Rachel Lewis Hilburn

Brunswick County’s Board of Education is split into five districts.  Two of them have contests this year.  In District 5, John Thompson lost his primary to Republican Jerry Benton.  Now this political newcomer battles Democratic Challenger Joanne Levitan in November.

Hurricane Florence barreled into the Cape Fear region less than one month ago.  Now, the remnants of Michael are bringing more wind, rain, and possible flooding to southeastern North Carolina.

Representative Frank Iler has served North Carolina’s House District 17 for four-and-a-half terms; he is now seeking his fifth.  The district includes most of Brunswick County – about 72% of it.  The remainder of Brunswick County joins about a quarter of neighboring New Hanover County to make up House District 18 – which is served by Democratic Representative Deb Butler. 

The voter registration deadline for 28 counties in North Carolina is now extended because of impacts from Hurricane Florence.  New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, and Onslow Counties, as well as 24 other affected areas, now have until 5 PM October 15th to register.  The deadline had been Friday, October 12th. 

New Hanover County’s Board of Education has four open seats this year.  Eight people, four Democrats and four Republicans, are competing for those seats – which carry four-year terms.

Points of Distribution around New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender Counties are providing food, water, and tarps to people in need.  Armies of volunteers, law enforcement agencies, and military groups are working together to keep the lines moving.  But one neighborhood in Wilmington has launched its own rescue effort.

Businesses are slowly and carefully starting to open.  At Costco in Wilmington, which opened for just a few hours yesterday, shoppers went in 200 at a time.  A few grocery stores and some restaurants opened their doors around Leland and Wilmington.  

Flooding will affect the Cape Fear region at least through this week, but the rainfall will be the least of it.

First, the good news:  the Cape Fear region has seen the majority of the rain from Florence. 

Governor Roy Cooper is re-routing interstate traffic around North Carolina.  Floodwaters are rising, and roads that have never flooded before are now at risk.  The death toll from Florence has reached 14, and the coastal city of Wilmington is essentially cut off from the rest of the state.

Stay off the roads.  They are not safe, and they are getting worse.  That’s the urgent travel alert from North Carolina officials and those in the Cape Fear region.  

The temptation to venture out and drive around is going to be strong today.  But officials say the risk of injury or death is rising.

Tropical Storm Florence is still impacting the Cape Fear region – and is likely to continue through tonight. 

Now officials turn their attention to the risk of flooding, flash flooding, and tornadoes. 

Florence is battering the North Carolina coast – flooding beach town roads from the Outer Banks to Carolina Beach.  Officials expect the shellacking to last through Friday and into Saturday.

The long, slow, slog is underway.  As 500-mile-wide Florence moves further into North Carolina, she’s bringing storm surge, winds, flooded roads and downed power lines.  

The first effects of Hurricane Florence are nearly hitting the North Carolina coast.  While coastal stakeholders are concerned about storm surge, farmers are also looking at losses.

Hurricane Florence is nearly upon coastal North Carolina.  While the system lost some strength Wednesday, Florence is still a life-threatening, historic storm.

Hurricane Florence is a Category 2 hurricane as of Thursday morning with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour.  That’s a slightly less powerful hurricane than earlier, but officials still expect widespread damage.

Even though Hurricane Florence has dropped to a Category 3 with sustained winds at 125 miles per hour, she’s still a major hurricane.  As WHQR’s Rachel Lewis Hilburn reports, the storm now looks like it might pass just south of Bald Head Island.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is directing people in the state to obey evacuation orders as Hurricane Florence will affect the entire state of North Carolina.

Evacuation orders are in place for Brunswick County, Topsail Beach in Pender County, and now, New Hanover. 

Hurricane Florence is strengthening as she moves across the Atlantic.  While it’s not yet a fait accompli  that she’ll ram the Southeastern North Carolina coast, she will bring impacts.  Here are some preparation guidelines.

North Carolina Senate District 8 covers 100% of Brunswick, Bladen, and Pender Counties.  Also included in Senate District 8 is a tiny part – 2.6% -- of New Hanover County. 

Sonny Liston, heavyweight boxing champion in the early 1960s,  died near the beginning of 1971.  The reason listed on the death certificate:  natural causes.  But nearly 50 years later, the question of whether he was murdered is an open one for some.  It’s a question Shaun Assael set out to answer with his book, The Murder of Sonny Liston:   Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights. 

Edward Hardin joined the U.S. Army in the summer of 1917 when he was 24 years old.  Despite getting expelled from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for fraternity pranks that involved laxative-laced hot dogs and cows inside buildings, the native Wilmingtonian earned his undergraduate degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and a graduate degree in Pharmacy by 1914.  Both before and after World War I, Edward worked as a pharmacist at his family’s business, Hardin Pharmacy.

The news of a well-organized band of protestors pulling down Silent Sam last week has launched another round of emotional debate over the handling of Confederate monuments.  University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt says the eyes of the nation are upon her institution, and that she and her Board of Trustees are now charged with finding a lawful, lasting way to protect the monument by November 15th. 

Horror stories abound of homeowners’ associations nitpicking over paint colors, dinging people for landscaping choices they never submitted for approval – even fining property owners to the point of bankruptcy.

Lauren Collins has investigated the precise number of roses that go into a bottle of Chanel No. 5.  More recently, she covered the gender pay discrepancy scandal that has rocked the BBC and spurred new questions around salary secrecy and reporting requirements in the UK, Iceland, and other parts of the world.