hometown news

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Microsoft Corp. plans to further expand its North Carolina workforce with 500 new jobs in the Raleigh-Durham area announced on Tuesday, less than two months after the software and cloud-computing giant unveiled additional positions for Charlotte.  Gov. Roy Cooper and Microsoft executives held a news conference in Raleigh to unveil a $47.5 million investment at company operations in Morrisville, which is home to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. 

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A county in North Carolina will pay $2 million to the family of a woman who died of an overdose in jail.  Buncombe County agreed to the settlement Wednesday in the case of Michele Smiley, news outlets reported. An autopsy determined Smiley, 34, died of a methamphetamine overdose in October 2017. She had been booked in the county jail on a probation violation and told staff

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced Thursday that he won't try to recapture his old office in 2020, but will continue to consider a U.S. Senate bid in 2022.  The Republican revealed his decision on his morning radio program in Charlotte, where he served as mayor for a record 14 years. McCrory had said at the start of 2019 that he would spend the year

Internet service providers and electric membership cooperatives can now apply for $15 million in state funding aimed at helping bring high-speed internet access to rural parts of North Carolina. Authorized by the N.C. General Assembly and administered by the N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Broadband Infrastructure Office, the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant program supports efforts by private internet service providers to deploy broadband infrastructure to