Jordan Meadows – The Carolinian Newspaper

BCF Unveils The New 2026 State Of Black America Report

Jordan Meadows — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 18:39:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The Black Conservative Federation released its 2026 State of Black America Report on Wednesday afternoon, presenting what the organization's leaders described as an accounting of Black American life built entirely from federal, academic, and independently verified sources and data.

BCF President and founder Diante Johnson opened a press briefing on the report, a 72-page document produced through BCF's newly launched Center for American Opportunity & Excellence.

"This report tells the story, not the conservative story, not the Democratic story, but it tells the true story of what the state of Black America is," Johnson said.

Johnson walked reporters through what he called the report's good news:

Black poverty sits at a record low of 17.1%, down from 55% in 1959, and Black family wealth grew 61% from 2019 to 2022, the fastest growth of any group, according to the report.

"Black families are building wealth faster than anyone from a lower base," Johnson said.

He cited record-low Black unemployment, record prime-age employment, and more than a third of Black workers now holding management or professional jobs. Black-owned employer firms grew 29% to roughly 161,000 companies.

He highlighted the Black high school graduation rate, now at 81%, as one of his favorite statistics in the report.

"I know that many people say, ‘Is that something we should be celebrating’?" Johnson said. "But 81% of Black students graduating high school is a tremendous improvement."

He also pointed to two straight years of record declines in murder, a 33% drop in the Black imprisonment rate from 2013 to 2023, a roughly 75% decline in youth confinement, and a rise in the share of Black children living in two-parent households, from about 35% to 39%: "More fathers are in the home,” Johnson said.

Despite the record-low poverty rate, he called 17.1% "a number that is uncomfortable to us here at the Black Conservative Federation."

Black homeownership remains at 45.7%, with 52% of Black Americans still renting. Johnson stated that expanding ownership would be a major focus of the center's work going forward, including a push for first-time homeownership programs and HUD grants.

"Having property, being able to own something, having a deed—that's very important," Johnson said.

He also flagged a persistent gap in generational wealth, noting that roughly one in ten Black families report receiving an inheritance. "That's still not where we need to be," he said, "but thank God for Trump accounts”—a new tax-advantaged, hybrid investment and retirement account created for children under 18 that was authorized under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and launched in July.

Walter Blanks Jr., executive director of the Center for American Opportunity & Excellence, agreed:

“The fact that there are families across America who have made, never even talked about investing beforehand, are doing it, regardless of the account that they're using, is a massive plus," Blanks said regarding the Trump Accounts.

Blanks said the report was designed to give what he called a complete picture of Black America rather than a partisan one.

"It's not meant to be a celebration or an indictment in any kind of way," Blanks said. "It's really just meant to establish where we are currently, and what the Black Conservative Federation is doing over time to really address some of those issues."

He said the report's chapters are interconnected: education shapes earnings, earnings shape ownership, and family stability shapes the next generation. Blanks pointed to state-level school choice policies and the "success sequence" framework—graduating high school, finishing college, getting a job, and marrying before having children—as themes running through the report's education and family chapters.

BCF unveiled the report in Chicago on July 18 during its 10th anniversary celebration. Johnson said the timing was tied to that anniversary rather than the midterm elections, though he said the findings could help explain election outcomes afterward.

"There was no rush, there was no major strategy behind releasing it this week that's tied to the midterms," Johnson said. "But I do think that it helps us understand the outcomes of the midterms a lot better, post-election."

When asked what role lawmakers should play in closing the Black homeownership gap, Johnson said he believes government programs already exist but that community awareness, not new legislation, is the bigger barrier. He also said BCF plans to run homeownership-focused campaigns similar to political get-out-the-vote efforts.

Asked about the group's grassroots focus ahead of the midterms, Johnson acknowledged the toll of current economic pressures on families.

"Yes, the gas prices are extremely high. Yes, the food costs are high. Yes, we're experiencing an affordability issue," he said, adding that BCF is pushing financial literacy and multiple streams of income as near-term strategies.

Many of the gains BCF highlighted as positive—including HBCU enrollment growth, declining murder rates and improvements in Black maternal health—occurred during multiple political administrations.

Johnson said the report does not strip credit from either party.

"Yes, there were some wins in the Biden administration, and there were wins in the Trump first administration," Johnson said. "Both parties have a play in that.”

Millie And Christine McKoy: The Conjoined Twins Born Into Slavery

Jordan Meadows — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 16:25:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Millie and Christine McKoy were twins born conjoined at the lower spine in Whiteville, North Carolina, in 1851, enslaved on a farm.

Millie and Christine shared a pelvis and stood at roughly a 90-degree angle to one another, though each had a full, independent set of limbs; they were raised to think of themselves as a single person and referred to themselves as "Millie-Christine."

As enslaved children, they could be bought and sold without any say in the matter, and at just 10 months old, McKay sold them to South Carolina showman John C. Pervis for $1,000, retaining a quarter share of future exhibition proceeds and resale value. Roughly 14 months later, they were sold again to a showman named Brower.

Brower exhibited the twins at North Carolina's inaugural State Fair in October 1853, advertised under the era's common, dehumanizing label as "freaks of nature"; the fair drew 4,000 to 6,000 visitors daily. After the fair, Brower took the twins to New Orleans, where local doctors verified their conjoined anatomy, while their mother, Monemia, was sent back to the plantation where she remained enslaved.

While in New Orleans, the twins were kidnapped and vanished from public view for roughly a year, briefly resurfacing at a Philadelphia museum run by a former P.T. Barnum associate before reappearing under new captors at Barnum's American Museum in Manhattan, where they performed alongside other Black sideshow entertainers of the era, including William Henry Johnson and George and Willie Muse.

From there, the twins were taken through Canada to England, further from home than they'd ever been.

A private investigator eventually traced the girls to Europe, and Monemia and Joseph Smith, who had by then acquired legal claim to the twins after Brower's finances collapsed, traveled to Liverpool and were reunited with them on New Year's Day 1857. The twins were about 5 and a half years old. They were displayed publicly alongside their mother while still in the United Kingdom.

Smith arranged for the twins to receive a formal education once reunited; his wife taught them to read, write, sing, dance and play piano, and the twins became fluent enough in French and German to perform recitations in both languages.

On Jan. 1, 1863, when Millie and Christine were 11, the Emancipation Proclamation ended their legal status as enslaved people, though they continued performing professionally, now billed as "The Two-Headed Nightingale," with Millie singing alto and Christine soprano. After emancipation, the twins chose to remain with the Smith family rather than leave, a decision they later described in explicitly devotional terms in their own writing, likening their loyalty to Mrs. Smith to the biblical relationship between Ruth and Naomi.

The twins toured extensively across the U.S., Canada, and Europe for the following three decades, performing in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, where they again appeared at Barnum's museum. They played New England in 1869 and swept through the Midwest in 1870.

Their fame brought them before Queen Victoria and the British royal family during their time in the U.K., who gifted them diamond-studded hair combs. They performed in England through the end of 1872 before touring St. Petersburg, Russia, with Hinné's Circus.

Their celebrity did not spare them from being treated as medical curiosities even as adults; while in Philadelphia, they were subjected to a medical examination and photographed by Dr. William Pancoast for his textbook on medicine and surgery.

Millie and Christine also became published authors, producing an autobiographical account, "History and Medical Description of the Two-Headed Girl," sold at their performances beginning around 1869.

In their own writing, the twins directly addressed the public's fixation on whether they were one person or two:

"Although we speak of ourselves in the plural we feel as but one person," they wrote, adding that they would not wish to be surgically separated even if it were possible, because they had "but one heart, one feeling in common, one desire, one purpose."

By the second half of the 1880s, the twins were touring less, and they built a 14-room house in Columbus County, North Carolina, on land their father had purchased from their former enslaver and later left to them. They eventually retired to Whiteville, and throughout their career and into retirement, gave financial support to Black schools and churches in the area.

Millie died of tuberculosis on Oct. 8, 1912, at age 61; accounts vary on exactly how long Christine survived her sister, ranging from about 12 to 17 hours. The two were buried together in an unmarked grave, and their remains were later moved to a Whiteville cemetery in 1969.

Their shared tombstone reads: "A soul with two thoughts. Two hearts that beat as one."

White Rock Baptist Church Celebrates 160 Years

Jordan Meadows — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 16:42:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

At a Tuesday evening meeting, the Durham Board of County Commissioners commemorated White Rock’s 160th anniversary with a resolution recognizing the church as a cornerstone of African American history in Durham. The resolution points to White Rock’s beginnings in 1866, its role in community development and its longstanding connections to education, health care, social justice, and other institutions that helped shape Black Durham.

For church members, the anniversary is being observed through a series of gatherings throughout the year, bringing together worship, music, fellowship and reflection on the congregation’s history.

White Rock’s story begins in the aftermath of the Civil War. In 1866, Margaret Ruffin Faucette and other members of Durham’s newly freed Black community began gathering for prayer and fellowship in homes and under brush arbors. Those informal gatherings eventually developed into a congregation that would become White Rock Baptist Church.

As Durham’s Black community grew, so did White Rock’s influence.

The church’s history includes the ministries of numerous pastors, including the Rev. Zuck Horton, the Rev. Samuel “Daddy” Hunt, the Rev. Miles Mark Fisher and others. During the 20th century, White Rock also developed programs intended to address some of the practical needs of the surrounding community.

In February 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a large crowd at the church, speaking at a time when student sit-ins were spreading across the South. King’s appearance came shortly after the Greensboro sit-ins and amid growing activism throughout North Carolina.

His speech at White Rock, known as “A Creative Protest,” became one of the most notable moments in the church’s history.

In 1967, White Rock’s historic church building in Durham’s Hayti community was demolished during construction connected to the Durham Freeway. The loss was part of a much broader transformation of Hayti, where highway construction and urban renewal displaced residents, businesses and institutions.

White Rock’s congregation remained together. Members eventually purchased land farther south, and the present sanctuary on Fayetteville Street opened in 1977.

Today, White Rock remains at 3400 Fayetteville St. under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Reginald Van Stephens.

The church’s anniversary theme is “Planting in Faith, Growing in Grace, and Gathering the Harvest: Unity and Community.”

Deaconess Dr. Joyce Blackwell said the theme is intended to connect the church’s past with its present and future.

“As we look back, we remember those who planted the seeds of hope and faith that have grown into the vibrant community we are today. In addition, our evolution has been marked by grace, as we have navigated challenges and celebrated victories together,” she said. “Today, we find ourselves reaping the fruits of our labor, unity, and commitment to serving one another and uplifting our community.”

The anniversary calendar includes several special programs throughout the fall, including musical performances, worship services and other gatherings. The events bring together members of the congregation and guests from outside the church as White Rock marks the milestone. The celebration culminates with a series of major anniversary observances in October.

“As we celebrate this milestone, let us remember that we are more than a church; we are a family, united in our faith and commitment to one another,” Blackwell said.

Raleigh Launches Tool That Maps Out Affordable Housing Information

Jordan Meadows — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:29:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The City of Raleigh has launched an online Housing Production Dashboard that maps and tracks the affordable housing it has helped build.

The interactive dashboard pulls years of housing data into one place. Users can see how many affordable homes have been created or preserved, sort projects by program and year, and track spending from the 2020 Affordable Housing Bond. City staff said it highlights more than 5,900 affordable units the city has helped develop, along with housing built by private organizations.

A map shows affordable developments completed or started over the past decade, layered with transit routes and Bus Rapid Transit corridors, City Council districts, Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts, median rent and home values, other market indicators, and other subsidized housing such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developments and Housing Authority properties.

A charts section breaks down work completed each year, development types, cumulative totals and the city's work helping first-time homebuyers and funding homeowner repairs. It also shows what percentage of bond money has been committed and what it has been spent on.

Housing & Community Development Director Emila Sutton said, "We are excited to launch our new Housing Production Dashboard to offer community members a clear window into where affordable housing is being built and preserved and how these efforts are shaping Raleigh's housing future."

Erika Brandt, the department's assistant director, said the tool serves two purposes.

Map showing the distribution of housing developments across Raleigh and surrounding Wake County communities, with concentrations of sites in Southeast Raleigh and the Garner area.

"One piece of it is really just showing that production, showing the work that's being done. Another piece of it is showing what are the options that are out there," Brandt said. "If you're improving affordable housing and housing affordability across the market, you are going to see lower rates of homelessness.”

The dashboard supports the city's 2026-2030 Affordable Housing Plan, "A Home for Every Neighbor," which describes Raleigh as facing an urgent affordability and homelessness crisis. The plan says population growth is outpacing housing development while rising construction costs push up rents and home prices. Between 2017 and 2022, the most recent period with available data, median gross rent in Raleigh rose about 37%. The city has grown by more than 70,000 people since 2010, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, second only to Austin, Texas, over the past decade, and the metro area, which includes Wake, Johnston, and Franklin counties, has added more than 350,000 residents.

The plan notes that many newcomers are relocating from more expensive parts of the country for higher-paying jobs. Raleigh has almost twice the national average of jobs paying over $100,000 a year, which lets new arrivals outcompete longtime residents for housing. Demand for urban living has also driven up land values near downtown and put pressure on historically affordable neighborhoods such as South Park, Hungry Neck, Battery Heights, and Roberts Park.

Supply has been another problem: Before 2021, 55% of the city, and more than 70% of its residentially zoned land, was limited to single-family housing, and homebuilding of all types stalled after the 2008 recession. City Council passed zoning reforms in 2021 and 2022 allowing "missing middle" housing such as duplexes, triplexes, courtyard apartments, townhomes and live/work units. The market responded, and over 2,000 units, almost a third of all approved units, have been in those types. Median household income rose 28% from 2017 to 2022, but the plan says that reflects an influx of higher-paying jobs rather than gains for low-income residents.

Inflation-adjusted incomes have fallen for low-income households and stagnated for the middle class. A household must earn almost $66,000 a year to afford a two-bedroom apartment at Raleigh's Fair Market Rent, and the market is short about 38,000 units for households earning between $15,000 and $35,000.

"At its root, homelessness is a housing affordability problem," the dashboard states.

It cites a national report finding that every $100 increase in a community's average monthly rent is associated with a 9% increase in homelessness. It offers a musical chairs analogy: if there are nine chairs and ten players, the player with a broken leg will likely be left standing, but the broken leg is not the cause.

"The issue is structural," the plan says.

National research from 2017 put the public cost of one person experiencing chronic homelessness at about $36,000 a year, and estimates from Houston run as high as $96,000, counting emergency room visits, public safety, emergency medical services, and jail stays. The plan says subsidizing a household's housing and funding case management costs about $27,000 a year.

Clearing encampments without rehousing does not help, it says, costing cities between $1,600 and $6,200 per person a year while doing nothing to end homelessness. In one year, Raleigh's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department and the N.C. Department of Transportation each spent roughly $200,000 on cleanup related to people living unsheltered on their property.

Its targets include creating or preserving 1,345 affordable units by 2030 and housing 400 households by 2030 through decommissioning unsheltered camps with rent assistance and case management.

