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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

The Newsroom: Local news collaborations, voices of Williston's alumni, and the future of Eagles Island

On this edition of The Newsroom, we talk about a new collaborative news venture, dive into a new archive of elder voices from Wilmington's Black community, and unpack the potential for a public nature park on Eagles Island.

On today’s show, WECT reporter — and former colleague of host Ben Schachtman — Michael Praats joins us to talk local news and local news collaborations.

Then, WHQR’s own Rachel Keith hosts an exploration of Williston’s history. We’ll hear about the all-black Wilmington high school through a project that allowed local students to interview alumni from the 1950s and 60s.

And we’ll take a closer look at Eagles Island — most know it as the home of the Battleship North Carolina, or ‘that stretch of wetlands I drive over to get to Leland’ — but it’s so much more, and it could become a region-defining public park. Returning guest Evan Folds is a supervisor with the New Hanover Water and Soil Conservation District -- which also owns some land on Eagles Island. He's joined by Roger Shew, a professor of geology and oceanography at UNCW.

Links for this show:

Ben 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.