North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper leaves his job next week after eight years. It's a span in which the southern Democrat picked his moments against a Republican-dominated legislature to win big on expanding Medicaid and on requiring cleaner energy.

I really enjoyed the coverage I did on the first Wawa coming to North Carolina. It's one of my favorite stores because it's a part of a lot of my childhood memories.

2024 was a busy year in North Carolina’s environment and energy sector. From PFAS regulations to more houses falling in the ocean; from the clean energy transition to Hurricane Helene, here’s a roundup of this year’s top stories.

Democrat Josh Stein has already sued to block legislative Republicans from taking away his powers

If successful, the union vote would form the first unionized Amazon facility in North Carolina and just the second in the United States.

A third endangered whale has been spotted entangled in fishing gear off the East Coast, marking an alarming end to the year for a species threatened with extinction. The whales are North Atlantic right whales, which number fewer than 400 and are vulnerable to ship collisions and entanglement in gear.

Three months after Helene, FEMA is still paying hotel bills for more than 5000 people displaced by the storm. Finding more permanent housing remains challenging.

Many of the comparatively few universities that serve rural students are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and resulting financial crises. Nationwide, college enrollment has declined by 2 million students, or 10 percent, in the 10 years ending in 2022, hitting rural schools particularly hard. An increasing number of rural private, nonprofit colleges are not only cutting majors, but closing altogether.

Farmers are still reeling more than two months after Hurricane Helene blew away cotton, destroyed ripened squash and cucumbers and uprooted pecan trees and timber. Agribusinesses in other Southern states saw costly damage as well. The University of Georgia estimates the September storm inflicted $5.5 billion in direct losses and indirect costs in Georgia alone