Other goals include expanding the city's Accessory Dwelling Unit Fast Track Program, easing eligibility barriers such as poor credit or prior evictions, recruiting private landlords for rapid re-housing, and increasing eviction prevention funding. Several of those objectives are flagged as having a resource gap.

Some of the City’s congregations are looking at their own land as part of the answer.

According to the NC Housing Coalition, the Raleigh-Cary area has 29 affordable rental units for every 100 low-income households, and while 74% of white households in Raleigh own their homes, only 47% of Black households do. Several downtown faith communities are exploring converting parking lots that sit empty most of the week into housing.

The Rev. Steven Lyons, pastor of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, the city's oldest Black congregation, said the toll of the crisis is visible just blocks from the State Capitol.

"The economic development has not really been conducive to successful living for the African American community," Lyons said.

In February, Edenton Street UMC's church council approved the Dawson Lot Project, which explores converting its Dawson Street parking lot into affordable housing. The church's website lists six criteria, including serving marginalized communities and providing mixed-income housing. The final outcome is still evolving, Marshall said, but the church remains committed to addressing the housing crisis.

Wake’s 2026 State of the County Address

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:58:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Wake County officials gathered Tuesday afternoon for the 2026 State of the County address, where Board of Commissioners Chair Don Mial highlighted the county’s growth and the work being done across the community over the past year.

The 2026 address, themed “We Are Wake,” brought county commissioners, mayors and other local government and community partners together for a presentation delivered by Mial, emphasizing the county’s rapid growth and the need for continued investment in schools, housing, health care, infrastructure and public services.

Born and raised in Wake County, Mial recalled growing up on a farm near Knightdale before his family moved to Walnut Terrace in Raleigh’s Fourth Ward. He described watching the county transform over more than six decades.

“My younger self could never have imagined the changes that I’ve seen in my 60-plus years here in Wake County,” Mial said. “I’ve seen where we’ve been and how we got here. And I’m grateful to be a part of where we are going.”

Mial pointed to continued corporate investment as one of Wake County’s major successes.

Since October, he said, the county has recorded 45 announcements involving new or expanding companies, representing more than $1.5 billion in investment. Among the region’s largest recent economic-development projects is Fujifilm’s biomanufacturing facility in Holly Springs. The project represents billions of dollars in investment and is expected to create thousands of jobs over time.

Mial said Wake County recently changed its business-development grant policy to make it possible to consider more projects, including those with lower barriers to entry and large-scale developments that could expand the county’s long-term tax base.

“But our biggest incentive is still our quality of life,” Mial said. “Companies consistently tell us that they want to be here, because this is a place to work, play, and stay.”

He also pointed to Wake County Public Schools as part of the region’s appeal to businesses and families. The district has reported its third consecutive year of academic proficiency gains, particularly in elementary and middle school mathematics, while its five-year graduation rate reached a historic 93.1%.

Wake County continues to add residents at a rapid pace, with Mial estimating that about 24,000 people are added to the county each year. The county surpassed 9,300 new home permits in a single year, reflecting continued construction throughout Wake, particularly in rapidly growing communities on the county’s eastern side.

That growth has also increased demand for affordable housing. Mial said Wake County has supported 2,840 affordable housing units since the beginning of 2024, surpassing its strategic-plan goal of 2,500 units by 2029. Planning officials are preparing the final two area plans for the county, including the Falls Lake area plan, as Wake attempts to balance new development with farmland preservation, transportation, and community needs.

While much of the address focused on accomplishments, Mial also devoted considerable time to the financial challenges facing the county.

He said Wake County is facing millions of dollars in additional costs and lost revenue tied to decisions made at the state level, including the county expecting to lose approximately $12 million this year because of what he called the “Blue Ridge loophole,” while other state policy changes could shift additional costs onto the county. He also cited approximately $12 million in potential SNAP-related costs, $3 million in additional jail expenses and another $9 million to renovate a facility for foster youth awaiting placement.

Mial criticized efforts by the General Assembly to limit local governments’ ability to increase property taxes, arguing that local governments need the authority to respond to the needs of their own communities.

“The General Assembly won’t fix the Blue Ridge loophole, but they will shift state costs back to the counties,” Mial said. “And now they’re trying to cap our ability to meet these unfunded mandates.”

He said the financial pressures could affect Wake County’s ability to maintain the quality-of-life residents have come to expect.

For the coming fiscal year, Wake County increased its operating contribution to Wake County Public Schools by $25.3 million, bringing the county’s total operating investment in the district to approximately $768 million, according to Mial.

North Carolina law assigns counties responsibility for school construction and facilities while the state is responsible for operating costs such as teacher salaries and supplies. Voters will also have an opportunity this fall to consider a $680 million school bond and a $149 million Wake Tech bond. The Wake Tech proposal would support renovations at the college’s Southern Wake Campus and workforce-development programs.

Wake County and public and private partners launched Wake at Home, an initiative designed to move people experiencing homelessness from encampments into stable housing while expanding the county’s ability to provide services. The first phase aims to connect 400 people living in encampments with housing and support services, help 1,000 people experiencing homelessness for the first time return to housing quickly and provide intensive assistance to people with complex behavioral-health needs.

“By investing in solutions that help house people quickly, we reduce the need for emergency intervention. Wake at Home is a moving initiative. It’s a commitment to solving homelessness with proven evidence and humanity," Commissioner Tara Waters said.

Mial said 33 people living in a local encampment recently accepted offers of housing and support after outreach workers spent eight weeks building relationships with them.

“What this is really about?” Mial said. “Helping neighbors who are down, pick themselves up, build the life they want, and deserve.”

The county is also marking the 50th anniversary of its Parks, Recreation and Open Space system.

“Wake County Parks, Recreation, and Open Space has come a long way in 50 years. Today, nearly every corner of the county has a park, Greenway, or nature preserve nearby, with two more in the works right now," Vice Chair Commissioner Safiyah Jackson said.

The county has also adopted a 50-year One Water Plan, bringing drinking water, stormwater, wastewater and groundwater planning into one long-term framework. The plan is intended to prepare for population growth, increased water demand, flooding and drought.

“It says water doesn’t stop at city limits, and neither should our planning. This framework helps us better prepare for population growth, changing land use, and more powerful together," Commissioner Seneca said.

Mial also revisited the county board’s decision to endorse the strategic combination between WakeMed and Atrium Health. The decision followed months of public meetings, calls, emails, and negotiations.

“Deciding to endorse the WakeMed and Atrium Health strategic combination was one of the most intense and focused decisions,” Mial said, describing the process as involving “many meetings, calls, emails, and many sleepless nights. At the end of the day, we all agree that WakeMed provides vital health care to our community. And its future must be protected,” he said. “The time for us to prepare for increased demand for healthcare is now.”

The address also highlighted Wake County’s new public health facility in East Raleigh, which opened in February. The four-story building contains nearly 90 exam rooms and 20 dental treatment rooms and is equipped with nearly 1,300 solar panels.

Wake County is also working to preserve farmland. Since the beginning of 2024, Mial said, the county has permanently protected 407 acres across seven farms, with additional conservation projects in the works.

Mial closed the address by returning to its central theme.

“Because I am you. You are we, and we are Wake County,” Mial said.

The event concluded with a performance by the 100 Men in Black Chorus, an all-male chorus founded in Durham whose members come from across the Triangle.

We Must Protect Our Brain’s Health

Jordan Meadows — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:49:00 +0000

Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Wake County Public Libraries hosted a community education program Tuesday evening titled "Protecting Brain Health in African American Adults," featuring Dr. Ashley Sanderlin of North Carolina A&T State University, who presented research on dementia risk and prevention strategies tailored to Black communities.

Sanderlin, a neuroscientist and associate professor in NC A&T's biology department, is associate director of the university's Center for Outreach in Alzheimer's, Aging and Community Health (COAACH) and serves as the site principal investigator for the North Carolina Registry for Brain Health.

She noted NC A&T operates a dedicated aging center focused on older adults' health.

Sanderlin, who leads the Alzheimer's Lifestyle Interventions and Aging Neuroscience Lab, told attendees her research centers on how lifestyle factors influence the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease and how prevention strategies might reduce risk.

"I'm most interested in the development and the progression of Alzheimer's disease and why it happens, and how we can prevent it," she said.

Sanderlin opened with an overview of the disease's biology, explaining that dementia is a broad umbrella term for cognitive impairment and that Alzheimer's is its most common form, though not the only one; vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia are among the others.

She stressed that dementia is not a normal or inevitable part of aging.

"Some people believe that if you just keep living, the older you get, you will develop dementia," she said. "And that is not true."

She said early symptoms—most notably short-term memory loss, disorientation in familiar places and repeating recent statements—warrant seeking medical evaluation rather than being written off as ordinary aging. She cited older age, being female and having fewer years of formal education as primary risk factors for the disease.

Alzheimer's involves two main problems, she said: sticky clumps that build up between brain cells and get in the way of them "talking" to each other, and tangled fibers that build up inside the cells and cause them to break down from within.

"They're like a tombstone of where the neuron used to be," she said of the internal tangles. Over time, this damage kills off brain cells, usually starting in the part of the brain that handles memory before spreading further, in what she called "a progressive neurodegeneration."

She noted there's still no known cause or cure.

"Alzheimer's Disease, it is a terminal disease with no known cause, cure, or effective treatment," she said. Some FDA-approved drugs are available to ease symptoms, but "they are not actually stopping or slowing the progression of the disease."

Newer drugs actually target and clear out some of that sticky buildup in the brain but they come with real drawbacks: they require IV infusions, regular MRI scans to check for safety, they don't work for everyone, they can have side effects, and they cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Sanderlin also pointed out a problem with how those newer drugs were tested: more than 76% of the people in lecanemab's trials were white.

"It is very important that we have representation from all ethnicities," she said. "We have to have a seat at the table in helping to design the drugs and making sure that they're truly effective for everyone."

Sanderlin presented data showing Black and Hispanic Americans are 1.5 to 2 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other dementias than white Americans, yet are diagnosed later, delaying access to treatment. She cited Alzheimer's Association survey data indicating only 53% of Black Americans trust that future Alzheimer's treatments will be shared equally across racial groups, and that 62% of Black Americans believe medical research is biased against people of color.

Mistrust rooted in historical and ongoing discrimination remains a major barrier to clinical trial participation, noting that nearly half of Black Americans reporting experiencing racial or ethnic discrimination in health care settings, iterating a story of her own mother once telling her plainly that she didn't want to be a research subject.

"It's not that people of color, Black people, Hispanic people don't want to help or find a cure," she said. "It's that we need to make sure we can trust where it's coming from and understand exactly what is happening."

Sanderlin distinguished between health disparities—measurable differences in disease rates and outcomes between groups—and health care disparities, which involve differences in access to treatment and information; she said the two compounds against each other. She traced much of the gap to socioeconomic and generational inequities, including the lasting effects of redlining on the physical environments Black communities live in, which researchers increasingly link to dementia risk through factors such as soil and air quality.

She cited the Alzheimer's Association's 2026 report, which found that differences in socioeconomic conditions and higher rates of chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease and diabetes among African Americans directly elevate dementia risk.

"Prevention is key," Sanderlin said.

Mount Vernon Baptist Church Celebrates 140 Years in Durham’s Historic Black Community

Jordan Meadows — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 13:08:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Mount Vernon Baptist Church marked its 140th anniversary in late September, tracing its official founding to 1886 even though the congregation's roots reach back further, to a two-room mission on Queen Street where seven or eight formerly enslaved worshippers first gathered in 1880 seeking spiritual independence.

That founding group included Dolly Best, Isabella Gilmore, Will and Polly Lassiter, and Julia Richmond. The property housing that early mission was gifted in 1884 by R.L. Blackwell.

The congregation formally organized in 1887 following a spiritual revival at the Masonic Hall on Fayetteville Street, selecting the Rev. J.K. Butler as its first pastor; Butler was, at the time, simultaneously serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, which later became the historic White Rock Baptist Church. The church's identity and name trace to a separate transaction: a lot purchased for $300 from tobacco industrialist W.T. Blackwell at the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue and South Queen Street, which anchored the congregation both physically and in name for decades to come.

As the congregation grew through the early 20th century, its original wood-frame building could no longer accommodate the membership. Under the Rev. J.H. Thomas, who led the church through both the Great Depression and World War II, the congregation drew up plans for a larger home, completing a Colonial Revival masonry brick structure at 1007 S. Roxboro St. in 1940 and 1941. The original building at 504 S. Queen St. was eventually abandoned and demolished during mid-20th-century urban renewal projects that reshaped the Hayti neighborhood; the highway construction that followed paved over the original street grid entirely, and the footprint of the first church now sits beneath the parking lot of a local car dealership.

That Roxboro Street site remains the church's home today, in the heart of Durham's historic African American community, near the Durham Freeway that cut through Hayti during urban renewal and close to two other historically Black congregations, Gethsemane Baptist and St. Mark AME Zion.

The area has continued to face pressure from gentrification; downtown revitalization efforts since 2019 have not translated into growth for Black-owned businesses, which still make up less than 4% of local businesses both downtown and countywide.

During the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s, the church served as a safe haven, coordinating meals and logistics for protesters marching against segregation, and it continues to host local NAACP chapter meetings today.

More recently, the congregation has taken direct action against displacement pressures in downtown Durham, engaging in strategic land banking by purchasing surrounding plots to shield them from aggressive commercial development rather than yielding to rising property values. The church has also partnered with Durham Habitat for Humanity, contributing its own historically held properties — including the site of its former parsonage — toward the construction of affordable single-family homes intended to keep working-class families anchored in the neighborhood.

The 140th anniversary celebration opening with a performance by the Michael Jones Trio, followed by a reception and a time capsule burial ceremony, and closing with an anniversary worship service held under the theme "For the Greater Glory!" Church leaders have said Mount Vernon has no plans to leave its Roxboro Street home even as gentrification and rising property values continue to close in around it.

Christine Kushner Sets Sights On At-Large Wake County Commission Seat

Jordan Meadows — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:02:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Christine Kushner has spent much of her life watching local government from the inside.

First as a journalist, then as a health policy professional, a school board member, and a county health and human services board member, she has built a career around the public systems that most residents notice only when they stop working.

Now she wants a seat on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

Kushner, a Democrat and former chair of the Wake County Board of Education, won one of two Democratic nominations for the commission's new at-large seats in the March primary. She received about 30% of the vote in a seven-candidate field, with 68,690 votes. Mona Singh won the other Democratic nomination.

The two at-large seats will expand the commission from seven members to nine.

For Kushner, the move from the school board to county government is less a change in direction than an expansion of the work she has already been doing.

"I've gotten an added perspective of the linkages between the school system and social services, between public safety and mental health services, between housing and public safety and stability and economic mobility," Kushner said. "So all those linkages, and especially when it comes to our youth and the stresses that they're feeling, I feel like I'm coming in with a lot of experience that will inform my service as a county commissioner."

