Monthly Edition
January 2026

Dear readers:

While I was personally very much looking forward to leaving 2025 in the rearview mirror, I’m still a little shocked that it’s already January. As we end our publishing pause and kick off 2026, here’s a monthly edition to remind you of all the stories you might have missed!

—Kate Sheppard
Executive Editor

The Big Read

If You Build It, Will They Come?

New charter schools are struggling to enroll enough students to stay solvent. One High Point school’s implosion shows the consequences.

Editor’s Corner

In February, we will turn five years old. Since launching in the heart of the pandemic, it’s been an unlikely journey for a small but ambitious news start-up. 

Over that time, we’ve grown from two unpaid editors commissioning stories and sending emails with hopes and prayers, to a 45-person team publishing more than 1,000 stories a year.

We’re producing some of the best journalism in the state, about everything from politics and education to culture and health care. And in five different regions across North Carolina, we’re supporting local reporting teams doing the kind of city-level journalism that’s been hollowed out over the past decade. Part of our goal with these new monthly editions is to give you another chance to see that great work, all in one place.

Our primary resolution for the new year is to make accessing all the award-winning journalism across our network more seamless and straightforward. That means you may start to see some changes to our newsletters, site design and accessibility, and events–all with the goal of making it easier to see the breadth of our work, get to know our team, and find the stories you’re most interested in spending time with. 

Our editorial ambition remains the same: that regardless of your “team”–Republican or Democrat, establishment or activist, disruptor or institutionalist, academic or corporate–our work will help leave you better informed and better equipped to navigate your world. 

Happy New Year, and here’s to 2026.

–Kyle Villemain
CEO and Founder

Politics

Josh Stein’s Medicaid Mess

Facing lawsuits, Stein reversed his administration’s Medicaid cuts. But the crisis isn’t over.

The Lawyers Who Kept Screwing Up

A section of the N.C. DOJ repeatedly erred and antagonized federal judges–even in cases they seemed guaranteed to win.

Spruce Pine Police Shocked a Diabetic Man. He’s Suing.

Dillon Ledford says the department didn’t maintain adequate policies for Taser use. Other agencies have faced similar claims.

Their Charges Were Dismissed, But They Are Not Free

A judge ruled two men incarcerated for 23 years didn’t kill the grandfather of NBA star Chris Paul. Why are they still in prison?

Higher Education

UNC System Issues Policy Making Syllabi Public

The regulation, which includes some changes from a previous draft, takes effect on January 15.

Culture

Tupac Shakur‘s North Carolina Resting Place

How did the rapper, still omnipresent three decades after his death, come to lie in a Lumberton grave?

On the Hunt for North Carolina’s Biggest Trees

Two arborists’ uncommon hobby takes them deep into the woods to look for the state’s leafy giants.

At the River’s Edge 

Several months out from Tropical Storm Chantal, two longstanding arts organizations take stock of what was lost—and how they’ll adapt to what lies ahead.