2023 brought nature’s fury to NC, troubled court software and some memorable ice cream
Part 4 of a five-part package revisiting the 2023 stories that The News & Observer’s staff members will remember long after the year is over.
Mother Nature’s beauty and power on full display
In mid-September, I was tasked with capturing the aftermath of Hurricane Lee on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, particularly focusing on vulnerable homes in Rodanthe facing the rough surf.
After reviewing tide charts, I discovered that sunrise and high tide would coincide almost exactly on Sept. 15.
As Lee moved northward, hundreds of miles off the coast of Rodanthe, morning sunlight broke through clouds on the horizon. I deployed a drone in a stiff wind, hovering about 150 feet above the houses. Waves crashed against the pilings, and overwash breached the dunes — a stunning display of both Mother Nature’s power and beauty.
Then in November, a demolition crew leveled two Rodanthe beach homes. The National Park Service acquired these properties as part of a pilot program to purchase homes threatened by erosion and remove them preemptively — avoiding the inevitable impact of Mother Nature.
Travis Long is a staff photojournalist.
The year that brought the best ice cream I’ve ever had
It occurs to me as I start to write that a story about Chocolate Chess Pie Ice Cream was my favorite story of the year, that last year I said the same about a ham biscuit story.
No, I am not a food writer.
But I am an eater, and that November guest flavor from local scoop shop Two Roosters is absolutely the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. I told readers exactly that, and the feedback was so fun. And when I visited the store a few days after the article ran (to buy a pint to take home), I learned there had been a sudden run on the ice cream.
You’re welcome, Raleigh.
Brooke Cain is McClatchy’s Service Journalism Editor/East.
When the justice system becomes the theater of the absurd
I’ve been a reporter long enough to know the justice system isn’t blind. But 2023 was the year I learned that, at times, it ain’t terribly bright either.
While covering the troubled rollout of the state’s new electronic courts software, I met Kevin Spruill after he was inexplicably arrested in Durham. The arrest warrant accused him of somehow obtaining property under false pretenses when he bought a hundred bucks of groceries with his own money.
Kevin posted bail. But no one told the rest of the justice system. Another cop cuffed him on the same warrant weeks later. When Kevin showed up to court on the charges, as scheduled, deputies cuffed him on the warrant yet again.
He eventually got a dismissal and an apology, but not before wasting hours of his life trying to escape this theater of the absurd.
Who bears responsibility for such a series of stupid mistakes remains unclear. But it’s Kevin who paid.
His reflection on the ordeal lives in my head rent-free: “You can’t take stuff for granted.”
Tyler Dukes is an investigative reporter.
Soaring to new heights with NCSU’s Christina Koch
Three-time N.C. State University graduate Christina Koch gave the Wolfpack plenty of reason to cheer this year when it was announced that she will be the first woman to fly to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission.
Covering the crew announcement in April came with a rush of joy and excitement as I heard the North Carolina-raised astronaut’s name called and hurried to get the news out.
I got to learn more about Koch and her time at N.C. State when she came back to the university for a conversation with Chancellor Randy Woodson this fall — only making me more excited to continue covering Koch’s journey to the moon in 2024.
Korie Dean is the higher education reporter.
This Army veteran finally become a homeowner
“Yes, ma’am. You can’t ask for anything more right here.”
That’s James “Bro” Watson, speaking in June as he took me on a tour of his new home: a 1976 three-bedroom ranch house on Southgate Drive in Southeast Raleigh.
At 62, after a lifetime of renting, the Army veteran had become a first-time homeowner through the Raleigh Area Land Trust.
My biggest takeaways: His perseverance, and the rising need for more affordable housing in Raleigh. At one point, he faced living in a half-way house after hitting a “rough patch” in his early 50s.
Now, the neighborhood’s local “handyman” finally has a place to call his own.
Chantal Allam covers real estate.