Kushner grew up in Fayetteville in a Greek-American family. Her father was a Greek Orthodox priest who founded a church there after finishing seminary, and her mother taught Greek. She attended public schools and describes her hometown as a close-knit immigrant community that also exposed her to a broad mix of people.

As a teenager, she became interested in journalism.

"I loved the news," she said. "I was a news junkie as a kid, loved watching the news, reading the newspaper."

At UNC-Chapel Hill, she studied journalism and political science. She later earned a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton. Her first career was in reporting. But covering local government changed the way she thought about public service.

She found herself fascinated by the people behind the stories: city employees, school administrators, police officers, and firefighters.

"When I was working as a reporter, I really saw the folks who worked for the towns and the cities, and the school systems, and first responders, police officers, and firefighters," Kushner said. "They just fascinated me with their life of public service. I said, ‘I love writing. I love being a reporter, and maybe this is why this interests me so much because I'm interested in this public service’."

Kushner has lived in Wake County since 1989, first in Cary and later in Raleigh. Her professional work included health care policy and efforts to expand access to health care, including supporting grassroots primary-care systems in rural communities.

School Board and Health Board

She eventually became involved in her children's schools, volunteering in classrooms and joining the PTA. Kushner served on a superintendent's parent advisory committee and on an advisory committee for former Wake school board member Rosa Gill. She began attending school board meetings and, in 2011, decided to run.

She won a seat representing central and western Raleigh, including two terms as chair. Those years included some of the school system's most contentious debates—and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kushner says the experience gave her a practical education in the consequences of local government decisions: even seemingly routine decisions could generate intense reactions.

"The most emails [I received] were around the calendar and bell schedule," she said.

One issue still bothers her: the early start times for high schools.

"I know high school students should start later," she said, but the school system did not have the buses and resources to make the change.

After leaving the school board, Kushner joined the Wake County Health and Human Services Board. The position exposed her to a different part of county government: public health, social services, foster care, environmental health, and programs serving residents in crisis.

She talks about the experience almost as a continuation of her education work.

One example she cites is the county's foster care system.

At one point, she said, roughly 20 children were staying in the social services building because the county could not find appropriate placements for them. County staff worked to reduce the number of children staying in the building and expand placement options. Kushner specifically praised the county's use of a program called “Kinship Care”.

"The fact that these children can stay with an aunt, or grandparent, or an uncle, or a cousin, I mean, it's powerful for that child to be able to remain in their family, and it's led to greater stability," she said. "And also that the system and staff are able to support that extended family who help those children."

Housing, Transportation, Growth

Kushner identifies three issues particularly pressing for Wake County: the strain placed on local governments by state and federal funding decisions, underfunded public schools and increasing homelessness.

Kushner credits local leaders with attracting businesses, expanding parks and greenways, supporting schools and building an arts and cultural economy. But she also sees the consequences of growth: higher housing costs, busy roads, crowded schools and residents who have not shared equally in the county's economic expansion.

"A lot of our issues around housing affordability and homelessness and social services are regional issues," Kushner said. "People are coming to Wake County because they see us as a place of opportunity, and some land on their feet, and some do not. So how do we think regionally to get state support for folks who are immigrating and coming into Wake County? Another issue of regional work needs to be around transit and traffic."

She wants the county to work more closely with local governments and more county services delivered through the county's five regional centers so residents do not always have to travel downtown for government services.

Education

Kushner's school board background is likely to be particularly relevant if she joins a commission responsible for funding county government and providing financial support to Wake County Public School System.

She has criticized the state's approach to public education and said the county has increasingly had to fill funding gaps. The issue became especially visible in 2025, when the commission increased school-system funding by $40 million—less than the approximately $60 million the school board had requested.

Kushner has called the decision difficult but argues that the underlying problem is larger than one county budget. She points to state funding for private-school vouchers and what she considers inadequate state support for public schools.

"The state government and legislature have a constitutional obligation to fund public education for every child," Kushner said. "Public schools serve every child. Every child has the right to a public education, and they're inclusive schools, no matter where students come from, their zip code, their race, their background, their status; public schools welcome everyone."

Her focus is particularly strong on students who require additional services, including special education students and children living in poverty. She also wants the county's health and human services resources — nurses, social workers, psychologists and mental-health professionals — better connected to schools.

Property Taxes and Data Centers

Rising home values have increased the financial pressure on some longtime homeowners, particularly people living on fixed or limited incomes. Kushner supports expanding means-tested property-tax assistance rather than broadly reducing taxes. She also favors preserving existing affordable housing because, in her view, keeping an existing affordable home is often faster than creating a new one.

Her broader concern is that the county's growth could increasingly benefit residents who arrive with the resources to take advantage of it while pushing out people who have lived here for years.

Some of that divergence has influenced her support for a moratorium or pause on large data-center projects while local officials establish stricter rules. Her concerns are primarily infrastructure and environmental: water consumption, electricity demand, and who pays for the infrastructure required by massive facilities. She also wants data centers to shoulder more of those costs themselves.

Public safety and Health Policy

Asked about large gatherings of young people that have prompted police responses and arrests, she said law enforcement needs to protect the public but also argued for safe places for young people to gather. She has emphasized coordination among the county, municipalities, police departments, parents and families.

Kushner has also focused heavily on maternal health and racial disparities in health outcomes. She pointed to county efforts examining maternal health and said she would support expanding health and social services for Black women and families.

"We do know that Black women have worse outcomes in the healthcare system," she said. "We know that we need to educate our providers to be more responsive to Black women in pregnancy, both prenatally and postnatally, to take the prevention issues seriously to help make sure they have healthy pregnancies, but also the postpartum issues so that they are supported."

Kushner's health policy background also informs her view of the proposed combination of WakeMed and Atrium Health. She has said WakeMed may not be able to remain independent indefinitely, but she believes the decision to approve the merger deserved more public discussion and remains concerned about governance and oversight.

On Sept. 21, commissioners voted 5-2 to approve changes to WakeMed's governing documents that allow the proposed combination with Atrium to proceed, with Tara Waters and Vickie Adamson voting against it. WakeMed says it will remain a nonprofit with local leadership and that the county will continue appointing a majority of its board.

Kushner's concern is consistent with an issue she raises elsewhere in her campaign: who is accountable when an institution provides a service that residents depend on?

Accountability and Transparency

Kushner says elected officials owe constituents an explanation, even when residents disagree with the decision. But she also says accountability means being willing to change course.

"There are many times when I came in with some assumptions that were changed by the feedback that I got," Kushner said. "So it's critically important to get that feedback. And there are lots of times I changed my mind because I said, you know, that's a great point. That neighborhood or that family or that school is being impacted disproportionately. And we need to change what we're doing. So that is what should happen in the system. And that is accountability."

She wants to carry the same practice into county government: listen, explain decisions, and acknowledge when community feedback changes the way she sees an issue.

$2B WakeMed-Atrium Merger Was Approved

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:12:00 +0000

Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 Monday evening to let the proposed $2 billion merger between WakeMed and Atrium Health move forward, capping a five-hour meeting that ended with sheriff's deputies clearing a packed chamber before the final vote was cast.

The vote would allow WakeMed to amend its articles of incorporation and governing documents, transferring control from the county's Board of Commissioners to a new 14-member board jointly selected by Atrium and county leaders.

Board Chair Don Mial asked deputies to clear the room after spectators, some of whom had been in the chamber for more than five hours, grew disruptive as commissioners began voting; commissioners then took a five-minute recess before resuming.

Commissioners Vickie Adamson and Tara Waters cast the two dissenting votes, both citing insufficient time to review revised legal documents that arrived just days before the meeting.

"In my eight years on this board, I don't think I've ever been handed this complicated of legal documents on Thursday night and had to vote on it on that day, and that's just normally not how we do business," Adamson said.

Waters, who represents District 5, home to WakeMed's Raleigh campus, said she'd heard extensive resident concerns and wanted to weigh the decision carefully.

"It's an important decision and one that I will do thoughtfully, prayerfully, and with the citizens of Wake County in mind," she said.

Commissioners who voted in favor pointed to a revised agreement WakeMed announced late last week that added protections beyond the original May proposal. That revision brought an additional $150 million to the county over the next decade for the county-controlled Wake County Whole Health Program, which will fund priorities including foster youth placement, homelessness, supportive housing, food security and senior services.

It also raised WakeMed's minimum indigent care requirement from 4.8% to 8% of annual adjusted revenue, gave commissioners more control over board appointees, limited Atrium's power to alter WakeMed's governing documents, and confirmed that Atrium—not WakeMed—would fully fund the $2 billion in capital investment, which includes roughly half a billion dollars for WakeMed's flagship Southeast Raleigh campus and a new Whole Health Campus in Garner featuring a 150-bed mental health hospital.

"I believe that this action will make WakeMed stronger in the face of growing demands, workforce pressures, rising costs, and the real headwinds facing healthcare today," Mial said.

Commissioner Safiyah Jackson said she saw the vote as protecting WakeMed's mission long-term.

"I believe my vote protects WakeMed's legacy," Jackson said. "It protects our most vulnerable neighbors, and it guarantees great care for our children and grandchildren."

Commissioner Cheryl Stallings credited weeks of negotiation for the improved terms.

"We have worked diligently over the past couple of weeks to secure a stronger agreement," Stallings said. "The $2 billion in capital investments will be coming from Atrium, and not WakeMed. There are sound financial assistance policies in place that have already been presented."

Adamson remained unconvinced and noted that a price-increase cap Gov. Josh Stein had announced with Atrium over the weekend wasn't actually included in the documents commissioners were voting on, meaning the county would still need to finalize that piece separately.

"Quite frankly, the plot twists have been nonstop," she said. "For residents, the questions are real: What will this mean for the cost of health care? What will it mean for access to care? What will it mean for the quality of care? Why give up so much local control to a sole member?"

She argued the board should reject the agreement outright and start over.

"The deal is much better than it was when it first came to county leaders," she said, but added the board should "send it back to WakeMed and get a new board that's willing to do the hard work, the due diligence, to look at hospitals, do a public process, because we're in no hurry."

A county attorney confirmed to Adamson during the meeting that the deal does represent a significant shift in control, with the current board no longer retaining the authority it holds today.

Around 50 people spoke during the meeting's public comment period, the majority opposed to the deal. Many in the packed chamber wore white T-shirts reading "Save WakeMed" and held signs declaring "We Will Remember Every November" and "Patients are Watching." Speakers described the arrangement as a corporate takeover and raised fears about rising health care costs, the loss of local accountability, and reduced transparency; several health care workers testified that mergers of this kind often bring higher patient-to-nurse ratios and declining care quality.

Monday's meeting capped months of public organizing against the deal, which began after it was quietly placed on the commissioners' consent agenda in May and removed following backlash. On July 27, hundreds of people packed Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh for a community town hall organized by The Patients Union, where residents pressed WakeMed and Atrium representatives for guarantees that costs wouldn't rise, and services wouldn't shrink.

Stein, who had raised concerns in a July letter to WakeMed leaders about county oversight of the proposed board, announced Sunday that he no longer opposed the merger after Atrium agreed to two of his requests: capping price increases at WakeMed to no more than 1.5 times the annual increase in Medicare costs for the next five years, and fully funding the $2 billion in capital investment itself rather than relying on WakeMed.

Stein noted he has pushed since his time as attorney general for the General Assembly to grant that office formal authority to review hospital transactions, an effort that included bipartisan legislation he helped draft in 2023 with Sens. Jim Burgin and Julie Mayfield that would let the attorney general block mergers found to raise costs, reduce care quality or harm local communities; that legislation has not yet passed.

The merger is not yet final. It still requires approval from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice before Atrium and WakeMed can complete the combination.

The Youngest American Killed in the Vietnam War

Jordan Meadows — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:05:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Dan Bullock was 15 years old when he was killed in Vietnam on June 7, 1969, making the Goldsboro native the youngest American service member to die in the war.

Bullock was born Dec. 21, 1953, in Goldsboro and lived in North Carolina until he was about 12, when his mother died, and he moved to Brooklyn to live with his father.

Family members later said he'd talked about wanting to become a pilot, a police officer, a firefighter or a Marine. Unsatisfied with his living situation in New York and discouraged by the lack of opportunity he saw around him, Bullock went looking for a faster path forward—and told his father that enlisting seemed like the quickest way to get an education.

In September 1968, at 14 years old, Bullock walked into the Marine Corps recruiting station at Albee Square in downtown Brooklyn. At 5-foot-9 and roughly 160 pounds, he was big enough to pass for 18, and he had altered the year on his birth certificate from 1953 to 1949.

Recruiters never questioned it. He enlisted on Sept. 18, 1968, and his family found out only when he came home with the signed paperwork in his hand.

Bullock reported to Parris Island, South Carolina, assigned to Platoon 3039, and struggled through parts of the 13-week training regimen before fellow recruits helped pull him through. He graduated from boot camp on Dec. 10, 1968, eleven days before his 15th birthday.

Private First Class Bullock arrived in South Vietnam on May 18, 1969, assigned as a rifleman in 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. His posting was An Hoa Combat Base in Quang Nam Province, a forward hub surrounded by some of the most contested terrain in the country. Bullock kept largely to himself, and while his fellow Marines didn't know his real age, several sensed something was different about him.

On the evening of June 6, Bullock had been assigned cleaning duty, but took another Marine's place on the night watch near the airstrip after that Marine was wounded. Shortly after midnight, North Vietnamese Army sappers breached the perimeter wire and launched a coordinated assault with rockets, mortars, and small arms. Accounts of exactly what happened next differ.

Fox Company accounts hold that sappers crawled beneath the wire and hurled a satchel charge through the firing slot of Bullock's bunker, an explosion that killed Bullock; other accounts describe Bullock being killed by small arms fire on the perimeter.

Bullock's company commander, Capt. Robert Kingrey, described the young Marine's actions during the attack in a letter home.

"Dan immediately realized that the attack was stronger than usual and that the ammunition supply was becoming depleted," Kingrey wrote. "He rushed to get more ammunition for his unit. He constantly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to keep the company supplied with the ammunition needed to hold off the attack."

Bullock had been in Vietnam for 21 days.

A week after his death, the New York Times broke the story of his real age, and the Defense Department subsequently confirmed Bullock was the youngest of the roughly 58,000 Americans killed during the war.

His remains were returned to Goldsboro and buried at Elmwood Cemetery with full military honors, but no headstone marked the grave. It stayed that way for 31 years, until television talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael learned of the unmarked plot in 2000 and purchased a headstone. NYPD officers, state troopers from four states, and two veteran motorcycle groups escorted a 600-mile caravan from Brooklyn to Goldsboro for the dedication ceremony.

In 2003, the New York City Council renamed a stretch of Lee Avenue in Brooklyn—the street where Bullock had lived—as PFC Dan Bullock Way.

