Technical Community College. “And what that means is that we’re using our...

Faced with limited land and soaring property values, Dare County may have limited options to address its housing crisis, Tyler Mulligan, Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government, told the Dare County Housing Task Force at its June 25 meeting. “You don’t have a lot...

The U.S. Forest Service has announced it will not harvest timber from a 15-acre patch of North Carolina mountain forest that is the subject of a federal lawsuit. The Forest Service said in a June 21 statement that it would remove the acreage from its Southside Project within the Nantahala...

Philip Isley, chairman of the Centennial Authority, choked up as he tried to put the events of the day into perspective. The board, which owns PNC Arena, had just voted Thursday to approve a 20-year lease extension and an 80-acre development agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes, a pair of deals...

A city council member argued Wilmington is failing to abide by rules governing appointments at a recent meeting, noting another member has served six years over the limit on the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority board. At the June 18 meeting, council member Salette Andrews raised a motion to replace...

The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority on Wednesday approved its operating budget for the 2025 fiscal year, with planned spending down slightly from the previous year amid projections of flat revenue growth. The $27.3 million budget — most of which will go toward marketing Asheville and the surrounding area as...

A superior court judge, on Thursday, denied a Carteret County Board of Education (BOE) request to stay a legal order issued June 5 that nullified the district’s early school calendar that had students report back to classrooms Aug. 13 for the 2024-25 academic year. The board is still moving forward...

When H.P. Trousers closes in August, it won’t be because business has been slow. Quite the opposite, said Ryan Coleman, the owner of the clothing store and bar in the heart of High Point’s downtown catalyst district across the street from Truist Point stadium. “It has been amazing — far...

The polarized immigration debate in the United States generally revolves around illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, but those numbers don’t indicate what happens to these and other migrants who stay in the country. A Washington Post analysis of more than 4.1 million U.S. immigration court records from the past...

State House lawmakers, locked in a budget standoff, unveiled an emergency stopgap funding measure Wednesday aimed at helping child care centers keep their doors open. The move came as child care advocates rallied for more funding outside the legislative building Wednesday morning — before taking their message inside the statehouse,...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a civil rights group challenging North Carolina’s anti-rioting law, whose criminal penalties were raised last year by state legislators. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina sued over the law, after the Legislature increased punishments in response to protests against...

In a split decision, Whiteville City Council voted Tuesday to pull $2 million in funding that had been allocated to build a park planned for the former Lewis Smith Shopping Center on the downtown’s south side. That move reduced the project allocation from around $3.18 million to about $1.18 million...

An already-tense election is proving even trickier for Jewish candidates to navigate, especially Democrats. Since Oct. 7, deep divisions have developed within the Democratic Party over the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war and ensuing protests on college campuses. As Election Day gets closer, Democrats are having to walk a fine line among...