John Ruwitch/WUNC Radio Idaho-based Micron Technology is one of the world’s top makers of RAM chips and it’s benefited from increase demand. The world has a memory problem, thanks to artificial intelligence. The explosion in AI-related cloud computing and data centers has led to so much demand for certain types...

Aarik Long/The Waynesville Mountaineer As construction continues its march up Russ Avenue in Waynesville, more than a dozen commercial property owners are still objecting to the right-of-way buyout of their property by the N.C. Department of Transportation. That’s nearly one-fourth of the total 56 parcels that had at least some...

Brenna Flanagan/Port City Daily Earlier this month, what was intended to be a workshop on route changes in the Wave Transit system turned into a strained conversation on funding public transportation. It highlighted another potential fault line between New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington. The Cape Fear Public...

Gareth McGrath/Wilmington StarNews Even in the early 1990s, it wasn’t unusual for new residents to flock to Brunswick County. But when these guys decided to show up in the Southeastern North Carolina county, hitching a ride in railroad sleepers used for landscaping, major red flags were raised. “We recognized it...

Nick FoglemanWatauga Democrat A new housing project known as The Retreat at Boone is moving forward on a 40-acre site east of Boone. The project is being developed by Landmark Properties, which also owns The Standard student housing development in Boone. The site is located approximately 3 miles outside of...

Michelle Crouch/NC Health News & The Charlotte Ledger Four years after Atrium Health pledged to include affordable housing in its new medical innovation district in Charlotte, city filings now show a concrete proposal for the site: a gleaming 20-story tower with 382 apartments, including 19 for low-income residents. Called ANOVA,...

Jonel Aleccia/The Associated Press U.S. regulators on Monday gave the green light to a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval handed drugmaker Novo Nordisk an edge over rival Eli Lilly in the race...

Susan Mims/Education NC A little more than a year ago, Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina. Thirty-one inches of rain, tornados, and mudslides washed out roads and bridges, flooded towns and farms, destroyed homes and businesses, and took the lives of deeply loved community members. Reflecting on 12-plus months of...

Lucas Thomae/Carolina Public Press The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners has settled a lawsuit with James Campbell after it handed him a 90-day ban from meetings for “naming names” of public employees during a public comment period last year. The county, while not forced to admit any liability or wrongdoing...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio The playground at the Ballantyne Bowl has slides, climbing ropes and lots of other playground equipment. But on a recent Saturday afternoon, 9-year-old Christian Glynn and his 4-year-old brother Holden didn’t need any of that. They’ve brought scraps of cardboard and a dream. “The plan is to...

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...