The News & Observer
Teen pleads guilty in Raleigh’s Hedingham mass shooting
Editor’s note: This story contains details of violence that some may find disturbing. Austin Thompson, still only 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in the worst mass shooting in Raleigh’s history, killing five people and wounding two...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
UNC launches Carolina North plan for tech, housing, shops
The time is now to develop the Carolina North campus in ways that will benefit the university, Chapel Hill and North Carolina residents, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts told UNC Board of Trustees members Wednesday. The announcement did not...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Protesters urge lawmakers to invest more in public schools
Public school advocates rallied in front of the General Assembly on Wednesday to lobby for more school funding and for restrictions on charter schools and private school vouchers. Participants at a “wEDnesdays for Public Schools” protest organized by...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Wake County Animal Center closing during repair work
and maintenance are forcing the Wake County Animal Center to temporarily close, even as Wake County leaders consider the design of a new $57 million animal shelter. The Wake County Animal Center, at 820 Beacon Lake Drive, will close for about six...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Expansion work at RDU’s main terminal becoming visible
A multi-year effort to expand the main terminal at Raleigh-Durham International Airport is well underway, but you probably haven’t noticed. Starting this week, you will. Overnight Thursday, workers erected a big plastic sheet over the north end of the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Slain teacher Welsh’s house inspires tributes
Early Thursday, someone stopped outside Zoe Welsh’s house on Clay Street and dropped a bouquet of flowers on the curb, tucking a card behind a daisy: “So much love,” it read. Five days after the Wake County teacher died in her house while calling 911...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Hundreds of teachers protest for more funding for schools
Hundreds of North Carolina teachers called out of work on Wednesday to participate in protests urging state leaders to provide more money for public education. Leaders of NC Teachers in Action say 650 to 750 educators at 52 schools, including 30 in...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Maduro tells US judge he was ‘kidnapped’
Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president, and his wife pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges including drug trafficking and other crimes, two days after they were captured in a U.S. military raid in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Monks on cross-country walk for peace expected in Raleigh
A group of Buddhist monks walking from Texas to Washington, D.C., for peace will travel through Raleigh and other parts of North Carolina in January. The group is documenting its 120-day journey on Facebook, sharing videos, photos and quotes to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
New NC laws on gender identity, prescription drugs, pensions
Several new North Carolina laws take effect with the new year on Thursday. They include measures touching on sex and gender — echoing actions taken by President Donald Trump — changes aimed at reining in prescription drug costs, shifts in who makes...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
PASS THE PEAS AND CORN BREAD, PLEASE
Peggy Goodson purchases collards at the State Farmers Market on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Couple rescues NC modernist home, then restores it
When news went viral that the modernist house at 606 Transylvania Ave., built by NC State’s famed architect George Matsumoto, was slated for demolition, concerned residents fired off some 100 Facebook posts. Most condemned the decision. One...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cary residents worry over mobile home park’s possible closure
In the middle of Chatham Estates Mobile Home Park, a little girl in a pink Bluey shirt spins herself around atop a concrete slab. She twirls with her blue backpack in her outstretched hand — bunny ears on the top and a mermaid stitched on the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Clyde Jones, critter-making Picasso with chain saw, dies
Clyde Jones, the self-taught folk artist who carved thousands of eccentric “critters” with his chain saw and found international fame as “the Picasso of driftwood,” has died. He was 86 or 87, depending on which year he was born, which he confessed...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Man who helped catch billionaire asks Trump not to pardon
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday not to pardon Durham billionaire and major GOP campaign donor Greg Lindberg, who was convicted in a federal case connected to an attempted bribe of the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Elephant C’sar, oldest of his kind in US, has died at NC Zoo
C’sar the elephant, the N.C. Zoo’s longest-tenured and one of its most charismatic residents, has died. The park announced C’sar’s passing on Monday, Dec. 22, saying he died peacefully on Dec. 19 under the care of a team of experts who had been...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Tillis, allies fought years of obstacles to aid Lumbee
An unusually large group of onlookers in the Senate gallery caught Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s attention. She turned toward the group, sitting in an area of the gallery normally reserved for friends and family of her colleagues. More than 80 members of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Stand your ground’ shooting led to conviction, prison, then freedom
The film begins with John McNeil sitting on a stool in an empty room, staring into the camera, recalling the phone call that started his nightmare journey. As the camera rolls, McNeil tells how his son called one day in 2005 from their home outside...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cary town manager resigns amid scrutiny over spending
Cary Town Manager Sean Stegall has resigned, three weeks after he was placed on paid administrative leave and concerns were raised about the town’s questionable spending. His resignation, which occurred over the weekend, was announced late Monday at...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CELEBRATING THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
