By Anne Blythe As the largest FIFA World Cup in history kicks off across North America, the most menacing wild card for the 48 competing countries might be the stifling summer heat. Over the monthlong...
By Jaymie Baxley North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services waited nearly a year for federal guidance on implementing the Medicaid work requirement approved by congressional Republicans...
By Skye Crawford Morgan Glenn parted from her dogs for the first time in nearly two years this spring when she went on a 10-day trip to visit family in Europe. Since they could not come with her, she ...
By Rachel Crumpler When Tracy Lee worked as a probation/parole officer in Mecklenburg County, he found himself supervising people with serious mental illness — and feeling ill-equipped to do so. “I ha...
By Jennifer Fernandez and Ashley Fredde Outrage over the death of Moore County toddler Rylan Ott in 2016 compelled North Carolina on a path to improve its child welfare system. Nearly a decade later, ...
By Ted Clifford Asheville Watchdog Paula Case knows the job of a medical examiner wasn’t meant to be easy. Since 2021 she has driven up and down seven counties of western North Carolina investigating ...
By Julie Leibach Coastwatch Starting just outside Charlotte, North Carolina, a vast underground deposit of lithium stretches south for 25 miles. A key component of rechargeable batteries and energy g...
By Jennifer Fernandez When families are in crisis, foster parents often fill in to provide a safe place for children while parents get their lives together. Traditionally, foster parents were voluntee...
By Will Atwater As extreme heat becomes more common, people on government-paid health plans are more likely than people with private insurance to land in the emergency department with heat‑related ill...
By Taylor Knopf For the third year in a row, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have trended downward. North Carolina had one of the largest year-over-year decreases — a nearly 29 percent drop in overdo...