North Carolina dedicated a state highway historical marker near his childhood home on West Ash Street in Goldsboro, and the entrance to Elmwood Cemetery in southwest Goldsboro was also named PFC Dan Bullock Way.

His name is inscribed on Panel 23W, Line 96 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.

Appeals Court Hears Challenge to NC Ballot “Selfie” Ban

Jordan Meadows — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 21:38:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

A federal appeals panel heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a Wake County woman's challenge to North Carolina's ban on "ballot selfies," weighing whether the state's restrictions on photographing marked ballots violate the First Amendment.

Susan Hogarth, a Raleigh native and the 2024 Libertarian candidate for state Senate District 13, sued members of the Wake County Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections in federal court after posting a selfie with her completed primary ballot on X in March 2024.

The State Board of Elections sent her a letter roughly two weeks later warning that the post violated state law and demanding she take it down; under North Carolina statute, photographing a voted ballot is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to 120 days in jail and a fine.

Represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Hogarth argues the law criminalizes core political speech protected by the First Amendment. She has said she posts the photos partly to promote Libertarian candidates, partly to encourage voting generally, and partly to protest the law itself.

The case has already produced one skirmish inside a polling place: Armed with an October 2024 court order from U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, she was allowed to photograph her ballot alone without fear of prosecution. Hogarth took several ballot selfies during early voting that October, including photos of both sides of her marked ballot and of herself holding it up inside the booth.

According to court filings, a Wake County election official stationed about 10 feet away approached her as she took her final photo and told her, "You cannot take a picture of your ballot; you need to delete that, please."

Hogarth told the official a court order protected her; the official asked her to wait, stepped away to call the county elections board, and returned roughly two and a half minutes later to confirm she was in the clear.

Hogarth's attorneys have said the confrontation left her "uncomfortable and anxious" despite the court order, and argued in filings that the interaction would chill an ordinary voter from taking or sharing similar photos.

Flanagan ultimately ruled against Hogarth in March, upholding the five state statutes that make up the ballot selfie ban in a 15-page order. She found the state's interest in preventing vote-buying and voter coercion justified the restriction even without documented instances of ballot selfies being used in such schemes.

"Common sense and logic support the proposition that photographs of voted ballots or voters, taken within voting booths, create opportunities for abuse through vote-buying and coercion," Flanagan wrote, adding that defendants were not required to "adduce specific factual evidence that the statutes advanced its interests."

At Tuesday's argument, FIRE attorney Jeff Zeman told the three-judge panel that the law reaches well beyond polling place conduct.

"The only thing North Carolina's ballot selfie ban does is criminalize otherwise lawful speech," Zeman said, noting the restriction also bars voters from photographing a completed absentee ballot in the privacy of their own home.

He argued the ban amounts to unconstitutional content-based regulation that fails strict scrutiny, the most exacting standard of judicial review, because the state has never shown the law actually prevents the vote-buying or coercion schemes it claims to target.

"This is speech about the election; not part of the election," Zeman said. "Expression about elections and referenda is the type of speech indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and thus at the heart of the First Amendment's protection."

Deputy Solicitor General Thad Eagles, representing the State Board of Elections, its investigator and Executive Director Sam Hayes, countered that the law protects the secrecy of the ballot rather than the content of anyone's speech.

"North Carolinians are free and encouraged to tell everyone they want who they voted for and why in any number of different ways," he said. "The state's concern is not with the message here. It's not about the communication; it's about the probative effect of a picture of a marked ballot."

The state's legal briefs have also raised a more pointed hypothetical, arguing the law protects voters who might otherwise face covert pressure—including "a person experiencing domestic violence who, though not explicitly threatened, fears what will happen if their abuser learns that they voted against the abuser's preferred candidate."

U.S. Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., a Trump appointee, pressed Eagles on whether the law's reach outside polling places changes the constitutional analysis, noting the case for restricting absentee ballot photography is less clear-cut.

"There does seem to be ways these statutes apply outside of the polling place," Quattlebaum said, asking directly, "Is the ballot itself a forum?"

Eagles maintained that allowing widespread ballot-photo sharing could pressure voters away from voting their genuine conscience. U.S. Circuit Judges Allison Rushing, also a Trump appointee, and DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, a Biden appointee, rounded out the panel, which did not indicate when it would rule.

Courts have struck down comparable ballot-selfie bans in at least six states, including New Hampshire, Georgia, Indiana and Colorado, while more than a dozen states, including North Carolina, still enforce some version of the restriction.

North Carolina became the first state in the country to begin mailing absentee ballots for the November midterms, meaning the outcome of Hogarth's appeal could still shape what voters are allowed to do with their ballots before Election Day.

How NC Communities Marked 9/11

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:20:23 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

North Carolina communities marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks this week with a series of memorial ceremonies, stair climbs, service projects and permanent dedications spanning from Raleigh to Fayetteville.

At Chavis Park in Raleigh on Friday, Gov. Josh Stein reflected on the sense of national unity that followed the attacks.

"We cannot forget our feelings that day," Stein said. "We cannot forget the feelings the days after when we came together as a country."

Dozens gathered at the park, including Raleigh Fire Department Lt. James Jones, a volunteer fire department when the attacks unfolded.

Apex Fire Chief Tim Herman urged attendees to remember the victims as individuals rather than statistics.

"They were people who had families waiting for them. They were people who had served together for years," Herman said. "They were not numbers. Members of companies. Brothers and sisters. Mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters."

Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks nationwide, including six Duke University alumni and hundreds of first responders.

Stein spent much of the week moving between ceremonies across the Triangle. On Thursday, he ordered state flags lowered in observance of Patriot Day and issued a statement tying the anniversary to the nation's 250th year.

"This year, during America's 250th year, we cherish what it means to be an American: to love freedom, justice, security, democracy, and peace," Stein said. "Let us honor the memories of our heroes: the brave passengers of Flight 93, the firefighters who rushed toward danger as people ran for their lives, and the neighbors who helped their neighbors through unthinkable tragedy. And let us remember that there is more that unites than divides us. America is strongest when we stand together."

Stein attended the North Carolina National Guard's memorial ceremony Friday morning at Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh before joining the City of Raleigh and the nonprofit Activate Good for a day of service and remembrance.

At the Guard ceremony, Stein specifically recognized Greensboro native Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant aboard United Flight 93 who helped fight back against hijackers before the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and John Cerqueira, then a recent North Carolina State University graduate who helped carry a woman in a wheelchair down 68 flights of stairs in the World Trade Center's North Tower. The ceremony also honored the 30 North Carolina National Guard members killed in direct combat operations over the past 25 years, whose photos and names were displayed on memorial boards.

In Chapel Hill, UNC Army ROTC hosted a public memorial stair climb at 6 a.m. at Kenan Memorial Stadium, with participants climbing 2,071 stairs — the equivalent of the World Trade Center towers' 110 floors — in tribute to the 2,977 victims and the first responders who served that day. Organizers said the physical challenge was intended to give younger generations a more tangible understanding of the sacrifice firefighters made climbing the towers on Sept. 11.

Fuquay-Varina held its own remembrance ceremony at 8:30 a.m. at the Fuquay-Varina Arts Center, and Clayton hosted a public ceremony at 9 a.m. at Municipal Park featuring an honor guard, a bell tolling and 423 small flags representing the 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and eight emergency medical personnel killed in the attacks.

In Raleigh, roughly 1,000 volunteers gathered at NC State for the inaugural Raleigh meal-packing event tied to 9/11 Day, packing an estimated 226,000 meals, which will be distributed by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

In Fayetteville, members of the Fort Bragg military community gathered Friday morning at the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum for a remembrance ceremony featuring moments of silence, the national anthem, a performance by an All-American band and a wreath-laying honoring the 2,977 people killed on Sept. 11. Krystal Huff, an attendee, reflected on the aftermath of the attacks.

Chief William Lehmann, now chief of emergency medical services at Fort Bragg, was working as a paramedic with the New York City Fire Department on the day of the attacks and said the memory of colleagues lost that day remains raw.

Triangle Water Faces Post-Drought Growth, Infrastructure Challenges

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:35:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Raleigh Water officials told the City Council on Tuesday morning that the region's water demand is projected to double by 2065, laying out a set of costly long-term supply options as the Triangle emerges from its worst drought since 2007.

Whit Wheeler of Raleigh Water delivered the work-session presentation, covering current drought status, potential changes to the city's Water Shortage Response Plan, future demand scenarios, new water resource projects and regional planning efforts through Wake One Water and the Triangle Water Supply Partnership.

Wheeler said that while demand is growing roughly 3% a year, per-capita water use has dropped every year since about 2007, a trend he credited with dramatically extending the region's existing supply. Raleigh currently uses about 50 gallons per person per day, with single-family homes using roughly 100 gallons daily.

Falls Lake and Jordan Lake serve as the two main water sources in Wake County, with the Triangle Water Supply Partnership distributing Jordan Lake water across seven counties including Lee, Orange, Durham, Wake, Johnston and Harnett.

Wake County's water demand is being driven by a population expected to exceed 2 million residents. About 85% of county residents currently rely on municipal water systems, while the remaining 15% depend on private groundwater wells.

Raleigh Water, which serves Raleigh, Wake Forest, Zebulon, Knightdale and Fuquay-Varina, is expanding its primary treatment facility to handle up to 120 million gallons a day by 2031. The system currently draws roughly 60 million gallons a day, with demand projected to reach 98 million gallons a day by 2047.

Officials say current water resources are adequate through at least 2045, but the options under investigation for beyond that horizon carry significant price tags.

Mayor Janet Cowell and other regional leaders are weighing a new reservoir on the Little River that would net an additional 14 million gallons a day, though inflation has pushed its estimated cost above $380 million, and environmental researchers at NC State have argued new reservoirs can be counterproductive because large open water surfaces lose enormous volume to heat evaporation. Another option under discussion would pull water from Kerr Lake, north of Henderson, which could supply roughly 40 million gallons a day but would require moving water across multiple counties; the Little River or Neuse River could serve as alternatives, though both would be needed together to match Kerr Lake's output.

Depending on how much water the city ultimately pursues, those projects could cost anywhere from $540 million to $1.8 billion.

The presentation came on the heels of a severe, yearlong drought that stretched from late 2025 into mid-2026, escalating by summer into the region's worst dry spell since 2007, with parts of the Triangle reaching "exceptional drought," the highest federal classification. Raleigh Water triggered mandatory Stage 1 Water Shortage Restrictions in April 2026, heavily limiting yard irrigation for more than 650,000 customers across Raleigh, Wake Forest, Garner, Knightdale, Rolesville, Wendell and Zebulon.

Despite the rules, customer water consumption actually rose early in the summer compared with the previous year, and the city logged more than 1,100 violations, issuing hundreds of warnings and multiple fines. Heavy late-summer rainfall finally replenished Falls Lake from a low of 62% back to 84% capacity, allowing officials to formally lift restrictions on Aug. 3.

Council members raised questions about both environmental strategy and enforcement data.

The mayor pro tem Jane Harrison noted that while the water supply pool looks healthy, an Army Corps report rated water quality at only 40%.

"That's not Raleigh's water, but we're all part of the system," she said, adding that "the more we can be a leader, hopefully that can have some positive effects; we're all playing in the same pools."

She asked whether the city could divert resources toward environmental measures to preserve the Falls Lake supply, and warned that shifting to smaller rivers would carry far greater land-use consequences for surrounding communities. She described North Carolina as a water-rich state but pressed staff on what policy options might save residents money while drawing on more sources.

Council member Christina Jones asked how the department distinguishes between noncompliance and simple growth when measuring increases in water usage, demand and irrigation.

"As we look forward, on the growth and future measurements on growth increases vs. non-compliance increases," Jones said.

Staff noted that treating water drawn from more stressed sources requires more chemicals and affects downstream users more heavily, and pointed to Cary as an example of a system that runs conservation campaigns even when its supply is adequate.

While newer developments trend less water-intensive—multifamily complexes and smaller lawns mean less seasonal irrigation, historically the driver of peak summer demand — data centers have emerged as a new kind of industrial demand. Unlike typical commercial users, which return most of their water to the municipal sewer system for treatment and reuse, data centers rely on evaporative cooling, permanently removing millions of gallons from the local ecosystem.

Raleigh Water received one proposal on June 30 for radio telemetry services covering preventative maintenance and emergency response for its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition network, which remotely operates and collects data from water storage tanks, sewer pump stations and flood warning sites across the utility system. The system's vulnerabilities were underscored recently when a 30-inch water main break on N.C. 55 triggered system pressure advisories and boil water notices for tens of thousands of residents across Cary and Morrisville.

The Pullman Porters and the Creation of Labour Day: Navigating Opportunity and Oppression

Jordan Meadows — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:07:00 +0000

By: Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

American engineer George Pullman began hiring formerly enslaved Black men as porters on his company's luxury sleeping cars shortly after the Civil War. Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company to capitalize on the country's expanding rail network, introducing "Palace Cars"—dubbed "hotels on wheels"—outfitted with beds, chandeliers and high-end dining that let passengers socialize in lounge cars, eat in dining cars and rest comfortably in sleeping berths.

The first Pullman porters began working the trains around 1867, and Pullman was open about why he specifically recruited formerly enslaved men for the job: he believed they would be, in his words, “fully acclimated to servitude, eager to please and unlikely to protest low wages or long hours”.

The arrangement became so identified with Pullman personally that a phrase circulated at the time: "Abe Lincoln freed the slaves, and George Pullman hired 'em."

Pullman wanted white passengers to regard porters as part of the train's furnishings rather than as people, and porters were expected to perform an extensive range of duties—carrying baggage, shining shoes, making up berths, serving food and drink, providing security, and in some cases singing or dancing for customers. Passengers routinely called every Black porter "George," regardless of his actual name, a direct continuation of the plantation-era practice of referring to enslaved people by their enslaver's name; other passengers used the term "boy."

Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, Pullman halved wages, but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town. He gained presidential support from Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops, which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. To appease voters and mend ties with the labor movement during an election year, Congress rushed through a bill to make Labor Day a legal national holiday.

Later, in the 1920s, a group of wealthy white men who all happened to be named George formed a tongue-in-cheek organization called the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George, begun largely because its members didn't want their own names associated with servile labor. The group's roughly 31,000 members ultimately pressured the Pullman Company into installing nameplates in the cars so passengers could address porters by their real names.

Porters were required to work at least 400 hours or 11,000 miles a month, whichever came first, to receive their full monthly pay, which sometimes meant shifts as long as 20 hours with only a few hours of rest in between. They were paid less than nearly any other position at the company and depended heavily on tips to make a living wage. Porters also had to cover their own meals, perform unpaid preparation and cleanup work, and purchase their own uniforms, all while enduring persistent racism from passengers and colleagues alike.

Despite the conditions, the job became highly coveted within Black communities because it offered rare access to steady cash income, and by the 1920s, the Pullman Company employed 20,224 African Americans as porters and train personnel, making it the largest single category of Black labor in the United States and Canada at the time. That steady income gave porters something few Black workers in the Jim Crow South had: geographic mobility, and they used it to help ignite the Great Migration. Because porters traveled continuously between the Jim Crow South and booming Northern industrial cities such as Chicago, New York and Detroit, they effectively became a moving communications network for Black America.

