Top Stories

Featured

Download the N&O iPad app

The free app delivers real-time breaking news and content specifically formatted for your iPad.

Loretta Ruppert, of Cary, shops for holiday gifts during her first time to the Deco Raleigh store. She found a unique gift for her Secret Santa that she says "couldn't be found anywhere else." Customers got treated to an after-hours holiday shopping party there in downtown Raleigh, N.C. on Monday, December 9, 2013. Owner Pam Blondin (not seen) partnered with Yellow Dog Creative in Hillsborough, N.C. and the graphic design firm sent out about 200 invitations to their clients. The store donated 10% of their profits from the day to Dress for Success and Yellow Dog Creative matched with 15%. The Dress for Success organization helps disadvantaged women to get support and career advice and attire for their professional wardrobes.

Holiday Faces 2013

A collection of images by N&O photojournalists featuring people in the area that capture the...

Sports

North Carolina guards Leslie McDonald (left) and P.J. Hairston are expected to sit out for the ninth consecutive game when the Tar Heels host Kentucky on Saturday.

UNC coach Roy Williams: No update, still, on P.J. Hairston and Leslie McDonald

Hairston and McDonald, the Tar Heels’ most experienced guards, are set to sit out their ninth consecutive game on Saturday when UNC hosts Kentucky. 3 hours ago

Local/State News

Legislative Monday protest defendants Charles Van Der Horst, center, and Tye Hunter, left, confer with attorney Geeta Kapur, right, as they have their cases tried in Wake Co. District Court on Nov. 6, 2013. They were not able to finish the trial that day, they will have to come back at a later date to finish.

UNC AIDS researcher gets emotional at 'Moral Monday' trial

Dr. Charles van der Horst, an internationally known AIDS researcher, testified about his reasons for protesting NC legislative decisions that he said would have a negative impact on his patients.

Business

Blue Cross and Blue Shield has a storefront in Morrisville to sign up for its policies under the Affordable Care Act. The public has through March to enroll.

Nearly 9,000 in NC have now signed up for subsidized insurance

Nearly 9,000 people in North Carolina have signed up for subsidized insurance through November, according to federal officials. That's an improvement over October's lackluster 1,600 figure but is just a fraction of the state's potential market for... 2 hours ago

Politics

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, flanked by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY., right, the Democratic Policy Committee chairman, listens during a news conference on budget, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Boehner hits tea party groups as budget vote nears

The battle-fatigued U.S. House moved Thursday evening toward passage of legislation to ease across-the-board spending cuts and prevent future government shutdowns after Speaker John Boehner unleashed a stinging attack on tea party-aligned conservative... 11 minutes ago

Nation/World News

In this Dec. 10, 2013, photo, Secretary of State John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Continuing a furious pace of shuttle diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the spring, Kerry arrives in the Middle East on Dec. 12 on his ninth trip of the year. In closed door talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday and Friday, Kerry will be following up on elements of a West Bank security plan, ideas for which he unveiled on his most recent visit to the region just last week, and other points of potential progress. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

First watch: Kerry to Israel, Tea Party's new low, Twitter's year in review

Top video highlights. 36 minutes ago

Living

This season, plaid is showing up in coats, hats, pants, sweaters and accessories, not just shirts. Tommy Hilfiger’s fall collection featured this all-plaid ensemble on the runway.

Latest trend offers new twist on plaid

The new plaid trend is a twist on the traditional, with new colors and all sorts of crazy combinations of patterns and fabrics.

Entertainment

This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Oscar Isaac in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." Isaac was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for his role in the film on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013. The 71st annual Golden Globes will air on Sunday, Jan. 12.

'12 Years' and 'Hustle' top a varied Globes field

Heaping seven nominations on both the con-artist melodrama "American Hustle" and the grimly historical "12 Years a Slave," the Golden Globes nominations set up a showdown of contrasts: comedy and drama, light and dark, white and black. 20 minutes ago

Opinion

Congress needs to act on Farm Bill

It’s a big bill, but vitally important. Known as the “Farm Bill,” it’s now in doubt because of Republican cuts to the food stamp program for the needy. 12 minutes ago

Events Calendar

Financial

Ads by Yahoo!