A Wolfpack superfan, some magnificent snails and Southern sayings from will stick with us
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Part 3 of a five-part package revisiting the 2023 stories that The News & Observer’s staff members will remember long after the year is over.
Wolfpack football players embrace a true superfan
Grayson Ketchie, a 12-year-old N.C. State superfan, wrapped his arms and legs around me in a full-body hug when I visited his Garner home in October. He wanted me — at 5-foot-1 and 115 pounds — to carry him to his room, not the multiple football players like Dylan McMahon in attendance who surprised him.
Ketchie has disabilities that impact his neurological functions, including movement. But that’s not why the story sticks out. I’ll remember it because I watched Wolfpack football players interact with Grayson like any other fan. There wasn’t pity, nor did they see him as a diagnosis. They were just buddies.
Their experience reminded me of what full acceptance, friendship and finding glimmers of happiness looks like.
It also reminded me I shouldn’t skip leg day.
Jadyn Watson-Fisher covers college athletics.
Thrust into an unprecedented role, he followed the Constitution
I will never forget the look on U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry’s face when I first saw him after he became temporary House Speaker in October. The anger was palpable. He wasn’t speaking. There wasn’t eye contact. You knew he felt betrayed.
Republicans had just ousted his close friend, former speaker Kevin McCarthy.
For 22 days, I followed McHenry’s every move. I tracked the North Carolina representative through tunnels, back doors and to his armored vehicle. I’m North Carolina’s eyes and ears on Capitol Hill, and one of our lawmakers just took the national stage.
No one had ever been asked to fill in as a temporary speaker. McHenry knew anything he said or did would set a precedent, meaning he refused to do either. And while I spent 16 hours a day trying to get him to talk, the fact that he wasn’t was one of the things I respected the most. McHenry never faltered on respecting the Constitution. He was offered power — a lot of power — and at no point did he ever try to grab hold of it for himself. He supported and defended the Constitution.
Danielle Battaglia is Capitol Hill correspondent for The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and McClatchy.
A dream beach house becomes a nightmare — quicker than anyone thought
Climate change is often thought of as a large but slow-moving issue. The threats of a changing planet are scary, yes, but 10 or 15 years away— easy to put out of mind.
But an October story written by our environmental reporter Adam Wagner is the perfect example of the heartbreaking ways the climate crisis is already wreaking havoc in North Carolina.
It follows the story of a couple who dreamed of owning property in the Outer Banks and used a chunk of their savings to do so in 2021. By September of this year, the tide line had crept up so close to their house that they had no other choice but to tear the entire building down.
This story left me with an eerie but important lesson: the dangers of climate change are closer than you think.
Teddy Rosenbluth is the life sciences reporter.
Recycling that bottle can have a big impact
Is it worth my time to recycle to help the environment? Our Raleigh recycling package, reported and published in early 2023, answers this question with a hearty yes.
Our reporting teaches our readers that recycling really happens. The pieces we throw in our curbside bins (or at convenience sites around our region) wind up as new items on the shelves of the supermarket, as bottles for nearby breweries and even on the backs of UNC-Chapel Hill athletes and graduates.
With the help of our visuals team, this package showed that our small actions make a difference, both in keeping recyclable items out of landfills and in keeping in-state businesses churning.
Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska is a service journalism reporter.
Want to talk like you’re from around here? I’m glad to help.
An editor once described my role at the N&O as covering North Carolina like a foreign correspondent for Raleigh readers who can’t travel the whole state.
It’s a sacred duty, understanding and conveying the culture and personality of a place.
To advance that mission, this year we made a stab at breaking down the language barrier by gathering and translating some common idioms. This random collection of Southern sayings was intended to help newcomers understand the natives and to help them blend, linguistically, into their new home.
It was fun, incorporating familiar phrases and learning some that were new to me. But best, it proved again that we’re more alike than we think, no matter our accent.
Martha Quillin is a service journalism reporter.
