In light of a warning from a state agency, an increase in water bills could be on tap for utility customers in Mount Airy, based on recent discussions among city officials. “I don’t think we have any choice,” Commissioner Tom Koch said during a strategic planning retreat earlier this month...

UNC’s interim Chancellor Lee Roberts currently serves on the board of directors of Variety Wholesalers, Inc., a private retail company whose CEO and chair is James Arthur “Art” Pope, a conservative donor, former state government official and current member of the UNC Board of Governors. During his tenure on the...

The group that owns PNC Arena made its initial choice for an architecture and design firm for its $300 million renovation project. The Centennial Authority’s building and construction committee voted to pick Gensler and local partner LS3P. The full authority board must approve the selection and could do so as...

The receiver overseeing the liquidation of Klaussner Furniture Industries has sold all that it can and received a judge’s permission this week to abandon furniture and other property in dozens of shipping containers as well as at three former Klaussner sites in Randolph and Montgomery counties. The receiver, Focus Management...

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools experienced a 7.43 percent decline of the average number of students enrolled in its schools from the beginning of the 2019-20 school year to the end of 2022-23 — a decrease likely driven by demographic changes in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities and growing involvement...

The most recent round of a decades-long project to maintain an inlet on the North End of Wrightsville Beach has faced delays, but the county remains hopeful it will complete by the March 31 deadline. On Feb. 25, New Hanover County and engineering firm Gahagan and Bryant Associates sent a...

Mission Hospital is no longer in immediate jeopardy, but inspectors will return to the hospital for another survey in three months, according to a U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services statement and letter obtained by Asheville Watchdog on Wednesday. The finding, based on a visit to the hospital last...

Mike Causey has no shortage of enemies in his own party. The two-term insurance commissioner brought down a major North Carolina Republican donor for bribery in an FBI sting in 2019 that also entangled the head of the state GOP, a former congressman who’d once been the party’s nominee for...

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has submitted the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project for federal grant consideration, which could cover up to half the cost of the over $400 million new bridge. The grant application for the federal Bridge Investment Program requests the maximum amount allowed, $242.15 million....

The phones at many dental offices across North Carolina have been ringing repeatedly in recent months with requests for oral health care from newly enrolled Medicaid recipients. The state’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to nearly 600,000 low-income residents on Dec. 1 opened a robust array of services such as dental...

Teacher turnover has remained “roughly constant” since the General Assembly introduced state-funded bonus and supplement programs for teachers in 2016, N.C. Fiscal Research Division analyst Mary Schuler told lawmakers on Tuesday during a Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee (JLEOC) meeting. The attrition rates highlighted by Schuler range from 8.7% in...

During its Feb. 22 meeting, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission voted to adopt a slate of proposed rule changes for the coming year, including a pair of controversial measures that will shift the season dates for white-tailed deer and significantly expand the season length for black bear in the mountain...

There are three inches of space between pilots on the Vulcanair V1 single engine aircraft. For new flyers, having the instructor only a glance away is comforting, especially at 1,300 feet in the air. Sovereign Aerospace, a Moore County-based aviation management company, has the goal of bringing the joy of...

Gaston County employees repeatedly protested as payroll problems dragged on for more than a year. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board Tuesday approved a $16.5 million contract to begin converting its payroll and business systems to Oracle Cloud. That’s the same system Gaston County Schools used in its disastrous conversion that began...

Potters Industries, a glass bead manufacturing company, purchased the former Ardagh glass manufacturing plant on Firestone Parkway for $6.5 million. “This purchase represents another investment by Potters in North Carolina,” company spokesman Andy Andersen said. “Potters initially intends to modify existing warehouse space in Wilson in order to enhance our...