RALEIGH — UNC-Asheville is right to defend free speech amid national criticism of Tamika Mallory, the controversial national co-chair of the Women’s March who will speak on the campus in honor of Martin Luther King, says a leading First Amendment lawyer and activist.

RALEIGH — UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt is leaving her job at the end of the month.

RALEIGH — More than 120 high-profile supporters of East Carolina University sent a letter Tuesday afternoon to UNC System President Margaret Spellings, Interim UNC President Dr. Bill Roper, the UNC Board of Governors, and ECU’s Board of Trustees, asking all to allow Chancellor Cecil Staton “to continue in his position without continued threats,” and calling for the release of a recent 360 review, which contains information about the chancellor’s work and accomplishments since he was hired in 2016.

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s new voter ID law is headed to court.

This week the N.C. General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s Dec. 14 veto of Senate Bill 824, Implementation of Voter I.D. Constitutional Amendment. Now, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the N.C. NAACP are suing over allegations of racial discrimination and burdens on voting rights.