Will Atwater/NC Health News Two years ago, Emily Donovan stood on a stage in Fayetteville and introduced then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Regan, who was secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality before being tapped by the Biden administration to lead the EPA, had returned to the region —...

Adam Wagner/NC Newsroom Democrats and protesters pushed back against a sweeping elections law bill that House Republicans released Monday and plan to pass to the Senate before the week is over. The 37-page bill proposes a litany of changes to the state’s elections rules, including allowing any resident of a...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  With the expected blessing of party leaders in two counties he serves, state Rep. Bryan Cohn is expected to be on the ballot Nov. 3 trying to keep his District 32 seat in the House of Representatives. Cohn did not file for reelection and Oxford City...

Ahmed Jallow/NC Newsline Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a teacher pay bill that would give larger raises to veteran educators, arguing that North Carolina has spent years recruiting new teachers while doing too little to keep experienced ones in the classroom. House Bill 1130 would overhaul North Carolina’s teacher salary...

Dylan Halper/The Duke Chronicle Starting next month, the Trump administration will impose new limitations on graduate federal loans, leaving Duke’s graduate schools and prospective students in uncertain financial territory. The new regulations, coupled with provisions from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, radically upend the current borrowing system for graduate...

Jasmine Gallup/INDY Week Natalie Christley, a lifelong resident of North Carolina, originally intended to send her two children to traditional public school. Herbert Akins Road Elementary School, near her home in Holly Springs, had small classes and above-average test scores—exactly what she was looking for. Then, a few years before...

Abraham Kenmore/CityView Fort Bragg has $3 billion in maintenance backlogs. That’s according to information shared by leaders at the installation during the “State of Fort Bragg” presentation on May 5. “We’ve got an endless—roads, roofs, HVACs, you name it—list of projects to get after,” Garrison Commander Col. Chad Mixon said...

Claire Harutunian/The Charlotte Observer NoDa’s popular Neighborhood Theatre music venue said Tuesday it is closing for eight weeks this summer to upgrade its space. The Neighborhood Theatre renovations, which are set to start Tuesday, June 16, will include new lighting and sound systems for both stages, upgraded artist dressing rooms,...

Matt Lamb/The Southern Pines Pilot Pinehurst is making progress on a plan to renovate the Tufts Archives, but a final vision for the project isn’t quite set. The Village Council met recently to continue hashing out details surrounding floor plans designed by Oakley Collier Architects. Among several sticking points, the...

Kelsey Coffey/WRAL News Residents will learn new details about the future name of the Raleigh Convention Center on Tuesday and have a chance to share their opinions. The city is considering selling the naming rights to Atlantic Union Bank, which means the home of Wake County high school graduations, concerts...

Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review Online While state lawmakers consider two bills that would eliminate the state’s longstanding ban on hardened structures along the ocean shoreline, a report providing details about the effects and effectiveness of coastal erosion-control structures is expected to be presented this week during the regular meeting of the...

Liz McLaughlin/WRAL News More than two dozen North Carolina communities have adopted moratoriums or zoning restrictions on data centers as concerns grow over noise, electricity demand and water use. The pushback comes as tech companies plan billions of dollars in new investment across the state and lawmakers debate how tightly...

Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press Nothing’s ever truly dead in the legislature. Jacksonville residents are learning that the hard way as a previously abandoned bill changing their city election structure returned with a vengeance this week. House Bill 1038 would shift the city’s elections from a hybrid system with two at-large...

Aaron Sánchez-Guerra/WUNC News A shortage of immigrant labor is challenging the economies of North Carolina’s urban metros. A new report by the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explores how a drop in international net migration is cutting into the labor supply...

The Washington Post Just three days after artificial intelligence company Anthropic released its latest and most powerful AI model, Fable, the Trump administration called with an unusual demand: take it offline. Officials offered scant details on the reasons, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the...