Venomous Blue Sea Dragons are washing up on the sandy shores of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and National Park officials advise to admire them from a distance.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (February 20, 2020) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a $24,867 People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (February 20, 2020) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the North Carolina State University in Raleigh with a $25,000 People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant.

Owner of Bluebird Hill Farm launches essay contest to give the $450,000 property away.

The wild horses of the Outer Banks in North Carolina have been riding out storms for centuries.

Commitment to developing green economy pays dividends for Raleigh, North Carolina by attracting substantial economic activity benefiting the entire community.

The donation to the N.C. Tree Farm Program was made in honor of the renewable energy company's 15th anniversary.

Programs and partnerships help underserved communities excel in the forestry business.

The North Carolina US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate says, "We are advocates for Navy Veterans with mesothelioma anywhere in North Carolina and before a person like this or their family hires a lawyer-please call us at 800-714-0303."

Construction Underway to Address Growing Shared Workspace Demand

Anyone under the age of 21 who is caught driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol in North Carolina can be arrested and charged with underage DWI, provisional DWI or driving after consumption under 21.

Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Company certified as one of only three providers authorized to offer distributed solar energy with no capital cost

The Department of Justice today announced awards of more than $165 million to support public safety efforts in the state of North Carolina. The funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) will support violent crime reduction, opioid/substance abuse reduction efforts, school safety, victim services, transitional housing for domestic violence victims, law enforcement activities, justice mental health, and juvenile justice.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Warren County, North Carolina, Board of Education (Warren County) that resolves a federal lawsuit brought under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) on behalf of Dwayne Coffer, a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) in the Army Reserve. In its complaint, the United States alleged that Warren County violated USERRA by eliminating Sergeant Major Coffer’s employment position while he was on active duty with the military and failed to re-employ him in a comparable position when he returned.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper responded to President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the economy by stressing that the state needs the federal government’s help supplying medical professionals to ramp up COVID-19 testing. The state government also said Friday that it was tripling the staff handling unemployment claims as the state faces a crush of hundreds of thousands requests. Trump told governors Thursday that restrictions could be eased to allow businesses to reopen in the coming weeks in areas that have extensive testing and a decline in cases. Hours later, Cooper, a Democrat, said states need more supplies from the federal government to expand testing enough to reopen their economies.

A COVID-19 outbreak at a North Carolina state prison has spread to approximately 150 inmates. The Wayne County Health Department said in a news release Friday that 149 inmates had tested positive for the virus at the state's Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro. State prison officials had announced about 80 of the cases the previous night. The county health officials said that the number of positive results was expected to rise as the prison completes testing on all of its 700 inmates. Newly positive inmates are being put into isolation, and the state is sending additional medical and security staff to the facility.

Authorities in North Carolina are reporting 350 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of cases to 6,500. Numbers released Sunday by the state health department show laboratory-confirmed cases increased from 6,140 cases to 6,493. The death toll increased from 164 to 172. Modeling released Friday by the University of Washington suggests that North Carolina may have reached its peak in coronavirus cases in the last few days, and that social distancing could be relaxed as soon as May 11 if sufficient testing is conducted, large gatherings are limited and other provisions remain in effect. Other models are less optimistic.

A coastal town in North Carolina is lifting restrictions it imposed on visitors because of the coronavirus outbreak. WITN-TV reports the town of Beaufort in Carteret County has ended its police checkpoint near U.S. Highway 70. Mayor Rett Newton says the move is the first step toward taking the waterfront town back to normal. The town declared a state of emergency on March 17 because of the threat posed by the coronavirus and enacted restrictions that were to remain in effect through April 29. On April 9, the city established checkpoints that limited access to full-time county residents, people sheltering in place and essential workers.

Hundreds of people angry and frustrated with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order marched around his home while demanding that he cancel it to help restore the state's economy. The crowd gathered on Tuesday before being escorted by Raleigh police motorcycles to walk through downtown Raleigh streets, including those surrounding the Executive Mansion. Cooper’s current order expires April 29, but the governor has said goals still must be met to ease movement and commerce restrictions. He says he'll release more specifics this week about quantifying those goals. Governors of some surrounding states already have announced plans to reopen some businesses.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says the state's stay-at-home order from COVID-19 will remain in place for at least another two weeks because current data doesn't support loosening restrictions that began in mid-March. The Democratic governor said this and other prohibitions on dine-in restaurant services and mass assemblies has now been extended until May 8. The stay-at-home order was supposed to expired next week. Cooper also unveiled a three-phase plan for reopening based on expanded tracing and testing and declining case growth. Republican governors in Tennesse, South Carolina and Georgia this week announced they would ease restrictions so that some nonessential businesses could open.

