Jeff Stein/The Washington Post President-elect Donald Trump’s aides are exploring tariff plans that would be applied to every country but only cover critical imports, three people familiar with the matter said — a key shift from his plans during the 2024 presidential campaign. If implemented, the emerging plans would pare...

Jane Winik Sartwell/Carolina Public Press Brad Briner inherits a daunting problem as he assumes the job of North Carolina state treasurer this month: the $507 million debt of the State Health Plan, which provides health insurance to 750,000 state employees. The budget shortfall is estimated to grow to $1.4 billion...

Hannah Vinueza McClellan/Education NC Across North Carolina, community partnerships with faith groups can play an important role in helping our public schools and students succeed. From school supply drives and afterschool programs to tutoring and affordable building space, churches and houses of worship can offer extra support and resources to...

Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & Charlotte Ledger When pediatrician Jocelyn Wilson sees patients at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Charlotte Pediatrics, she begins each visit with a simple request: for permission to record the conversation. The reason isn’t surveillance — it’s efficiency. Like a growing number of doctors, Wilson uses an...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily The majority of Southport’s surveyed population is resistant to big changes, namely more residential development, though there are several areas they hope are addressed per the city’s new comprehensive plan. The Southport Planning Board met before the holidays to hear a presentation from Stewart Consultants on...

Jeremy McDermott & Steven Dudley/Insight Crime Increased cocaine production delivered an extra $25 billion in earnings to transnational organized crime in 2024, ensuring greater criminal sophistication and state penetration which, combined with a new Trump administration, will have profound effects on criminal dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean in...

Molly Wilhelm/Wilmington StarNews  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued four serious violations to a construction company after an employee was killed in an excavator incident in Leland last summer. On Aug. 19, 2024, first responders arrived at Eagles Island in Leland after an amphibious excavator had overturned and...

Carly Haynes/WRAL News Johnston County residents learned their property values have skyrocketed after receiving reappraisal notices in the mail last week. On Monday, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners heard from the public for the first time since the notices were mailed, including many neighbors concerned about what the increase...

Katie Peralta Soloff/Axios Charlotte The sale and consumption of nonalcoholic beer in North Carolina is on the rise, mirroring a nationwide trend. Why it matters: Americans increasingly point to the health benefits of abstaining from or limiting their alcohol consumption. These days young Americans — those ages 18-34 — are...

Aarik Long/The Mountaineer Despite hundreds of moving parts, rescue efforts in Haywood County ran like a well-oiled machine during and after Hurricane Helene, thanks in large part to the controlled chaos at the two main command centers. Storm preparation began about a week ahead of Helene’s arrival, when weather reports...

Ryley Ober/Asheville Citizen Times Multiple 500-gallon propane tanks, shredded particles from Silver-Line Plastics, three transformers containing mineral oil: these are just some of the items of waterway debris reported by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in Buncombe County alone. As the area approaches three months since Tropical Storm...

Felicia Sonmez/Blue Ridge Public Radio Unemployment in Asheville and Buncombe County eased slightly in November 2024, although five Western North Carolina counties still have the highest jobless rates in the state. The figures from the North Carolina Department of Commerce give the latest snapshot of the region’s recovery from the...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC Radio When Damian Fernández first moved from Florida to Swannanoa, North Carolina, last year, he thought he’d come to a “climate sanctuary.” For a while, Warren Wilson College was the weather safe haven Fernández expected. The storms he initially saw as president of Warren Wilson College were nothing...

Dave Philipps/The New York Times Alicia Arritt spent years as an Army nurse working with combat veterans with brain injuries. And when she started a relationship with Matthew Livelsberger in 2018, long before he shot himself and blew up a Cybertruck in Las Vegas this past week, she recognized many...

Jimmy Potts/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Haywood County Emergency Services Director Travis Donaldson is reminding Haywood County residents that disaster assistance has been extended into early February, and encouraging them to consider their options for help with flood recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster unemployment assistance and individual financial assistance programs...