Author: Scott D. Yost

The City of Greensboro is expanding its effort to handle some mental health and substance abuse crises without sending police officers on the calls.

According to a city press release issued Thursday, May 22, the city’s Behavioral Health Response Team (BHRT) has officially launched what’s called the “Clinician Alternative Response” program – or CAR – which allows two behavioral health clinicians to respond to certain 911 calls rather than police officers….

However, county and city officials are hoping residents will spend at least a little time thinking about where water goes – and what things people throw into it – during this year’s Guilford Creek Week.

The annual event, which runs from Saturday, May 30, through Saturday, June 6, includes everything from stream cleanups and environmental games to fishing events, walking tours and even lakeside yoga.

The weeklong effort is a collaboration between Guilford County, Greensboro, High Point, Kernersville and a variety of nonprofits and local businesses focused on water quality and watershed protection….

President Donald Trump’s new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is drawing criticism not only from Democrats but from some Republicans in Congress as well – including North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.

The fund was created through a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. According to the US Department of Justice, Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the Trump Organization will receive formal apologies but no direct monetary damages….

Everyone has been hearing a whole lot about federal cuts over the last year and a half – and, while that may seem to be a Washington DC concern, it turns out that those cuts are having a big effect on what Guilford County taxpayers are being asked to pay Guilford County government this time around.

Guilford County Manager Victor Isler’s proposed fiscal 2026- 2027 budget contains a warning that local taxpayers are increasingly being asked to pick up the tab for costs once carried by the federal government.  It also points out that the state government can’t be relied on to help – and that’s adding fuel to the fire…

Greensboro City Manager Trey Davis presented his proposed $913 million budget for fiscal year 2026–2027 on Tuesday night, May 19 and the headline number city officials are emphasizing is an 8.95-cent property tax rate cut.

The current city tax rate is 67.25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The proposed rate is 58.30 cents. On paper, that sounds like a very nice tax cut; however, since 2026 is a countywide revaluation year in which property values sky rocketed, most Greensboro property owners will see higher city tax bills despite that touted lower rate….

The annual Guilford County Law Enforcement Memorial Service will be held Tuesday, May 19, at 11 a.m. outside the Melvin Municipal Office Building in downtown Greensboro to honor law enforcement officers from Guilford County who lost their lives in the line of duty.

The service, hosted by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, will recognize 27 fallen officers.

During the ceremony, the name of each officer will be read aloud while an agency representative places a rose on a memorial wreath in the officer’s honor.,,,

ou might think that the fact that Guilford County Schools is teaching fewer students each year would mean that the cost of those education operations would be going down.  However, each year, no matter the number of students, school officials claim they need more money and in the new county managers proposed budget the schools would get millions more in fiscal 2026-2027.

One of the most interesting tensions in Guilford County government right now is this fact that, even as student enrollment declines, the amount of money flowing toward Guilford County Schools continues to increase dramatically every year…

The opioid manufacturers and distributors lost a gigantic lawsuit brought by local governments and states several years ago and now that restitution money is rolling in and counties – including Guilford County – are trying to put that money to work battling the addiction problems that that the opioid crisis created.

As part of that effort, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to approve another round of opioid settlement spending at its Thursday, June 4 meeting – this time to help launch a new outpatient treatment program aimed at pregnant women and mothers battling substance abuse…

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a major reshuffling of school bond money at its Thursday, May 21 meeting – moving more than $41 million away from the planned Katherine G. Johnson K-8 School project and redirecting the money to elementary school projects at Shadybrook and Lindley.

The proposal comes as Guilford County Schools officials acknowledge a reality that’s becoming harder to ignore: enrollment trends have changed dramatically since county voters approved roughly $2 billion in school construction bonds over the last several years…

For Guilford County Animal Services, Greensboro is the whale in the room.

At the Thursday, May 21 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is scheduled to approve a new round of interlocal agreements that will keep Guilford County providing animal shelter and animal control services for Greensboro and a long list of smaller Guilford County towns through June 30, 2029….

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said this week that he believes a bill moving through the North Carolina General Assembly that would delay the impact of Guilford County’s new property revaluation is “100 percent” certain to pass – and he warned that, if it does, Guilford County would be forced to scale back services and rethink its proposed budget just weeks before commissioners are expected to adopt it.

