Associated Press

North Carolina officials are pledging to get more water and other supplies to storm-damaged areas by Monday after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across the U.S. Southeast. Authorities have struggled to get supplies to isolated areas including the city of Asheville. Massive rains brought by Helene left many people stranded or homeless around the region. The death toll from the storm topped 90 people across several states. Forecasters say a new tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic Ocean could become a hurricane by mid-week.

The North Carolina Senate’s top leader says chamber Republicans are prepared to walk away from budget negotiations if the House remains unwilling to lower its preferred spending levels. Senate leader Phil Berger made the comments on Wednesday, one day after House Speaker Tim Moore announced his chamber would roll out its own spending plan and vote next week. Private talks between the two chambers have been idling. Berger said the Senate would be prepared to stay out of Raleigh after June 30 if there's no agreement on adjusting the second year of the current two-year state government budget by then.

An effort to order manufacturers of “forever chemicals” to help North Carolina public water systems pay for upgrades to remove contaminants that a company discharged has been renewed in the General Assembly. The House Environment Committee voted Tuesday for the measure pushed by Republican lawmakers from the Wilmington area. That's where longtime upstream discharges of a kind of substance called PFAS into the Cape Fear River have contributed to public utilities spending large amounts to filter them out. Scientific evidence on the heath risks posed to humans by PFAS have accumulated in recent years. The bill certainly could affect The Chemours Co., which runs a plant that had discharged PFAS for decades. A similar bill was debated in 2022.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced its first-ever limits for several common types of PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Two types, PFOA and PFOS, will be limited to 4 parts per trillion, the lowest level that tests can reliably detect. The agency says it will reduce exposure for 100 million people and prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancer. Utilities groups, however, say the EPA is underestimating the rule's cost and overestimating its benefits. They argue water rates will go up and struggling utilities will only struggle more. The Biden administration has made protecting drinking water a priority.

Front-runners for North Carolina's major-party nominations for governor in next month's primaries have taken dramatically different paths to prominence. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson have been ahead in fundraising and support from key party figures. These and other primary candidates are seeking to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Stein is an Ivy League-educated attorney who amassed allies as he climbed the Democratic ladder. Robinson is a former furniture factory worker with a history of blunt commentary who plowed into Republican politics after a viral video. Fellow Republicans running against Robinson question whether he can win in a state where Democrats have held the recent upper hand in gubernatorial politics.

A woman on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island who drew national attention from such stars as Tyler Perry and Snoop Dogg as she fought off developers in her final years has died at 94. A family publicist says Josephine Wright died Sunday at her Hilton Head home. Wright had been fighting a lawsuit from an investment firm that sued her last year. The company alleged her property encroached on their proposed 147-unit neighborhood near land her late husband’s family had owned for over a century. Wright had moved decades ago from New York City to the historic Gullah neighborhood of Jonesville — named for a Black Civil War veteran who escaped slavery and purchased land there.

A North Carolina hospital network is referring transgender psychiatric patients to treatment facilities that do not align with their gender identities. Though UNC Hospitals' policy discourages the practice, administrators say a massive bed shortage is forcing them to make tough decisions. A lack of funding and the absence of uniform treatment standards across the state's hospitals are combining with shortcomings in staff training to create barriers to treating transgender youth.

Another federal lawsuit has been filed challenging provisions in a new North Carolina elections law that critics contend will discourage young adults from voting through a popular method. The complaint filed Tuesday marks the third such lawsuit against portions of a voting bill that became law last week. The Republican-controlled General Assembly overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. The latest lawsuit focuses on changes made to same-day registration that plaintiffs argue increase the risk that U.S. Postal Service error will deny someone a vote. Meanwhile, GOP legislators say they can't trust Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein to defend the law and want to formally enter two of the lawsuits.

The Supreme Court has rejected North Carolina’s appeal in a dispute with animal rights groups over a law aimed at preventing undercover employees at farms and other workplaces from taking documents or recording video. The justices Monday left in place a legal victory for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in its challenge to the law. An appeals court ruled the 2015 law could not be enforced against PETA when its undercover work is being performed to conduct newsgathering activities. The law is similar to so-called state ag-gag laws that have been struck down by several courts around the country. The Supreme Court has so far refused to weigh in.