Porters formed a working alliance from 1914 to 1939 with five major Black newspapers, smuggling bundles of those papers into the Deep South, where they carried news of manufacturing jobs, better schools, and life beyond state-sanctioned terror that helped drive millions of Black Southerners north. Porters also used their earnings to buy property in Northern cities, creating safe landing places and offering temporary housing and financial help to relatives and neighbors fleeing the South.

Despite the scale of their workforce, Pullman porters were largely absent from the 1894 Pullman Strike. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, backed the strike with a national boycott, but the union historically excluded or failed to welcome Black workers into its ranks.

It would take more than three decades for porters to organize on their own terms.

In August 1925, A. Philip Randolph was elected president of the newly formed Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first all-Black labor union in the United States; the union also included Pullman's female maids, who worked alongside porters and were additionally required to look after white children traveling on the trains. The union initially faced resistance not only from the Pullman Company but from porters themselves, who feared losing their jobs, and from some members of the Black community who viewed George Pullman as providing rare employment to formerly enslaved people.

The Brotherhood became the first Black labor organization admitted to the American Federation of Labor in 1935. After 12 years of resistance, the Pullman Company finally signed a labor agreement with the Brotherhood in April 1937, raising wages and capping working hours at 240 a month—a landmark contract that made the Brotherhood the first African American union to reach a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation.

Former Pullman porter E.D. Nixon went on to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, carrying the Brotherhood's decades of institutional experience directly into the next chapter of the fight for civil rights.

Celebrating Art, Music, and History: Raleigh’s 17th African American Cultural Festival

Jordan Meadows — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 19:16:00 +0000

Photo by Steve Worthy

By: Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

An estimated 40,000 people packed Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh over Labor Day weekend for the 17th Annual African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh & Wake County.

First established in 2010, the festival has grown into one of the region's premier cultural events and a major driver of Labor Day weekend tourism, drawing families, artists, tourists, and local leaders from across North Carolina and the country, along with a major contingent from the Black Chamber of Raleigh.

This year's theme, "Rooted in Community, Anchored in Legacy," centered on the festival's Legacy Wall, a public installation that let attendees post the names and stories of ancestors, local pioneers and community organizations, building what organizers described as a living historical archive along Fayetteville Street.

Saturday's programming opened with a procession featuring African dance, drumming, giant puppets and stilt walkers, preceded by a workshop that let attendees learn some of the dance and puppetry techniques themselves before joining in. Earlier that morning, the City of Raleigh Museum hosted Special Children's Author Readings, giving young readers a chance to meet Black authors and engage with African American stories and creativity.

Programming continued throughout the weekend across the Main Stage and Family Village Stage, with nonstop performances spanning jazz, R&B, reggae, traditional gospel choirs, African drumming ensembles, local DJs and spoken word poetry. National R&B act Kindred the Family Soul headlined the weekend's main daytime programming, while the festival transitioned each evening into ticketed outdoor concerts, headlined by hip-hop veteran Chubb Rock and backed by regional acts including the Sumthin 4 Tha People Band, Jus Once Band, Soultriii and DJ Skillz World. The AACF Comedy Jam, featuring local comedian D Wissh & Friends, capped off Sunday evening.

Beyond the stages, attendees could take in a formal Art Gallery Walk showcasing visual artists, alongside interactive chalk art walls, live mural painting, and hands-on puppetry and theater workshops built around teaching children traditional storytelling.

The festival's African Marketplace filled Fayetteville Street with dozens of juried visual artists, craftsmen, and Black-owned small businesses. Vendors sold fine art prints including recurring favorites depicting Black historical icons and family-legacy imagery, alongside custom Ankara-print clothing and jewelry, Greek paraphernalia for Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, and screen-printed streetwear carrying slogans like "Power to the People" and Raleigh-specific graphics.

Specialty goods included hand-tailored coats and kimonos printed with traditional West African Adinkra symbols, structured handbags made entirely from African wax-print fabrics, and skincare lines such as Clara Bea Essentials, which offered handmade hair milks, raw shea butter creams, and moisturizing bars formulated specifically for textured hair and skin.

Food options spanned Southern soul food, smoked barbecue, fried catfish baskets, smoked turkey legs, mac and cheese and collard greens — alongside Caribbean and West African fare including Jamaican jerk chicken, beef patties, oxtail plates and jollof rice bowls.

Because the event receives partial funding from the City of Raleigh, Raleigh City Council members and Wake County commissioners have historically made appearances, delivered opening remarks at the Main Stage, or staffed community resource booths. Local historically Black colleges and universities, including Shaw University and Saint Augustine's University, also maintained a heavy presence through alumni groups and recruitment tables.

NC Crime Dropped Sharply Overall in 2026, State Crime Commission Finds

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:50:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Crime fell across all four major categories tracked by the NC Department of Public Safety during the first six months of 2026, compared with the same period in 2025, according to a new report presented at the Governor's Crime Commission meeting on Thursday morning in Raleigh.

The DPS report found property crime fell 11.9%, the steepest decline of the four categories tracked, followed by violent crime down 5.8%, drug crime down 3.2% and financial crime down 2.1%.

Within violent crime, murder fell 12.4%, robbery declined 17.7%, aggravated assault dropped 3.1%, and rape and sexual assault fell 5%. Firearm homicides specifically fell 14.1% and other firearm-related crimes fell 8%, though weapons violations rose 2.1%.

Within property crime, motor vehicle theft dropped 22.6%, burglary fell 14.2%, and larceny and theft declined 9.8%; financial crime saw counterfeiting and forgery fall 25.2%, extortion and blackmail decline 15.6%, embezzlement drop 7%, and fraud edge down 0.3%. Drug crime split into equipment violations, down 3.7%, and drug and narcotic violations, down 2.9%.

At least 60 people have been arrested in connection with 31 of the incidents tracked in the report. However, officials cautioned that figure understates the case-closure rate, since it doesn't capture offenders who died before arrest, cases where prosecution was declined, suspects held in another state or country, or incidents involving offender suicide.

Two categories bucked the overall downward trend: Kidnapping and abduction offenses, which include detaining a person against their will, rose 4.6%, and intimidation offenses, which include stalking, rose 8.2%. Women made up 58% of intimidation victims and 79% of kidnapping and abduction victims so far this year; most of the kidnapping offenses were committed by intimate partners, with another 42% committed by someone known to the victim outside their family.

Officials said together the two trends suggest intimate partner violence and stalking-related threats may be rising even as violent crime overall declines.

A separate Major Chiefs Cities Association report found crime broadly down in both Raleigh and Charlotte, though robbery and aggravated assault both rose in Raleigh compared with the same period last year. Charlotte, meanwhile, ranked among the nation's top cities for property crime in 2025 despite a 5% decline from 2024.

Caroline Farmer, executive director of the Governor's Crime Commission, said the data would help guide state resources.

"These insights will help our law enforcement agencies understand where we are seeing success and where emerging needs are developing," Farmer said in a statement. "Strong trend information allows us to respond more effectively, support victims, and ensure resources are committed to the right initiatives."

Raleigh’s 2026 Mayoral Election Explained

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:30:09 +0000

By: Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Raleigh voters are heading into a mayoral election that will look different from previous city elections, with a two-candidate contest, longer terms for city leaders and a new staggered election system reshaping how City Hall will operate for years to come.

Incumbent Mayor Janet Cowell is seeking another term, facing Ashleigh Heath Armstrong in the general election. Because only two candidates filed for mayor, the race did not require Raleigh’s newly adopted nonpartisan primary to narrow the field.

The mayoral contest is the first test of major changes Raleigh City Council approved in 2024.

Under the new rules, the city moved away from two-year terms for the mayor and council members and began transitioning to four-year terms. The changes also established staggered elections, meaning roughly half of the council will face voters every two years rather than the entire council being up for election on the same cycle. City officials said the changes were intended to give elected officials more time to govern, reduce the frequency of campaigns and provide greater continuity.

The 2026 election is a transition year: voters will elect the mayor, District A, District B and the at-large candidate who receives the highest number of votes to four-year terms running through 2030.

Districts C, D and E and the at-large candidate receiving the second-highest vote total will initially receive two-year terms and return to the ballot in 2028. After that transition, all Raleigh council seats will operate on four-year terms with elections staggered every two years.

Raleigh is also using a new nonpartisan primary system.

Under the city's rules, district races with more than two candidates are narrowed to two candidates for the November election. For the two at-large seats, a primary is triggered when more than four candidates file, with the field narrowed accordingly. The mayoral race did not meet that threshold, leaving Cowell and Armstrong to advance directly to November.

For Cowell, the campaign comes as Raleigh continues to grapple with the effects of rapid population growth.

During her 2026 State of the City address, Cowell highlighted housing affordability, transportation, public safety, environmental concerns, and quality of life as major areas of focus. She also pointed to continued development of affordable housing, Bus Rapid Transit, water and sewer infrastructure, the new City Hall and the planned Smoky Hollow park as pieces of Raleigh's broader growth strategy.

Public safety has taken on particular importance during the election year following violence surrounding Fourth of July celebrations. Raleigh police reported large gatherings of young people in Brier Creek and Glenwood South, with approximately 3,000 young people estimated at Brier Creek and more than 5,000 in Glenwood South. Police reported nine people shot across several locations and 29 arrests. The incidents prompted city leaders to consider a citywide curfew for people under 18.

The debate over public safety is unfolding alongside broader questions about how Raleigh should manage growth. The city's current priorities include community safety, housing, transportation, environmental resilience, economic development, quality of life and city services. Housing costs have become an especially prominent issue as Raleigh's population has expanded, while transportation advocates and city officials continue to debate transit investment, pedestrian safety and infrastructure needed to accommodate future growth.

North Carolina's 2026 general-election voting period is now underway, with absentee ballots beginning to be distributed last Friday. The voter-registration deadline is Oct. 9, in-person early voting runs from Oct. 15 through Oct. 31, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Absentee ballots must be received by the county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day under the current rules.

Despite the NC State Board of Elections' updated guidance concerning absentee-ballot handling, statewide voting changes are separate from Raleigh's municipal election reforms.

Ashleigh Heath Armstrong, Cowell’s sole challenger, does not have a campaign website or public social media presence. She is unaffiliated and a Wake County resident since at least 2004, according to state voting records.

Outnumbered: Elbert Cox’s Equation for Greatness

Jordan Meadows — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 16:45:15 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Elbert Frank Cox was born Dec. 5, 1895, in Evansville, Indiana, and attended segregated public schools that were chronically underfunded for Black students.

When Cox was six, a mob of white residents stormed the county jail after the murder of a white police officer, setting off a four-day riot that left as many as 13 people dead; it took a state militia of 300 men, called in by the governor, to end it, and roughly 2,000 of the city's 8,000 Black residents fled in its aftermath. The Ku Klux Klan later established its Indiana headquarters in Evansville in 1920. Cox's family stayed. Cox looked up to the Black teachers in his segregated schools, who pushed literacy and academic achievement despite having few resources to work with.

Cox enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington in 1913 to study physics and mathematics, one of just three Black students in his undergraduate class alongside his brother, Avalon. He took a wide range of coursework beyond his major, including German, English, Latin, history, hygiene, chemistry, education and philosophy, and earned A's in every math course.

That achievement came despite treatment that made clear he was not considered an equal member of the student body: his transcript carried the word "colored" printed across the top, as did every Black students at the time, and in at least one class, Black students were made to sit in the hallway with the classroom door propped open so they could listen in rather than sit alongside their white classmates.

Cox was also passed over for membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society despite his academic record. Still, Cox found genuine mentors at Indiana among the math faculty: Cora Hennel, Schuyler Davisson, and Tobias Dantzig, all associated with the department's Euclidean Circle. This student-and-faculty discussion group initiated Cox in 1915, making him its first African American member. He also served as secretary of the university's Physics Club in his senior year and joined the historically Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi in 1915.

He graduated in 1917 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, listed at the end of his class's yearbook entry alongside the three other Black graduates.

After graduating, Cox enlisted in the U.S. Army and served roughly nine months in Des Moines, Iowa, and France during World War I, from 1918 to 1919; he later told his sons he'd enjoyed his military service.

Returning home, he worked briefly as a high school math tutor before taking a teaching position in the segregated schools of Kentucky. And in the fall of 1919, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to join the faculty at Shaw University as a professor of physics, chemistry, and biology, eventually becoming chairman of the university's Department of Natural Sciences. He remained at Shaw for three years, until 1922, when he decided to pursue a doctorate and began applying to graduate programs.

Cox applied to Cornell University in December 1921, one of only seven American universities then offering a doctoral program in mathematics. His former Indiana professors wrote him letters of recommendation; Davisson wrote that Cox "surpasses any colored man I have known as a student in mathematics," while Dantzig, in two separate letters, cautioned that Cox would likely encounter "certain difficulties... because of the fact that he is of the colored race" but predicted he would "develop into a man of whom the American mathematical world may be justly proud."

Cornell's own founding philosophy made it, in the words of one later retrospective, "a perfect fit" for Cox: founder Ezra Cornell had been an outspoken opponent of slavery who envisioned a university open to all who wished to be educated, and the school's first president, Andrew Dickson White, had actively promoted the admission of women and people of color decades before Cox arrived.

Cox received the Erastus Brooks fellowship in mathematics, worth $400 a year, in the fall of 1924 and briefly followed Williams to McGill University in Montreal before returning to Cornell for the spring 1925 semester to finish his dissertation, "The Polynomial Solutions of the Difference Equation."

He completed it that summer, and on Sept. 26, 1925, Cornell awarded him a Ph.D. in mathematics — making him the first Black person in the United States, and almost certainly the world, to earn a doctorate in the field. He was only the second Black Cornell graduate to earn any doctorate at the university, four years after Thomas Wyatt Turner became the first with a degree in biology.

Because doctoral degrees were still a relatively new institution in the United States, Williams urged Cox to submit his dissertation to universities abroad as a way of insulating his achievement from dispute, a fairly common practice at the time. Several institutions in England and Germany declined to consider the paper, almost certainly because of Cox's race, before Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan, accepted it; the paper wasn't formally published, in the Tohoku Mathematical Journal until 1934, nearly a decade later.

Within two decades of Cox's graduation, roughly two dozen more African American students had gone on to earn Cornell doctorates, including seven in math or physics. Notably, Cox had also once been offered a scholarship to study violin at the Prague Conservatory of Music, but chose to pursue mathematics instead.

Cox began his teaching career as a Ph.D. holder at the all-Black West Virginia State College in 1925, just weeks after receiving his degree. In 1929, Cox joined the mathematics faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he would remain for close to four decades.

Cox was promoted to full professor in 1947, taught engineering science and war-management courses during World War II from 1942 to 1944, and became chair of Howard's mathematics department in 1957, a post he held until 1961. He retired in 1965 at age 70, three years before his death; his portrait still hangs in the Howard mathematics department's common room.

