Hey folks, for @wunc.org I'm looking to hear about your experiences getting the Covid vaccine since the announcement last Friday - was is a pretty smooth experience? Were you asked about a high-risk condition? Or are you still being asked for a prescription? Reach out to me at [email protected].

my latest comic featuring the excellent insights of @brianburns.bsky.social is for those of you planning to get DOWN💥 at Hopscotch this weekend as a relatively recent NC transplant, I'll say that making this comic with Brian def is encouraging me to use the festival as a way to discover local bands

Frank Alexander lost his Morehead scholarship in the 1970s after getting arrested at a civil rights protest. He tells his story 50 years later, after meeting another scholar who lost her award amid pro-Palestinian activism. www.wunc.org/education/20...

Folks who come to @embodiedwunc.bsky.social's upcoming show on 8/22 at Motorco will get a copy of a zine I illustrated on how to spice things up in your relationships!

Six hours after Louisville Public Media lost $376,000 in annual funding, it held an emergency pledge drive. In a post on LinkedIn, the organization’s president and CEO says it raised more than $500,000. “This is what happens when a community refuses to let something valuable die.”

🙏 Berzerker Blothar of GWAR has stepped out of the band's usual intergalactic carnage to issue an impassioned plea: Save public media. metalinjection.net/news/gwars-b...

The Senate approved the Trump administration's $9B rescission package aimed at clawing back money already allocated for public radio and television — a major step toward winding down nearly six decades of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. www.wunc.org/2025-07-17/s...

"Your house can be 20 feet outside of a floodplain, and you're not required to purchase flood insurance, but you still have flood risk," said Helena Garcia, the lead author of the study.

"Katherine Strand stood on the sidewalk outside Winestore, the shop she manages at Eastgate. 'It’s obviously very overwhelming,' she said. 'I don’t know what tomorrow is gonna look like but … come what may I guess.'"

At Rippling Stream Townhomes in Durham, our reporter Jay Price tell us that more than half a dozen units were flooded and several vehicles nearly submerged in the parking lot. Residents told him firefighters woke them up around 2 a.m. to evacuate them.

Several businesses at Eastgate Crossing in Chapel Hill were badly damaged by Tropical Storm Chantal. Photos by @mattrameyphoto.bsky.social The Chapel Hill Fire Department and neighboring agencies completed more than 50 water rescues since yesterday.

When I tell folks about what I do for work, I often get told 1) that they've never met a journalist before & 2) some comment about how they don't trust the news. Well, let's talk about it! Come to NCAAT's office in Raleigh on Wed 6/25 for a chat about media literacy. Info & registration deets 👇

There's a lot at stake with the White House's rescission request. Here's what you can do to support @wunc.org if you value the journalism and programming we provide 👇

After I reported the first story, Neo-China's Jordan Wang texted me to share a development: his decision to close the restaurant. But he actually sounded optimistic. Even though "plan A" to revive his family's restaurant didn't work out, he's looking forward to building a new eatery in its place.

my former deskmate from my st. louis days and one of the most dogged reporters I know - durrie bouscaren brings a special light wherever she goes

When I first interviewed former CAM Raleigh curator Raj Bunnag in 2023, he seemed like a rising star who was also opening doors for underrepresented artists. His experiences being removed from an upcoming NCMA show & rejected from a private gallery raises some big questions for artists like him.

My latest @wunc.org: NorthStar's federal grant from South Arts, which managed the NEA funds, made up a third of its budget. The termination of the $130k grant makes it much harder for the org to provide accessible arts programming that has especially served BIPOC & queer folks in Durham.

Thanks to the folks who came out to last night's @wunc.org event at Epilogue to talk about how outdoor workers need protections from extreme heat! I learned so much from our guests (see my scrawly drawings pic), including that folks can help dehydrated farmworkers by doing electrolyte runs!

Folks are filing in at Epilogue Books for @wunc.org's Scorched Workers community conversations event tonight! Looking forward to this discussion about extreme heat's impact on outdoor workers

President Trump has signed an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS," the nation's primary public broadcasters. Most of the funds for public media go to local stations. www.wunc.org/2025-05-02/t...

For @wunc.org, I spoke with Jordan Wang, the owner of Neo-China in Durham. He's proud of the 35-year-old business his family worked hard to build and wants to continue their legacy. But the U.S. tariff on China have caused inventory costs to spike, which may force him to make tough choices.

Radical cultural collaboration is at the heart of American music and it was on full display at the first annual Biscuits and Banjos Festival! Let’s take these lessons, community, and joy that we have created this weekend, and bring it back out into the world.

WUNC's Brian Burns managed to catch more than a dozen performances and events at this past weekend's Biscuits & Banjos festival in Durham. Read his recap of stunning live performances, dance parties and celebration of southern Black culture here: www.wunc.org/wunc-music/2...

RIP Pope Francis, who once circled Tick Bite, North Carolina in his plane www.ncrabbithole.com/p/the-time-w...

