Monday, August 31, 2026

Good Morning! On this day in 1886, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on the East Coast struck Charleston, South Carolina. It rattled North Carolina hard enough to crack a chimney at the Carson House in Marion—a crack still visible today.

North Carolina establishments dominated USA Today’s best fast-food breakfast restaurants list. Learn more in Et Cetera, then answer today’s Trivia question to find out what non-breakfast food one of them actually started out serving.

Today’s sponsor, Incogni, helps protect your privacy by removing personal information from data brokers and continuously monitoring for new exposures that could leave you vulnerable to scams, phishing, and identity theft.

NC Nepalese Community Rallies for Nepal

North Carolina’s Nepalese community is raising relief money after an Aug. 26 glacial collapse triggered a flood that, as of Sunday, had killed more than 750 people along the Nepal-Tibet border.

More than 3,000 are missing, including roughly 90 Americans, as a wall of water and mud tore through remote Himalayan villages with almost no warning. Recovery is expected to take years.

In Charlotte, home to an estimated 10,000 Nepali residents, the Greater Charlotte Nepalese Association is collecting donations, while the Nepal Center of North Carolina coordinates aid from the Triangle.

Durham-area resident Dharma Pantha, who has family near the region, said she “cannot sleep because of that news.” Organizers are routing donations to Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

NC Weighs Marijuana-Impaired Driving Tests

Toxicologists told a state cannabis advisory council last week that no reliable roadside test exists to prove a driver is impaired by marijuana.

The problem is chemistry: THC can linger in the body for weeks after the high wears off, so a positive blood test shows recent use, not intoxication. “Toxicology is not the magic bullet,” NMS Labs toxicologist Donna Papsun told the panel.

The state also has few specialists to make the call. As of June, about 175 officers were certified drug recognition experts among roughly 34,000 statewide, a gap that hits rural departments hardest.

Marijuana remains illegal in North Carolina, but the bipartisan council, created by Democrat Gov. Josh Stein, recommended in April that lawmakers consider a regulated adult-use market. Enforcement questions like this one are part of the debate.

NC Afterschool STEM Grows, Coding Lags

Around 87% of North Carolina parents with a child in an afterschool program say it now offers STEM programs, up from 53% in 2014, according to a new national survey.

Math leads at 84%, but computer science trails at 67%, so it’s included in about two in three programs. The news comes as the state phases in a new requirement that every high schooler pass a computer science course to graduate.

The America After 3PM survey, from the Afterschool Alliance, counts 163,354 North Carolina students getting some STEM after the bell rings. Nationally, gaps persist, with 70% of rural parents reporting computer science offerings versus 88% of urban parents.

The advocacy group used the findings to push for more funding, noting that nearly four in five North Carolina children whose parents want a program can’t get a spot.

A Note from Cole, CEO of The Flyover

Dear Reader,

This week, The Flyover, including Flyover North Carolina, crossed six million total readers.

Before anything else, thank you. A milestone like this belongs to the people who open our email every morning—that’s you.

But the number isn’t the point. The point is what six million of you showed up for, and what you have walked away from.

You know what’s on the other channel. Anchors telling you what to think before they’ve told you what happened. So-called “straight news” pages that read like opinion pages. The legacy media had one job, reporting the news, and somewhere along the way they decided their real job was converting you to their ideology.

The slant isn’t an accident, and it isn’t decided in front of you. It happens in rooms you’ll never see. Every so often the door cracks open: last fall, a leaked memo revealed that a legacy media outlet had spliced a presidential speech into something it never was. Two top executives resigned. That’s one leak from one room. The decisions that never leak? Those just become the evening news.

We run on the opposite principle: the truth survives the light. The facts arrive the way we found them. We don’t bend them toward a conclusion, and we don’t decide what you’re allowed to make of them. That’s your job.

We report what happened, not what to think about it.
We keep the spin out and trust you with the facts.
And The Flyover stays free.

That was the deal at reader one. It’s the deal at six million. It’ll be the deal at sixty million.

Because here’s what I’ve learned this year, watching those newsrooms shrink and quietly walk away from their readers: a promise like ours doesn’t get broken all at once. It erodes, one compromise at a time, when an outlet stops answering to its readers.

We keep ours by staying answerable to you.

So on the week you made us six million strong, I’m asking you to put your name behind the promise. If news that plays it straight is something you want to see thrive, this is how you feed it.

Support the news you can trust. Free, every morning.

Make a generous donation to support Flyover North Carolina.

