We need a name for this time of year.

Kwanzaa is on Day Five. But folks who celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah are in the in-between. No “Stranger Things” pun intended.

You’re looking for things to do, but only half-heartedly. New Year’s Eve is close but not yet here. If you’re working, you’re not really feeling like it. 

We’ve got you covered. Below, we’ll break down some of Cardinal & Pine’s finest stories of 2025. It’s good reading. But before that, we’ve got our weekly “3 things happening in NC” column by Ryan Pitkin. 

Ryan takes you to the Avett Brothers’ annual New Year’s Eve show. This time, in Asheville. We check out Free Soup Day in Charlotte, where more than 20 local chefs are brewing up tasty broths and stews. And on the coast, get the year started with a scenic local race. 

Free Soup Day at Free Range Brewing in Charlotte. Don’t mind if I do. (Free Range Brewing)

I hope the holidays are treating you well. The year 2026 awaits. But before then, let’s check out the top stories of 2025 at Cardinal & Pine. 

I’ve chosen these stories not just because they tell us something about the year that was, but they tell us something about the year to come. 

These stories will matter a great deal in the coming days. 

(MementoJpeg/Getty Images)

Cardinal & Pine’s Jessica F. Simmons brought us this crucial report on the latest phase of the anti-abortion movement. 

North Carolina lawmakers are funding organizations that refer to themselves as “crisis pregnancy centers.” They depict themselves as health care centers. Instead, as Simmons reports, they are faith-based, anti-abortion advocacy centers. 

Charlotte’s Taylor Shelton talked to us about walking into one such facility, expecting to talk about an unexpected pregnancy. She had become pregnant despite having an intrauterine device, or an IUD. 

“Shelton sat down expecting ‘counseling’ and clarity about her abortion options,” Simmons writes. “Instead her questions about abortion were met with silence or deflection. She said she was looking for unbiased support, but received ‘the total opposite.’”

Shelton’s experience isn’t unique. More than 90 pregnancy resource centers, commonly referred to as “crisis pregnancy centers,” operate in North Carolina. These facilities often present themselves as medical clinics, but many are faith-based and largely unregulated. They are usually designed to dissuade people from getting abortions, regardless of their circumstances.

And in the 2023-2025 budget, Republican state lawmakers gave them millions of dollars of state money with very little oversight. This is a must-read.

(AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)

In December, Michael McElroy reported on a major problem brewing for health care in NC. 

As of this email, NC is the only state without a budget. Republicans control both chambers but haven’t been able to agree on a plan. That includes a plan for funding a Medicaid shortfall that threatens to strip care from more than 3 million people in the state. 

This year, Gov. Josh Stein’s administration made cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates because of the shortfall. In December, Stein reversed those cuts but warned that Medicaid would fall off a cliff in spring 2026 without Republican lawmakers passing a budget or a standalone Medicaid bill. 

This figures to be a major 2026 story. Here’s what you need to know.

(AP Photo/Makiya Seminera)

The 2026 election—and what happens in it—is already in the works. 

The first domino fell in May, when state judges tossed a century of precedent and took power over NC’s elections from the governor, who is a Democrat. Judges upheld Republican lawmakers’ plan to give that power to the state auditor, an elected Republican. 

It has allowed Republicans to seize control over state and county election boards. In the months since then, many counties have begun moving to reduce voting access. Local election boards are also rejecting early voting sites on college campuses. 

None of this is a coincidence. It is an intentional effort to shift the outcome of the 2026 elections before anyone casts a ballot. I explained the big picture here.

And, in a recent “Billy Ball Explains NC,” our new YouTube video series, I broke it all down in 4 minutes. Watch it here.

Books, especially the books that are in school libraries, were a big topic in 2025, and it’s not going away in 2026. 

Cardinal & Pine’s Alexis Lawson has been breaking down these stories and the books that some folks want to limit access to. Typically, they are books about racial injustice and LGBTQ people. 

Take a minute to watch this video.

The story of NC nursing student Allison Bustillo Chinchilla captured the way this year’s immigration crackdown impacted local communities. (Keily Chinchilla)

Dylan Rhoney did a lot of hard-hitting reporting in 2025 on the way the federal government’s immigration crackdown was hitting home. 

Few stories told it as well as this one. 

Allison Bustillo Chinchilla came to the United States in 2014 when she was 8 years old. Her mother brought her on foot through Mexico.

Since then, Allison has graduated from high school, partially completed an associate’s degree in nursing, become a certified nursing assistant (CNA), and landed a scholarship to study nursing at Gardner-Webb University.

All of that was upended, though, when immigration agents detained her in February. For six months, she was held at a facility in Georgia before she agreed to self-deport to Honduras. 

Rhoney’s reporting told how the 2025 immigration crackdown, which was ostensibly targeting dangerous criminals, ensnared mostly non-violent people who have become embedded in their communities. 

The year 2025 is mostly in the rear view. The year 2026 has a lot in store for us. 

Thanks to Cardinal & Pine reader Wanda Bullard for this view from rural North Carolina. We’re grateful you’re reading this newsletter.

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m an NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Today’s edition includes stories from Ryan Pitkin, Jessica F. Simmons, Michael McElroy, Alexis Lawson, and Dylan Rhoney. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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