Greater Fayetteville Business Journal Nearly $26 million in awards through the state’s Stop-Gap Solutions program will be used to connect 5,161 rural North Carolina homes, businesses and community anchor institutions in 66 counties to high-speed internet infrastructure by the end of 2026. The Stop-Gap Solutions program, administered by the N.C....

Katie Peralta Soloff/Axios Raleigh   Ten years ago, House Bill 2 — the “bathroom bill” — became law, setting off years of political and economic shifts in North Carolina.   The fallout from the now-repealed measure was marked by widespread corporate pressure and boycotts.   HB2, which rankled the power...

Cierra Noffke/WilmingtonBiz The N. C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has received an unsolicited conceptual proposal for the design, build, finance and operation of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, funded partially through tolls. According to a notice included in the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) agenda for its regular...

Brian Gordon/The Raleigh News & Observer Since 2022, North Carolina has spent more than $50 million in taxpayer dollars to build a “superfactory” at the Greensboro airport that today, nearly two years after its completion, sits dormant. It is not for a lack of companies wanting to occupy this long,...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press In 2015, Mark Oakley, then an officer with the Roanoke Rapids Police Department, slammed a detainee at the Halifax County jail to the ground, then “tased him” while the man was “in handcuffs and posed no threat,” according to a civil lawsuit later filed against Oakley....

Heidi Perez-Moreno/CityView The state board that oversees charter schools in North Carolina had so many concerns about the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy in 2022 that it considered closing the Bladen County school. The academy had received a failing grade the previous school year from the state’s Department of Public...

Sharryse Piggott/WUNC News The State Library of North Carolina is now in a partnership with Wake County Libraries aimed at bridging the gap to make reading books more accessible to people with disabilities. “This partnership helps to ensure that a person’s physical condition or location never limits opportunities for lifelong...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News   A leaked draft of the FEMA Review Council’s final report on reform of the disaster response agency appears to shift considerable burden onto states, local governments, tribes and territories (SLTTs) while slashing the agency’s workforce by 50%, positioning federal response in the rear and largely...

Akilah Davis/WTVD News For nearly six years, Northgate Mall in Durham has sat empty. Now, plans for retail giant Target to move in could signal a new chapter for the long-vacant property. “It would be nice for another shopping center to come big time,” said Melinda Wilkins, who lives just...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio The North Carolina Department of Transportation has cancelled a tour of the neighborhoods near the controversial Interstate 77 express toll lane project, citing what it says are credible security concerns. DOT secretary Daniel Johnson was supposed to tour impacted neighborhoods near center city with community leaders and...

Mark Locklear/The Robesonian When Phillip Hicks arrived at UNC Pembroke as a freshman, the university’s cybersecurity program was still in its trial phase. This May, the Red Springs native will help make history as one of the first graduates of UNCP’s standalone Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity program. For Hicks,...

Ahmed Jallow/NC Newsline North Carolina Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Wake County Democrat, called the state’s expansion of virtual charter schools “educational malpractice” and said it cheats both students and taxpayers. “How on earth are you allowing parents to send their kids to virtual charter schools that have consistently received a...

Paul B. Johnson/The High Point Enterprise Leaders of Guilford County are supporting a master plan for a long-term regional project involving the Randleman Regional Reservoir. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners was scheduled Thursday night to approve a resolution for the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority as the agency that...

Jack Igelman/Carolina Public Press How do you put a price on a 122-year-old mass of concrete sitting in the middle of a river? The value of Craggy Dam on the French Broad River in Buncombe County is now at the center of a debate over river restoration, flood mitigation, power...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily   The New Hanover County Board of Education has taken an official step toward addressing its facility needs in the face of declining enrollment, after months of pondering whether it should reduce overhead. The board voted unanimously to direct Superintendent Chris Barnes to put together a...