A North Carolina grant program designed to help small disadvantaged businesses is currently accepting applications.   Established in 2020 by N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper, the RETOOLNC Grant Program Fund is aimed at Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pro ...

It has been a long, bumpy 18 months for the operators of Thalian Hall. When COVID-19 shut down performance venues along with businesses of all kinds, revenues dried up and uncertainties set in.   “It’s been an incredible struggle, almost from week to week; we were not sure how we were going to make it,” said Tony Rivenbark, the hall’s executi ...

The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning announced that 192 small businesses in New Hanover County are receiving grants from a fund of more than $4 million. The businesses are in the hospitality, retail and service sector, and the one-time grants are meant to offset the $65 million in lost revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the local and state re ...

Editor's note: As we went to press on the Aug. 20 edition, New Hanover County officials announced a mandatory indoor masking policy. Several of the interviews below took place before the rule was announced, so this version has been updated to reflect that. By any measure, Southeastern North Carolina is seeing a significant impact from COVID-19’s delta variant. ...

New Hanover County will join the list of municipalities in the state going back to an indoor mask mandate.   The county health board on Tuesday voted unanimously to move forward with a proposed health rule mandating face coverings inside. The rule does not go into effect for at least 10 days to allow for public notice and comment, but an abatement order moves up the ...

Mirroring the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the region, local hospitals also are seeing an uptick in patients, mostly unvaccinated, who are being admitted because of the virus.   The number of area hospitalized patients is nearing or exceeding the levels seen during the previous spike in the winter. During those months, COVID-19 vaccine doses were not yet widely ...

A week after the CDC announced May 13 that fully vaccinated people can skip the mask and social distancing, businesses continue to adapt to an atmosphere free of many COVID-19 restrictions. As a result of the CDC announcement, Gov. Roy Cooper on May 14 lifted most remaining state rules, including those regarding masks and social distancing for those who are fully vaccin ...

The president of the N.C. Medical Society and a leading expert on infectious diseases are urging the public to remain cautious in the wake of a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 may go without masks.   Philip Brown, president of the N.C. Medical Society and chief community impact o ...

Millions of dollars in stimulus funds are coming to communities in the region, and while New Hanover County has adopted an outline for how its estimated $45.4 million could be spent, other governments are at different stages in the planning process. The city of Wilmington is expected to receive $25.9 million, the result of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill President J ...

The nation’s massive vaccination effort hit a snag Tuesday when, citing safety concerns, two federal health agencies called for a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.  Officials at the CDC and FDA are reviewing six cases in which a rare and severe type of blood clot developed after the person received the J&J vaccine, which, unl ...