The CEO of an online educational gaming company donated more than $40,000 combined to the North Carolina Republican Party. Around the same time, his company, Plasma Games, received $6.3 million in state funding to put its science platform in schools. Now, state education officials say more than half the funds are going unused by schools.

The discussion with the students offers important insights about this year’s presidential race. It’s a small sample size, to be sure. But it gives a window into some of the challenges facing Democrats, who will need a strong youth vote if they hope to win North Carolina.

On the next Charlotte Talks, a conversation about what’s at stake as the federal trial that will determine the fate of our state’s voter ID law gets underway.

Veterans who helped test nuclear weapons are fighting to renew a 34-year-old law meant to help compensate for the long-term health effects of their work.

Hicks was a communications director for the Trump White House and prosecutors questioned her on her knowledge of the deals made during his first presidential run.

Four law enforcement officers were shot and killed in Charlotte’s deadliest day for law enforcement. Protesters are arrested at UNC-Chapel Hill. And the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board plans to send a slightly less expensive budget to the county.

As WFAE has been reporting in our series, “Fractured,” locking up defendants with serious mental illness can make their mental health worse. It’s expensive, and it's often not very effective at reducing crime. If former inmates don’t get treatment when released, they’re likely to get arrested again. But in Miami, Florida, public officials are taking a different approach to the issue — jail diversion.

President Joe Biden visited Wilmington today to announce a total of $250 million in funding to replace lead pipes around North Carolina.

The bill which was previously passed in the House in 2019 and 2022 but blocked in the Senate, aims to end race-based hair discrimination in schools and workplaces.

Four states so far have passed laws prohibiting the use of public money for no-strings cash aid. Advocates for basic income say the backlash is being fueled by a conservative think tank.