Gov. Josh Stein and his daughter Leah use the “shamash” (or helper candle) to light a candle on the menorah to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah during a ceremony at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, N.C., Sunday evening, Dec. 14, 2025. “And this...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Retired TV meteorologist recovers from kidney transplant
It’s not uncommon for the Triangle’s TV reporters and anchors to share personal anecdotes on air or online. But in his decades delivering weather forecasts to local viewers, Bill Reh didn’t talk about the diagit nosis that, just this year, had a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
As he challenges Berger, sheriff faces investigation
The most powerful Republican in North Carolina is being challenged in his primary election by a longtime local sheriff, who is now facing a state investigation — over his handling of vending machine revenue. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NCDOT will spend close to $5 billion on Helene projects
The N.C. Department of Transportation expects to spend close to $5 billion repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. More than two-thirds of that money, about $3.2 billion, will...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TROLLING FOR SNOW IN DIX PARK
Sophia Ashe, 14, and her mother, Kim Zdanowicz, head back up the slope at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh while attempting to sled in a dusting of snow that accumulated overnight on Tuesday morning. A whimsical troll sculpture made from reclaimed wood by...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Noncriminal ICE arrests rose in NC before Border Patrol surge
New federal data brings more evidence that immigration enforcement agents are not primarily targeting people with violent criminal records, despite recent messaging from the Department of Homeland Security. When Border Patrol agents rolled into...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NC Christmas tree growers hope for a brighter season
In what might be counted as a generous gift, Christmas tree experts say it appears not a single North Carolina tree grower was put out of business by the remnants of Hurricane Helene that ripped through the mountains in September 2024. Flooding and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NC sees record number of jobs promises in 2025
by JetZero’s historic hiring promise in the Piedmont, North Carolina has secured a record number of jobs commitments in 2025. Companies have pledged to create more than 33,000 jobs statewide, the most ever during a calendar year, with a few weeks left...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Samaritan’s Purse rebuilt house destroyed by Hurricane Helene
It took just a few hours for Hurricane Helene to wash Bob Tatum’s home down the Toe River and smash it under a bridge. And it took Samaritan’s Purse only four months to rebuild it, top to bottom, free of charge. The Boone-based charity learned of Bob...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Raleigh Convention Center fire causes over $2M in damages
A fire Monday night at the Raleigh Convention Center caused damages in excess of $2 million, Raleigh Fire Chief Herbert Griffin said Tuesday. Officials described the fire, reported at 9:29 p.m., as a “natural gas incident” that started on the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘A terminal diagnosis’: NC hemp seller fights new law
As part of a new law passed to reopen the federal government, a last-minute provision taking effect next November could upend the booming hemp industry in North Carolina and across the country. The new law is “very much intended, by all intents and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Lawmakers help constituents navigate bureaucracy
State lawmakers hear from their constituents every day. Legislative inboxes are filled with messages from people, back home in the district and throughout the rest of the state, writing to share thoughts on how lawmakers are spending their time in...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CELEBRATING NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE
Miss Indian North Carolina Page Freeman, a member of the Lumbee, Coharie and Waccamaw-Siouan tribes, performs a Women's Southern Traditional dance during a Native American Heritage Month celebration at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh on Tuesday, Nov....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NC gives Apple 4 more years to meet RTP campus goals
North Carolina has backed Apple’s plans to postpone its hiring and investment goals that earned the company hundreds of millions in state incentives to build a corporate campus in Research Triangle Park. The Economic Investment Committee, the state...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Raleigh family struggles despite NC medical debt relief
Randall Edge, says he felt a burden lift after he received help through North Carolina’s medical debt relief program. But it hasn’t been enough. Edge, 54, is still barely staying afloat. And this year, he received another bill he’s not likely to be...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Disaster investors’ flip Carrboro homes for big profits
In a quiet cul-de-sac in Carrboro’s Weatherhill Pointe, the flood-ravaged home at 309 Berryhill Drive sits empty, gutted to the bones, and padlocked. The woman who once lived there — who asked not to be named over privacy concerns — sold it fast to an...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
6 facts about first lady’s visit to North Carolina
Last Wednesday, we Tar Heel reporters caught a rarified glimpse into the White House world when first lady Melania Trump flew into Jacksonville for a quick afternoon, bearing holiday wishes for Marines and their fidgety kindergartners. We tagged along...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WakeMed says no Medicare deal with UnitedHealthcare
WakeMed officials said Tuesday that UnitedHealthcare has stopped negotiating days before the deadline for reaching a Medicare deal, an impasse that threatens to place its Medicare Advantage patients “out-ofnetwork” for health care. In a letter to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NC TikTok star ordered to pay $1.5M in affair lawsuit
