Alan Wooten/The Center Square  Making use of one of the seven deadly sins, three North Carolina senators are pushing a bill that includes a tax on pornography. Four members of the House of Representatives also have a proposal adding state revenue from lust, theirs targeting sexually oriented businesses. Eventually, it...

Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline NC House and Senate members are back in Raleigh this week voting on a flurry of bills, but whether they will have a budget deal by mid-June remains to be seen. House budget chair Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) announced last month that a year-long impasse between the...

Mary Alice Boliek/WRAL News Raleigh water customers used about two million gallons of water more last week amid an ongoing drought and citywide restrictions. Last week Raleigh water customers on average used about 61.9 gallons of water per day, which is up from 59.7 million gallons of water used the...

Nora O’Neill/The Charlotte Observer Customers packed hearings, signed petitions and pleaded for relief. This week, regulators approved Carolina Water Service’s rate hike anyway. The North Carolina Utilities Commission on May 26 approved a settlement that sets the uniform water rate at $19.23 per 1,000 gallons, according to case documents. That’s...

Andy Jiang/The Duke Chronicle Duke recently began construction on a small graphics processing unit data center, adjacent to Central Campus, that top administrators say will boost the University’s computing capacity while adhering to its Climate Commitment. The center — which is expected to open by the 2027-28 academic year —...

Rebecca Sitzes/Shelby Star As new neighborhoods, subdivisions and housing developments continue to pop up all around Cleveland County, a small developer is bringing a brand-new housing concept to the city of Kings Mountain that is centered around convenience, community, affordability and walkability. Stacy Label, a broker and Realtor based in...

Frank Daniels IV/The Southern Pines Pilot Recently released county unemployment statistics show a shrinking labor force in Moore County. The number of employed and unemployed individuals both fell over the year, with 163 fewer people reported as employed between March 2025 and 2026 and 72 fewer reported as unemployed, meaning...

Sean Coffey/WTVD Plans for Raleigh’s long-discussed Downtown South development took another step forward after new filings outlined a residential and commercial project on the site, even as plans for a proposed stadium remain unresolved. The Downtown South project was first proposed in 2019 and was originally envisioned as a mixed-use...

Trevon McGlone/The Sampson Independent More than 10 Sampson County fire departments recently received matching grants from the North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM), allowing departments to purchase needed equipment while receiving reimbursement assistance from the state. The grants help departments across the county offset the rising costs of...

Greater Fayetteville Business Journal A portion of the All American Freeway and its Fort Bragg gate will close starting this summer for up to two years for a major restoration project. The closure is needed for an N.C. Department of Transportation contractor to replace the 50-year-old Gruber Road bridge over...

Shea Carver/Port City Daily A north-south corridor that has been discussed by area leaders and transportation organizations locally and at the state level for five decades will no longer move forward. The Wilmington Transportation Metropolitan Planning Organization voted 12-1, to remove the Independence Boulevard Extension from the North Carolina Department...

James Farrell/WFAE Radio Technology has played a larger role in U.S. classrooms since the coronavirus pandemic. All students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools receive their own devices and use online programs like i-Ready. But some families are questioning whether educational software is helping children learn — or hurting them. Sixth-grader Anastasia Bates...

Kyle Perrotti/Smoky Mountain News The project to repair the eastbound lanes of I-40 washed away in Haywood County during Hurricane Helene is progressing on-time, but the heavy lift has really just begun. When Helene tore through Western North Carolina in 2024, it inundated the embankment supporting the highway so vital...

Dan DeWitt/Asheville Watchdog The availability of as much as $88 million in federal affordable-housing grant funds from the city of Asheville and the state has sparked a stunning surge in development interest, and, housing advocates say, created a rare opportunity for the region to address its crushing need for subsidized...

Paul Nielsen/The Waynesville Mountaineer Chick-fil-A’s plan to expand its drive-through at its location on Russ Avenue was unanimously voted down by the Waynesville Town Council. Chick-fil-A hoped to expand its drive-through capacity by adding a second lane. Instead of a single drive-up window, servers would run food to vehicles lined...