© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT
The WHQR News Team has recapped several major stories for the year, and now, it’s your turn to let us know what events you think were most important and have had the biggest impact on our community.Then, tune in the week of December 26-30 when WHQR will be airing its 2011 Top Ten Countdown.

#1 News Story of 2011: Redistricting

The Department of Justice approved North Carolina’s redrawn district maps last month, but court proceedings for a pair of lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of those changes have just begun.

WHQR’s Michelle Bliss reports that #1 on our top ten countdown of 2011 news stories is redistricting.

Redistricting takes place every ten years to account for the state’s census results. North Carolina has grown by 1.5 million residents since 2000.

The new maps include marked changes to the 7th Congressional district which has housed all of New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties, among others.

With the approved revisions, most of Pender will be part of District 3, which extends up the coast to the Virginia border, and a slice of northwestern New Hanover will be included in other districts.

Residents of Johnston County, along with parts of Hoke and Lenoir, will also vote in the seventh district.

Check out the new map of North Carolina's 7th Congressional District and compare it to the last map

After growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia, Michelle attended Virginia Tech before moving to Wilmington to complete her Master in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Her reporting and nonfiction writing have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, within the pages of Wrightsville Beach Magazine, and in literary journals like River Teeth and Ninth Letter. Before moving to Wilmington, Michelle served as the general manager for WUVT, a community radio station in Blacksburg, Virginia. She lives with her husband Scott and their pups, Katie, Cooper, and Mosey.