Deep within the large NC budget, some hidden funding you’re likely to miss
There’s a lot to look at in a state budget, and this year’s 625-page tome was no exception.
As politics reporters, our eyes usually go first to teacher raises, tax cuts and major policy changes. However, my colleague Teddy Rosenbluth and I kept seeing churches throughout the budget. Tallying it all up, we found nearly $26 million in funding for churches, Christian nonprofits and anti-abortion pregnancy centers.
And looking further, we realized that only Christian faith groups got money. No synagogues, mosques or temples could be found.
While the budget says the money can only be used for nonreligious purposes, several of the recipients had gotten in trouble for doing exactly that in the past.
Beyond the top lines of each year’s budget are less obvious trends reflecting the priorities of North Carolina’s elected leaders. It’s important to take a closer look.
Kyle Ingram is a state politics reporter.
Finally tying up a loose end with Rod Brind’Amour
Is this May column I did about Carolina Hurricanes Coach Rod Brind’Amour’s shoelaces the best thing I wrote all year? Not even close.
Did it help change the world for the better? Probably not, but who can really say?
I am certain, though, I had more fun on this silly, dumb story exploring one of the odd quirks of a Triangle legend everyone thinks they already know — a little palate-cleanser for columnist and reader alike during the heat and furor of the NHL playoffs.
I’ve known for more than 20 years that Brind’Amour never ties his shoes, but I never thought to ask why until last spring.
So I did.
Luke DeCock is a sports columnist.
Thankful for — and drawing energy from — Triangle ‘Change Makers’
My favorite thing about being a journalist is getting to meet the people in our community and learning the various roles they play. When my colleagues share that same spirit, it is a close second.
My colleague Kristen Johnson’s story highlighted some of the “Change Makers” who are helping to shape the Triangle, in ways big and small. I got to meet four of them when they came to the newsroom for a photoshoot. I also captured some behind-the-scenes footage for our social media accounts. Their energy was contagious.
I’m thankful Kristen gave these Triangle history and Black history makers’ voices a space to be celebrated and acknowledged for what they do in our communities.
Laura Brache is an audience growth producer.
Why we need to take special care of these special snails
Andy Wood was in the process of moving his magnificent ramshorn snails into a newly built sanctuary when visual journalist Travis Long and I visited him on an unseasonably warm October day. Wood, a biologist, has kept the endangered magnificent ramshorn species alive for 30 years, rescuing the snails from salty floodwaters during a hurricane and giving them spatterdock to feast on in the tanks he carefully maintains with limited financial support.
Days after we visited, 2,000 magnificent ramshorn snails raised in captivity by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission were returned to the wild, an important step in preserving the species. They are the only known magnificent ramshorns in the wild.
As I walked to my car after visiting with Wood and his wife, Sandy, that afternoon, he stopped me to make a comparison that’s stuck with me Magnificent ramshorns and other small creatures are like rivets in the ecosystem, he said, rarely noticed but holding the whole thing together. The choices we make about whether to develop the habitats where those smaller creatures live and whether to save them from the threats posed by climate change will have implications for larger creatures — and ultimately for us.
Adam Wagner is a climate change and environmental reporter.
North Carolina’s doctors face increasing politicization
“Trust doctors, not politicians.”
It’s a critique I heard time and time again as the North Carolina legislature decided on a variety of LGBTQ-related bills in the summer, including the barring of certain forms of gender-affirming care for minors.
The same criticism was levied the year prior, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. And it resurfaced when Republican state lawmakers passed the 12-week abortion law in May.
But it wasn’t just activists who were concerned about the politicization of medicine — physicians and other members of the medical field were feeling the partisan pressure on their professions. It’s something many didn’t anticipate when they went to medical school.
Now several doctors have to weigh one question: Should I stay in North Carolina?
Makiya Seminera was a politics reporting intern in summer of 2023. She is now a national real-time reporter for McClatchy.
Read the rest of the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Part 5
