Rocky Mount Industrial Village: A new 45,000-square-foot light-industrial building is rising at the 55-acre Rocky Mount Industrial Village off Thomas A. Betts Parkway and Peele Road, built in just over seven months and aimed at attracting new manufacturing and logistics tenants. Workforce & training: Trane Technologies opened a 45,000-square-foot Advanced Technology Training Center in Davidson to scale hands-on HVAC technician training for increasingly connected, AI- and controls-heavy building systems. AI data centers on federal land: The DOE selected DC Blox and Amentum to develop a 1GW AI data center campus with about 2GW of on-site power at the Savannah River site in South Carolina, with natural gas as a bridge to nuclear. Public health & environment: N.C. State University research finds mosquito insecticide resistance spreading fast—genetic markers appeared across 84% of sampled residential blocks by 2023, with hotspots more common in wealthier areas that spray more. PFAS science: New work on “forever chemicals” tracks how PFAS moves through the Great Lakes food web and into people, adding detail to exposure risk pathways. Energy grid innovation: NSF’s Grid Modernization Engine backs a Carolinas hub for grid reliability and workforce development, with York Technical College leading workforce training.