Over his lifetime, Cox published only two academic papers. He also became the first African American admitted into the American Mathematical Society. Those who knew him described a reserved, understated man — his son recalled that Cox "was not one to wear his achievements on his sleeve" and "didn't do a whole lot of talking in general," but that "when he did say something, it always made an impact." Colleagues remembered him as conservative and patient, someone who always wore a tie to dinner.

Cox died in 1969 at age 73.

The National Association of Mathematicians established the annual Cox-Talbot Address in his honor, delivered at the organization's national meetings, and Howard created the Elbert F. Cox Scholarship Fund to help Black students pursue graduate study in mathematics. In September 2025, on the 100th anniversary of his doctorate, Washington organized a two-day "Cox Centennial Celebration of 100 Years of Black Ph.D. Mathematicians" at Howard.

Final Decision By NCSBE Leaves Uneven Early Voting Access

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:18:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The North Carolina State Board of Elections approved changes to early voting plans in 20 counties Thursday morning after a contentious meeting that lasted more than 10 hours, with the role of the Republican-controlled state auditor’s office dominating much of the proceedings.

The meeting came after election boards in 20 counties failed to reach unanimous agreements on their early voting schedules for this November’s elections. Under state law, each county must provide early voting during business hours as well as on the Saturday immediately preceding Election Day.

The state board was tasked with resolving the remaining disagreements, with representatives from each county presenting majority and minority proposals before the five-member state board discussed and voted on the plans.

The counties before the state board were Union, Rowan, Anson, Craven, Rockingham, Greene, Wayne, Harnett, Lee, Nash, Chatham, Scotland, Jackson, Pasquotank, Guilford, Pitt, Lenoir, Cumberland, Granville and Columbus. The other 80 counties had reached unanimous agreements on their early voting plans and therefore did not have to appear before the state board.

The most contentious issue was whether counties should offer early voting on Sundays.

Republican members of several county boards argued that Sunday turnout was too low to justify opening polling sites and that the day should be reserved for church and family. Democratic members and voting-rights advocates argued that Sunday voting is an important option for people who work long or irregular hours, have lengthy commutes or have caregiving responsibilities. They also noted that some religious traditions observe Saturday as a day of rest, making Sunday an especially important alternative.

The debate became particularly heated during discussion of Anson County’s plan.

Matthew Longworth, a Republican member of the Anson County Board of Elections, argued against Sunday voting in part because election workers would be required to work on Sunday.

“By having Sunday voting, we are requiring people to work on the Lord’s day,” Longworth said. “I do believe that the downfall of this country will be contingent on what we do with God.”

Longworth also compared the lack of Sunday operations at polling places to Chick-fil-A’s traditional Sunday closure, saying that if the restaurant could close on Sundays, polling places could do the same.

The board also considered disputes over early voting locations, including locations on university campuses and in smaller communities.

In Columbus County, the Republican-backed plan called for eliminating the early voting site in Fair Bluff. The state board ultimately voted in the afternoon to reinstate the Fair Bluff site.

Several Columbus County residents traveled to Raleigh and gathered outside the State Board of Elections building during a break in the meeting to oppose changes to their local early voting plan.

Alon Zastephens, a Columbus County resident, said the group came to the meeting in an effort to prevent polling places from being closed.

“Today we have come to the Electoral Board meeting to try to convince them not to close any of our polling stations,” Zastephens said.

A protest also took place at Halifax Mall in Raleigh while the state board was hearing testimony and voting on the county plans. Protesters and voting-rights advocates gathered as the lengthy meeting continued inside the nearby elections building, adding a public demonstration to the growing criticism surrounding the early voting decisions.

Members of nonpartisan organizations, including Common Cause, also gathered outside the State Board of Elections building to express concerns about the consequences of the decisions. Dawn Blagrove, an attorney and executive director of Emancipate NC, said voters should not have to fight for basic opportunities to cast ballots.

“We shouldn’t have to hold an all-day meeting to decide whether or not to do something that is pure common sense: simply make voting easier, expand access, and provide more opportunities for people to vote,” Blagrove said.

Marcus Thompson, organizing director for Democracy NC and a Pitt County resident, also criticized restrictions on Sunday voting in his county.

“During many elections, I’ve stood alongside young African Americans and Latinos, progressives, and people of all kinds in that county, fighting for Sunday voting; and in the past, it has paid off.”

Sixteen of the 20 counties before the state board voted for Donald Trump for president in 2024, but only eight supported Republican Mark Robinson for governor.

Dawn Blagrove argued that the disputes over early voting should also be viewed in the context of racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to elections. She said that reducing voting hours, eliminating voting days or removing convenient polling places can disproportionately affect African American and other voters of color, low-income residents and students.

“If you are unclear about what systemic and institutional racism means in the context of voting rights, you only need to look at what is happening today in Raleigh,” Blagrove said.

State Board Democratic member Siobhan Millen introduced a motion that would have barred state board members from working with the auditor’s office on matters that favor a particular candidate, political party, or demographic group.

Millen said the state board needed to determine whether the disputed voting plans were genuinely the product of local election boards or whether they were part of a coordinated effort that could benefit one political party.

The motion failed on a 3-2 party-line vote, with the Republican majority opposing it.

State Board Republican Chair Francis De Luca said board members should be permitted to consider input from public officials, advocacy groups and political organizations before making their own independent decisions.

The dispute repeatedly returned to Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party who was hired by Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek as an elections liaison. Reports based on emails and text messages uncovered during the controversy showed Woodhouse and other auditor’s office staff communicating with county election officials about where and when to hold early voting. Woodhouse resigned from the auditor’s office in July amid the controversy.

The 20 counties that came before the state board Thursday represented the largest number of county early voting plans divided along partisan lines since the 2016 general election.

The final decisions mean that voters in the 20 counties will have different opportunities to vote early this fall depending on where they live. For some voters, that will mean fewer weekend options, including no Sunday voting, while other counties retain or add Sunday hours.

SAU Halts All Classes And Programs For Fall Amid Its Bankruptcy Filing

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:13:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Saint Augustine's University will not offer any classes or educational programs this fall, the historically Black Raleigh institution's attorney told a federal bankruptcy court last Thursday, as the school abandons plans to launch online certificate programs intended to generate revenue during its Chapter 11 reorganization.

The university filed for bankruptcy in April, citing $74 million in debt, and ended its years-long fight to retain accreditation at the same time. Officials had said the school would not close but would pivot toward online certificate and noncredit programs in subjects including artificial intelligence, programming, data analytics, Python, Java, biotechnology and public health—priced between $1,100 and $4,500.

The university had already written course syllabi, hired instructors and begun marketing the programs before the reversal.

Rogers told Judge David Warren that the board had decided the university's limited resources were better spent stabilizing its finances than launching new offerings.

"At this time, the university is not going to be offering any educational offerings, whether they be certification programs or internships, etc.," Rogers said. "We feel that the debtors' best efforts should be focused on emerging as a new and stronger entity on the other side of this bankruptcy, and the board has agreed to and is looking forward to solely focusing its efforts on that."

She told the court the programs would have generated little revenue in any case.

Pausing the programs would also help the university reduce payroll and other expenditures at a time when it is surviving on borrowed money from Self-Help Ventures Fund—more than $1 million so far—and spending nearly $300,000 a month.

Bankruptcy administrator Brian Behr backed the decision, calling it one of several "significant positive developments" and noting the online programs would have required the university to spend on personnel it could not spare while working to repay creditors.

"This board is having to deal with a lot, and its first priority needs to be exiting bankruptcy as quickly as possible," Behr said.

Earlier in the case, Judge Warren had raised his own doubts about the university's ability to deliver on promises to prospective students, at one point describing the institution as "essentially closed."

Even as it pulls back academically, the university is exploring options for its real estate. Saint Augustine's has applied to hire the firm Avison Young to advise on selling portions of its roughly 105-acre campus, valued at approximately $200 million; court filings show Avison Young would receive a $50,000 retainer plus a percentage of any sale, capped at $7.5 million. A Self-Help Ventures Fund official indicated in court the nonprofit plans to object to that hire, which could complicate matters since the court must approve it.

Behr said he hoped the university could avoid a "wholesale sale of property" but acknowledged the option needed to remain available.

"I don't think that's necessarily in the best interest of the debtor, at least currently," he said. "But the debtor likely does need to have that on the back burner as a possibility if everything were to fall apart."

The university had previously pursued a $70 million, 99-year lease of its campus to a Florida developer, but that deal collapsed after state officials declined to approve it over concerns including the university's ability to continue operating.

Judge Warren spoke sympathetically about the university's position as it works to reorganize.

"It's very hard, especially when you've got a company or a university that is essentially closed and you're trying to chart a new course and reorganize," Warren said. "I respect the time and effort that the board is putting into this, as well as the professionals. It's not easy, and so I just hope that those persons involved will stay in there, hang in there and see if we can't get to the end of this."

The university is scheduled to return to court Thursday.

Raleigh Rises As National Hotspot For Renters, Outpacing Charlotte & Durham

Jordan Meadows — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:46:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Shared renter households in Raleigh grew nearly 50% over the past decade, well ahead of Charlotte's 29% growth over the same period, tracking closely with the wave of young professionals the Triangle's job market has pulled in, according to a new study from StorageCafe.

The study found Raleigh's shared renter households now total nearly 19,000, a larger share of the local rental market than Charlotte.

Raleigh ranked No. 3 nationally in the study, ahead of New York, Boston and San Francisco, with roommates in the city saving roughly $8,100 a year by splitting a two-bedroom apartment rather than renting a one-bedroom alone. Roommates in Raleigh average 515 square feet of living space per person, and splitting rent drops a renter's housing-cost burden from about 28% of income to roughly 15%.

Citywide, about 17% of Raleigh renter households currently live with roommates.

Nationally, the study found nearly 5.6 million U.S. households, or about 12% of all households, now rent with roommates, a figure that has climbed 21% over the past decade. In the country's most expensive markets, including Irvine, California, and Jersey City, New Jersey, the roommate savings gap widens to around $13,000 a year.

43.5 million U.S. households now spend more than 30% of their income on housing, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Generation Z accounted for the largest share of roommate households nationally, at about 46%, which the study attributed to early-career salaries, student loan payments, job mobility and a preference for living in pricier urban cores.

The study also pointed to self-storage as a factor easing roommate arrangements. A standard 5-by-5 storage unit averages $53 a month nationally, about 3% of average monthly rent, giving roommates a place for belongings that don't fit in shared space.

In Raleigh specifically, on-site storage is available in roughly 41,000 apartments, placing the city near the top nationally on that measure, and most apartment communities in the city offer roughly one parking space per bedroom.

The roommate trend comes as new apartment construction slows sharply across the Raleigh-Durham metro: developers broke ground on just 1,612 units in the first half of 2026, down roughly 62% from the 4,238 units started over the same period in 2025. The roughly 9,856 units still under construction skew heavily upscale, with about 78% of that pipeline classified as luxury inventory, clustering in Durham's University Hill and Trinity Park areas near Duke and along Raleigh's downtown-to-Midtown corridor stretching from the bus station district up through North Hills.

Renter demand in the Triangle continues to be fed by people moving in from outside the metro; more than 60% of apartment searches in Durham alone come from out-of-towners. The broader Triangle region is projected to absorb 500,000 new residents and 50,000 new tech jobs, and with the 30-year mortgage rate at 6.66%, many new arrivals are renting longer than they may have originally planned.

School district access remains a significant pull factor for families relocating to the area, with properties zoned to Wake County and Durham Public Schools.

Raleigh led all tracked cities in rental leases in June at just six days on market, with Garner, Durham and Cary close behind; Fuquay-Varina was the softest market, leasing in 13 days with rents up 0.4% month-over-month; Apex posted the sharpest rent correction at negative 2.6% month-over-month.

In Durham, one-bedroom apartments averaged $1,365 a month and two-bedrooms $1,606 as of January, with the city's overall average rent down 2.9% year-over-year and running about 16% below the national average. In Raleigh, one-bedrooms averaged $1,366 a month and two-bedrooms $1,605 in January, down 3.1% year-over-year.

The Raleigh-Cary metro ranked among the nation's most active builders in 2025, adding 5,884 new rental apartments, while Durham added 2,960.

Law, Faith, and Activism: The Wild Life of Pauli Murray

Jordan Meadows — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:25:44 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, born in Baltimore in 1910 and orphaned and raised in Durham, became one of the 20th century's most consequential yet least recognized civil rights figures.

Murray was raised in Durham by an aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame, in a house at 906 Carroll Street built by Murray's maternal grandfather, a Union Civil War veteran born into slavery. Murray graduated at the head of the class in Durham before moving to New York to attend Hunter College, graduating in 1933 with a degree in English. Murray later wrote of that maternal Fitzgerald lineage in the 1956 memoir "Proud Shoes."

In 1938, Murray applied to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was refused admission because of race, at a time when every school and public facility in the state was segregated; the NAACP considered a lawsuit but ultimately declined, citing questions over Murray's state residency.

Two years later, Murray was arrested for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, 15 years before Rosa Parks' more famous refusal in Montgomery, and went on to organize restaurant sit-ins in Washington, D.C., two decades before the Greensboro sit-ins.

Murray enrolled instead at Howard University's law school, the only woman in the class, graduated first academically in 1944 as class valedictorian and Chief Justice of the Howard Court of Peers, and was then denied the chance to pursue postgraduate study at Harvard because of gender, despite a letter of recommendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that left the law faculty's vote deadlocked 7-7. Murray later described that rejection, coining a term that entered the civil rights lexicon, as earning a "Bachelor of Feminism" degree and coined the broader phrase "Jane Crow" to describe sex discrimination's parallels to Jim Crow.

A Rosenwald Fellowship took Murray to Berkeley for a master's degree instead, and after passing the California bar, Murray became the state's first Black deputy attorney general in 1946.

Murray's 1950 book, "States' Laws on Race and Color," a comprehensive catalog of discriminatory laws nationwide, was called the "bible" of the civil rights movement by NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall and proved instrumental to the legal argument in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1965, Murray became the first Black person to earn a doctorate in law from Yale.

A year later, working with the ACLU alongside lawyer Dorothy Kenyon, Murray co-wrote the brief in White v. Crook, which struck down an all-white, all-male jury system in Alabama and is regarded as a turning point establishing legal protections against sex discrimination; that scholarship later shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg's argument in the 1971 case Reed v. Reed, the first time the Equal Protection Clause was applied to sex discrimination, and Ginsburg listed Murray as a coauthor on her brief in recognition of the debt.

Murray's earlier writing pressing the analogy between race and sex discrimination, particularly as it doubled the burden on Black women, has since been described by scholars as a direct precursor to Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality. In 1966, Murray became a founding member of the National Organization for Women, present at the informal gathering where the organization's purpose was first sketched out on a napkin by Betty Friedan; Murray later wrote that the small group who set up NOW's permanent structure never imagined it would grow into a 200,000-member political force within two decades.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Murray to the 1961-63 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and Murray had already served as a correspondent and informal adviser to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for years, a friendship documented in hundreds of letters between the two. Murray also held faculty or administrative posts at the Ghana School of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University.

