Benjamin Schachtman
News DirectorBen Schachtman is a journalist and editor with a focus on local government accountability. He began reporting for Port City Daily in the Wilmington area in 2016 and took over as managing editor there in 2018. He’s a graduate of Rutgers College and later received his MA from NYU and his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook, both in English Literature. He loves spending time with his wife and playing rock'n'roll very loudly. You can reach him at BSchachtman@whqr.org and find him on Twitter @Ben_Schachtman.
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Over the years, a constellation of issues — including financial, legal, and engineering problems — whittled the number of red light camera programs in the state down to just a handful. Now, as Raleigh sunsets its program, Wilmington is the last municipality in North Carolina with enforcement cameras. City staff hasn’t had any recent conversations about changing that, even though the program loses money and its efficacy is, at best, a mixed bag.
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Every week, WHQR's Ben Schachtman sits down with The Assembly's Johanna Still to talk about our joint newsletter, The Dive. This week, the arrest of a top Port City United employee puts the whole department at risk.
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On Monday evening, the Wilmington Police Department and New Hanover County both confirmed Stephen Barnett, who has helped lead the county's Port City United department since it was founded in 2022, had been arrested in relation to last week's shooting.
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In honor of Sunshine Week — an annual event focused on government transparency and reporters who work to hold governments accountable for being open to the public — WECT, Port City Daily, and WHQR took a look at warrants and domestic violence protection orders. WHQR also took a closer look at a new policy aimed at giving New Hanover County school board members first crack at public documents — something that definitely isn't in keeping with the spirit of Sunshine Week.
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Officials confirmed that on Thursday a student was found with a weapon on the campus of the E.A. Laney High School in the Murrayville area of northern New Hanover County. Law enforcement is now investigating.
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According to New Hanover County, members of the PCU team were conducting "routine duties" at Houston Moore when a shooting sent one person to the hospital in critical condition. The county says one PCU employee was questioned and released by the police.
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In honor of North Carolina Arbor Day, WHQR sat down to talk trees with representatives of the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County.
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Right now, over a dozen state and federal agencies are hashing out what a replacement for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge could look like. The next phase of that process will mean determining how tall the bridge should be — which will have a major impact on the cost.
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Every week, WHQR's Ben Schachtman sits down with The Assembly's Johanna Still to talk about our joint newsletter, The Dive. This week, we broke down some key primary election results — and parsed some of the reasons for the lower-than-usual voter turnout.
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The preliminary election results showed that Brunswick County skewed more moderately conservative, while populist candidates pulled more votes in Pender County than the state average. New Hanover County remained purple — with education a defining issue.