County employees across various departments filled the Macon County Board of Commissioners meeting room Monday night, for a special presentation from John Anzivino with Springsted Inc., a company who recently completed a classification and compensation study of county employees.

The study was conducted after Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland informed commissioners that he was losing deputies to surrounding counties because the county's pay scale was significantly lower than that of other locales.

North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Tony Tata announced on Thursday, Feb. 14, that it will soon begin issuing driver licenses and identification cards to applicants qualified under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

DACA was implemented by President Obama on June 15, 2012, calling for deferred action for some undocumented young people who came to the United States as children and then pursued an education or served in the U.S. Military.

Deferred action is a discretionary grant of relief by the Department of Homeland Security. Individuals who fall under the deferred action status can apply for employment authorization, however, there is no direct path from deferred action to lawful and permanent residence or citizenship and can also be revoked at any time.

Some 1,400 people across the state of North Carolina may lose housing as a result of funding cuts. As of Jan. 1, the state has begun to implement new Personal Care Service guidelines that must be met in order for those who suffer from mental disabilities and reside in group homes to continue qualifying for Medicaid-funded housing.

Group home residents are increasingly being denied Medicaid payments for Personal Care Services (PCS), a program that is a Medicaid State Plan benefit designed to care for individuals residing in private living arrangements, or at residential facility licensed by the State of North Carolina as an adult care home, or a combination home...

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House Bill 4 on its way to the governor for approval.

A bill introduced in the North Carolina House of Representatives will make drastic changes to the state's unemployment benefits as well as cause business owners to pay higher taxes. The unemployment overhaul bill, known as House Bill 4, passed in the House last Tuesday along partisan lines in a 77- 42 vote. The bill passed its third reading in the Senate on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

According to Republican House Representative Roger West, who presides over Macon, Clay, Graham, and Cherokee counties, the main objective of the bill is to begin paying off the $2.7 billion debt N.C. owes to the federal government. “We have to repay the $2.7 billion we owe the federal government, it has to be paid off,” said West on Monday. “In order to do that, we looked at cutting the number of weeks, the amount given out as well as raising employers’ contribution to the program.”