A jury on Monday sided with the woman who accused North Carolina TikTok influencer Brenay Kennard of ruining her marriage with her ex-husband. A Superior Court judge then ordered Kennard to pay $1.5 million for alienation of affection and $250,000 for...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
National Park units in NC mountains relying on outside funds
National Park units in the North Carolina mountains are staying largely open during the federal government shutdown, but it’s taking pritains vate and local government donations along with volunteer labor to make sure visitors have a nearly normal...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Suspect charged in fatal shooting of WakeMed police officer at Garner Healthplex
A WakeMed campus police officer was shot and killed Saturday morning in Garner. The officer, Roger Smith, was on duty in the emergency debeen partment lobby at 9 a.m. when “a struggle ensued,” WakeMed said in a statement Saturday afternoon. Smith had...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
The moon rises over downtown Raleigh, Wednesday evening, Nov. 5, 2025. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, this supermoon, one of three of 2025, is the closest supermoon of the year.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
DMV says license office waits are halved from 2 months ago
People are wasting less time waiting at the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. The average wait time at driver’s license offices statewide was roughly half in October what it was in the month ending Sept. 8, according to new data from the agency....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
19 Triangle restaurants in new American South Michelin Guide
The newest Michelin Guide includes 19 restaurants in the Triangle, from avant garde fine dining to a barbecue trailer in the Raleigh suburbs. For a century, the Michelin Guide has been the most coveted culinary honor in the world, bestowing its star...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
New species of tyrannosaur discovered in Raleigh museum
The most ferocious predator of the ancient world had a smaller, lightweight cousin: a new species of tyrannosaur uncovered in a Raleigh laboratory. For years, paleontologists at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences thought its “Dueling Dinosaurs” exhibit...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Families scramble for help as shutdown stalls food stamps
Betty Hernandez’s van was repossessed this week. “I’m honestly considering just letting it be auctioned out and letting my credit take the hit because of the payment that comes with it,” said the 30year-old mom of three. Her family bought the van...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Zebulon neighbors shocked after deaths of four children
Rachel Ross woke up Wednesday and told her mother, Debra Riley, they needed to do something after seeing the tragedy that unfolded next door. Only the day before, Ross and Riley woke up to police cars blocking off their street as deputies removed four...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NC man accused of killing his 4 children over 4 months
A Zebulon man charged in the deaths of four of his children allegedly killed them in separate incidents over a period of four months, officials said Wednesday. Wellington Delano Dickens III, 38, faces four charges of murder in the deaths of 6-yearold...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
ATTENDANCE DIPS AT NC STATE FAIR
Riders enjoy the Techno Jump ride at the N.C. State Fair in Raleigh on Saturday. The N.C. Dept. of Agriculture reports that 946,811 people attended this year’s fair over its 11 days. The numbers are down around 5% from 2024 when 998,926 people attended.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
See what Raleigh Convention Center expansion will look like
The Raleigh Convention Center is growing by nearly 300,000 square feet, and renderings showing what the facility will look like have just been released. The 298,100-square-foot expansion, including flexible event space and additional meeting rooms,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Giant troll installation at Dix Park nears completion
Growing up in Denmark, Thomas Dambo regularly rented a cassette tape with a little troll girl who protected a forest. As an adult, Dambo worked at a warehouse where he always saw a huge pile of scrap wood in the back, waiting to be thrown away. “I...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Local food bank braces for federal shutdown fallout
Ron Pringle is treating the government shutdown like an impending hurricane. “We have to look at it just like it’s a natural disaster,” he said. “I’ve gone through several hurricanes and floods . ... And just because this is not an act of nature, it’s...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Protesters accuse GOP of racial gerrymandering with new map
As protesters chanted about “racist maps” and Democratic politicians accused North Carolina Republicans of disenfranchising Black voters, lawmakers on Tuesday moved ahead with a new congressional map intended to pick up another seat for the GOP. “Now,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
My 5 favorite parts from our first ‘foodie’ event
I’m Kimberly Tutuska, part of The N&O’s food and dining journalism team, writing this with a full belly and high spirits after our first ever “Foodie’s Tour of the NC State Fair” event. A group of 20 joined me and my teammates Chyna Blackmon, Drew...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
With Medicaid cuts, mom fears losing nurses keeping son alive
Mary Mac Jenkins, the impact of North Carolina’s Medicaid payment cuts isn’t theoretical — it’s deeply personal. Her 9-year-old son, Miles, lives with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and depends on round-the-clock care. Most of that care comes...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Thousands gather across Triangle for No Kings protests
Across the Triangle, North Carolinians joined millions of protesters across the world opposing the Trump administration’s “authoritarian policies.” “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” was a chant used by protesters in Raleigh and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