The bill is Senate Bill 889, which is officially titled the “Property Tax Reappraisal Moratorium.” It would delay the use of new 2026 property revaluations in certain counties — including Guilford County — until 2027…

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Guilford County Manager Victor Isler has officially unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal year 2026–2027 and Guilford County residents will soon get their chance to tell county commissioners exactly what they think about it – whether they love it, hate it or fall somewhere in between….

f you called 911 last year in Guilford County you almost certainly got a very fast pick up from an operator eager to help.

Guilford Metro 9-1-1 has released its 2025 annual report, showing that the agency handled more than 668,000 telephone transactions during the year while continuing to expand technology systems, train emergency communications staff and maintain one of the fastest emergency call answering times in North Carolina.

According to the report, GM911 answered 99.9 percent of all 911 calls within 10 seconds in 2025. The newly released report states that statewide analytics from the NC 9-1-1 Board consistently rank GM911 among the state leaders for emergency call answering speed….

There will be a whole lot of things going on this Saturday in downtown Greensboro and it should be a whole lot of fun for those who come out.

The City of Greensboro and Action Greensboro will officially celebrate the completion of the Downtown Greenway with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, May 16, at Cairn’s Course, 501 Guilford Ave.

The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with remarks taking place at noon….

The City of Greensboro is asking residents to help furnish homes for people transitioning out of homelessness through a new program called Housing First Plus.

According to a city press release issued Thursday, May 8, the city’s Community Safety Department is seeking donations of furniture and household items for the initiative – which is designed to move some of Greensboro’s most vulnerable residents from the street into stable housing while also providing intensive case management services….

A 37-year-old High Point man has been arrested in connection with a series of downtown Greensboro graffiti incidents – after police say a social media tip helped point investigators in his direction.

Christopher Michael Pujol was arrested on Wednesday, May 6, and charged with four counts of vandalism – graffiti under North Carolina General Statute 14-127.1. He is being held in the Guilford County jail…

Summerfield’s long-running political war is still going strong – and former Summerfield Finance Officer Dee Hall says it’s long past time for town taxpayers to ask why.

Hall and former Summerfield Town Manager Scott Whitaker have been at the center of a bitter public fight that grew out of the town’s larger battle over growth, development and control of Town Hall. In 2024, the Town Council parted ways with Whitaker, and the town’s entire staff resigned in response…

here’s an old joke that goes like this: A doctor visits a patient in the hospital room and says, “I have some good news and some bad news – which do you want first?”

And the patient responds, “I guess I’ll hear the bad news first?”

The doctor then says, “Well, your test results are in; you have an incurable disease, and you’ll be dead within a week. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it.”…

Residents in parts of Greensboro may notice a heavy emergency response presence and hear simulated gunfire on several days this month as Guilford County Emergency Services and numerous partner agencies conduct active assailant training exercises.

According to Guilford County Emergency Services, the multi-agency exercises have been taking place on May 6 and May 7,  and the exercises will continue on May 20 and May 21 in the area around Maple Street and Vine Street in Greensboro…

There have been some real challenges for downtown Greensboro businesses lately – homelessness and a lack of adequate convenient parking to name two big ones – however, backers of downtown businesses are hoping a new initiative will be a shot in the arm.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. is rolling out a new program aimed at encouraging residents and visitors to spend more money at locally owned businesses downtown…

The City of Greensboro is continuing its efforts to preserve and highlight local Civil Rights history through a $75,000 African American Civil Rights grant project, and city officials are inviting residents to an upcoming community meeting later this month.

The meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, in the fellowship hall of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer…

Guilford County leaders are moving one of the most important annual events in county government up on the calendar this year.

On Monday, May 4, the county announced that the manager’s recommended budget presentation for the coming fiscal year will be placed on the agenda for the first Board of Commissioners meeting in May, which will be held Thursday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. In past years, the manager’s budget presentation has traditionally been delivered at the commissioners’ second meeting in May, which usually falls around May 15…

Guilford County Public Health and the City of Greensboro’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) team are inviting county residents to attend an International Harm Reduction Day event on Thursday, May 7, that will focus on overdose prevention, sexual health resources and community outreach.

The “Harm Reduction Hangout and Resource Expo” will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Next Door Beer Bar and Bottle Shop at 505 N. Greene St. in Greensboro….

