Raleigh

A group of Raleigh area business owners are in Washington D-C today for a roundtable discussion with White House officials.

Lawmakers from North Carolina and Virginia met earlier today in Richmond to plan out the future of a high-speed rail corridor that would link Raleigh to Washington. The meeting was largely symbolic.

Dave DeWitt: High-speed rail is essentially derailed, thanks to last year’s federal budget deal that zeroed out funding in 2012. Some money is still left over from previous grants, but it’s a small percentage of what is needed to make a high-speed train a reality.

A new emergency department is open in Raleigh. WakeMed's latest free-standing medical facility is in Brier Creek, near the Wake-Durham county line. WakeMed's Carolyn Knaup says they chose the location based on the area's rapid growth.

Carolyn Knaup: It's totally locally driven - i.e., when you need emergency care, you need it close to where you live or where you work. So, in doing our demographic assessment really felt like the Brier Creek area afforded lots of opportunity to be able to meet the need in that community.

The city of Raleigh is now requiring public and private groups pay a registration fee to operate group housing, including emergency housing and housing for those with disabilities.

Raleigh leaders are setting their sights on creating a new brand for the city. They hope a plan to assist small businesses will lead to Raleigh becoming a “city of innovation.”

Most of the City Council stood with outgoing mayor Charles Meeker to make the announcement earlier today. They gathered in the small back loading bay of Xanofi, a nanofiber company spun off from NC State. It’s exactly the kind of company they hope to cultivate – small, innovative, and full of promise

People who live in the Raleigh area and want to use alternative fuels for their cars or trucks have a new choice. A station on New Bern Avenue opens today with both E-85 ethanol blend and bio-diesel available. It's the first of its kind in the state capital. Anne Tazewell is the transportation manager for the North Carolina Solar Center at N-C State. She says alternative fuel stations are slowly spreading across the state.

Some of the top bloggers and tech-savvy professionals will be in Raleigh for the next two days for the annual Internet Summit.

Internet Summit 2011 will feature more than 120 speakers and 80 presentations and panels.  This year’s keynote presenter is popular blogger, author and wine aficionado Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library T-V and Daily Grape.

Raleigh voters have elected the city's first new mayor in a decade-- City Council member Nancy McFarlane.

McFarlane beat Billie Redmond and Randall Williams with 61 percent of the vote. She says she's thrilled to be the city's next leader.

Nancy McFarlane:" It's a huge honor and it's very humbling to know that that many people have faith in you. It's also very exciting to know that that many people share a vision of Raleigh and where we're going to go. "

Voters in Raleigh approved transportation and affordable housing bonds by about two-thirds of the vote.

Voters in Raleigh will help choose a new mayor at the polls tomorrow.

Early voting for local elections starts in many communities today. In Raleigh, voters will pick a new mayor and members of the city council and school board. But they will also vote on two bond measures dedicated to housing and transportation.

The two bonds total $56 million dollars. Of that, about $40 million would go toward building bike lanes, greenways, and new sidewalks. It is the first bond ever proposed in Raleigh for these types of projects.