"Since the legislature created the commission in 2007, it has had a hand in exonerating 16 people who altogether spent more than 300 years in prison for crimes they did not commit."

Federal funding makes up about 5% of WUNC's budget. That comes out to about $800,000 every year. This funding is vital to bring you the news you rely on every day. Read more about that here. www.wunc.org/2025-04-15/c...

Great story by @elichen.bsky.social #WUNC on Asian grocery stores and shops in the Triangle. How the new tariffs will impact these businesses is a whole other issue, of course. So wonderful that we have a AAPI-in-the-South focused journalist at @wunc.org! www.wunc.org/race-class-c...

"No one should be deported for free speech, but in the case of Sal, he was a lowkey individual who never attended any protests or wrote about this issue on social media. He minded his business and studied, yet he was targeted for no other reason than that he is an Arab national."

Noting also that Sen. Michael Lee is one of five Asian Americans serving in the NC legislature and the only Republican among them - the other four (Cervania, Liu, Chaudhuri, Mohammed) are Democrats.

"In a political climate where government officials increasingly offer vague accusations without evidence, expecting journalists to just move on to the next question, we need more Michel Martins who simply refuse to play that game."

'Internet archives show that the webpage for the Pauli Murray Family Home in Durham, a National Historic Landmark, was edited last month to remove the words "queer" and "transgender." Murray's biography page was removed altogether and its link returns an error message.'

At the Wheels opening last week, I spoke to Durham rapper Jooselord, who began skating there in the '90s. "When the city is growing, you lose things and those things don't come back. It feels unreal for it be back and to come back bigger and better. That feels amazing." www.wunc.org/race-class-c...

A number of very good science reporters were talking online recently about generative AI. And I think several aspects of that conversation are worth sharing here, since they are relevant to both researchers and science writers. 🧪 /start🧵

As of tonight Wheels Durham is open! So fun to report at tonight's reopening of a beloved rink

this shit is so a-ma core, love it

News: NPR chief diversity officer Keith Woods to retire, amid broad attack on DEI He told colleagues today that he has been planning his retirement since 2023 but delayed after home destroyed last year by Helene. It follows PBS's ouster of DEI execs. www.npr.org/2025/02/26/n...

Trying to put some good vibes ✨ out there with my latest report @wunc.org on roller skating rinks - why even as so many have closed, they remain important spaces for our communities And skaters, I'll see you tomorrow at the reopening of Wheels in Durham 🔥 www.wunc.org/race-class-c...

"There's a lot of dark. And only when you experience this darkness, can you see some light. The fact that we are remembering them here today, 10 years later, to me feels like an important lightness." www.wunc.org/race-class-c...

Samaritan’s Purse has helped a lot of people. However, this piece neglects to mention that the evangelical disaster relief group asks volunteers to sign a “statement of faith” opposing same-sex marriage and abortion and denying the existence of trans people. It’s a deeply political organization.

Worth noting in this piece by my colleague Rusty Jacobs - one of the UOCAVA ballots Griffin wants to invalidate was cast by Rebecca Lobach, a U.S. Army captain and one of the Black Hawk helicopter crew members who died last week in a midair collision with a passenger jet over the Potomac River.

Maurice “Mo” Green is the first African-American state superintendent in North Carolina’s history and the first Democrat in the office in eight years. His friends describe him as a quiet leader and a defender of public schools, educators, and students. www.wunc.org/education/20...

happy year of the snake y'all! earlier today I was working with photographer Huiyin Zhou on a story that will air in the coming weeks and they gifted me a couplet that holds some relevance this year it translates to: "the road is obstacle-packed and long, but we will get through if we keep going"

Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is getting financial help from fellow Court of Appeals judge Tom Murry in his legal battle to win a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Murry contributed $5,000 and declined comment in response to WUNC's inquiry. www.wunc.org/politics/202...

A reality of the new American politics: Because government itself is viewed as the Enemy by many voters and politicians, governance itself (which is inevitably flawed and muddled) becomes a 24/7 target. Mistakes *which are inevitable* are viewed and portrayed as acts of malice.

"I will always consider College Park as my home. As a matter of fact, I plan to die here. I have no intentions of moving, and that's why I'm so upset because they don't even try to preserve Black communities," said community activist Octavia Rainey. www.wunc.org/politics/202...

my plans this morning got canceled due to the weather so instead I am just perched at my window watching cars screech to a stop at the icy tree that's leaning over the road

The official numbers are in: 2024 is the hottest year on record. Climate change is the main culprit. But there might be something else going on, too.

Now is a very good time to be good to each other. In part because you never know what anyone is going through, but also because you know that all of us have already been through so much.

These fires are a watershed moment, not just for residents of LA, but emblematic of a new era of complex, compound climate disaster. Conditions for a January firestorm in Los Angeles have never existed in all of known history, until they now do. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The beloved, Black-owned bar and lounge in downtown Raleigh known as House of Art went up in flames early Tuesday morning and was severely damaged. www.wunc.org/race-class-c...