Cierra Noffke/WilmingtonBiz The N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher’s over $70 million renovation project will begin next month. The aquarium will undergo a substantial 30-month renovation, according to a press release issued Friday. Plans include adding a 400,000-gallon sand shark habitat, a 10,000-gallon Pacific coral habitat, an interactive shark and ray...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC News Thousands of high-school sophomores apply to North Carolina’s most prestigious high school annually. One of the most influential factors on whether a student will get into the NC School of Science and Mathematics, however, is determined before admissions professionals even look at their applications. NCSSM opened in...

Liz McLaughlin/WRAL News North Carolina’s drought is pushing water levels lower and putting a sharper focus on whether the state’s water supply can keep pace with growth and a changing climate. The city of Raleigh has announced stage 1 water-use restrictions effective Monday, April 20, which limit when residents can...

Rachel Crumpler & Taylor Knopf/NC Health News After spending six months examining the state’s involuntary commitment process, a special North Carolina House committee released a list of recommendations on Tuesday aimed at improving the state’s intertwined mental health and criminal justice systems. The House Select Committee on Involuntary Commitment and...

Sophia Luna/Education NC As the name suggests, community colleges are designed to meet the unique needs of their local community, operating as open door institutions that serve a wide range of students. “Community colleges across the country really play a critical role, and a truly unique role, in the workforce...

Virginia Bridges/The (Raleigh) News & Observer   Two weeks after Cumberland County Sheriff’s Capt. Adam Bean was found shot to death at a Hope Mills home, officials will only say it involved a domestic dispute between two off-duty law enforcement officers. For Cumberland County and most others, this is out...

Mike Catalini & Jonathan J. Cooper/The Associated Press Democrats are boasting of eye-popping fundraising hauls in some of this year’s top Senate contests, a potential sign of voter enthusiasm in what remains an uphill quest to win the Senate majority. In the first three months of the year, Texas Democratic...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News Brad Hoxit made history last month, but not in a way he’d ever have hoped. Hoxit appeared in Graham County Superior Court from March 24-27 for a hearing to determine whether he would be permanently removed as sheriff of the small Western North Carolina county. Last...

Emily Sawaked/Port City Daily Bald Head Island is on its way to gaining the village’s very first arcade, but not everyone is stoked about the proposal. In a special meeting on April 13, the Bald Head Island Planning Board held a quasi-judicial hearing for a special use permit granting Stoked...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education tabled a vote on the local budget request Tuesday night as members consider how much to ask county commissioners for. Teachers and staff rallied outside the WS/FCS education building ahead of the board’s meeting. They held signs urging members to...

Cameron Blue/The High Point Enterprise A day after Thomasville City Schools Superintendent Quincy Williams announced his resignation, the board of education on Tuesday approved a resolution urging the N.C. General Assembly to pass a budget for the 2027 fiscal year. The school system receives roughly 55.9% of its funding from...

Will Atwater/NC Health News Tropical Storm Helene’s impact on western North Carolina was felt acutely in the days, weeks and months after the storm, including in the region’s hospitals and clinics. New research shows how pregnant patients and people with anxiety and other health issues turned to emergency departments for...

Will Doran & Caroline Yaffa/WRAL News State lawmakers voted Wednesday to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that would give the state more control over how much cities and counties can raise property taxes. “The question this committee is answering is whether North Carolinians should be protected from continual, unsustainable, unpredictable...

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi/The Raleigh News & Observer The North Carolina State Health Plan has scrapped its initial search for a new health insurer to serve as its administrator after no bidders met minimum requirements, resetting the search process for a program covering over 500,000 state employees, retirees and dependents....

Rachel Heimann Mercader/CityView The Fayetteville City Council narrowly voted Monday to pause its work on a proposed data center ordinance and instead seek more information about a possible data center moratorium—a decision reached after a heated debate and amid loud, organized public opposition. The move places Fayetteville squarely inside a...