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It’s Thursday, August 15.
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Good morning, readers.
Wake County is part of a historic nationwide settlement with drug distributors and manufacturers who’ve agreed to pay $56 billion to communities harmed by the ongoing opioid epidemic.
Between 2000 and 2022, 36,000 North Carolinians died from a drug overdose, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services. More than 2,000 of them lived in Wake County.
The county is set to receive $65.3 million over 18 years as part of the settlement deal. Each year, the county board of commissioners decides how much of those settlement funds to spend, and where.
The board plans to spend $7.5 million of the county’s settlement money this fiscal year. The commissioners just announced that $3 million of that sum will go to 13 local community partners who will use the funds to support early interventions, addiction treatment, naloxone distribution, recovery housing, and other programs across the “continuum of care,” from prevention to recovery.
Thirty-nine organizations applied for funding, requesting more than $12 million total.
“The big takeaway here is that the need is great, and there is a lot of interest in being able to support this work,” Wake County Opioid Settlement Program Manager Alyssa Kitlas told the board of commissioners during its August 12 work session.
Check out the full story to learn which organizations received funding and how they’ll be spending the settlement dollars.
Have a good Thursday.
—Chloe
Durham
Durham County will mail out property tax bills to homeowners tomorrow.
Wake
Henderson Atwater, convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison for nonfatal airgun shootings across Wake County, has filed an appeal.
The shuttering of NC State’s Poe Hall due to PCB contamination has raised questions about the safety of aging buildings across the UNC System campuses.
Residents are rattled after gunfire hit three homes in the Hedingham neighborhood overnight. Hedingham residents experienced a mass shooting in 2022 in which five people were killed.
Orange
Students and UNC System administrators reflect on the university’s changes to UNC’s Honor System.
North Carolina
ICYMI: Third party candidates are striving for change, and votes, in North Carolina this election cycle.
Today’s weather
Mostly clear with a high of 87 degrees.
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