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A North Carolina state senator who helped lead a powerful committee has resigned days after the General Assembly completed this year's primary work session. The resignation of Republican Sen. Jim Perry of Lenoir County was effective Tuesday.

North Carolina trial judges have dismissed a lawsuit challenging redrawn legislative and congressional district lines on the argument that they run afoul of an indirect constitutional right to "fair elections." The judges wrote this week that a recent affirmation by the state Supreme Court that redistricting policy decisions are left to the General Assembly still applies.

The Carolina Hurricanes said the governing body for PNC Arena has approved a development agreement to create a long-discussed mixed-use district around the arena. The project includes entertainment, retail and office space, as well as a music venue, apartments and a hotel.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a civil rights group challenging North Carolina's anti-rioting law, whose criminal penalties were raised last year by state legislators. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina sued over the law, after the Legislature increased punishments in response to protests against racial injustice and police brutality in 2020.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is years into an initiative to end the nation's HIV epidemic by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars annually into certain states, counties and U.S. territories with the highest infection rates. African Americans continue to have the highest HIV rates in the United States overall. But a KFF Health News-Associated Press analysis shows Latinos made up the largest share of new HIV diagnoses and infections among gay and bisexual men in 2022 compared with other racial and ethnic groups.

North Carolina Republican legislative leaders are appealing portions of a federal judge's order this month that blocked several state laws that restrict how abortion pills can be dispensed.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a North Carolina masking bill that previously removed a pandemic-era exemption that allowed people to mask in public for health reasons. That provision was later changed after pushback to include language that protects masking for health purposes.

The North Carolina House has approved a budget bill for the next 12 months that covers a massive increase in school-voucher demand and raises worker and teacher pay beyond what's already scheduled. Four House Democrats joined all Republicans present to vote for the bill late Wednesday.

A North Carolina appeals court has decided that a gun must be loaded for someone to be convicted of failing to properly store the weapon at home to protect minors living there. A panel of the intermediate-level state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday to overturn the safe-storage and manslaughter convictions of Kimberly Cable in McDowell County.

Granville County is one of only six counties in North Carolina that voted for Barack Obama, and then pivoted to Donald Trump. This presidential election year, Democrats are trying to win back the rural county and those efforts could be an indicator of how it may go in other competitive areas.