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WASHINGTON — North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx voiced strong opposition Monday to calls for more federal funding to help the nation’s schools as they prepare to reopen this fall. The Republican lawmaker said it would be “irresponsible” to provide more federal education aid without first assessing the effectiveness of funds Congress has already spent.

Surprise ruling validates the First Amendment rights of reporters, whistleblowers In a stunning decision, a federal court judge has struck down North Carolina’s “ag-gag law,” ruling that several of its provisions are unconstitutional and violate the First Amendment.

Questions about racial and ethnic equity, as well as safety, were included in this year’s North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey, reflecting public schools’ heightened priorities. The state Department of Public Instruction invited 121,424 educators to participate in the 2020 survey. It received responses from 102,545 educators, a response rate of 84.5%.

Lt. Gov. Forest is the lone "no" vote on plan developed by state health experts School districts in counties where the threat of coronavirus infection is low should be allowed to operate differently than those in counties where the threat is greater, says Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.

Until recently, Meg Miller was the “house mother” at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on Columbia Street, just off the UNC-Chapel Hill campus across from the Carolina Inn. She started as a cook but over 25 years her duties expanded to managing the property, doing all the purchasing, and working with a staff of two to keep the house safe and clean for decades of “Dekes.”

Republicans add language in effort to circumvent two court injunctions; final vote today What started as a bipartisan effort to address the challenge of administering an election during the COVID-19 pandemic has devolved into a battle over another Republican attempt to require North Carolinians to show a photo ID to cast a ballot in November.

Yet a mid-level Durham employee knew about the proposal in 2018 but never informed city leaders. The state Department of Transportation apologized to Triangle government officials today for failing to inform them of a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline along part of the American Tobacco Trail, one of the premier recreational destinations in the region.

WASHINGTON — The North Carolina State Board of Elections pleaded “urgently” just weeks ago for lawmakers to approve additional funds to help pay for coronavirus-related costs for upcoming elections.  That legislation still hasn’t passed, and an upcoming special election for a U.S. congressional primary will put election officials to the test as the coronavirus pandemic has scrambled elections around the country.

As the 17 schools in the UNC System prepare to bring students back to campuses this fall, each is making its own plans on how to do so as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Much of the focus, however, is on UNC-Chapel Hill, the system’s flagship campus, which last month launched launched the “Carolina Together” website to share details from its “Roadmap for Fall 2020.”

When Andrew Darrin Ramseur, a Black man, walked into court in Iredell County on May 10, 2010 to face charges related to the murder of two white victims, there was a noticeable difference about his side of the room: the first four rows behind the defense table were cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape.

State officials release "resilience plan," but political will remains in question In addition to deaths worldwide from COVID-19 and record unemployment, the globe surpassed another portentous record last month: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the highest ever recorded — 417.1 parts per million, according to an announcement yesterday by NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Classes start in just over two months, and Eric Muller, a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Law, should be consumed with textbook choices, syllabi and lesson plans. Instead, he’s thinking about his wife, who cares for her 90-year-old mother. To just how much risk will be exposing his family each day when he comes home from work?

Powerful Black leaders across North Carolina in charge of administering justice are speaking out to support protesters calling for change in the aftermath of the homicide of George Floyd. Floyd’s story is all too familiar to Black Americans – he was killed on camera as a result of police brutality, and now his name has become another hashtag, another call to white people to recognize their privilege and the systemic racism that enables ongoing violence and injustice.

A confidential letter delivered to the State Board of Education alleges that the school management firm Achievement for All Children has failed to meet its contractual obligations in running Southside-Ashpole Elementary, to the detriment of its students. The letter, obtained by Policy Watch, recommends that state education officials terminate the contract — three years early — under which the firm oversees Southside-Ashpole, the lone school in the state’s controversial Innovative School District.

Historic congressional hearing examines the pandemic's disparate racial and ethnic impacts WASHINGTON— The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed communities of color, laying bare the systemic racial disparities across the United States, experts told House lawmakers this week. Early evidence suggests there are elevated rates of infection and death from COVID-19 in African American populations and other communities of color.

At the end of an hour-long question-and-answer session with UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz Wednesday, English professor Florence Dore gave voice to what many faculty were thinking about a planned return to campus August 10. “All the data suggest people are going to get sick,” Dore said. “I guess I just don’t understand why we’re not staying online until things improve.”