Up until this week, Gerard Tate has been the sole employee of the N.C. Office of Violence Prevention. The new office, created last year by an executive order from Gov. Roy Cooper, now also has a deputy director to help coordinate with state and local leaders to reduce violence and...

Citing threats to the environment and public safety, the Dare County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Monday that requests that the Coast Guard take immediate action to restore the Buxton beach access to its “pre-military condition.” Commissioner Danny Couch presented the resolution during the board’s regular meeting in...

Durham’s ShotSpotter experiment ended Monday night. The city council rejected a three-year contract for the gunshot detection system by a vote of 4-2. Mayor Leonardo Williams and Mayor Pro-Tem Mark-Anthony Middletdon were the only council members who voted in favor. A one-year pilot program began in late 2022. Hidden microphones...

This spring will see the completion of the first major new building project in downtown Chapel Hill in almost a decade. No, it’s not one of the two wet labs the previous councils have approved in recent years. It’s also not the single downtown apartment building the previous council approved...

Lee County is one of the two fastest-growing markets for services provided by FirstHealth of the Carolinas. Mickey Foster, a Lee native and FirstHealth CEO, gave a brief overview of the not-for-profit health-care system based in Pinehurst at the Sanford Area Growth Alliance at Monday’s Public Policy Luncheon. FirstHealth of...

Perhaps no road project in the Asheville region has been talked about longer than the I-26 Connector, a billion-dollar-plus behemoth designed to connect I-26 north of Asheville to I-26 south of town. So when Rob Sheeran bought his three-bedroom, two-bath home in West Asheville two decades ago, he knew one...

Campaign disclosure reports related to Tuesday’s primary election are still flowing in. Unfortunately, some candidates and groups are hiding their activities by capitalizing on our weak election laws or simply ignoring the deadlines for filing reports. Here are a few stories revealed in the reports that supplement my previous NC...

“Follow the money”—and you expect to find some answers. But in the cases of the campaign finance stories from NC Senate District 22 incumbent Mike Woodard and challenger Sophia Chitlik, there are no simple answers. Voters in northern, central and eastern Durham will decide in the March 5 primary which...

North Carolinians are heading to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the primary election and usually start seeing results on election night immediately after polls close at 7:30 p.m. But this year, people will have to wait longer than usual for results. Due to changes in state law, a...

Social worker Symone Kiddoo stands on a picnic table, grasping a bullhorn as she calls out to a crowd of teachers and school staff at a protest in January. They are gathered to protest outside the Durham Public Schools’ staff development center, on what is scheduled to be a school...

The Army plans to cut 32,000 jobs while making room for another 7,500, it announced this week. In a report that was released Tuesday, officials said they will phase out positions that are either unfilled or tied to previous counterinsurgency missions. The reports states the planned reductions are for job...

Hundreds of higher education leaders across the country gathered virtually on Feb. 28-29 for a dual enrollment conference hosted by several North Carolina agencies — the N.C. Community College System (NCCCS), the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Early College Research Center, and...

Almost two dozen staff members didn’t show up for work Monday at a Carrboro middle school after a student threatened staff members last week. A spokesperson for the district told WRAL News 23 staff members were absent Monday, but some absences were unrelated to last week’s threat. “I’m writing to...

For most people, electricity is as simple as flipping a switch. They don’t give much thought to the process that brought the electricity into their home. But for employees at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant, the process of making, harnessing, and delivering electricity is top of mind. Located just two miles...

A barren, 42-acre site of the Swannanoa community’s once-famous blanket manufacturer will begin to see new life later this year as a multi-use park that could, in years to come, form the heart of new commercial and residential development, say a group of local entrepreneurs who shared their vision with...