North Carolina lawmakers have expanded their reach over state government. At the same time, they’ve made it harder for the public to see what they’re doing. State legislative leaders two years ago tucked $6 million into the state budget for a newly formed company developing a novel COVID treatment —...

Lawyers representing state legislative leaders were in court Thursday in Raleigh, arguing to throw out an anti-gerrymandering lawsuit that targets the state’s new political districts. The lawsuit argues that the state constitution guarantees the right to fair elections, and it says the new districts violate that promise. The Republican-led legislature...

As Dollar Tree looks for a buyer for the North Carolina-founded Family Dollar franchise, what comes next for shoppers relying on its cheap goods remains unclear. Based in the Charlotte area since Family Dollar’s foundation in 1959, Virginia-based Dollar Tree purchased the chain in 2015 for $8.5 billion, then shuttered...

Insufficient child care is costing North Carolina about $5.65 billion each year, a new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation estimates. The report, released in partnership with the N.C. Chamber Foundation and NC Child, looked at the ways a lack of child care access hurts the state’s economy....

At a sparsely attended meeting in May at the Carrboro-based Orange Water and Sewer Authority board member Todd BenDor asked Stephen Winters, OWASA’s executive deputy director, an expensive question about what it would cost the utility to clean up the PFAS present in its water, which supplies about 80,000 customers...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a challenge to the FDA’s rules for prescribing and dispensing abortion pills. By a unanimous vote, the court said the anti-abortion doctors who brought the challenge had failed to show they had been harmed, as they do not prescribe the medication, and...

Canton is on a trajectory to bankrupt its sewer fund by early fall 2025 based on the proposed town budget slated for adoption at the town board meeting Thursday. By next March, the free ride Canton has enjoyed from the mill for decades will be over. Canton will no longer...

A metals recycling business associated with Toyota announced it will build a plant in Liberty to process battery material for off-site recycling and handle other waste streams, including cardboard and plastic, produced by the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina plant. Green Metals Inc. will invest $19.8 million over five years...

If North Carolina beaches are going to keep up their tug-of-war with the sea to maintain robust ocean shores, they’re going to need sand and a lot of it. But, in an era when mining sand and pumping it onto beaches has become a go-to means of fortifying shores against...

Student-athletes at public high schools in North Carolina will not be able to profit from their name, image, and likeness after the State Board of Education adopted a new amateurism policy, which includes a ban on NIL activities. The policy was adopted on June 6 during a vote that included...

As the United States ramps up $25.7 billion of military aid to Ukraine, an obscure port at the North Carolina coast is turning out to be a major player in ammo shipments and the logistical battle in the war following Russia’s invasion in 2022. The largest military port in the...

Members of the House Health Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would require insurers offering a health benefit plan in North Carolina that provides coverage for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to provide coverage for those procedures performed by any properly licensed healthcare provider or healthcare facility. Representative Wayne Sasser (R-Montgomery) told...

An ongoing lawsuit has put on hold both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to treat the toxic blue-green algae in Lake Mattamuskeet and state funding for the project. On behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center challenged on May 20 the...

Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for child care centers across North Carolina will come to an end July 1, creating a $300 million gap in child care funding in the state. The gap is raising concerns among business leaders, state lawmakers and advocates for the poor that...

Residents in one of North Carolina’s fastest growing counties have repeatedly argued the county’s planning board approval process disproportionately represents developer interests, noting board members charged with approving developments have donated to the commissioners who selected them. Brunswick’s planning board has final authority to approve development applications unless they are...