Big Four athletics directors welcomed North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s rescinding of an executive order nearly three years old and now outdated by the Tennessee v. NCAA preliminary injunction. Cooper’s order July 2, 2021, followed the NCAA allowing students who are athletes to start earning money based on their name...

Fifty-five educator preparation programs (EPPs) in North Carolina enrolled a total of 15,865 candidates pursuing initial teaching licenses in 2022-23, according to data presented at the State Board of Education’s March meeting. Those numbers reflect a 10% decrease from 2021-2022, and a 43% increase over the last decade. However, new...

Frustration boiled over during public comments at a March 6 Environmental Review Commission meeting (ERC) described as a Presentation to the Dredging Process and Permitting. The meeting was held at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. Permitting to dredge Oregon Inlet continues to be plagued by conflicting rules and...

When Otis Smallwood was hired to be superintendent of Bertie County Schools — a return home to the school district he once attended as a student — he knew his charge was to find a way to attract more teachers to the district and get them to stay. “The [school]...

Critics of North Carolina’s school voucher programs like to say that even millionaires can now get public money to help pay their children’s private-school tuition. And technically that’s true, since the General Assembly voted this summer to remove income caps for Opportunity Scholarships. But the state has seen a surge...

Playing college basketball for top programs such as Duke or North Carolina, in sold-out arenas on national TV, naturally brings players pressure and draws a related amount of vitriol from opposing fans. When legal sports betting goes live Monday in North Carolina, athletes face an added source of hate headed...

While his college friends celebrated the end of midterm exams with a spring break trip to Florida, 21-year-old Wyatt Gable entered the home stretch of his bid to oust a 10-term Republican from the North Carolina House. Weeks spent phone banking after class and driving about an hour home on...

Kim Parker was spending a normal weekend afternoon with family in the living room when she spied something out the window that left her momentarily speechless. “I looked out and at first I couldn’t get the words out. I’m just pointing at the yard. The bear just came down from...

The Mayor of Sparta addressed his sudden resignation during a meeting Friday. In a room full of people, Mayor Wes Brinegar explained what unfolded at Tuesday’s town hall meeting. The Mayor spoke for nearly 30 minutes, getting emotional at times. He said there’s so much that needs to be said...

After months of deliberation and more than $40,000 spent, the Buncombe County Board of Education begrudgingly approved an electoral map Thursday night that will cause some parents to vote for officials who will not represent most of their children’s districts. The state legislature required redistricting for the Buncombe school district...

Pinehurst Manager Jeff Sanborn, in a Feb. 27 resignation letter to the Village Council, cites a volatile “political environment” within the community and a lack of trust among staff for the council as reasons for his decision. Sanborn, who has led the village for almost nine years, made his resignation...

Soon after Ben Hanna and his wife Mandy bought seven acres of land near Nevada City, California in 2015, the one flaw of the weekend retreat that they’d imagined became apparent. Wildfires were becoming increasingly common and destructive throughout the state, and the property didn’t have cell service. Whenever Hanna...

Gov. Roy Cooper attended the state board of education meeting Thursday morning to share his thoughts on public school funding. Cooper, a Democrat, joined State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, both Republicans, at the head of the boardroom. Cooper and Truitt are now in the lame-duck phase...

Based on the conversation the Guilford County Board of Commissioners had with water infrastructure experts on Thursday, March 7 at the board’s annual retreat, it’s an absolutely critical issue facing Guilford County – one that can either thwart or promote economic development in a huge way. Water infrastructure was also...

When Gastonia resident Michael Whatley was running for chair of the North Carolina GOP several years ago, some of his critics tried to dismiss him as just some “Washington, D.C., guy,” says state Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston. “Oh no,” says Overcash, who’s known the new leader of the Republican National...