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Our promise: we answer to you. Help us keep it.

– Cole
CEO, The Flyover

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➤ Western NC: North Carolina’s landslide-mapping program went unfunded for years before Hurricane Helene, leaving most mountain counties without hazard maps. Helene’s slides killed at least 31 people across the region. (More)

➤ Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools: The district’s board voted Tuesday to strip “minority” and “women” from its small-business contracting program under a new state law barring DEI in public schools. (More)

➤ Ronda: The town’s board called a Saturday emergency meeting as state officials urge the small town to dissolve its charter over a worsening financial crisis during which the town is losing $25,000 a month. Lawmakers cited overspending on the water system, IRS payroll-tax penalties, and critically low reserves. (More)

➤ Winston-Salem: The eastern half of the Winston-Salem Northern Beltway, a new 34.5-mile stretch of I-74 nearly three decades in the making, could open as soon as Sept. 19, three months ahead of schedule. (More)

➤ Catawba County: North Carolina regulators shut down a Childcare Network location near Maiden after an alleged abuse case involving a 4-year-old boy. A worker is accused of throwing or kicking the child into a wall, and deputies charged three others with failing to report the abuse. (More)

➤ Marion: The WNC Bigfoot Festival stomped back down Main Street on Saturday, drawing cryptid enthusiasts for a Bigfoot-calling contest, food trucks, first-hand sighting accounts, and roots rock from Honeycutt & Co. (See Photos)

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➤ The Carolina Panthers have parted ways with 26 players, with the NFL’s roster cutdown deadline coming yesterday. The team’s first game is on Sunday, Sept. 13. (See Cuts)

➤ Members of the media were recently given a behind-the-scenes look at the Charlotte Hornets’ new $190 million training center, which is scheduled to open next spring. (More)

➤ No. 5 Wake Forest women’s soccer grabbed its fifth straight shutout to improve to 5-0 on the season over the weekend, taking down Portland 2-0. (More)

➤ Yesterday’s Results: MLB | Soccer | WNBA | IndyCar | LLWS

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➤ Do you know what the 4 Warning Signs that your vision is Declining… Nearly 93 million Americans are considered at high risk for serious vision loss. (More)

➤ The group behind The Durham and The Mayton hotels opened Lloyd’s Full Service in a restored 1950s service station at Chatham and Academy streets in downtown Cary. (More)

➤ Chatsworth Products’ data-center rack-and-cabinet plant in Craven County employs roughly 270 and runs nearly around the clock and is outfitting an adjacent “Smart Factory” to meet booming demand. (More)

➤ Princess Polly, an Australia-based online fashion label, will open its first North Carolina store at SouthPark mall in early 2027. The retailer, founded in 2010, is planning eight new U.S. brick-and-mortar locations through early 2027. (More)

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➤ North Carolina establishments starred on USA TODAY’s 10Best fast-food breakfast restaurants, with Greensboro-based Biscuitville taking No. 1 for the fourth straight year, Charlotte’s Bojangles ranking No. 8, and Hardee’s—founded in North Carolina—coming in at No. 9. (See List)

➤ Meanwhile, two pizzerias in North Carolina earned spots on USA TODAY’s best pizza list: 828 Family Pizzeria in Asheville, carrying a New York Italian-American tradition since 1994, and Girls with Dough in Wilmington, which took home the most votes in the network’s 10Best readers’ poll. (See List)

➤ Formula 1 fans built and raced mini LEGO cars at the LEGO Formula 1 Off Track Experience, which rolled into Symphony Park near Charlotte’s SouthPark this weekend. The free event featured a life-sized LEGO Red Bull race car, a wind tunnel, and a build-and-race circuit. (See Photo)

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➤ Surgeon Warns About “Drunken Gut” Phenomenon. Former surgeon and gut expert Dr. Steven Gundry is shedding light on “Drunken Gut,” a phenomenon where poor gut conditions may cause the body to produce alcohol internally. If you struggle with bloating, fatigue, weight gain, or trouble concentrating, Gundry says these could be warning signs worth knowing. Check for the signs now ==>

The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes.

➤ One simple change to your eating habits could lower your risk of depression and dementia. It has nothing to do with what’s on your plate. (Hear Why)

➤ Canada is hiring away dozens of American researchers with a $362 million fund. The move opens a new front in the trade war. (Hear Details)

➤ A survival expert was dropped alone in the Arctic Circle with 10 tools, a camera, and grizzly bears for neighbors. His training began with boiling sea snails as a boy. (Hear Adventure)