Rural Economy
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How Trump’s ‘One, Big Beautiful Bill’ will impact jobs, investment in rural NC
In the mountains of western NC, local renewable energy company Sugar Hollow Solar is already working through contingency plans to avoid laying off staff.
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A North Carolina bookstore offers a ‘third place’—a growing trend across the US to bring people together
In Murfreesboro, North Carolina, a local bookstore wants to be a ‘third place’—somwehere in town that’s not your home or your workplace. The idea is to bring people together.
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‘Come hell or high water’: A harm reduction team amps it up in response to a disaster
A community-based organization focused on drug use harm reduction turned its headquarters into a refuge for all seeking help in the face of a hurricane.
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Opinion: From gas stations to gardens, rural communities step up to help as Congress slashes SNAP
As Congress looks to cut SNAP, better known as “food stamps,” we go inside Greensboro, North Carolina’s “People’s Market,” which runs on vendors and customers who rely on the federal aid.
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Gwen Frisbie-Fulton: ‘The people closest to the problem are often the ones who can find the solution’
About two years ago, tents started to show up in my neighborhood along the creek beds and in small stands of trees. Most only became visible when the leaves fell, exposing their orange rainflies and blue tarps. This increase in houselessness didn’t feel surprising to me or to my neighbors: The rent has nearly doubled…
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A love letter to the working class, from Gwen Frisbie-Fulton
It started in the back seat of my family’s Jeep Cherokee, the one with the broken AC and vinyl seats that stuck to my thighs in the late summer heat. After school we would wait, all the doors flung open, for my dad to get off work. My mother reading in the front seat, her…
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‘Some people work their butts off and other people get rich’: Gwen Frisbie-Fulton’s view from rural America
My dad raised us to work hard and do good for our families, but he was also going to make damn sure we didn’t step on anyone else along the way.
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‘I am a medical debt voter’: How a national nonprofit campaign is empowering NC voters impacted by medical debt
After losing his wife to cancer, North Carolina’s Terry Belk has spent years battling medical debt. Now, Community Catalyst is helping people like him make their voices heard at the polls.
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Bill Clinton tells Raleigh crowd they could decide the election as he rallies for Kamala Harris
The 42nd president of the United States capped off a four-day visit to eastern North Carolina with a stop in downtown Raleigh. Clinton detailed the dangers of Donald Trump potentially returning to the White House and laid out how Kamala Harris would work to solve the country’s problems.
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Stories of heroism abound in western NC after Helene, but so do fears about the future
Two weeks ago, the mountain towns of North Carolina experienced one of the worst natural disasters in the state’s history. Members of the communities recall Helene’s impact, the response from everyday people, and what comes next.
