NC News Oct. 27, 2026

Booze It & Lose It Returns

North Carolina law enforcement officers in all 100 counties are running extra patrols and sobriety checkpoints from Oct. 26 through Nov. 1 for the annual Halloween “Booze It & Lose It” campaign.

Halloween consistently sees some of the highest numbers of impaired driving incidents each year, according to NCDOT. North Carolina logged 387 alcohol-related deaths and 105 drug-related deaths on its roads in 2025, and officers made 594 DWI arrests during last year’s Halloween enforcement period.

State officials urge anyone unable to drive safely to line up a designated driver, taxi, rideshare, or other safe way home. Those caught driving while impaired could face jail time, loss of driving privileges, and an average of $10,000 in fines.

King Tides Further Threaten OBX

Some of the year’s highest tides are washing over the already-damaged NC 12 on the Outer Banks this week, with no timetable for reopening the road.

King tides—the season’s highest, driven by Monday’s full moon—are washing over the damaged NC 12 on the Outer Banks this week. They could push water levels 1 to 2 feet above normal from Manteo to Carteret County’s Down East region through Thursday, peaking midweek.

NC 12 has been closed between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe since an October nor’easter. Overwash has since damaged more than 1,100 feet of pavement and 1,800 feet of protective dunes near the Pea Island Visitor Center.

Repairs began Monday, but NCDOT still has no reopening date and calls the stretch unsafe.

UNC-Chapel Hill Partners with Arts School

UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem announced a strategic partnership on Oct. 20 to share programs, faculty, and back-office operations while remaining separate universities.

The deal pairs the state’s flagship research university with the nation’s first public arts conservatory, which serves about 1,400 students in five arts conservatories, a high school, and a liberal arts division.

Ideas under study include semester exchanges, joint artistic work, shared services, and guaranteed UNC-Chapel Hill admission for qualified UNCSA high school graduates. Each school keeps its own governance, degrees, and identity.

The partnership will explore new possibilities “while preserving what makes each institution distinctive,” UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts said. A fuller roadmap is due in early 2027.