Charlie Fossen/Port City Daily Leland Town Council has cleared the way for a medical expansion in the town’s northwest section in one of the state’s fastest-growing regions. The 955-acre Terrapin Landing mixed-use project needed to rezone approximately 37 acres from the multi-family and commercial zonings to office and institutional to...

Rachel Heimann Mercader/CityView A nearly decade‑long legal battle over whether Fayetteville taxpayers should repair private dams blown out by Hurricane Matthew abruptly ended Friday when a Superior Court judge dismissed the case moments before it was set to go to the jury. The lawsuit centered on whether Fayetteville had effectively...

Paul Nielsen/The Waynesville Mountaineer A $1.3 million house at 4,400 feet elevation in Waynesville had to prove it passed muster with the state ridge law before being granted a building permit — an unusual but not unheard of case that shows the ridge line law passed over four decades ago...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has suffered the highest percentage of staff cuts of any state, with nearly one-third of its workforce eliminated between 2010 and 2024, according to an environmental watchdog group. A whopping 32%, or 386 DEQ staff positions, were wiped out...

Kani’ya Davis/WUNC Radio When the Trump administration terminated the nearly $2 billion EPA Community Change Grant Program earlier this year, organizations across the nation lost millions of dollars in environmental justice grants. In North Carolina, the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, three organizations have lost more than $41 million...

Rachel Crumpler/NC Health News A law that took effect this month tightens North Carolina’s pretrial release rules, making it more difficult for people accused of violent offenses to be released before going to trial. The changes are expected to keep more people in jail for longer, which would add pressure...

Catherine Kozak/Coastal Review Online Genetic testing of purportedly wild-caught shrimp served earlier this month at dozens of Outer Banks restaurants found that 64% of the shrimp was actually imported. On behalf of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, SeaD Consulting collected and analyzed shrimp samples from randomly selected seafood restaurants in Duck,...

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice After several years of wrangling over language, the Area of Environmental Concern (AEC) protections for Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head were reinstated by the North Carolina Rules Review Commission (RRC) at its Dec. 18 meeting. That RRC decision came about a month after the...

Emma Dill/WilmingtonBiz Brian Clark, executive director of N.C. Ports, led the port system through what he called a challenging 2025. Clark said he’s focused on diversifying the port’s operations. (Photo by Logan Burke) It’s been a challenging year for North Carolina’s ports in Wilmington and Morehead City, according to N.C....

Lily Levin/Smoky Mountain News Six months after the North Carolina General Assembly’s deadline to produce an annual budget, Western Carolina University in Cullowhee is left weathering the effects of this stalemate — and preparing for an uncertain future. At the Dec. 11 academic and student affairs subcommittee meeting, Provost and...

Sarah White/The Waynesville Mountaineer Candidate signups have ended, and the race for county commission is packed. Three seats are up for grabs with only two incumbents running, so at least one new face will join the county board. Six Republican candidates, including the two incumbents, have thrown their hats in...

Guy Lucas/The High Point Enterprise Two controversial proposals to expand natural gas pipelines, including one crossing the Triad, have received clearance from state and federal officials. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources announced Friday that it has issued air and water permits for Transcontinental Gas...

Bill Moss/Hendersonville Lightning While the developer hoping to build a Bojangles on Brevard Road in Etowah cleared a hurdle to win a zoning permit, the lack of sewer may mean it’s not Bo Time yet. Property owner Cold Steel & Sunshine LLC of Brevard wants to build a drive-thru only...

Allen G. Breed/The Associated Press With the blast of a shotgun, the Raleigh Moose Family Center Turkey Shoot is under way. But fear not: No gobblers were harmed in the making of this holiday fun. “The main misconception is, they think we shoot live turkeys out here,” says Glen Coplen,...

The Salisbury Post Real estate developer Jackson-Shaw recently announced the delivery of the first phase of Landis Ridge, described in a press release as “a modern, Class A industrial park” located on 150 acres off Old Beatty Ford Road in Landis. It is the first of two planned phases, which...