After closing Surplus Sid’s, Barry Keith reminisces, looks ahead
Barry Keith may be the “Emperor of Carrboro” — a man of mystery and chaser of women — but to the people who know him, he’s just “Sid.” As for the rest, “if it ain’t the truth, it’s the way it should have been,” he said last week, while having lunch...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Everything to know about 2025 NC State Fair
It’s time to open the gates to North Carolina’s largest annual event: the 2025 N.C. State Fair. Get ready for eleven days of thrill rides, deep-fried delights, livestock shows, live music and more as the fair returns to Raleigh Thursday, Oct....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A nor’easter closed sections of NC 12 on the Outer Banks
Residents and visitors along the N.C. Outer Banks were stuck more or less in place Monday morning as crews worked to clear water and sand from N.C. 12 and inspect the road for damage after a nor’easter. The state Department of Transportation reported...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Amid shutdown, Chantal flood victims left waiting
In 2017, when Rebecca and Ryan Blough paid $350,000 for their two-story transitional home in Pittsboro’s outskirts, they thought they’d found a “diamond in the rough.” Nestled in the woods on a 1.2-acre lot, it backed up to a creek and boasted a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Final leg of Raleigh’s Outer Loop under construction
Rural southeast Wake County has been changing for years, as new homes and subdivisions rise amid patches of forest and fields of hay and soybeans. Now even bigger changes are underway, as enormous piles of downed trees, rows of pipes and a 10-mile...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘I will never retreat’: UNC professor defends his record
At 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, Dwayne Dixon was set to enter New West Building to teach his first class since UNC reinstated him — “Embodying Japan: Cultures of Sport, Beauty and Medicine.” The first thing Dixon said he would tell his students? It’s easy...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WalletHub names NC town in top 1% of best small cities in US
Dozens of North Carolina cities made WalletHub’s 2025 list of the best small cities in the United States, but only one fell in the top 1% of the ranking. Among the 18 places that comprise the 99th percentile, only one — Apex — is in North...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
New NC law seeks to restart long-paused death penalty
The crime bill Gov. Josh Stein signed into law on Friday that was drafted by GOP lawmakers after a fatal stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail in August will have ramifications for North Carolina’s death penalty. That’s because Republicans added a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Lifelong’ bonds: Their daughter spent 101 days in the NICU
Ashton Harris and her husband Cliff were visiting their perinatologist for what was supposed to be a routine visit when she was told she had developed a life-threatening pregnancy complication that required immediate medical attention. Harris had...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Saxsquatch reveals his secret identity
For the last eight years, the world has thrilled to musical stylings of a 7-foot saxophonist in a Bigfoot suit — a fur-covered crowd-pleaser in blue Pit Viper shades who invites the world out of its tedium into a mythical world of lasers, disco balls...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Six Outer Banks homes crumble as hurricanes churn
Wind gusts and 12-foot swells joined forces to pull six Outer Banks homes into the ocean as Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda churned the Atlantic, North Carolina officials say. Five collapsed between 2 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, and the homes...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
State funds aim to unsnarl roads at Lenovo Center
The planned development around the Lenovo Center will get $35 million for infrastructure improvements from the state after Gov. Josh Stein signed the small budget bill that included the funding on Tuesday. Carolina Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork said...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ex-athletes say NC State failed to protect them from sex abuse
The number of former N.C. State athletes accusing university officials of not protecting them from a trainer’s alleged sexual abuse and harassment on campus has grown to 14 men. Also alleged in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon, plaintiffs say...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Brothers plead guilty to the killing of Wake County deputy
More than two years after Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd was gunned down on a dark rural road, two brothers accused of his murder took responsibility for the coldblooded killing that shook law enforcement across North Carolina. On Tuesday afternoon,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Family hopes people focus on the life of Iryna Zarutska
Time, in its excruciatingly slow and painful way, had just barely begun to heal Iryna Zarutska’s family. Two weeks had passed since her Aug. 22 murder on the Charlotte light rail train. The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee had been memorialized, buried,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
State’s DMV wait time reaches average of 2 hours and 45 minutes
Customers at Division of Motor Vehicles driver’s license offices statewide wait to be served an average of 2 hours and 45 minutes once they’ve checked in. But the average wait time varies greatly by office, from as little as 12 minutes to more than...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
After Helene, a renewed effort to protect at-risk seeds
As Jim Veteto wrestled an old freezer from the mud that swamped his mountainside barn when Helene struck last September, he began to write a song. It felt like the land was speaking through him, he said, their shared resolve fixed on the hundreds of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
STAIR CLIMB HONORS THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
Participants climb the stairs of Kenan Memorial Stadium during an event Thursday to honor those who lost their lives during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Read Full Story (Page 1)