NC Audits Use of Federal Grants

North Carolina’s Office of the State Auditor released its 2025 Single Audit Report for the state on April 6, examining $28 billion of the $43.9 billion in federal awards spent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

The audit identified 19 findings, including 18 related to federal awards. Medicaid accounted for more than half the total at $24.7 billion.

A key concern involved failures to report subawards under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, including all 228 Social Services Block Grant subawards totaling $39.4 million and 171 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families subawards totaling $99.4 million.

Auditors also flagged $342,093 in questioned costs from improper payments, ineligible expenditures, and unsupported documentation. No material noncompliance was found, a first in over two decades, but persistent internal control weaknesses remain.

School Districts Contemplate Closures, Merges

North Carolina school districts are grappling with severe budget shortfalls, prompting discussions of school closures, district consolidations, and staff reductions. Declining enrollment driven by lower birth rates, competition from charters and private schools, and outmigration has reduced per-pupil funding while fixed costs for buildings, transportation, and operations remain high.

Catawba County Commissioners will vote on a proposal on April 20 to merge Catawba County Schools, Hickory City Schools, and Newton-Conover City Schools into the new Catawba Valley School District, effective July 1, 2028.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools may cut $6.6 million, and Wake County’s superintendent plans to ask county commissioners for a $25 million funding increase, far below what he says the district needs.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is contemplating closing older elementary schools to save roughly $1.7 million annually. Durham, Cumberland, and other districts are similarly weighing closures and consolidations.

NCDOT Names Wildflower Award Winners

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has announced its 2025 Wildflower Award winners, celebrating 40 years of the popular highway beautification program.

The Best Overall Division award went to Division 4, which includes Edgecombe, Halifax, Johnston, Nash, Wayne, and Wilson counties. Division 4 earned additional wins for its daylily beds on I-587 and on Downing Street in Wilson County, and eastern region wildflower planting on I-42 at mile marker 361 in Wayne County.

First-place regional awards went to Division 9’s U.S. 52 at Perch Road in Stokes County for the Central region, and Division 12’s U.S. 321 at mile marker 19 in Gaston County for the Western region.

Second place overall went to Division 7, which includes Alamance, Caswell, Guilford, Orange, and Rockingham counties. Regional second places went to plantings in Haywood, Rockingham, Lenoir, and Mecklenburg counties.

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➤ Western NC: FEMA is spending over $26 million to buy out 75 Hurricane Helene flood- and landslide-damaged homes in Henderson, Polk, and Yancey counties through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to lessen the financial burden on impacted survivors. (More)

➤ NC Schools: State Board of Education data shows that 54% of North Carolina’s Class of 2025 public school graduates completed at least one college-level course or exam in high school—a record high for the state—through Advanced Placement, Career and College Promise, and International Baccalaureate programs. (More)

➤ Durham: Former Miss North Carolina 2024 Carrie Everett, a 22-year-old North Carolina Central University student, died Monday morning in Seattle after battling metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma. (More)

➤ Watauga County: Plaintiffs in the county’s election districts lawsuit, including the Voting Rights Task Force and Common Cause, dropped their malapportionment claim on Friday, narrowing the federal challenge to remaining partisan claims against Republican-drawn maps. (More)

➤ Rockingham County: Authorities are searching for 60-year-old Lori Bonnes Plummer, last seen walking into the woods near Pextile Plant Road in Stoneville around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Searches with drones and K9s continued on Sunday. (More)

➤ Gaston County: Joshua Hunsucker, 41, pleaded not guilty on Monday to first-degree murder in the 2018 poisoning death of his wife, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, by adding lethal tetrahydrozoline from eye drops to her water. He also filed a second change-of-venue motion. (More)

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➤ NASCAR’s return to Rockingham Speedway over the weekend featured several drivers under 21 competing in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA events. (More)

➤ Former Duke teammates Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel continue battling for the best odds to win this season’s NBA Rookie of the Year award. Flagg is currently the favorite, but Knueppel is close behind. (More)

➤ A recent poll found that Carolina Panthers fans are split on the team’s top priority heading into the NFL Draft, with offensive line slightly edging out other needs like safety and linebacker. (More)

Yesterday’s Results: NBA | MLB | NHL | NCAAB | NCAASB | Soccer | Tennis

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➤ Gov. Josh Stein announced $40 million in federal funding that local governments and nonprofits can apply for via the Commercial District Revitalization Program to aid Hurricane Helene-damaged business districts in the state’s most impacted counties. (More)

➤ Allegacy Federal Credit Union broke ground on a $5 million full-service office in Hickory along U.S. Highway 321, set to open in July, marking its continued expansion into Western North Carolina following a limited-service branch which opened in February 2025. (More)

➤ Shaw University professor Dr. Michael Harrington and his company Genoverde Bioscience, Inc., agreed Monday to pay $152,500 to settle federal allegations of false and duplicative expense claims on National Science Foundation grants plus improper paycheck protection program loan applications, without admitting liability. (More)

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The Next $435B Energy Empire Is Being Minted

In today’s dollars, John D. Rockefeller would be worth $435 billion. But “oil money” is old news, and what’s next might surprise investors in 2026: a $2.1 Trillion opportunity in “clean” coal.

Now is the “Rockefeller” moment for Frontieras as they reform coal into hydrogen, diesel and other valuable commodities (just like Rockefeller did with oil). With a White House that favors domestic energy, the NASDAQ ticker FASF reserved, and land officially purchased for their flagship coal reformation plant, Frontieras is positioned for potential valuation impact.

➤ Raleigh’s Oak City Fish & Chips founder Isaac Horton’s franchise pitch was rejected by all “Sharks” on an unaired Shark Tank episode, but a later YouTube release of the episode sparked global inquiries, and the first franchisees are expected to be announced this summer. (More)

➤ Kinston Chick-fil-A employee Jaydon Cintron, 18, discovered two envelopes containing $9,333 in cash on the men’s restroom floor during his break on Good Friday. He turned it in, and the owner later rewarded him $500. (More)

➤ North Carolina’s “Golf Coast,” stretching from the Brunswick Islands to the Outer Banks, and including Wilmington and Beaufort, ranks among the best U.S. retirement spots for golf lovers thanks to dozens of courses, waterfront living, and a mild climate. (More)

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Did you take college-level classes in high school?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Can’t remember

Yesterday’s Results:

Have you seen the blue ghost fireflies in Pisgah National Forest?

1. No: 37%
2. Not yet: 23%
3. Not interested: 21%
4. Yes: 19%

Which Outer Banks restaurant was opened in 1937 by a local fisherman to serve breakfast to fellow fishermen, and is still famous today for its “Omie-lettes”?

Show me the answer