Port City Daily Novant Health’s board of trustees has approved a multi-year master facility plan for the Coastal Region, featuring a new heart and vascular tower and a relocated rehabilitation hospital. The projects, estimated to cost upwards of $1 billion over the next five to seven years, are designed to...

Brighton McConnell/WCHL Chapelboro In the current academic year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ total enrollment of roughly 10,700 students is its lowest in two decades. At that time, the district had three fewer schools – with Carrboro High, Morris Grove Elementary and Northside Elementary schools not having opened yet. Now, the...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News Following his first four years as Macon County’s sheriff, Brent Holbrooks is facing a primary challenge as he seeks a second term. Following former Sheriff Robbie Holland’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2022, Holbrooks emerged from a crowded Republican primary field that included multiple...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Ocean Isle Beach hopes to pump tens of thousands of cubic yards of sand onto the beach at the easternmost tip of the island by this spring as an erosion stopgap. The Brunswick County town has asked the Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District for authorization...

Amy Diaz/WFDD Radio More than 3,400 Winston-Salem/Forsyth County educators have signed a petition demanding an end to staffing cuts, and more. An hour before the school board meeting, teachers, staff and students rallied on the front lawn of the district’s education building. They chanted “no more cuts,” and “a seat...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press The Lumbee Tribe, or “People of the Dark Water,” as they’re sometimes called in reference to the murky waters of the Lumber River, have embraced a new nickname. They are “number 575” — the 575th American Indian tribe, and the second in North Carolina, to be...

Richard Stradling/The Raleigh News & Observer The legal battle over the stone quarry next to William B. Umstead State Park is far from over. A Wake County judge put the quarry’s future in doubt when he ruled in December that the state mining permit expires in 2031. It appeared that...

Paul Woolverton/CityView Residential electricity prices in and around Fayetteville would rise about 13.45% over the next two years under price increases the Fayetteville Public Works Commission is considering. The increase would be split, with a 6.5% boost as of May 1 of this year. In May 2027, the price would...

Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News A Wake County school board committee discussed hundreds of millions of dollars in upcoming facility needs focused mostly on the district’s current schools, as Wake also plans to get rid of nearly 100 trailers hosting classrooms across the county. Wake County has more than 600 trailers housing...

Brian Murphy/WRAL News The NBA’s Trail Blazers have been a fixture in Portland for more than 55 years. But with an aging arena in need of repair and Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s purchase of the team likely to be approved this spring, some in Oregon are worried the franchise...

Peter H. Lewis/Asheville Watchdog The Dogwood Health Trust — the foundation responsible for enforcing HCA Healthcare’s compliance with the terms of its 2019 purchase of nonprofit Mission Health — has accelerated its oversight schedule in the wake of Mission Hospital’s latest violations of federal safety standards. In a statement to...

Lauren Rhodes/WUNC News Eric Andrews remembers hearing “rumblings” that something was changing in Chatham County around 15 years ago. That’s when the Pittsboro-based real estate broker at Realty World Carolina Properties said landowners began to come into his office with offers for their tracts of land. Once, he said he...

WECT The president of a metal fabrication and manufacturing company pleaded guilty on Thursday, Feb. 5, to charges involving taking $8.5 million in rigged procurements. Thomas C. Rollins of Wilmington was involved in a conspiracy to rig bids for maintenance, repair, and operations contracts affecting United States military installations. Court...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio Cabarrus County Schools is implementing a temporary enrollment cap at W. R. Odell Primary School and W.R. Odell Elementary School. The enrollment cap will start April 1 for new students in grades 1 through 5 enrolling for the 2026-27 school year, and it will remain in place...

WFDD Radio The Randolph County Board of Education is considering closing a school due to low enrollment and reductions in state funding. District officials say enrollment at Uwharrie Ridge Six-Twelve has been steadily declining despite multiple recruitment efforts. This year, it only had 369 students — roughly half of its...