Murray was also, throughout her life, open in her own era's limited terms about relationships with women and about not fitting conventional gender presentation. That part of Murray's biography, combined with a brief association with the Communist Party that drew McCarthy-era scrutiny, contributed to Murray being written out of the movement's mainstream narrative during the respectability politics of the mid-20th century, according to historians.

Late in life, Murray returned to the Episcopal Church, in which she'd been raised, and in 1977 became the first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest, delivering her first Holy Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill—the same chapel where her enslaved grandmother had been baptized generations earlier. The Episcopal Church later named Murray among its Holy Women, Holy Men in 2012, effectively canonizing her as a saint.

Murray also published two autobiographies, including "Song in a Weary Throat," and a poetry collection, "Dark Testament".

Murray's Durham childhood home has since been designated a National Historic Landmark and now serves as the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, and Yale named a residential college in Murray's honor.

Faith Leaders Condemn House Bill 958

Jordan Meadows — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:33:00 +0000

(Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Bishop William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach, led clergy and North Carolinians of "every conscience" in a news conference Tuesday morning outside the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh, denouncing House Bill 958 as the legislature's latest attempt to suppress the vote.

House Bill 958 passed the General Assembly along party lines earlier this month and would cut the state's primary early voting period nearly in half, allow a citizen's ballot to be challenged for three days after an election concludes, and give the state auditor new authority over county election offices, machines and personnel after votes are cast.

Gov. Josh Stein vetoed the bill, and Barber told the crowd the reprieve was temporary.

"Governor Stein's veto buys us time, and time is all that it buys," Barber said, noting the General Assembly returns in November and that the House speaker has already promised an override attempt.

Barber connected the bill to Vance County, where a retired Baptist pastor, William Clayton, who joined him at the podium, said the legislation traced back a decade.

"House Bill 958 arrives 10 years later, in better clothing, and with the same measurements," Clayton said. He said more than 700,000 North Carolinians voted early in the March primary and argued the people who stood to lose that week of access were "hourly workers, people without a car, people who cannot take a Tuesday off" and congregations that "walk from the sanctuary to the polls on a Sunday afternoon."

He added, "Souls to the polls is not a slogan. It is a liturgy."

Barber framed the fight in constitutional terms, citing language from North Carolina's Reconstruction-era constitution establishing that elections belong to the people rather than to legislative leaders.

"The elections don't belong to politicians," Barber said. "They don't belong to the speaker. They don't belong to the Senate pro tem. They don't belong to whoever happens to have the majority."

He called the legislature's actions "unconstitutional," "morally indefensible" and, invoking the scripture that closed his remarks, "sin."

Tuesday's event doubled as the formal launch of Repairers of the Breach's 100 Days of Mobilization, 1,000 Marches to the Polls campaign, which Barber said had drawn commitments from more than 200 organizations, churches and community groups since it was first announced in July.

"We need the polling places to look like they did in South Africa when Mandela first got out," Barber said, calling for marches from barbershops, hair salons, churches, synagogues, mosques, lodges and college campuses on the first day of early voting "and beyond."

He said the campaign would include a two-week North Carolina tour through Asheville, Winston-Salem, Wilson, Greenville, Martin and Washington counties, Fayetteville and Bladen County. He pointed to a four-day march the group led from Wilson to Raleigh in February as evidence the strategy works, saying data afterward showed early voting turnout rose in the counties the march passed through.

Addressing reports that federal immigration agents might monitor the marches, Barber said, "Come watch us walk. Come watch us march. Come watch us be unafraid."

Rev. Dr. Nancy Petty of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church told the crowd that voting was "a sacred act" and "a sacrament," and said clergy across faith traditions bore a responsibility to treat the ballot box "not as a partisan battleground, but as a sacred instrument to uphold human dignity and protect the vulnerable."

A representative of the North Carolina Council of Churches, speaking on behalf of the group's 19 member denominations, led attendees in a call-and-response tying voting to church priorities including health care, child care, immigrant communities, public education and economic and ecological justice, telling the crowd, "We must be good stewards of our citizenship."

"We are of the mind that what we should be doing is expanding opportunities to vote," Barber said.

WakeMed-Atrium Deal Faces Renewed Scrutiny as Community Raises Concerns

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:42:00 +0000

By: Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The proposed combination of WakeMed and Atrium Health is facing renewed public scrutiny after two major community discussions in Raleigh.

The proposal, announced in May, would bring at least $2 billion in investment to Wake County and is expected to create more than 3,300 health-care jobs over five years. WakeMed and Atrium say the investment would help expand and modernize facilities, add inpatient beds, develop new Healthplex locations, expand specialty services including cancer care and neurosciences, increase virtual care and build what they describe as North Carolina's largest nonprofit behavioral-health network.

On July 27, hundreds of people packed Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh for a community town hall organized by The Patients Union. The meeting was billed as an opportunity for residents, patients and health-care workers to ask questions about the proposed combination.

One attendee, Denise Perry, captured the frustration by saying, “Our lives are worth more than some deal they're making in the backroom.”

Another attendee spoke emotionally about WakeMed's role in her family, saying it was “the hospital that allowed me to hear my son's laugh” and “the hospital that gave my children a chance to grow up with their mother.”

Critics at the July town hall repeatedly called for greater transparency and guarantees that patients would not lose services or face higher costs.

Wayne Wilhelm of the NC Poor People's Campaign said, “We need guarantees that services will not be cut, guarantees that charity care will not be weakened, guarantees that staffing will not be reduced. This deal does not give patients the guarantees we need.”

WakeMed CEO Donald Gintzig said the full agreement could not be released because it is a private agreement containing competitive business information. However, he said county commissioners and attorneys were being given opportunities to review additional portions of the documents.

“We have not made any decisions yet. We're still in listening mode,” Gintzig said.

Under the proposed governance structure, Atrium would become the sole corporate member of the nonprofit entity that operates WakeMed, while Wake County commissioners would retain the authority to appoint eight of WakeMed's 14 board members and Atrium would appoint the remaining six. WakeMed would remain a nonprofit organization and keep its existing name and operating licenses, but the arrangement would give Atrium substantial influence over the health system's direction.

That question of control was again front and center Monday evening, when the Wake County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing at the Wake County Justice Center.

Nathan Foster, speaking at the rally, warned, “This would be a complete handover of control. There would be no meaningful control with the county commission if this deal goes through. If that happens, we’ll be on the outside looking in, all of us.”

Opponents also raised concerns about possible price increases, staffing reductions, the quality of patient care and whether WakeMed's longstanding local mission could survive within a much larger health system.

Supporters argued that WakeMed needs the financial resources and technological expertise that Atrium can provide as Wake County's population grows and health-care facilities become increasingly expensive to build and maintain.

Dwight Spencer told commissioners, “This is the people’s hospital of Wake County. Please put politics aside and think about health. I think this is a good partnership. I think it will be a partnership that increases healthcare technology so that everybody will receive the best healthcare that WakeMed and Atrium can provide.”

Former Raleigh Mayor MaryAnn Baldwin also urged commissioners to approve the partnership, telling them, “Please support the changes to let WakeMed and Atrium move forward in partnership.”

Dr. Vijay Chaudhary, chief of oncology for WakeMed Cancer Care, said WakeMed had been searching for a partner capable of making major investments in the region.

“We asked who would be willing to invest in Wake County and help us build something greater for our patients,” Chaudhary said. “Atrium Health shared our belief that access to high-quality cancer care should not depend on patients' ZIP Code, insurance status or financial circumstances.”

Dr. Taylor Walker told commissioners, “Atrium CEO ... was paid $25.8 million in 2024 ... while providing his own workers with subpar health insurance,” and questioned why patients should trust a system that, he said, “sued more patients over medical debt than any other hospital in the entire state.”

Chris Berger, an Atrium spokesperson, said the health systems have attempted to balance public transparency with the need to protect confidential business information and said Wake County commissioners began receiving presentations about the proposed combination as early as March. Atrium has also pointed to research it says shows hospital combinations can reduce operating expenses and cited results from other Advocate Health combinations, including improvements in hospital mortality and chronic-disease management.

WakeMed says the $2 billion commitment would support redevelopment of its Raleigh campus, expansions at Cary and North hospitals, further development of the Garner campus and two new Healthplex locations. The systems also say the agreement would generate more than 3,300 new jobs, expand virtual care and bring additional advanced specialty and subspecialty services to the region.

State law allows certain competitive hospital business information to remain confidential, meaning commissioners and residents have had to rely on presentations and summaries for this and portions of the agreement rather than seeing every term of the transaction. The lack of full public access became a major issue after the original vote was delayed for up to 90 days following backlash from residents and state officials who questioned the speed and transparency of the initial process.

The August 17 hearing did not result in a vote, leaving the future of the proposal unresolved. The earliest potential consideration is now expected at the Wake County Board of Commissioners' September 8 meeting, although officials have not confirmed that the merger will be placed on that agenda.

Data Center Project in Southeast Raleigh Withdrawn Before City Council Vote

Jordan Meadows — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:11:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

A proposed 100,000-square-foot data center in southeast Raleigh will not go before the City Council after all, after the project's developer withdrew its annexation application over the weekend, city leaders confirmed.

The project, known in city annexation filings as Radius DC Raleigh I, sought to annex roughly 13.65 acres at 3101 Jones Sausage Road into the city so it could connect to Raleigh's water and sewer systems, clearing the way for a data center estimated at $180 million once built out.

The site sits directly across from the Parrish Meadows residential neighborhood in the Garner area of southeast Raleigh, and had been earmarked for a smaller industrial building under a previous proposal from Stephens Center Inc. before the data center plan emerged.

More than 100 people had signed up to speak against the project at Tuesday's City Council meeting, and critics said the proposal bypassed the city's Planning Commission and skipped a neighborhood meeting they considered a critical step in the review process. Everyone who had signed up to speak has since been notified the item is off Tuesday's Aug. 18 agenda, according to the city.

Mayor Janet Cowell confirmed the withdrawal, which came Saturday, days ahead of the scheduled vote.

Charlotte-based Beacon Partners, which had developed a substantial industrial footprint along the Jones Sausage Road corridor and was widely identified with the project, said in a statement that it sold the parcel under contract back in November 2025 and is "not involved in the prospective project in any capacity," adding that it was aware the purchaser had withdrawn its annexation application.

The property is held by an entity called B3-SFRE JSR LLC; the Radius DC Raleigh I name in the annexation filing points to RadiusDC, a U.S. edge data center operator, as the developer actually behind the project. Beacon has not otherwise commented.

Raleigh has not adopted a moratorium on data center development, unlike several nearby jurisdictions; Orange and Chatham counties have paused new data center approvals in some form. North Carolina is now home to nearly 100 data center facilities statewide, anchored by large hyperscale operations including Apple's campus in Maiden, Google's in Lenoir and Meta's in Forest City, along with newer projects from Amazon in Richmond County and Microsoft in Person County.

The debate over the Jones Sausage Road site echoes a broader national reckoning over data center growth near residential areas; in Loudoun County, Virginia—home to more than 250 operational data centers and an estimated 70% of the world's daily internet traffic—county leaders took their first step toward pausing new data center development within the past month.

A Forgotten Pioneer of Bus Desegregation

Jordan Meadows — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:37:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

The first of August marked the anniversary of the day a 23-year-old Women's Army Corps private named Sarah Keys refused to give up her bus seat to a white Marine in Roanoke Rapids, predating Rosa Parks' famous refusal in Montgomery by more than three years.

The town of Roanoke Rapids has marked the date as Sarah Keys Evans Day since 2020.

Private Sarah Keys Evans, Women's Army Corps (WAC), November 24, 1951-November 27, 1953.
Women's Memorial Foundation Register Photograph

Keys, a Washington, NC, native serving as a private first class at Fort Dix, New Jersey, boarded a Trailways bus in Trenton on Aug. 1, 1952, headed home on leave to see her family. Because the bus traveled straight through with no transfers, she knew she was entitled to sit where she liked and chose a seat in the middle of the bus, away from the heat, bumps and engine fumes that tended to collect toward the back.

Near midnight, the bus stopped in Roanoke Rapids for a driver change. The new driver rechecked tickets as he moved down the aisle, and when he reached Keys, he ordered her to move to the back to make room for a white Marine who had just boarded. She refused.

The driver walked to the front of the bus and announced that every passenger except Keys would be transferring to a different bus. Police soon arrived at the terminal, took her by her arm and drove her to the station, telling her they would notify her family themselves; they never did, and her parents spent hours not knowing what had happened to their daughter.

Keys was held alone in a jail cell for roughly 13 hours and fined $25 on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Her father encouraged her to fight the charge rather than let the incident go, and the family brought the case to the NAACP, which connected Keys with attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree—herself a former Women's Army Corps member who had faced a similar ordeal in 1943—and Roundtree's law partner, Julius Winfield Robertson. Roundtree and Robertson sued both Carolina Coach Company and the northern bus line that had originally sold Keys her ticket, taking the case to the Interstate Commerce Commission rather than the courts.

The fight lasted more than three years. On Nov. 7, 1955, the ICC ruled in Keys' favor, finding that seating Black interstate passengers in separate sections of a bus "subjects such passengers to unjust discrimination, and undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage" in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.

The commission issued a companion ruling the same day in a related railroad segregation case brought by the NAACP. Applying reasoning similar to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the ICC decisions dismantled the "separate but equal" doctrine as it applied to interstate travel, rejecting the legal logic the bus company had relied on from Plessy v. Ferguson.

Weeks after the ruling, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her own bus seat, an act that ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott and drew national attention Keys' case never received.

Keys left the Army in 1953, moved to Brooklyn, married, and built a three-decade career as a hairstylist, eventually owning her own salon, Glamour Nook Ltd. Legal historians say the significance of her case has only been more widely recognized in recent years; in a May 1961 petition urging the ICC to enforce desegregation in interstate travel amid violence against the Freedom Riders, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy cited both Keys v. Carolina Coach Co. and the Supreme Court's 1960 ruling in Boynton v. Virginia, which had already ended segregation in bus terminals.

Keys Evans died Nov. 16, 2023, at 94. Her story is the subject of "Riding Into History: The Surprising Story of Sarah Keys Evans and the Fight to Desegregate Bus Travel," published by Duke University Press, as well as an earlier young-readers book, "Take a Seat—Make a Stand," by Amy Nathan.

Faith Leaders Unite in Prayer for Highway Patrol and Immigrant Communities

Jordan Meadows — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 13:08:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Faith leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other traditions gathered at Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh on Friday morning for an interfaith prayer vigil in support of both North Carolina State Highway Patrol officers and immigrant communities affected by a new state law requiring law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The vigil centered on Senate Bill 153, which the North Carolina General Assembly enacted over Gov. Josh Stein's veto on June 24.

