Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News Charlotte Sparks likes to get her hair done at Empire Beauty School. It gives students a chance to practice what they’re learning, the 84-year-old Greensboro resident said. On the weekend before Christmas, the school’s beauty salon also offered clients a chance to learn. The school was...

Coastal Review Online A federal report that tracks industrial releases of chemicals into the environment will include additional PFAS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday. Nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been added to the Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI, a running list of chemicals manufactured and used by...

Guy Lucas/High Point Enterprise A state judge has ordered the foreclosure sale of the historic Castle McCulloch property in a complicated financial case dating back 20 years. The trouble for Richard Harris, the owner of Historic Castle McCulloch LLC and Castle McCulloch Inc., stems from 2004, when he agreed to...

April Laissle/WFDD Radio A judge will soon decide whether a lawsuit related to the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant fire can move forward. The suit was filed on behalf of five residents who were evacuated from their homes during the January 2022 fire. It alleges the company was negligent in failing...

Evey Weisblat/CityView Public school students in Cumberland County will face more severe consequences for missing school and stricter guidelines for excused absences starting Monday. The new attendance policy is effective immediately for high school students. It will go into effect for middle and elementary school students in August at the...

Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times The City of Greensboro has grown like kudzu over the last decade, and, while economic development leaders love that to no end, there are some downsides to all this new development and the huge influx of workers into Guilford County. Traffic on Battleground Avenue, to take...

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice Tuesday, Dec. 31 was the last day for the DMV License Plate Office located in Island Pharmacy in Manteo. A part of Dare County life for over 30 years, when the last transaction was processed at 5:00 p.m., for the first time in well over 30...

Zachary Turner/WFAE Radio After four years of big climate investments, clean energy subsidies and recognition of climate change from the federal government, massive change is coming as incoming President Donald Trump and his administration prepare a complete 180 on many key policies. Trump signaled his support for fossil fuels on...

Carly Haynes/WRAL News Voting records, business records and social media posts show the driver suspected of a deadly terrorist attack on New Year’s Day in New Orleans once lived in North Carolina. Shamsud-Din Jabbar attended classes at Campbell University’s Fort Liberty (previously Fort Bragg) campus from 2012 to 2014, a...

Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline As the Cooper administration transitions to the Stein administration, leadership changes are happening across state cabinets as well. NC Newsline sat down with outgoing NC Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley just before the holidays to discuss his remarkable three years at the helm...

The Watauga Democrat The High Country Real Estate Market of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, and Watauga counties saw sales down 27.8% in November compared to last year, according to the High Country Association of Realtors monthly report. Inventory also climbed 3% during November compared to last year. In November, 117 closed...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily A plan to generate clean energy at a former asbestos waste site in the county’s landfall is being scaled back in the short-term, but a separate plan to install rooftop solar at a nearby wastewater plant is projected to be complete in 2025. New Hanover County’s...

Tom Joyce/The Mount Airy News When passing by that impossible-to-overlook big blue building on Willow Street in downtown Mount Airy, one might wonder just what the heck is going on inside the structure. The site is not accessible to the general public, and X-ray vision is a skill possessed only...

Pat Kimbrough/High Point Enterprise The long-delayed development of a John Deere dealership in north High Point is moving forward. A site plan submission by James River Equipment to support ground-up construction of a 57,065-square-foot facility at 700 Gallimore Dairy Road is in review by city planners. The company got the...

Ana Risano/The (Southern Pines) Pilot Southern Pines maintains over 256 miles of water mains, 169 miles of sewer lines and over 83 miles of roads — a lofty task the Public Works Department takes on day after day. Residents often play a key role in keeping track of each line...