North Carolina Gov Roy Cooper has signed legislation pumping $1.6 billion into schools, hospitals, local governments and researchers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Cooper signed the two bills during a conference call on Monday. They represent a compromise between measures approved separately in the Senate and House last week, with input from the governor and legislative Democrats seeking items in Cooper's own $1.4 billion request. The $1.6 billion is less than half of North Carolina's share received from the $2 trillion coronavirus relief law that Congress approved last month.

The president craves a nationally televised coronation with cheering supporters, but even Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are expressing doubts it can take place as planned.

NPR's Scott Simon remembers Rose Liberto, a nurse at Atrium Health North East Hospital in Charlotte, N.C., who died of COVID-19. She was 64.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirming the district court's rejection of First Amendment violation claims brought by an exotic dancing venue complaining that a city regulates sexually oriented businesses differently than it does mainstream performances such as ballets and concerts, that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by barring 18 to 21 year olds from owning sexually oriented businesses, but finding that the district court erred in rejecting a claim that the denial provisions of the licensing regulation are an unconstitutional prior restraint, striking this provision from the Ordinance and remanding to consider its severability.

(United States Supreme Court) - Clarified the limits of a State's power to tax a trust. Struck down a North Carolina requirement that a trust must pay income tax to the State whenever the trust's beneficiaries live in the State -- regardless of whether the beneficiaries have received, can demand, or will ever receive a distribution of trust income. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court, in this due process challenge brought by a family trust.

(United States Supreme Court) - Clarified the limits of a State's power to tax a trust. Struck down a North Carolina requirement that a trust must pay income tax to the State whenever the trust's beneficiaries live in the State -- regardless of whether the beneficiaries have received, can demand, or will ever receive a distribution of trust income. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court, in this due process challenge brought by a family trust.

(United States Supreme Court) - Conviction under a North Carolina law that makes it a felony for a registered sex offender 'to access a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages,' N. C. Gen. Stat. Ann. sections14-202.5(a) and (e), is reversed where the North Carolina statute impermissibly restricts lawful speech in violation of the First Amendment.

The governor of North Carolina said Tuesday that NASCAR can go forward with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway without fans in attendance at the end of May unless health conditions deteriorate in the state.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina

The Amateur Traveler talks to Nathan from Wand’rly Magazine about Great Smoky Mountains National Park and about his current home of Western North Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited U.S. National Park.

Hear about travel to North Carolina as the Amateur Traveler talks to Karen Dawkins of familytravelsonabudget.com about the Tar Heel State. We cover from Mount Mitchell in the west to the Outer Banks in the east. 

Hear about travel to the Crystal Coast of North Carolina as the Amateur Traveler talks to Kit Parks from the Active Travel Adventures Podcast about the area.

Hear about things to do in Asheville, NC as the Amateur Traveler talks to music journalist and cocktail aficionado Bill Kopp about his adopted hometown.

A North Carolina oral health coalition, in collaboration with multiple state partners, has developed an interactive map to help guide the public to sites where emergency dental services are available throughout the Tar Heel State both during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.

The state's two virtual charter schools have earned poor marks from the state's accountability system in the few years they've been operating.

A sea of red-clad teachers took to the streets around North Carolina's legislative building in Raleigh to fight for higher pay and more school funding. See photos from the event.

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

Cursive writing is experiencing a resurgence of sorts in North Carolina elementary schools thanks to a state law that was passed in 2013.

U.S. Ed Secretary DeVos has approved plans for 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Still waiting: California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Thousands of North Carolina teachers will take leave on May 16 to protest at the state capitol, forcing some school districts to close.

North Carolina teachers had press conferences in seven locations across the state to criticize education spending levels.

A $12.2 million dollar grant from the state Department of Public Instruction will go to a program based at North Carolina State University to provide additional training literacy training to teachers in 16 high-needs districts across the state.

U.S. Ed Secretary DeVos has approved plans for 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Still waiting: California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah.