The Border Belt Independent and local news partners aim to shape coverage and bolster news and information through a ...

Families First and the Southeastern Family Violence Center say they are already hurting from funding cuts. More could be on ...

Scotland County is the latest in the Border Belt region to secure funds to build a playground to accommodate children with a range of developmental and neurological needs. Playgrounds must be built ...

This is the first in a two-part project about the children’s mental health crisis in Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland counties. Read the second story, which focuses on the foster care system, ...

Sgt. Maurice Devalle was listed as on duty in the North Carolina State Highway Patrol’s dispatch system when a captain knocked on his front door one evening in late 2016. Devalle came to the door in a ...

This story is co-published with The News & Observer and The Assembly. Jarrod Lowery remembers the frustration in his grandmother’s voice as they waited in line to receive her updated enrollment card ...

Grace Gerberry has been riding horses since she was big enough to sit up on one. When it came time to choose a college, a Google search led her to St. Andrews University in North Carolina. After ...

After Hurricane Florence pummeled Bladen County in 2018, Amanda West had to start over. West, the owner of Over Yonder Coffee, Teas, & Creamery in Bladenboro, said flood waters were 3 feet deep inside ...

In Judaism, l’dor v’dor means passing history and lessons from generation to generation. It’s a core value about carrying traditions and honoring a shared past. So when the opportunity came for Ricky ...

It was supposed to be beautiful: Thick green husks of sweet corn growing eight feet tall for as far as the eye could see across Ethan Jordan’s farm in Columbus County. At the beginning of May, the ...

Ed Goodwin quickly took a liking to Leon Locklear when the two men met more than a decade ago. It might have seemed an unlikely friendship: Goodwin, a Chowan County native, was an up-and-coming ...