When Guilford County rolls out its new property tax rate in June, there will be plenty of talk about a “revenue-neutral” rate – the idea that the county would collect roughly the same total tax revenue as before the 2026 revaluation.

But even if the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopted a perfectly revenue-neutral rate – which it won’t – the people who can least afford it would still get hit the hardest.

And the county’s data shows exactly why….

The North Carolina State Board of Elections says it’s identified roughly 34,000 deceased individuals on the state’s voter rolls after running a large-scale comparison with a federal database.

The discovery came after the State Board submitted 7,397,734 voter records on April 17, 2026, to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system as part of an effort to improve the accuracy of North Carolina’s voter registration list…

Guilford County, the city of High Point, and the city of Greensboro have all been adopting programs aimed at reducing homelessness, and Greensboro officials have now added another project to that list.

The City of Greensboro is rolling out a new rental assistance program designed to help some of the city’s most vulnerable residents secure stable housing, with city officials saying that the effort will target those at risk of homelessness.

The initiative, approved by the City Council at its March 17 meeting, is scheduled to begin Monday…

Just as Guilford County leaders are preparing to set a new property tax rate that’s expected to come in higher than revenue neutral, lawmakers in Raleigh are moving forward with legislation that would temporarily block the use of the county’s newly increased property values.

The proposal – Senate Bill 889 –would require Guilford County and 11 other counties t…

The war in Iran – sorry, military excursion – may be taking down the bad guys, but it’s driving up gas prices.  In Europe gas prices have sky rocketed and, in Asia, in some places it’s hard to find gas at any price.

So, consider yourself lucky you live in North Carolina

A new report circulating this week points to several North Carolina gas stations that have recently offered some of the lowest prices in the state – though drivers may want to read the fine print before chasing down those deals.

The Greensboro Police Department has terminated a police academy cadet after his arrest on charges that he impersonated a law enforcement officer and falsely imprisoned a woman.

According to the department, 20-year-old Maceo John Cannon was arrested Tuesday morning in connection with an April 21 incident involving a woman he allegedly confronted about her driving….

One reason just about everyone’s house in Greensboro and Guilford County got assessed such high values on their homes in this year’s revaluation is due to the fact that the area has a real housing shortage and also has tens of thousands of new people coming in in order to fill jobs with companies like Toyota and JetZero.

With housing prices high, corporations buying up some of it, and little inventory on the market, city and county leaders have decided more housing is needed in a short number of years…

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and the Guilford County court system don’t accept Walmart gift cards as payment for fines – so if someone tells you they’re with law enforcement or the courts and you need to pay a fine with those gift cards by 5 p.m. today, you might want to think twice.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office is rolling out a new effort aimed at one of the fastest-growing targets for criminals – older adults – and it’s inviting the public to take part…

There are strange stories, and then there are stories that make even veteran firefighters shake their heads. This one falls squarely into that second category.

A Greensboro woman who asked not to be named went to the beach for a quiet fishing getaway with her husband and ended up watching her car catch fire in real time from miles away – all because of freshly polished rims, dry mulch and a perfectly placed reflection of the sun…

It’s getting down to prime time for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners as members begin hashing out a budget and, just as importantly, a new tax rate in the wake of the county’s recent property revaluation.

The stakes are unusually high this year.

The revaluation pushed property values up sharply across the county, which means that if the current tax rate stays the same, Guilford County would take in roughly $175 million in additional revenue…

A 22-year-old man is facing a long list of charges after a late-night incident in Greensboro that began with a vehicle spinning “donuts” on a city street and ended with a crash, an arrest and an additional charge involving medical staff.

According to the Greensboro Police Department, officers encountered a black Jeep at about 12:40 a.m. on Wednesday, April 22, on North Elm Street near West Fisher Street. Police say the vehicle was spinning its tires and doing “donuts” in the roadway and nearly struck a patrol car…

ome area residents already say that Greensboro has enough businesses and people – too much traffic, no parking, a lack of housing, and so on – however, there’s a group of economic development officials in town whose job it is to bring in more business and grow it from local roots – and it’s time again for that event.

Greensboro Startup Week is back, and organizers say the 2026 version is the biggest one yet….

