The state's largest food bank doesn't believe it will be able to match the demand for food once the Trump administration's cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid kick in.

Why it matters: The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina supports free food markets and pantries across a 34-county region from the Triangle to the coast.

State of play: Already, the Food Bank of CENC has seen an increase in hunger in the past year, with more than 600,000 people using its services in some capacity. Two years ago, that number was 450,000, according to the food bank.

• This echoes what food banks across the country are seeing amid rising food costs and the end of several pandemic-era aid programs.

Driving the news: The "big, beautiful bill" passed by Congress and signed by the president earlier this month includes cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.

• Food banks nationwide are trying to rally support in response to the cuts, Axios reported.

What they're saying: "What we believe will happen with these cuts to SNAP is that we will not be able to fill the gap with charitable food," Amy Beros, the president and CEO of the Food Bank of CENC told Axios.

Zoom in: Already, the Food Bank of CENC is budgeting that it will deliver less food this year than last year because of government spending cuts, dropping from 115 million pounds of food distributed to 92 million pounds.

• "People are going to receive less, or there's going to be distributions where people will get turned away," she said.

The other side: The White House and congressional Republicans argue that cuts to these benefits help push more people into the labor market and reduce dependence on government assistance, as well as an effort to reduce waste, fraud and abuse, Axios' Emily Peck reports.

The big picture: Beros said the Food Bank of CENC will look toward donations from the community and corporations to help fill the gap in the coming months.

• It's also asking the state government to increase its funding of food banks in the state budget. However, Beros said, it doesn't seem like that will happen, if and when a budget is ever finalized.

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Raleigh-Durham International Airport is in the early stages of working with the Texas developer Pacific Elm Properties to build an outdoor recreation complex on the former Lake Crabtree County Park.

Why it matters: The future of the Lake Crabtree County Park at 1400 Aviation Pkwy. in Morrisville has been particularly controversial after the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority decided to redevelop land that had once been leased to the county and was especially popular with mountain bikers.

• The airport says new rules from the Federal Aviation Administration mean that airports must lease land at fair market value if they receive federal grants.

Driving the news: In turn, the RDU Airport Authority sought proposals from developers for an entertainment complex built on 136 acres of land.

• On Thursday, the Airport Authority said it had begun working with Pacific Elm Properties on a proposal that could potentially add an outdoor recreation facility.

What's happening: Pacific Elm is not new to the region. It's currently partnering with the Carolina Hurricanes on a massive redevelopment of Lenovo Center's parking lots.

• In its proposal to the airport, which has been obtained by Axios, Pacific Elm pitched the idea of bringing an expansion of the U.S. National Whitewater Center, a major tourism destination in Charlotte.
• A spokesperson for the Whitewater Center told Axios in an email that it's "excited to be exploring the possibility of collaborating on the project in Wake County."

Zoom in: Pacific Elm's proposal to the airport said it believes a Whitewater Center in Raleigh would attract 1.1 million visitors annually, compared to 1.3 million in Charlotte.

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🥇For the second year in a row, Raleigh was considered the best city for new graduates looking for jobs, according to a study by ADP. (Wall Street Journal)

🐶 Former UNC basketball player Dexter Strickland, who now goes by Baden Jaxen, now runs a dog shuttle business in Raleigh. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

The N.C. Board of Elections is launching an effort to collect driver's licenses or the final four digits of social security numbers for more than 100,000 voters. (WUNC)

• The effort comes after the U.S. Justice Department alleged the state's forms led people to believe they didn't need to provide that information.

🎸 BJ Barham, the frontman of the Raleigh band American Aquarium, has filed to run for a seat on the Wendell Board of Commissioners. (News & Observer 🔒)

• He said he's running to push back on the town's approval of too much new development while its infrastructure can't keep up.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions increased in June nationally, newly obtained data shows.

Why it matters: The numbers illustrate a shift that came soon after the Trump administration tripled ICE's arrest quota.

Driving the news: People without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests in early June, up from about 21% in early May, before the quota increase.

• North Carolina's increase in noncriminal ICE arrests was not nearly as significant, but still ticked up while criminal arrests decreased: ICE arrested 100 people with no criminal charges or convictions in June, up from 92 in May.

How it works: That's according to agency data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law's Deportation Data Project via Freedom of Information Act requests, and based on seven-day trailing averages.

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