Last year, more than half a million North Carolina residents signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. With less than two weeks left in the 2019 open enrollment period, there is concern that those numbers will be down. BPR’s Helen Chickering checked in with Pisgah Legal Services managing attorney Jackie Kiger .

The North Carolina Department of Commerce released its economic development ratings for all 100 counties. Here’s more on what that means and how Western North Carolina ranked: Each year, the department groups all 100 counties into tiers. The law calls for 40 counties to be designated as Tier One, 40 counties to be designated as Tier Two, and 20 counties to be designated Tier Three. Each county is measured against the others based on economic data and adjustments. This year, the state took away

T he fall semester is com ing to a close at Western Carolina University. The last day of class is December 7th but the school still does not have a permanent chancellor. In July , the preferred candidate for chancellor at the school withdrew from the running. Since then the UNC system Board of Governors approved a new policy for chancellor searches . However, since the search at Western Carolina was already underway , the board is continuing to follow its old policy. The only change is that the

Asheville city council banned electronic scooters on public streets and sidewalks. But lawmakers admit the ban won’t likely be permanent. The Tuesday evening vote to ban e-scooters was unanimous, coming almost a month after scooters from the California-based company Bird first started popping up on Asheville streets and sidewalks. They only lasted a few days before a Buncombe County judge issued a cease and desist order which led to the scooters being removed. Those caught violating the ban face

Democrats in North Carolina scored a victory in the mid-term elections at the state level, winning enough seats in both chambers of the General Assembly to break Republican supermajorities. That will prevent the GOP from over riding vetoes from Democratic governor Roy Cooper through party line votes starting in January. Most of the Democratic pickups occurred in the Triangle and Charlotte areas, but the party did pick up two critical House seats in the western part of the state. In District 119,

A year ago, Smoky Mountain News Staff Writer Cory Vaillancourt went homeless for three nights over the Thanksgiving holiday to report on the realities of homelessness in Western North Carolina. This week, he revisited some of the people and places from that journey, and learned things are much different today. Last Thanksgiving, three of Haywood County’s best-known nonprofits serving the homeless and the hungry reported once again new highs in the amount of people they’d served. This year,

AAA says travel nationwide during the Thanksgiving holiday this year will be at a 13-year high, as it predicts more than 54-million Americans will travel more than 50 miles this holiday – the highest number since 2005, which was the most traveled Thanksgiving holiday on record according to the organization. Almost 90-percent of those traveling will be doing so on the roads. Heidi King, the deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is urging drivers to be safe

As Duke Lifepoint hospitals wait to see what comes of the merger between Lifepoint and RCCH Healthcare , citizens of Swain, Jackson and Haywood county now have another healthcare issue: their insurance. UnitedHealthcare announced that they are negotiating their contract with Duke LifePoint in late October. The company owns Haywood Regional Hospital, Swain Community Hospital and Harris Regional Hospital. Patients at all three hospitals received letters explaining that their contracts with United

Former Missouri Governor Jay Nixon visited Asheville last month to hear from concerned residents about Mission Health’s proposed sale to HCA. Here’s more on what has happened since that meeting. Risa Larsen is a member of the SEARCH committee. Based in Yancey and Mitchell counties, SEARCH stands for Sustaining Essential and Rural Community Healthcare. They have been one of the most outspoken groups outside of Asheville voicing their concerns about nonprofit Mission Health’s sale to for-profit

(Update: 11/29/18) The chicken pox outbreak that began at an Asheville private school in late October is far from over according to the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services . The latest numbers show 37 students at the Asheville Waldorf School along with 4 people in the community have contracted the virus. Health officials are not releasing details about the additional cates, saying only rhat they are connected to the outbreak at the school . According to the Centers for