Carolina Public Press

Carolina Public Press is a nonprofit news organization that operates independently and focuses on providing nonpartisan, thorough, and investigative journalism. Our goal is to deliver the essential facts and context that the people of North Carolina require. With award-winning journalism, we aim to break down barriers and highlight important issues that are often ignored or underreported, serving the needs of our state's 10.2 million residents.

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Crypto concerns: Why makers of digital currency want to be here. What makes NC counties wish they left.

1 week ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Of all the companies that have come to North Carolina in recent years, from Toyota to Google to Amazon, cryptomining operations don’t exactly spring to mind. But the state, because of its vast swaths of land, is increasingly being targeted by these outfits looking to operate here — much to the chagrin and consternation of local residents. But as politicians and lawmakers cozy up to crypto, these mining operations are of ever-increasing importance.
After bungled recovery efforts with two other storms, 'failure is not an option' for Helene, NC lawmaker says

1 week ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Lucas Thomae

RALEIGH — Securing federal relief funds after Tropical Storm Helene has been a challenge. Now, a new NC agency must prove it can wisely manage a $1.4 billion home rebuilding program after the last effort fell short. State lawmakers are still fuming after ReBuild NC, the recovery office created in the aftermath of Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018), informed them that it went broke with more than 1,000 homes yet to be rebuilt.
Regional library system exit bungled by Yancey County, critics say

2 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Lucas Thomae

With only two months remaining until Yancey County officially exits its regional library system, local opponents to the change are urging elected officials to reconsider their decision in the wake of economic challenges incurred by Tropical Storm Helene. Up to this point, they haven’t been convinced.
Many are seeing red after a premium hike in the State Health Plan. But being in the red is what led to it.

2 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

The State Health Plan is deeply in debt. To get out of the red, the 750,000 employees who receive coverage will experience something many were hoping to avoid: the first significant premium increase in nearly a decade. It’s part of the strategy from Brad Briner, North Carolina’s treasurer, to pay off a $507 million shortfall the State Health Plan has accrued due to dramatic increases in the cost of health coverage — a deficit which is projected to grow to $1.4 billion by 2027.
Sent to NC prison as teens, a 'broken' system has kept them there as adults

2 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Lucas Thomae

A decade after a federal judge ordered North Carolina to adopt a plan to give juvenile offenders serving life sentences a “meaningful opportunity” for parole, a lawsuit making its way through the court system says the state has failed to follow through. Earlier this month a judge denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit, which was filed in 2023, noting “concerning” accounts of omitted and false information in plaintiff Brett Abrams’ parole file.
Many hope this NC county's hospital won't close. It's the only one around.

3 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

Six months ago, Washington Regional Medical Center in Plymouth declared bankruptcy for the second time in five years. Now, hospital leadership hopes that the facility will emerge from this latest financial hardship by late May. That’s good news to the 10,713 residents of Washington County who need the hospital to stay in business. It’s the only one around. The bad news is that it has never been harder to keep a rural hospital afloat, especially one that’s not connected to a larger health system.
Bad medicine? Funding cuts may be 'fatal wound' to these vital NC clinics.

3 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

For residents of rural North Carolina, quality health care can seem nonexistent. Let alone affordable. Now, one of the only options for low-cost, low-barrier medical care is under threat: community health centers. Rural residents with chronic conditions like hypertension, heart disease and diabetes — on Medicaid or without insurance entirely — can’t afford regular trips to the emergency room. And rural hospitals can’t afford to treat them. That’s where community health centers have a vital role.
People on the streets. Or in trailers. Or tents. It all points to a post-Helene housing crisis in Western NC.

4 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Jane Sartwell

With 1,500 evictions filed since Tropical Storm Helene, 100,000 housing units damaged or destroyed and an ever-growing number of people who are unemployed, the housing crisis in Western North Carolina has reached a fever pitch. Asheville’s “unsheltered” homeless population — those living on the streets —reached 328 in the city’s 2025 . That’s up more than 100 from the year before — a record high. The total number is 755, if you include those sleeping in shelters.
It's untried, but will it be unsafe? NC agency wants to see what AI can do.

4 weeks ago | carolinapublicpress.org | Lucas Thomae

RALEIGH — In summer 1997, well before Brad Briner became state treasurer, he worked as an intern at the investment banking company Goldman Sachs. While he was there, Briner needed to acquire data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His supervisor offered him a plane ticket to the nation’s capital and told him to go down to the USDA building to comb through paper records and get the information he needed. But the late 1990s marked a new age in technology.
Feeling the burn: An exodus of staff — for years — has made it hard for the N.C. Forest Service to fight wildfires

1 month 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.