The Newsroom

WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman and reporter Kelly Kenoyer unpack some of our recent reporting about Novant NHRMC: staff interviews and watchdog data show some concerning trends at the hospital, but the newest leadership team says things are improving. And, Rachel Keith helps explain FERPA, the federal law protecting student privacy, and how it might be overused to protect public information, including parental book challenges.

Leila Fadel, host of NPR's Morning Edition and the Up First podcast, came to Wilmington last month for WHQR's luncheon. On this episode of The Newsroom, we've got her keynote speech, a Q-and-A session with the audience, and a one-on-one interview with WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman.

On this episode: Rachel Keith recently hosted a panel for N.C. Project LEAD, asking elected officials and community leaders some tough policy questions. We'll hear what they said about universal basic income, collective bargaining, and more. Plus, Nikolai Mather unpacks legislative efforts to fund school meals for all.

On this episode, Rachel Keith takes stock of what the New Hanover County Schools' turnaround task force has accomplished in two years, and what's next for them – and Nikolai Mather sits down with Representative Ted Davis to talk about his PFAS legislation

On the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, WHQR's Ben Schachtman sat down with Curt Farrison, president of Chapter 885 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, to talk about coming home from war, understanding and managing PTSD, and what the country could do better for men and women who have worn a uniform.

On today's show, host Rachel Keith talks about the groundbreaking Healthy Opportunities Pilot—one of the first in the country—where some Medicaid recipients get assistance for food, rent and utilities, and counseling for interpersonal violence or toxic stress needs. Service providers helping these people get reimbursements from the HOP program.

On today's show, Rachel Keith celebrates Sunshine Week, an annual event focused on open government and transparency. In honor of this year's sunshine week, we're taking a look at government speech policies — we'll dig into how much public employees, including college professors, can say when they talk to journalists or speak out on political issues. And, later on today's show, Aaleah McConnell takes a personal look a being a Blerd — that's a black nerd – and the art, music, and film that exists at the intersection of those two cultures.

On today's show, I'm sitting down with Republican New Hanover County Commissioner LeAnn Pierce about her thoughts and goals as the county's budget negotiations move forward. We asked Pierce, vice-chair of the Board of Commissioners, about her thoughts on where the tax rate should go — and ways to make the county more efficient, including calls to eliminate DEI and have The Endowment step in to support some previously county-funded programs.

On today's show, I'm sitting down with Democratic New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple to talk about his priorities and perspectives on the county's ongoing budget process. We asked Zapple about what he thinks about efforts to make the county more financially efficient — as well as calls to do away with the county's DEI office, and have the Endowment step in to help with funding in some areas.

On today's show, I'm sitting down with Democratic New Hanover County Commissioner Stephanie Walker to talk about her perspective on the county's budget negotiations — which are going on right now. Walker, who was recently elected to her first term as a commissioner in November after serving for four years on the county's school board, campaigned as a strong education advocate. So we asked her about education funding, but also other issues — including the proposed removal of the county's DEI program, and how The Endowment could step in with certain funding priorities.

The entire Cape Fear Region is growing at a blistering pace: and residents worry about the impact on traffic, trees, and stormwater. But growth here is moulded by planners who want to make sure residents don't get left behind. We'll hear from a panel of those experts on this week's episode of the Newsroom.

The New Hanover County Board of Education recently voted to reshape the district's strategic plan, policies, and procedures to comply with President Trump's recent executive orders on both DEI and gender issues. Board member David Perry recently accused the media of a "blackout" of the latter, so we asked him to come into the studio to unpack his views on the topic.

On today's show, a conversation with New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise about taxes and government spending. Scalise recently penned an opinion piece in the Wilmington Business Journal, which we'll have links to on the page, where he laid out a fairly simple argument: if property values are going up, taxes should go down. So we invited him to the studio to unpack that idea, and get into some of the granular details of the county's budgeting process — including where Scalise would like to trim the budget, and where he'd like to spend more.

On this episode, WHQR's Ben Schachtman sits down for a conversation with Frankie Roberts, executive director of LINC, about community safety.For a quarter century, Roberts has run LINC, a non-profit dedicated to helping people rejoin the community after being incarcerated. We'll talk about how that work has expanded over the years — and how Roberts sees the challenges facing the community today.

On this episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman sat down with reporter Rachel Keith to talk about the work of SYNC — Strengthening Systems for NC Children. Keith joined about 20 other members who, starting last August, worked to develop a better, broader understanding of how adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, impact the quality of life for children in New Hanover County.