Parents share painful memories of a child lost while on the job
Pat and Bryant Farrell welcomed me into their home this year to discuss the worst day of their lives. It’s one of the few times my eyes have watered on the job, hearing Pat describe the unresolvable pain of losing her only child.
In October 2022, electrician Vincent Farrell touched a live wire during a shift at Wolfspeed, a successful semiconductor producer in Durham. He was 45 and a widower.
Several months later, I sat with his parents to learn about the unfolding accident investigation. Over several subsequent visits that winter and spring, Pat relayed what she had heard from the company and state. On one visit, she shared a letter from Wolfspeed that detailed safety adjustments the company was making in the wake of the fatal incident.
But more than anything, she spoke of Vincent.
Brian Gordon covers technology and business.
A new appreciation for one of life’s simple joys: ballpark peanuts
I’ve never given much thought to the peanuts at a baseball game. Crack, peel, crunch.
Now I know that the small but mighty peanut has had quite a journey to the stadium, one that very likely started in Northeastern North Carolina. Andrew Carter and Robert Willett visited Lassiter Family Farms this year, whose peanuts often end up in bags produced by Hampton Farms, the largest producer of in-shell peanuts in the nation.
“That’s pretty surreal, man,” said farmer Donny Lassiter, as if reading my mind.’
Reading the story, I felt like I was along for a very special ride on the backroads of North Carolina. Instead of whizzing past farms, Andrew and Robert paused to introduce me to the science and the people behind them. With “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as the story’s soundtrack, I marveled at the image of 10 million pounds of peanuts piled four stories high in a warehouse, all waiting to be cracked, peeled and crunched.
I will never think of peanuts at a baseball game the same way again.
Jessica Banov is analytics and features editor.
An elected official’s office reorganization raises lots of questions
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That also can be said of a digital map.
Take the one on the N.C. Insurance Department’s website that outlines the regional districts Commissioner Mike Causey created after taking office in 2016. It has Brunswick County split in two.
When I discovered that the split allowed two of his regional directors to work out of their Oak Island beach homes, I figured I was on to something.
By the time we published our stories, we had found that the department’s regional operation, which has a roughly $1 million annual budget, was providing jobs to friends and people with political clout. Much of its work was about making Causey look good. One regional director had been his campaign manager, and there was little documentation to show she was doing the work.
Causey has a rep as a straight up official who wore a wire to help authorities implicate a top donor found guilty of trying to buy favorable regulation. (That case is being retried).
But a lot of what we reported smacked of the kind of behavior Causey has said he wouldn’t engage in.
Dan Kane is an investigative reporter.
Durham sanitation strike helps put things in perspective
When Durham’s sanitation workers went on strike after Labor Day, it introduced me to a lot of readers for the first time. Nothing quite makes you check in on your local government like seeing trash bins sit untouched on the curb for days.
Meeting people like Antonio Smith, who has worked for the city for a couple decades doing “the jobs that most people won’t,” helps keep in perspective why housing is such an important part of my beat. Smith has Bull City tattooed on his arm, and yet had to move 30 minutes away to afford a home.
Covering the strike — and the bonuses Solid Waste workers won for all city employees — felt like a great privilege.
Mary Helen Moore covers Durham.
No one could have predicted this ACC news
Last year we saw the move of the Atlantic Coast Conference headquarters from its 70-year home in Greensboro to Charlotte, a move most fans could accept and who weren’t directly affected. After all, it’s just business.
But this year, the ACC decided to invite two schools from California and one from Texas to join the conference. That’s right, California, Stanford and Southern Methodist are now part of the so-called “All Coast Conference.”
Fans have certainly been affected by this move. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was right about one thing when he said, “I’m not sure any of us would have predicted this two years ago.”
Things always happen in threes so what’s in store for the “ACC” next year? For college sports in general? Who knows, but none of us will have predicted it.
David Raynor is database editor and data reporter.
Read the rest of the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5
