Brunswick County school district is refining its attendance policy, prompted by high student absences in the 2023-2024 school year. During the first semester, the district observed 20.1% or roughly 873 high school students classified as chronically absent. In the middle school range, 10.62% or roughly 293 students were identified as...

While the idea of robot helpers may seem farfetched, the City of Sanford has put several to work over the past month. Visitors to the Sanford Municipal Center have likely seen autonomous lawn mowers moving around the campus lawn. While they are fun to watch, these small, efficient robots offer...

You cannot help but appreciate how E.E. Smith High School alumni feel about this revered place along Seabrook Road. They cherish this school. It’s a part of who they were, who they are and who they have become. “I love E.E. Smith,” Dee Major Hardy said Tuesday as about 200...

For the sixth time in six months, Elm City’s water system was flagged by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. The town posted a notice Wednesday afternoon for its fourth violation since Oct. 31 related to the presence of trihalomethanes, a cleaning byproduct chemical in the water. Trihalomethanes, or TTHMs,...

Anyone who’s been flying in and out of Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI) in recent years has noticed constant work going on all around the place – and not just work related to the new 1000-acre aviation megasite that’s drawing in new companies. The airport’s main terminal, the parking lots...

For a little more than a decade, UNC Health Care has provided care at WakeBrook, the mental health hospital in east Raleigh. Wake County owns the facility, but UNC has been the care provider. Earlier this year, UNC Health announced it will transition away from WakeBrook, a move advocates say...

A new study from the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Robert Graham Center (AAFP), co-funded by the Milbank Memorial Fund and The Physicians Foundation, has found that communities across the country are struggling to meet the demand for primary care physicians, as well as to retain those physicians in their...

It’s early morning in this small agricultural town in Central Florida and the pickers are already hunched over the bushes, plucking strawberries, the main crop out here. Fidel Sanchez instructs his workers to get rid of the fruit that fell and rotted on the ground. There’s a lot of it....

Union workers at Daimler Truck who make Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses in North Carolina won significant raises and cost of living allowances. The United Auto Workers union announced late Friday it had struck a favorable new contract deal for 7,300 Daimler Truck North America workers....

Governor Roy Cooper tapped Joey Hopkins to serve as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) last September, but Wednesday was his first day before the Senate Transportation Committee that will vote on the appointment. Hopkins, who has worked at NCDOT for more than 30 years in a...

Abortion continues to be a key part of Democrats’ election playbook in North Carolina, which for 2024 will include what abortion-rights advocates call an unprecedented investment in get-out-the-vote efforts. Planned Parenthood affiliated groups in North Carolina announced on Thursday a $10 million campaign in the state that largely focuses on...

The 7-year-old company that last year bought North Carolina-based Blue Force Technologies was chosen Wednesday for contract by the Air Force with one other ahead of three giants in American defense. Anduril Industries, headquartered in California and founded in 2017, was chosen as one of two vendors in the Collaborative...

As Fayetteville State University Chancellor Darrell T. Allison finished his third year at the helm of the storied campus on March 15, he had accomplishments to celebrate. Some of these: Enrollment is up and dropouts are down. Research grants from outside sources have nearly doubled, from $15.2 million in the...

The State Advisory Council on Indian Education (SACIE) shared its annual report with the State Board of Education earlier this month. The report, which SACIE presents to the Board each year, provides an analysis of American Indian students’ performance regarding end-of-grade (EOG) scores, dropout and graduation rates, and suspension data....

Cape Fear River Watch’s designated Riverkeeper is petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce protections for an industry he believes is at the heart of local water pollution. In September, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Food & Water Watch, the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, and 11 other groups sued the EPA...