Emily Walkenhorst/WRAL News Some North Carolina school boards, at least 38, are still not planning for students to get the required number of minutes of physical activity, according to a report the state Department of Public Instruction is scheduled to be present to the State Board of Education on Wednesday....

Lily Levin/Smoky Mountain News At any given moment, Perry Matthews — caterer, culinary instructor, homeschool curriculum-builder and veteran chef of upscale restaurants — was juggling enough responsibilities to fill an entire resume. Then along came November, and with it, another new role. After a sweeping victory in last month’s municipal...

Paul B. Johnson/High Point Enterprise After 44 years as a Randolph County commissioner, Darrell Frye shows no sign of calling it a day as an elected official. The 80-year-old Republican from Archdale filed for his 12th consecutive term on Monday. He serves as chairman of the Randolph County Board of...

Rachel Heimann Mercader/CityView Three new members joined the Fayetteville City Council on Monday, when calls for unity gave way to division during a contentious vote for the board’s second in command. The council initially voted 6-4 to appoint Derrick Thompson as mayor pro tem, drawing a mix of applause and...

Taylor Knopf/NC Health News Six years ago, Jami Mundy was released from the Richmond County jail. She said she didn’t want to use drugs anymore. The previous year, she had overdosed nine times, and she wanted a better life for herself and her then-12-year-old daughter. With few places to go,...

Julian Berger/WFAE Radio A U.S. citizen detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection will face only one of the felonies he was originally charged with, after the judge threw out the more severe of the two. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler ruled last week there was probable cause to charge...

Alan Wooten/The Center Square  Republican Michael Whatley will go through at least a three-candidate primary in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina. Candidate filing for the 2026 midterms opened Monday at noon and the five-hour period included two lesser-known candidates from the Grand Old Party filing...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press State Auditor Dave Boliek has a New Year’s resolution for state agencies: spend the remaining $1.2 billion in federal COVID funds before they expire at the end of 2026. In spring 2021, amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed a massive stimulus package...

Lynn Bonner & Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline A North Carolina political race that has been brewing for years became official Monday, with Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page filing to run against Senate Leader Phil Berger in the Republican primary in the district that includes Rockingham and part of Guilford. Candidate filing...

Jack Evans/Asheville Watchdog Documents obtained by Asheville Watchdog detail an array of staff errors, communication breakdowns and technological problems at Mission Hospital that state and federal regulators said put patients’ lives and safety at risk and that still threaten the hospital’s ability to continue receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding. The...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio Charlotte City Council swore in three new members Monday night and selected a new mayor pro tem as the new term began. Joi Mayo is the new representative for District 3, and JD Mazuera Arias was sworn in to represent District 5. For the first time, District...

Matt Lamb/The (Southern Pines) Pilot Moore County Schools Superintendent Tim Locklair, a district native who rose from the school system’s student body to its teaching ranks to the top job, announced on Monday that he is retiring from his position effective March 1, 2026. A graduate of Pinecrest High School,...

Andrew Marshall/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The town of Clyde has a unique gift in store for its volunteer board members this Christmas: Elk Bucks. The Haywood-specific gift cards can be used at over 120 participating small businesses within the county. While Elk Bucks started as a tourism initiative, anyone can now...

Paul Woolverton/CityView The Cumberland County Commissioners voted 6-1 on Monday to reelect Kirk deViere to serve as chairman for the next year. The board also voted 5-2 to reelect Commissioner Veronica Jones to be the vice chair. Following the votes, deViere made a short speech to the board listing his...

Emmanuel Felton/The Washington Post When DeAndrea Salvador began receiving emails in June from people in Brazil, the North Carolina state senator assumed they were part of a phishing scam. The emails, first to her senate office and then to her campaign, had subject lines like “Is this you?” and “AI...