On this episode, WHQR's Ben Schachtman sat down with Abdul Hafeedh Bin Abdullah, co-founder of Sokoto House and the Quality Life Blueprint, to talk about how he sees the issue of community safety through a public-safety lens, and where some other efforts — like Tru Colors and Port City United — may have fallen short.

On this episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman sits down with recently elected District Attorney Jason Smith to talk about one of the region's most pressing issues: youth violence, especially gun violence.

On this year-end episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman looks back over a wild year's worth of reporting with journalists Rachel Keith, Aaleah McConnell, Kelly Kenoyer, and Nikolai Mather.

On this episode of The Newsroom, we sit down with four Wilmingtonians working in the tech start-up space: from diagnostic wearables to solving workforce issues to managing federal contract applications, they're bringing the entrepreneurial spirit to some tricky issues. We asked them about tech culture, saving your sanity while you start your company, and some of the challenges — and opportunities — that emerge as a start-up grows.

On this episode, WHQR's Rachel Keith takes over hosting duties for a conversation with Hugh McManus, who just wrapped up his term as a New Hanover County school board member. McManus has dedicated four decades to education, and in this interview, he talks about his journey as a teacher, principal, school director, and board member.

At the beginning of this year, Captain Mike Fanta put his name to a formal complaint against Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams. That led to a $75,000 third-party investigation in Williams' leadership, and pushback from the Black community who defended the city's first Black police chief against Fanta, some of his fellow officers, and others who joined in those criticisms.

On this episode of The Newsroom, we take a deep dive into what caused this year's consternation over absentee ballots and what might have prevented it (hint: better communication and more resources). Plus, a closer look at some of the campaign funding in local races — and some tips for how to check on candidate fundraising yourself.

On this episode, we unpack the evolving electorate and their unpredictable down-ballot choices. Plus, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over New Hanover County races with a growing number of uncounted absentee ballots that count easily swing the race for school board and commissioner seats.

On today's show, WHQR's Ben Schachtman and Nikolai Mather are unpacking the forum we put on earlier this month with WECT and Port City Daily, featuring candidates running for the North Carolina House and Senate. We'll dig into what the candidates had to say, with context, analysis, and some fact-checking.

On this episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman sat down for a long-form interview with Marlando Pridge, Democratic challenger for North Carolina's 7th Congressional District. Topics included domestic policy issues like healthcare, affordable housing, crime and drugs and foreign policy topics like Ukraine and the Middle East.

On today's show, WHQR's Ben Schachtman and Kelly Kenoyer are unpacking the forum we put on earlier this month with WECT and Port City Daily, featuring candidates running for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners. We'll dig into what the candidates had to say, with context, analysis, and some fact-checking.

On this episode, WHQR's Ben Schachtman and Rachel Keith and Port City Daily's Brenna Flanagan break down what New Hanover County school board candidates had to say during our recent town hall forum, with context, analysis, and fact checking.

Reconciliation and restoration are key to relationships: but they rarely come up in the criminal justice system. That may soon change, as North Carolina makes Restorative Justice an integrated part of the Department of Public Safety.

On this episode, we sit down with Republican candidate Jason Smith and Democratic Candidate Rebecca Zimmer Donaldson, who are both running to replace recently retired District Attorney Ben David, who represented Pender and New Hanover counties for 20 years.

On today's show, we're discussing the Freeman family's land — including the community known as Seabreeze.We're sitting down with descendants of the Freeman family, Christopher Eaton and Dorian Cromartie, to learn how patriarchs Alexander and Robert Bruce Freeman amassed large amounts of land in the southern part of New Hanover County. We'll also discuss how they hope their family's history is taught to future New Hanover County students with nuance — including the family's successes and challenges.

On this week's episode, we ask one of toughest questions defining our time in the Cape Fear Region: Why are there so many apartments going up? We spoke to a concerned resident who shared some very common questions with us — and then put them to one of the top officials in the City of Wilmington's development-approval process.

On this episode, we'll get a behind-the-scenes look at an upcoming project from WHQR. In the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling that pulled back on the rights of the unhoused, we'll take an intimate look at the inner lives of our homeless neighbors, with insights from the people who serve them.

On this episode, we sit down with Scott Simon, longtime journalist and host of NPR's Weekend Edition to talk about the state of the news — plus highlights from Simon's remarks at the recent WHQR 40th anniversary luncheon.

This year, WHQR's Cape Fear Conversation series is taking a closer look at the four focus areas of the New Hanover Community Endowment. On this episode: health and social equity.

New Hanover County's anti-violence department — Port City United — has been mired in criticism and bad press, and will likely be shuttered at the end of June. But the social issues that inspired its creation still exist, so it's worth talking about where the program came from, the good work it did do, and what the future could hold.

