Sunday Edition

For a long time, the City of Wilmington maintained a public terminal, allowing the press — and the public — to easily review city emails. Over the last few years, accessing the terminal became more difficult. Now, the city has discontinued it entirely, citing security concerns. That’s made it harder for journalists to cover Wilmington, which can be slow to reply to public records requests.

WHQR staff spend a lot of time watching meetings, but this Friday’s Wilmington budget workshop was a long one, even by our standards. Kelly Kenoyer spent all day covering it, which she swears she enjoyed. She filed this report for Sunday Edition.

From this week's Sunday Edition, a few notes on The Endowment's $116-million grant announcement, and a different perspective on New Hanover County Schools' 2024 budget crisis.

One of the invariable questions during the county’s budget process is about the comparative funding for public schools versus public safety. Given that the former is the subject of perennial debate while the latter, at least of late, has flown under the radar, you can understand why it’s sometimes an invidious comparison. So, what does a fair analysis look like?

A little extra from this week's Sunday Edition, including some notes on the pros and cons of this year's New Hanover County budget, and the apparent fate of the county elections director.

Novant New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s leadership continues to argue that safety and quality ratings are outdated and fail to paint an accurate picture of the current conditions at the hospital. That’s true, to some extent, but getting real answers about whether Novant is escaping the recurring cycle of middling grades remains a little more complicated.

From this week's Sunday Edition: Notes from the desk of News Director Ben Schachtman on the recent safety and quality ratings for Novant NHRMC, the latest in the story of New Hanover County's embattled elections director, and the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office's decision to redecorate with a few choice quotes.

Settlements resolve civil lawsuits where both parties have concerns about the costs — financial, psychological, and reputational — of going to trial. Often, they’re the best chance for victims of institutional negligence or malice to get some measure of justice and restitution. At the same time, avoiding a trial forecloses a rare chance for transparency and accountability for public institutions, which can leave the public feeling an uneasy lack of resolution.

From this week's Sunday Edition: For most local governments, balancing the budget means choosing between cutting spending and raising taxes. This year’s New Hanover County budget presents an interesting — and uncommon — third option: dipping into a nine-figure reserve fund. But doing that will take a bipartisan supermajority, which significantly changes the dynamics of budget negotiations.

From this week's Sunday Edition: A brutal stabbing. A young U.S. Marine killed. What happened, and why? What can we learn — and what can we do next?