Rachel Keith

This week, on The Newsroom, reporters Sofia Dinka and Kelly Kenoyer dig into the current status of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, after a private company’s bid got rejected last month. While the specifics for the replacement aren't nailed down, a toll bridge is looking more and more likely. We'll look at the history of 1898 with Reporter Rachel Keith and how it was framed by the media at the time. She attended an educator’s summit in Wilmington that made that history come alive. And we'll look at Kelly Kenoyer's top stories in the past five years before she leaves WHQR and Wilmington.

The last week in July, UNC Chapel Hill’s Carolina K-12 program hosted a professional development program in Wilmington called “Harbors of Democracy” for educators across the state. For some of the sessions, they listened to state and local historians on how the media was used to foment violence during the Wilmington 1898 coup and massacre – and to subsequently cover up the truth of what happened. They also learned that some historical remnants from that time are at risk of being lost.

On Tuesday evening, the New Hanover County school board voted 5-2 to approve a new board ethics policy. Libertarian member David Perry and Democratic member Dr. Tim Merrick dissented, arguing that some of the provisions in the new policy were either vague or could be used as a punitive measure against a member in the future. The board also voted down a resolution on a new way to store student data, brought forth by Perry.

More than 50 educators across North Carolina came to Wilmington to participate in four days of professional development, called “Harbors of Democracy.” Some of the sessions were about military service and civic responsibility, but one of the main topics for exploration was the deadly 1898 Wilmington coup, where White supremacist leaders forced the multi-racial city government to give up their seats at gunpoint.

On Tuesday, the New Hanover County Board of Education extended the superintendent’s contract for another year. They also voted to rescind the public hearing around the Biblical during school hours program, LifeWise Academy. They instead will host two upcoming town halls, one on district operations – and another on the proposed $320.5 million school bond on the November ballot.

Patients of Wilmington Health’s urology department started receiving letters last week informing them that this medical practice was “suspending operations” effective August 31.

On this edition of The Newsroom, author Lauren Collins joins us to talk about her newest book: They Stole A City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with its Legacy, a project that took her a decade to write.

On Wednesday, the New Hanover County school board’s policy committee met to discuss possible upcoming changes to policies on board ethics, public records, and student academic contracts. A notable change is that the board might decrease the threshold for hourly charges for records requests from four hours to two. However, legal experts have said the law is relatively straightforward; relevant requests would have to be so burdensome that without additional IT or clerical support, the agency wouldn't be able to respond ‘promptly.’

On today's show, Kelly Kenoyer discusses her months-long investigation into alleged morale issues in Wilmington City Hall. And Rachel Keith sits down to discuss her recent reporting on the Upperman family’s decision to stop supporting UNCW scholarships over the university’s anti-DEI policy, plus her recent efforts to track the $20 million nursing pipeline grant.

At the end of 2023, The Endowment launched what was then its most ambitious grant to date, aimed at creating a nursing pipeline to address a serious shortage. The grant directed over $20 million to a collaborative group of public educational institutions and the local chamber of commerce. Through public records requests and other inquiries, WHQR took a look at how the pipeline project is doing — but without on-the-record interviews, some questions were harder to answer.