Jane Sartwell

Freelance Reporter at North Carolina Health News

Freelance Reporter at Extra Points

Health & Business Reporter for Carolina Public Press // Columbia Journalism School '24 🤓 // [email protected]

Articles

Feeling the burn: An exodus of staff — for years — has made it hard for the N.C. Forest Service to fight wildfires

1 week ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Extensive personnel shortages at the N.C. Forest Service hampered the agency’s ability to manage the wildfires that raged in Western North Carolina this spring, state and county officials say. According to Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler,100 positions are vacant at the agency. Fast forward to late March and early April when wildfires burned through nearly 8,000 acres of forest in Henderson and Polk counties.
Mission Health drama continues with accusations of 'profit over patients'

2 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Accusations of understaffing. Weekend pay bonuses slashed. A death in the emergency room. It’s been an exhausting start to 2025 for nurses at Mission Health in Asheville. Mission Health operates the hospital in Asheville and five smaller, rural hospitals across the North Carolina mountains. The health system has faced extreme scrutiny for decades — even before it was purchased by the largest hospital corporation in the country, HCA Healthcare, in 2019, and its Asheville nurses unionized in 2020. Gov.
Troubled water: NC cities can dump a chemical linked to cancer in rivers. The EPA may change just how much.

2 weeks ago | wunc.org | Jane Sartwell

The Cape Fear River Basin is the source of drinking water for 1.5 million North Carolina residents. It is also where three municipal governments — Asheboro, Greensboro and Reidsville — are legally dumping dangerous levels of 1,4-dioxane, a colorless industrial solvent linked to cancer.
Troubled water: NC cities can dump a chemical linked to cancer in rivers. The EPA may change just how much.

2 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

The Cape Fear River Basin is the source of drinking water for 1.5 million North Carolina residents. It is also where three municipal governments — Asheboro, Greensboro and Reidsville — are legally dumping dangerous levels of 1,4-dioxane, a colorless industrial solvent linked to cancer.
Asheville’s jobless rate - North Carolina’s highest - is ‘new and unwelcome’ territory

2 weeks ago | wfae.org | Jane Sartwell

Six months later and still out of a job. That's the reality for nearly 13,000 Asheville residents half a year after Tropical Storm Helene struck Western North Carolina. In the wake of the historic storm, hundreds of businesses closed. The region’s multibillion dollar tourism sector took a devastating hit. Thousands of people were severed from their jobs. Many have not returned to the workforce.
Asheville's jobless rate — NC's highest — is 'new and unwelcome' territory

3 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Six months later and still out of a job. That’s the reality for nearly 13,000 Asheville residents half a year after Tropical Storm Helene struck Western North Carolina. In the wake of the historic storm, hundreds of businesses closed. The region’s multibillion dollar tourism sector took a devastating hit. Thousands of people were severed from their jobs. Many have not returned to the workforce.
After worst season in North Carolina history, corn farmers want 'hope'

3 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Corn farmers on food stamps and taking second jobs. Equipment not being repaired. Debts going unpaid. That’s the reality for many North Carolina corn growers this spring. Last year was the worst season for the crop in state history, according to Ronnie Heiniger, a corn specialist at N.C. State. Drought wiped out acre after acre in eastern North Carolina last summer. Hurricane Helene devastated any crops left in the mountains.
Under the weather: Lengthy drought has NC farmers ‘praying for the rain’

1 month ago | wunc.org | Jane Sartwell

Under the weather: Lengthy drought has NC farmers ‘praying for the rain’by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public PressMarch 21, 2025Last year was an all-time low in the history of North Carolina farming, thanks to drought and flood. Farmers are desperate to catch a break in 2025. But just as planting season begins, large swaths of the state are still plagued by dry conditions. At the same time, an active wildfire season has complicated matters.
Under the weather: Lengthy drought has NC farmers 'praying for the rain'

1 month ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Last year was an all-time low in the history of North Carolina farming, thanks to drought and flood. Farmers are desperate to catch a break in 2025. But just as planting season begins, large swaths of the state are still plagued by dry conditions. At the same time, an active wildfire season has complicated matters. “We really need a good start,” Jacob Morgan, the extension director for Jones County, told Carolina Public Press.
Deserts for women’s health care services expand in rural NC counties

1 month ago | transylvaniatimes.com | Jane Sartwell

Editor's note: This is the first of three stories from Carolina Public Press focusing on the loss of women's health care, particularly access to OB-GYN and labor and delivery services, at hospitals across the stateRural hospitals could be putting pregnant women and babies at risk by slashing labor and delivery services across North Carolina. Natasha Fuller delivered her two children at Charles A. Cannon Memorial Hospital in remote and mountainous Avery County in 2011 and 2014.