Due South

On this week’s NC News Roundup... From the mountains to the sea wildfires are burning across the state. Western North Carolina was hit, even as they continue cleaning up after Helene. We check in with a reporter at Blue Ridge Public Radio. We also get updates from the General Assembly where policy proposals include raising teacher pay, eliminating non-competes, investing in cryptocurrency, and further stifling DEI. All that, and just why did a North Carolina student end up as President Trump’s guest when he addressed Congress? Jeff Tiberii talks with a panel of journalists about those stories and more, on Due South.

Bryan Anderson, freelance reporter, creator of the “Anderson Alerts” newsletter

Claudia Rivera Cotto, Political Reporter, Enlace Latino NC

Lucille Sherman, reporter, Axios Raleigh

Danielle Battaglia, Capitol Hill correspondent, The News & Observer/The Charlotte Observer/McClatchy

Gerard Albert III, reporter at Blue Ridge Public Radio

Colloquially “bird flu,” or officially the H5N1 avian influenza, has been spreading among wild birds and poultry. While the public health risk remains low, there are some preventative measures you can take.

How fertility and marriages rates could be used to determine federal funding for transportation projects.

And, WUNC's 'Main Street NC' series checks on rebuilding efforts in Spruce Pine after Hurricane Helene.

Guests

Dr. Rocio Crespo, poultry veterinarian and researcher and a professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State University

Steve Harrison, political reporter for WFAE-Charlotte’s NPR News Source and author of the Inside Politics newsletter

Colin Campbell, WUNC's Capitol Bureau Chief and the host of the Main Street NC series

Jeff Tiberii talks to WUNC's K-12 education reporter Liz Schlemmer about the state's school districts and their concerns over potential budget cuts and low enrollment numbers. Celeste Headlee talks to award-winning historian Martha S. Jones about her North Carolina roots and her new memoir, The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir. Leoneda Inge returns with a new HBCU 101, focused on HBCU radio history and archiving with Jocelyn Robinson of the HBCU Radio Preservation Project. 

Postpartum health requires support for the body and for the mind, but so many in this country go without either. We talk with the founders of a new full-service, overnight postpartum retreat in Charlotte. Plus, a nurse midwife, and a poet, talk about the challenges of the postpartum period… and some solutions for getting crucial help.

Selena Williams and Lauren Hall, founders, Ziva Postpartum Retreat

Karen Sheffield-Abdullah, certified nurse-midwife, mindfulness instructor, and Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Bridget Bell, writer and poet, author of All That We Ask of You Is to Always Be Happy

The destruction of local roads, bridges, and even a major interstate kept Asheville and surrounding towns mostly cut off from the rest of the world for days after Hurricane Helene. The reopening of I-40 between Asheville and Tennessee is a milestone in the rebuilding effort. 

How to build a road made to last, from WUNC's podcast The Broadside.

And, four families navigate housing after Hurricane Helene in the Blue Ridge Public Radio series "Living in Limbo."

Guests

Richard Stradling, Transportation Reporter at The Raleigh News & Observer 

Anisa Khalifa, host, The Broadside 

Charlie Shelton-Ormond, Producer, The Broadside  

Laura Hackett, Reporter at Blue Ridge Public Radio 

Gerard Albert III, Western North Carolina and Rural Communities Reporter at Blue Ridge Public Radio 

Jeff Tiberii chats talks to a roundtable of reporters about the week's news, including possible cuts to Medicaid and a legislative bill to limit cell phone use in public schools. Guests: Bryan Anderson, reporter, Anderson Alerts newsletter; Gary Robertson, North Carolina politics reporter, Associated Press; Lynn Bonner, investigative reporter, NC Newsline; Danielle Battaglia, Washington Correspondent, News & Observer/Charlotte Observer; Jay Price, military reporter, WUNC

What Apple’s investment in the U.S. means for NC 
Apple’s plans for a campus in Research Triangle Park are on hold. But the company just announced projects in other major U.S. cities. Lauren Ohnesorge, Senior reporter and editor at the Triangle Business Journal

Southern News, Southern Politics: How a Newspaper Defined a State for a Century
The Raleigh News and Observer has a complicated and consequential history in North Carolina. The story of the N&O – or the “Nuisance & Disturber” as some called it over the years – is also the story of the family that owned and ran the paper from the late 1800s to the end of the 20th century. And about how the News & Observer didn’t just report on politics, but also shaped politics, for generations of North Carolinians. Rob Christensen, a former political columnist for the News and Observer, talks with Leoneda Inge about his new book, Southern News, Southern Politics: How a Newspaper Defined a State for a Century.
Rob Christensen, former political columnist for the News and Observer in Raleigh, author of Southern News, Southern Politics: How a Newspaper Defined a State for a Century

After a five-year hiatus, Wheels Family Fun Park reopens as Wheels Durham
A longstanding community institution in Durham is set to reopen this week after nearly five years. The former Wheels Family Fun Park, a family-owned-and operated go kart track, mini golf park and skating returns as Wheels Durham, a skating rink owned by the City of Durham. Wheels Family Fun Park opened in 1980 and served the community for nearly 40 years. The community hopes the revitalized space will create memories for new generations of Durham families.
Wade Walcutt, director of Durham Parks and Recreation

The 'Legacies of Lynching' inaugural gathering will convene this weekend in Chapel Hill. Historian Blair LM Kelley and Bettie Murchison, co-chair of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, join Leoneda Inge to dig deep into that legacy — for descendants, for communities, and for our collective understanding of our state's history.

Poet and spoken word performer Nick Courmon also joins the conversation to share the story of his cousin Percy Berry. Berry was lynched in Craven County in 1932. He is one of more than 4,400 Black people killed in racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950 who are remembered at the The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

Then, Leoneda Inge talks with Jamil Kadoura about the 2023 fire that devastated Mediterranean Deli, his popular eatery with deep roots in the Chapel Hill community. He explains how the business survived since the fire, his plans for re-opening, and how he’s managed to continue providing support for others during this challenging time.

Editor's note: Mediterranean Deli is a financial supporter of WUNC.

Leoneda Inge chats with Kris Nordstrom, senior policy analyst for the North Carolina Justice Center's Education & Law Project. Celeste Headlee speaks with Hannah McClellan, senior reporter for Education NC. CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams-Parker chats with Leoneda Inge. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education is tracking changes to DEI policies at universities in real time with its "DEI Impact Tracker" and a "DEI Legislation Tracker."

We meet a woman who proudly performs her DEI work with a twist.

And Reveal’s series "40 Acres and a Lie" uncovers the government program that gave formerly enslaved people land titles, only to take the land back. Reveal was recently given a DuPont-Columbia Award for this series.

Guests

Daarel Burnette II, Senior Editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education

James Farrell, Education Reporter for WFAE in Charlotte

Chandra Guinn, Executive Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at McKinney

Alexia Fernandez Campbell, reporter for the Center for Public Integrity

Ruth Wilson, descendent who lives in Wake Forest, NC