Budget

The University of North Carolina system says it has cut more than 3,000 jobs because of spending reductions required by the General Assembly in this year's budget Full story...

State auditors say North Carolina's health insurance plan for workers could have saved more than $1 million if it had written a better contract with a hospital and monitored rates more closely. Full story...

Wilmington City Council voted not to buy a plot of land along the Cape Fear River. City Council held a special meeting this afternoon to discuss wether to buy nearly eight acres of land known as the Sawmill Point Marina site. Full story...

Administrators are scrambling to hire teachers with the new school year less than a week away for most North Carolina students, even as budget-cutting forces layoffs of other workers. Full story...

Thousands of North Carolina parents are wondering whether their 4-year-olds will attend taxpayer-paid pre-kindergarten this year despite a judge's ruling that all needy families should have access. Full story...

Gov. Bev Perdue is stepping into a battle over North Carolina's efforts to prepare all 4-year-olds for school. Full story...

North Carolina's Medicaid agency is preparing to slash services and payments beyond the nearly $360 million cut that state budget writers ordered this year. Full story...

Elections for municipal offices are less than 100 days away, and candidates are working hard to get their names and viewpoints noticed. Wilmington City Councilwoman Laura Padgett is running for reelection, but she's making waves after being denied reimbursement for a trip she took to Washington, DC. Full story...

Wilmington City Council member Laura Padgett requested to be reimbursed about $700 for a trip she took to Washington D.C. in March, but the city’s audit committee denied her request. Now Padgett is saying she doesn't think the committee handled it properly. Full story...

WWAY spoke to Sen. Kay Hagan Wednesday via satellite. She said a bipartisan agreement on the debt ceiling is needed now. Full story...

A North Carolina judge says the General Assembly's budget cuts and changes to a pre-kindergarten program cheat poor children out of educational opportunities and should be stopped. Full story...

Planned Parenthood is going to federal court to fight the new North Carolina budget that cuts it off from receiving federal and state funds for family planning. Full story...

Wilmington, N.C., is not Camden, N.J., which laid off half its police force this year. It is not Detroit, which is closing half of its public schools. But like local governments across the country, the City of Wilmington has been demonstrably diminished by five years of unyielding economic despair. That a place like Wilmington, until recently a real estate boom town, would defer a purchase as essential as a fire truck for even one year, much less five, speaks to the withering toll. Full story...

Changes in the state budget about to take effect are at the heart of a court fight challenging whether North Carolina is living up to its constitutional duty to give every child the opportunity for a good education. Full story...

Lawyers for North Carolina school districts challenging the nearly $20 billion state budget approved last week want a judge to order the Legislature to redo the spending plan. Full story...