On this episode, it's a conversation with Jon Martell, a retired doctor and former hospital administrator who says he nearly died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center — not because of a mistake made by a nurse or doctor, but because of systemic issues at the hospital. The experience led him to found a new nonprofit to push for a safer, higher-quality hospital. WHQR also spoke with top Novant medical administrators to work through some of Martell's systemic concerns.

Former state senator Harper Peterson recently founded Heal Our People's Endowment, a nonprofit that's calling on North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein to exercise more oversight and authority over the New Hanover Community Endowment. On this episode, we sit down to talk through his concerns — and what he'd like to see done about them.

The affordable housing crisis is national in scope, but it's uniquely painful in the South because of low wages and surging demand. So what are some creative solutions to this rapidly growing and intractable problem? Backyard cottages? Flipping hotels into rental housing? Or building out job training programs? We asked smart people in the housing space what they consider the most effective strategies to improve housing with help from the New Hanover Community Endowment.

On this episode, Ben Schachtman and Rachel Keith sit down with John Biewen and Michael Betts, writers and co-hosts of Echoes of a Coup — the sixth season of the Scene on Radio podcast from Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics. The five-part series takes a deep dive into Wilmington's 1898 coup and massacre.

Last year, we reported on the abrupt closing of the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley — a little-known but beloved program in the New Hanover County Schools district. Public pushback saved the Mosley program, but developed into a debate over a 'newcomer school' for immigrants who had recently arrived in the United States, introduced as a possible replacement for Mosley. On this show, we unpack some of the narratives and misinformation that became part of that debate.

In honor of Sunshine Week — an annual event focused on government transparency and reporters who work to hold governments accountable for being open to the public — WECT, Port City Daily, and WHQR took a look at warrants and domestic violence protection orders. WHQR also took a closer look at a new policy aimed at giving New Hanover County school board members first crack at public documents — something that definitely isn't in keeping with the spirit of Sunshine Week.

North Carolina is the tenth most religious state in the union, according to U.S. News and World Report — but what does that mean for solving one of the most serious crises facing our community? In light of that question, One Christian Network came together in February to host a panel on solving the affordable housing crisis, and the role the church and people of faith can take in it. On today's show, highlights from that forum.

On this episode, we unpack the recent forum for Republican primary candidates running for the New Hanover County Board of Education. We'll look at how each of the candidates tried to position themselves among their fellow conservatives. We'll also look at some of the issues facing the district, including a staggering $20 million budget shortfall, the ongoing debate about DEI, learning loss and low-performing schools, and calls to fire superintendent Dr. Charles Foust.

On this episode, Republican State Senator Michael Lee sits down to discuss two pieces of major education legislation: a significant expansion to the 'Opportunity Scholarship' program, and the Parents' Bill of Rights.

This year, WHQR's Cape Fear Conversation series is taking a closer look at the four focus areas of the New Hanover Community Endowment. First up, community development. It's a board area that includes a lot of different facets, but for this forum we focused on housing.

On this episode, WHQR's Rachel Keith helps unpack the latest work from New Hanover County Schools' Turnaround Task Force. The group has been generating some actionable ideas that could see local funding — but the district as a whole still faces challenges, including increased market pressures as it struggles against charter and private schools for public funding. Plus, we hear from some student leaders who are trying to bring their own perspective — and some valuable data — to tough conversations in the district.

Walk-on Day? Falling Cadillacs? Multi-million dollar politics? There's a lot to unpack when it comes to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge (in fact, when it comes to bridges over the river, in general). On today's show, as we brace for a traffic nightmare, we add some context and historical backstory to the weedy world of bridges.

In the past year or so in New Hanover County, we've seen public officials pushing back on the homeless population, even as it grows because of our housing crisis. As homeless individuals are pushed into the margins of the community, and into the woods, the justice system continues to interact with the unhoused.On this week's episode, we'll dig deep into the many ways the police, courts, and judges interact with the unhoused, in ways that help, and in ways that harm. It's an exploration of the criminalization of homelessness, and the compassionate court systems that may offer a helping hand, and not just shackles.

On this episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman reflects on the past year with Kelly Kenoyer, Rachel Keith, Nikolai Mather, and Camille Mojica.

On Monday, the New Hanover Community Endowment announced its second grant cycle: this round features much larger, multi-year grants that take on systemic issues. But the rollout was not without criticism. In this episode, we dig into those concerns and how the Endowment is responding.

Ben David has served as District Attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties since 2004. Next year, he'll leave office, setting up an election for his replacement. WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman sat down with David to talk about why he's leaving, how he sees his legacy, and what comes next.