☀️ In Today’s Edition

1. Buc-ee’s Expands Its Range
2. More Politics News From This Week
3. Around Our Network
4. What We’re Reading
5. Our Recent Stories

Buc-ee’s, the mega-gas station taking over the Southeast, is a feast for the senses. If Walmart, Wawa, Cracker Barrel, and Bass Pro Shops jointly procreated, it still wouldn’t amount to a Buc-ee’s. It’s a rest stop that people drive hours to visit, just for fun. It’s a gas station with merch drops and famed brisket. 

It was founded in Texas in 1982 as a normal convenience store, but in the ensuing decades it’s become anything but. The stores has rapidly spread across the southeast, gaining a cult following for their wares ranging from gun cases to picture books, clean, plentiful bathrooms, dozens of gas pumps, garish red-and-yellow branding, and vast footprints.

North Carolina is next as the beaver expands his range, with plans to open a store in Mebane next year. Buc-ee’s elicits a lot of strong feelings, for better or worse. Emily Cataneo took a pilgrimage to the Florence, South Carolina store to find out what the fuss is about. 

Well I’ll Be Dammed.

North Carolina is about to get its first Buc-ee’s, the massive, cult-classic gas station rapidly expanding across the southeast. I went to figure out what the hype is about.

Still want more Buc-ee’s? Our partners at WUNC’s The Broadside have an audio version of this story.

Gnaw On

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few politics stories you might have missed this week:

Gov. Josh Stein lost the latest court battle in his effort to claw back appointment powers the Republican-led General Assembly stripped from him weeks before he took office, per The Caucus.

Prosecutors filed a petition this week asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to review a judge’s order exonerating four men convicted as teenagers of murdering NBA star Chris Paul’s grandfather, attempting to bypass the Court of Appeals.

In Fayetteville, tensions are high around the U.S.’s activity in Venezuela and what it might mean for Fort Bragg forces, CityView reports.

Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.

Around Our Network

Raleigh’s 911 call takers now assess whether callers are best served by police or EMS, or if a mental health professional should respond instead. INDY has more.

A group of local faith leaders is challenging a plan to move the Confederate monument outside the Robeson County courthouse to a public park, Border Belt Independent reports, arguing it should not be in such a highly visible location.

A 2.57% enrollment drop in Cumberland County’s public schools could affect staffing and future state funding allotments, per CityView. District leaders work to track where students have gone.

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What We’re Reading

What the Truck: The U.S. Department of Transportation is threatening to take highway funding away from North Carolina because it claims an audit found 54% of commercial driver licenses were illegally issued to people from foreign countries, per WTVD.

Vax Evasion: Buncombe County has opened a measles hotline and vaccination clinic after multiple local cases of the highly contagious disease, WLOS reports.

Agent Apparent: Lawyers for a teenager accused of planning an ISIS-inspired attack in Charlotte on New Years Eve say he is mentally ill and was “egged on” by government agents, per the Observer.

Our Recent Stories

A Narrow Window of Hope for People Sentenced to Die in Prison

About 225 people serving life-without-parole sentences are eligible for review under an obscure North Carolina law.

‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’

EOD techs have the highest rate of suicide in the service. Veterans say there’s been little progress on protecting them.

After a Decade at UNC Greensboro, Frank Gilliam May Be the Last Chancellor of His Kind

Gilliam has steered the university through crisis and political sea changes.