Alan Wooten/The Center Square  In some hamlets of the mountains, the impact of Hurricane Helene isn’t easily seen anymore. Elsewhere, the need is only in the second of as much as five years of recovery. In the state budget passed by lawmakers and sent to the governor just before the...

Will Doran/WRAL News Wake County will have the most understaffed prosecutor’s office in the state if North Carolina’s new budget plan becomes law. It’s currently the third-worst in the state in terms of staffing levels, according to state judicial reports. But while the budget provides funding to hire new prosecutors...

Riya Manchanda/The Duke Chronicle Five new members have joined the Duke Board of Trustees, University officials announced Wednesday. Effective July 1, the new trustees are Chris Kempczinski, Trinity ‘91; Janine Brown, Law School ‘86; Scott Raney, Pratt ‘91; Belton Moore, Fuqua and Sanford ‘26; and Kaitlyn Williams, Trinity ‘26. The...

Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC More than a year after the original due date, lawmakers have passed a state budget. The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), amid enrollment growth and a pivot to a workforce-driven funding model, saw much of its legislative request met in the 2026-27 budget. The budget...

Chandler Inions/The Salisbury Post Landis’ top law man, Police Chief Matthew Geelen, is stepping away from his role with the town. In a Thursday evening press release, Town Manager Michael Ambrose indicated that Geelen, the police chief and capital projects coordinator for Landis, was taking a town manager position in...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC News A provision in the proposed state budget would require all public school districts to create committees to review book challenges brought by parents, teachers, or local residents. In the last decade, there’s been a rise in public challenges to the books in school libraries and classrooms, especially...

Emma Dill/WilmingtonBiz The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday the publication of its final reports on the proposed deepening of Wilmington’s harbor. The proposed project led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the N.C. State Ports Authority would deepen Wilmington’s harbor from 42 feet to 47...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio In May, the Gaston County Commissioners approved the Gaston County Schools budget. It kept funding flat from last year – and at about $54 million in operating costs, fell below the district’s ask of around $60.4 million. It capped off weeks of tensions around school funding –...

Bill Kirby Jr./CityView Hope Mills soon will be looking for a new town manager to replace Chancer McLaughlin. “The consensus of this board by a three to two vote is the town manager’s contract will not be renewed in March 2027,” Mayor Jessie Bellflowers said after a closed session during...

Eric Medlin/Coastal Review Online The term “skyscraper” often evokes a Northern metropolis full of towering masses of steel, thousands of panes of glass, and the occasional King Kong sighting. In reality, a skyscraper is just a multistory building with a frame made of steel instead of a load-bearing mass of...

Ted Clifford/Asheville Watchdog Beginning Tuesday, Mission Hospital will no longer require nurses to have a four-year Bachelor of Science Nursing degree or obtain one within five years of being hired. Instead, nurses will be required only to have a two-year Associate Degree in Nursing. “Our commitment to nursing excellence remains...

Jennifer Fernandez/Education NC & NC Health News At North Carolina schools that provide behavioral health care remotely, teachers and school staff say they’re seeing an impact on students’ behavioral challenges. The new data comes from initial responses to a survey by researchers at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health...

Sean Bell/Yahoo Finance The American grocery market looks set for a major development of consolidation as the oldest grocery chain in the U.S., Kroger Co., confirmed in an official press release that it will acquire the family-owned grocery chain Giant Eagle for $1.65 billion. Unanimously approved by Kroger’s board of...

Megan Cloherty/WRAL News A perfect storm of challenges in downtown Apex has business owners considering closing. Their landlords are raising rent, passing on a new increase in city property taxes and rising insurance rates. Coupled with an on-going downtown construction project causing sales losses that is expected to extend through...

Justin Moore/WNCN State lawmakers have granted the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County nine more days to reach an agreement on a long-debated plan to merge their emergency communications systems. The extension comes as city and county leaders continue negotiations over the future of a joint 911 call center, a...