A national tour tied to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States is making a stop in Greensboro on Saturday, April 25, bringing a slate of political figures, media personalities and grassroots advocates to the city for an afternoon event at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

The free event, scheduled from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, is being hosted by Americans for Prosperity along with The LIBRE Initiative and Concerned Veterans for America, and is part of what organizers describe as a nationwide “One Small Step Initiative.”..

Guilford County taxpayers are on track to repay more than $3.6 billion in debt over the coming decades – a long-term financial commitment that extends to about 2050 under current projections.

And that number is just the current debt. The Board of Commissioners has already been discussing the need for another large school bond referendum down the line because inflation has forced a number of promised school projects onto the cutting room floor, and the board is also considering a downtown campus and renovation project expected to cost more than $170 million that would be added on top of that…

Very, very hot chicken has arrived in the Triad – but the restaurant chain will only serve it if...

Everyone knows that April brings showers, but this month it’s bringing something else – a whole lot of work for the Greensboro Police Department.  While there’s been a great deal of debate about whether the new chief is the right fit for Greensboro in recent weeks, the day-to-day work of the department has continued on and it has been a busy time for the department that probably hasn’t had much chance to catch its breath….

Since AI requires huge data centers and seemingly infinite power to run – and since there’s a wholelot of money to be made in AI – a lot of people have stopped caring what that might do to the environment of the planet (not to mention what the autonomous Skynet-led robots will do to us in the end).

 However, not everyone has given up on saving the planet: The City of Greensboro, for instance, is still giving it the old college try… 

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has approved a new process to verify the citizenship status of all registered voters in the state – a move that officials say is aimed at improving the accuracy of voter rolls while ensuring that eligible voters are not wrongly removed….

The Guilford County Commissioners are in full-blown budget mode right now and, as part of that process, they’ve been horse trading among themselves, listening to county residents in town halls and regular meetings and trying to balance the revenue needs of a growing county versus what taxpayers will bear….

When people in Guilford County think of the Chairman of the Board, they often think of Skip Alston and they get a sour look on their faces because that makes them think of tax increases.  However, there’s another Chairman of the Board – a group not a person – that does nothing but spread pure joy.

And even though General Norman Johnson – the late great frontman for the group (God rest his soul) – passed away in 2010, the group keeps pumping out great music and people in Greensboro and Guilford County can come out and enjoy it….

According to statistics from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the North Carolina continues to rank among the worst states in the country when it comes to sexually transmitted infections – and depending on how you measure it, the Tar Heel State lands solidly in the Top 10.

That conclusion comes straight from  latest available state-by-state data from the CDC – which tracks rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis across the country….

Guilford County has promoted a longtime insider to one of the most important – and demanding – jobs in local government, putting a veteran social worker in a position that touches tens of thousands of lives every year and oversees a budget that rivals that of many small towns.

The Guilford County Division of Social Services recently announced that Shelia Stokes has been promoted to deputy director of the department – a role that will place her at the center of everything from child protective services to Medicaid enrollment to programs for the elderly and disabled….

Greensboro businessman Roy Carroll II – a name long familiar in the Triad for his real estate ventures and, at one time, his ownership of the Rhino Times – has been ranked No. 51 on Forbes’ 2026 Self-Made 250 list.

The list, released in April as part of the lead-up to the nation’s 250th anniversary, highlights what Forbes calls the most successful self-made entrepreneurs in America – people who built their wealth through their own efforts rather than inheritance….

A long-planned redevelopment project in downtown High Point has officially moved forward with the sale of a prominent Main Street building that city leaders hope will help bring new life to the area.

Downtown High Point has announced that Showplace West at One Plaza Center, located at 101 S. Main St., has been sold to developers Randy Cosby and Andrew Hampton of LBD Investments.

The building, which dates back to the 1970s and has recently been renamed “Elwood on Main,” is set to be transformed into 143 market-rate apartment units along with two commercial spaces….

Guilford County government has been holding mental health resource days for years but right now – with a bad economy, intense political division and rhetoric as elections approach, a war raging in the Middle East and it costing you $60 to fill up your car rather than $40 – well, let’s just say it’s a really good time to hold one now that it’s 2026.

Guilford County officials are once again stepping into that space with their annual Mental Health Resource Fair, which this year will be held on Saturday, May 2, from noon to 4 p.m. at 925 Third St. in Greensboro….