Now codified as Session Law 2026-19, the law requires four state law enforcement agencies (the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Adult Correction, the State Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigation) to enter into agreements with ICE. Those agreements authorize designated state officers to carry out federal immigration enforcement duties once handled exclusively by ICE agents.

The law also bars state public benefit agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Housing Finance Agency, from providing Medicaid, housing assistance, or childcare subsidies to people residing in the state without legal status, and prohibits UNC System institutions from adopting sanctuary campus policies or restricting federal immigration enforcement on their campuses. It further waives local government tort immunity, meaning cities and counties that maintain sanctuary ordinances could be sued if someone in the country illegally commits a crime against a person or property within their borders.

Organizers described the hourlong vigil as neither an endorsement of the law nor a protest against Highway Patrol officers, but an expression of shared moral concern.

"This vigil is rooted in the shared values found across many faith traditions: to welcome the stranger, to love our neighbor, to seek peace, to pursue justice, and to care for the vulnerable. We are not gathered to debate policy. We are gathered to bear faithful witness to these enduring moral values and to pray that they will guide those entrusted with authority," said Ismael Ruiz-Millan, executive director of Durham-based Connectional Ministries for the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The gathering moved through a moral analysis of Senate Bill 153, an interfaith prayer for peace and justice, a communal confession, and prayers offered for both Highway Patrol officers and immigrant communities, including a bilingual community lament written by members of a Spanish-speaking congregation and prayed responsively in English and Spanish.

Organizers said the service closed by looking toward what communal flourishing and safety for all residents could look like, and included music such as "We Are Marching in the Light of God". Among the prayers offered was one specifically for Highway Patrol officers, asking for their protection on every roadside stop and for grace for those wrestling with the weight of their new duties, including officers who themselves have immigrant family members.

Pastor Athena Thomasson-Bless of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary said the vigil was meant to call people of faith to moral courage.

"We, clergy of many faith backgrounds, are holding this prayer vigil to call us all to moral courage as people of faith," she said. "We are praying with hope for a future where all can flourish in our communities. We pray for the safety and flourishing of State Troopers who already have a great deal of responsibility and workload. We pray for the safety and flourishing of immigrants and refugees who deserve opportunities and protection. We come in prayer with courage and hope for a world where we honor and respect the sacred dignity and worth of all people."

The Rev. Joel Simpson, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Taylorsville, said many troopers did not seek the responsibilities the new law places on them.

"This law forces Highway Patrol to perform duties they never signed up to do. Not only will we pray for their safety, we will pray for their hearts and conscience as this new law goes into effect so that they continue to see the humanity of all people and stay faithful to serving and protecting all drivers, especially the most vulnerable," he said.

Faith leaders also offered thanks for the contributions immigrant communities bring to North Carolina and lamented the fear that they said now keeps some neighbors from calling on those sworn to protect them.

The Rev. Liam Barr of Latino Ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina said the vigil reflected clergy from many traditions, nationalities and languages standing together.

"Together, we will embody a vision of the world God is calling forth: a world where all are free to find joy; where law enforcement are free to fulfill their calling by serving and protecting the image of God in every person; where our differences become occasions for celebration rather than division; and where we can live out the sacred truth that we belong to one another," he said.

NCCU Opens Nation’s First HBCU AI Institute Building

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:55:00 +0000

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

North Carolina Central University cut the ribbon on Monday morning on a new $7.2 million building for its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, making it the first historically Black college or university in the country to establish a dedicated AI institute and the first North Carolina college to build a facility devoted specifically to the technology.

The roughly 5,000-square-foot building, at the corner of Fayetteville and Lawson streets in Durham, was funded through a mix of federal Title III grant funding and NCCU trust funds. Inside, a central collaboration space is surrounded by an AI Literacy Studio, a Machine Learning and Data Science Studio, a Robotics and Emerging Tech Lab, an XR Innovation Sandbox, an Ethics and Governance Classroom and an Innovation Atrium.

The institute itself opened in January 2025 with $1 million in funding from Google.org and was formally approved by the NCCU Board of Trustees in December 2025, after a lengthy institutional review process.

"Today, we are establishing a framework, a blueprint and a launching point for what ethical, responsible and human-centered artificial intelligence can look like in higher education and beyond," said Siobahn Grady, the institute's founding director, who holds a Ph.D. and whose academic path runs through three of North Carolina's HBCUs—undergraduate study in computer science at Winston-Salem State, a graduate degree in information science at NCCU, and a history-making stint at N.C. A&T before returning to Central to help build the institute.

"AI used to be something specifically just for computer scientists, but with AI tools now it's accessible to everyone," Grady said. "We want our campus community to have access to these tools, but also understand how they're developed, the biases involved in them; the pros, but also the harms that it may cause too."

NCCU Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon, who also holds a Ph.D., told the crowd of faculty, students, alumni and community members that the university's goal extends beyond simply teaching students to use AI tools.

"Artificial intelligence is transforming nearly every industry," Dixon said. "We want to not only prepare students but help them shape AI."

Dixon added that the pace of the technology's adoption creates its own obligation for the university.

"Technology moves faster than trust," she said. "What we have to do strategically and intentionally is to educate our campus community on usage of AI in a responsible and ethical way… it shouldn't replace human judgment, creativity, or critical thinking skills."

Her comment referenced a recent study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University, which found faculty worry AI could weaken students' critical thinking and erode academic integrity.

U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-N.C., was among several local and state officials on hand, alongside Durham Mayor Leo Williams and state Treasurer Brad Briner. Foushee framed the institute as a corrective to who typically drives technological innovation.

"Our future cannot be built by a few tech moguls and billionaires," she said. "The breakthroughs of tomorrow will not just be from Silicon Valley and the largest universities."

She added that the institute would prepare students for high-demand careers, strengthen research partnerships, support entrepreneurs and expand access to emerging technology for communities she said have too often been left out of the innovation economy.

Starting in fall 2025, NCCU added an AI module to its mandatory Introduction to University Education course for incoming freshmen, requiring all first-year students to complete introductory AI coursework. Beginning this fall, the university will offer a new AI minor through its Department of Mathematics and Physics, and faculty have access to seed grant funding to pursue AI-related research.

According to figures cited at the event, 208 programs nationally now offer a bachelor's degree in artificial intelligence.

The NC Labor Department Recovers Record $3.7 Million In Unpaid Wages

Jordan Meadows — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:05:00 +0000

North Carolina Labor Commissioner Luke Farley and Kisha Scotton, bureau chief for the Wage and Hour Division, discuss the recovery of $3.7 million in unpaid wages for workers during a August 11, 2026, press conference. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)

By Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

North Carolina Labor Commissioner Luke Farley announced Tuesday morning that his department recovered a record $3.7 million in unpaid wages for workers over the past year, calling it the Department of Labor's greatest annual impact to date in enforcing the state's wage laws.

Farley announced the Historic Labor Building in Raleigh, where he was joined by Kisha Scotton, administrator of the department's Wage and Hour Bureau and vice chair of the National Wage and Hour Committee.

The recovered wages came from 2,199 substantiated complaints handled by the bureau's eight case analysts and fifteen investigators, with more complex cases routed to investigators for deeper review.

"Most businesses want to comply with the law," Farley said, "but when workers are denied wages they've earned, we as a department will work on their behalf. Today's historic announcement is a reminder that the NC Department of Labor is committed to protecting workers, protecting responsible job creators, and that a full day's work receives a full day's pay."

Farley said the department's primary goal in wage disputes is not necessarily to fine employers but to correct the error, enforce the terms of the labor agreements in question, and get workers their money—though the department can and does file lawsuits when necessary to secure compensation. He encouraged workers who believe they haven't been paid properly to contact the department directly.

"The best way to get that help is to call us.”

Scotton said her bureau tries to intervene before a wage dispute escalates into a formal violation.

"The NC Department of Labor is here to help," she said. "Workers who believe they have not been paid properly should not assume there's nowhere to turn. The department is there to address issues even before they become violations."

The bureau enforces the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act, which governs unpaid wages, vacation pay, overtime, minimum wage compliance and youth employment protections. Investigators examine payroll deductions and other pay practices to confirm workers' gross wages comply with state law, cross-referencing actual hours worked, job responsibilities and scheduled shifts against compensation records, and rely on a combination of documentation, employer and employee interviews, and state law to determine whether wages were properly paid.

Farley's office said the extent of enforcement action in a given case often depends heavily on the employer's responsiveness once a complaint is filed.

North Carolina's minimum wage remains set at the federal floor of $7.25 an hour for standard non-exempt hourly employees, with a tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour, provided tips bring a worker's total hourly earnings up to at least $7.25. That trails well behind the state's average hourly wage of $24.79 across all occupations, according to federal labor tracking data, and behind an estimated living wage of $22.47 an hour for a single adult to cover basic local housing and food costs.

Farley, a Republican and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University School of Law, was sworn in as North Carolina's labor commissioner in January 2025 and is one of only four elected labor commissioners in the country. Tuesday's announcement builds on a wage-recovery effort that topped $2.5 million over a comparable period a year earlier, according to the department.

Advisory Council Hears Urgent Calls for Stronger Digital Media Literacy in NC Schools

Jordan Meadows — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:39:38 +0000

By: Jordan Meadows

Staff Writer

Mitch Prinstein, the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and co-director of the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development at UNC-Chapel Hill, told members of Gov. Josh Stein's Advisory Council for Student Safety and Well-Being said on Monday morning that nearly half of North Carolina's early high schoolers are experiencing digital stress severe enough to interfere with their sleep, exercise, homework, hygiene and family relationships.

Prinstein's presentation covered adolescent social media use, the rollout of the state's new cell phone-free classroom law, and what he called an urgent and largely unstudied new front: children's use of artificial intelligence chatbots.

"About 45% of the kids in early high school report that they're experiencing so much digital stress it's interfering with their daily rules and routines," Prinstein said. "Their sleep, their exercise, their homework, their hygiene, looking at their parents in the eye across the dinner table — this is all impaired. The more digital stress they report, the more depression they're reporting a year later."

Prinstein said his lab has applied the same diagnostic criteria used to identify substance dependency, excessive and uncontrolled use, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and interference with daily life, to social media use, substituting the word "social media" for "alcohol" in the clinical standard. In his own research sample, 95% of respondents reported excessive, uncontrolled use of social media, and about half reported at least one symptom of clinical dependency.

He said his team is now collecting comparable data on AI use and is already seeing adolescents report withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop.

Citing American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidance that adolescents need eight hours of sleep a night, Prinstein said fewer than half of the nation's ninth graders and fewer than a quarter of 12th graders get the medically recommended amount — a shortfall he attributed largely to screens. Poor sleep, he said, is linked to obesity, risky behavior, lower grades, impulsivity, emotional outbursts and next-day driving accidents among teen drivers, and is associated with slower growth of white matter — the brain tissue that speeds signal transmission and underlies more sophisticated adult-level thinking — during a critical stretch of adolescent brain development.

Prinstein also presented data from brain imaging of roughly 10,000 children scanned annually across 20 sites nationwide, part of a broader study he said showed more screen time correlated with a thinner cortex over time, particularly in regions tied to impulse control and susceptibility to addiction. Kids who used their phones heavily in sixth grade showed a blunted brain response to social feedback by the time they were older, he said, while kids who started using phones heavily later showed the opposite pattern: a spike in sensitivity in the brain's reward circuitry.

"They're building brains that are now hypersensitive to social cues," he said.

Turning to phone use inside North Carolina classrooms, Prinstein cited a state-funded study — conducted with support from Jenny Corn at the North Carolina Collaboratory — that collected data from 22 schools across the state, more than 2,300 students and their teachers. Even with every school in the sample enforcing a no-phone policy, he said, students reported spending roughly 20 minutes of every classroom hour on their devices, a third of the school day, mostly on social media, entertainment and texting rather than schoolwork.

He said students are most likely to reach for a phone when bored or uncomfortable and try to resist while actively engaged, but slip once their attention drifts. Asked who they're texting during class, students most often named their parents — a finding Prinstein said surprised him enough that he texted his own daughter about it before catching himself.

"We kind of forget that we have the skill of getting a text and then ignoring it until we're out of our meeting," he said. "But the kids don't."

The effects extend beyond the student holding the phone, Prinstein said. Research shows a student who spends class time on YouTube or TikTok scores lower on standardized tests such as the AP exam — and so does the student sitting near them, a phenomenon he called a secondhand screen effect. He said the same distraction shows up with school-issued laptops, which many students use for gaming and streaming rather than classwork, and that teachers report the enforcement burden contributes to stress and attrition; a study his team conducted in Canada found teacher stress dropped and retention improved after a phone ban was imposed from the top down rather than left to individual teachers to police.

Citing a separate national study of more than 10,000 children across roughly 20 sites, Prinstein said children with the heaviest and increasing social media use scored lower on every measure tested, including impulsivity, reading, memory, processing speed, vocabulary and a composite measure of academic functioning.

Prinstein devoted a significant portion of his remarks to artificial intelligence, which he said is now the subject of three emerging strands of research: chatbots exacerbating existing mental health risks, chatbots fostering false intimacy and trust, and the displacement of human relationships and parental interaction. He referenced accounts of chatbots encouraging users toward self-harm and urging them to keep the conversations secret from their families, and cases of chatbots telling users their ideas were groundbreaking and that skepticism from others amounted to a conspiracy against them.

Citing a paper his team submitted for publication this past week, Prinstein said 65% of children in the North Carolina middle school sample reported interacting with chatbots regularly, and that his data show roughly one student per classroom describes an AI chatbot as their friend and prefers talking to it over talking to another person. He said the more adolescents use AI chatbots as companions, the more loneliness they report over the following six months. About 18% of students introduced to chatbots in school said they use them for things they wouldn't tell a teacher, he said.

Prinstein criticized the design of commercial chatbots directly, objecting to their use of humanlike language such as claiming to feel emotions or to be "thinking" while a response loads.

"They're not people. They're computers. We should refer to them that way," he said, arguing that chatbots' tendency to affirm and flatter users rather than offer constructive feedback runs counter to how psychologists, teachers and healthy relationships are supposed to function.

"Sycophancy is not what we need for childhood," he said.

Prinstein urged the council to recommend that schools set academic deadlines no later than 9 p.m. rather than midnight, arguing that late homework deadlines keep students on devices later into the night regardless of whether they're doing schoolwork. He described bringing digital media literacy presentations to middle and high schools across the Triangle and elsewhere, including an exercise in which students look up the privacy policies of the apps they use and learn what data those apps collect and sell. He said students are often stunned to learn how much of their information — browsing history, payment methods, contacts — is being monetized. Prinstein said the American Psychological Association has published health advisories summarizing the research on social media and AI, and offered to share testimony his team has submitted to other states considering similar legislation.

The council, which Stein created by executive order last year to develop school safety and well-being policy, met at the Juvenile Justice Center in Raleigh.