Due South

On the North Carolina News Roundup...  After more than six months of legal battles, Allison Riggs has officially been sworn into the North Carolina Supreme Court. The NC House has begun rolling out its budget proposal. Due to a decrease in funds, legislators are tasked with determining spending cuts. No charges will be filed after Chuck Edwards, a U.S. Representative for Western North Carolina, wa...

As the EPA faces even more cuts, we revisit a conversation earlier this summer with two former EPA Office of Research and Development employees on what they accomplished in the office. Guests: Chris Frey , Associate Dean for Research and Infrastructure, College of Engineering at NC State University and Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta , retired EPA science advisor. And Durham-based jazz vocalist and storyte...

In January 2025, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law, renaming a Raleigh post office on Brentwood Road as Millie Dunn Veasey Post Office. Born in Raleigh in 1918, Veasey was a member of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) from 1942-1945. Last week, family, friends, politicians and veterans gathered for a ceremony to honor Veasey. (This interview excerpt...

Tariffs, trade wars, and market turbulence are enough to make anyone nervous. At the same time, many of the Triangle’s grant-supported researchers and federal workers are also facing job insecurity. It’s enough to make anyone desperate for some sage financial advice. The Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary joins Due South’s Leoneda Inge to share some hard truths and prov...

Editor's note: This Due South interview was recorded before recent tariff negotiations with China. The prices of imported goods are almost certain to go up, as tariffs from the U.S. take effect. While President Trump has instated a 90-day pause, it doesn’t apply to a 145% tariff on China.  And, NC School districts relied on federal funding to buy local produce, but that federal funding is now gone...

On the North Carolina News Roundup... A resolution in the state Supreme Court race, six months after Election Day. Jefferson Griffin, the Republican challenger, conceded defeat to Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent. Griffin lost in November and spent months exhausting legal challenges. There is new oversight at the NC State Board of Elections, with Republicans now in control. What does that m...

Six months after the election, we have a resolution from November's NC Supreme Court race. Jefferson Griffin, a Republican, conceded to Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, ending months of challenges. Plus, the NC State Board of Elections is now controlled by Republicans, and for the first time in more than a century, no longer under the purview of the Governor. What does this mean for electi...

Each spring, High Point, North Carolina becomes the center of furniture design and manufacturing during the Spring Market. This year there was a twist – a looming tariff war. Plus, how two students' lives have changed, a year after an Israel-Palestine protest. Student activist Laura Saavedra Forero’s prestigious Morehead-Cain scholarship was suspended for a semester after she was charged with impe...

Real IDs go into effect May 7; Why does everyone hate the DMV?; 'Sinners' captures the Deep South

On the North Carolina News Roundup... Another week, another court ruling, and another brand-new Republican controlled State Board of Elections. Is the saga over? And what might this mean for that still-undecided state Supreme Court race? Meanwhile, at the General Assembly, lawmakers want to make promoting DEI an offense punishable by termination. Duke University moves to cut $350 million from its...

President Trump’s tariffs and trade war have left many business leaders fearful about their economic future. But some industries might benefit from the new policies. The Assembly’s Johanna Still recently reported on several North Carolina businesses welcoming tariffs. “Audacity in Motion,” a new exhibition at Ella West Gallery in downtown Durham, features mixed media explorations of the past and f...

A new podcast takes a look at how America got such a divided media landscape from where we were 20 years ago. According to a Gallup poll, Americans believe they are more divided than ever, too. Eighty percent of Americans say the nation is “greatly divided” on “the most important values.” One of Carolina Ballet’s founding members is wrapping her career as a principal dancer at the end of the 2025...

Today marks 100 days since Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second term, but efforts to deconstruct the administrative state were in motion long before his January inauguration. There is a framework by which the President, his advisers, and others conservatives have pursued this remaking of many government norms. Durham-based writer David A. Graham is author of the recently released book...

Chris Vitiello joins Leoneda Inge and Jeff Tiberii to discuss his work as Durham's poet laureate and as the Poetry Fox. Don Fick, founder and organizer of Repair Café NC, has been helping people fix lamps, clocks, toys, and even furniture for almost a decade. Don joins Due South’s Jeff Tiberii to talk about how Repair Cafe works to make things work once again – and helps build skills, and communit...

On the North Carolina News Roundup...  Another development in the decade-long fight over control over the state election board. One Republican congressman is asking the Trump administration to remove red tape as Western North Carolina continues Helene recovery. The Trump administration's efforts to overhaul immigration are having reverberations in Durham and Charlotte. And with state lawmakers on...

Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and N.C. State University have all reported visa terminations for some international students. How higher education institutions are responding, and what it could mean for the reputation, and future, of some of the world’s top research universities.   As the federal implementation date for the Real ID Act looms, North Carolinians in need of DMV appointments to obt...

As warm weather emerges in North Carolina, so do the snakes. A reptile expert tells us how to observe — and enjoy — snakes from afar. Then, an emergency medicine doctor tells us what to do if you’re bitten by a venomous snake: first, stay calm, and second, seek medical care. Featuring: Jeff Hall , reptile conservation biologist, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Charles J. Gerardo , MD,...

The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham is a historical site dedicated to the commemoration of the life and work of Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray, a queer, Black human rights and social justice advocate, priest, poet and organizer from Durham. The museum opened to the public in 2024 and is located in and around Murray’s childhood home.  Last week, the Center lost a federal...

Due South's Leoneda Inge talks with Alice Randall, author of “My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present and Future.” And we welcome the future! Award-winning folk and country music artists Rhiannon Giddens and Rissi Palmer tell us how they’ve made it this far in the biz. Alice Randall, Rhiannon Giddens, and Rissi Palmer will be in Durham later this week for Biscuits a...

Who has access to homeownership in North Carolina? Spring is typically home buying time, but housing affordability concerns combined with general economic uncertainty may mean that even fewer people in the Triangle are looking or able to buy homes. News & Observer real estate journalist Chantal Allam joins co-host Jeff Tiberii to talk about the homeownership gap, the history of restrictive cov...

Commerce and economic leaders in North Carolina say many large companies are in a holding pattern, waiting to make decisions on new factories, or other major investments.  During Reconstruction, a community of free Black residents formed a “kingdom” in Western North Carolina. They called it “Happy Land.” Novelist Dolen Perkins Valdez’s new book of the same name gives a fictionalized account of thi...

The latest update in NC's Supreme Court race We get an update on the still-undecided election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Judges recently broke with precedent in upholding a lower-court ruling. Still, the saga is not over. Next stop: federal court. WUNC’s Rusty Jacobs fills us in.  Rusty Jacobs , Voting and Election Integrity Reporter, WUNC   ‘Why it's so hard to find a good co...

Due South’s Leoneda Inge talks with Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz, an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and director of the Native Policy Lab at the University of Iowa, about her recently published book, The Indian Card: Who Gets to be Native in America . Then, NC A&T professor Leah Barlow made a TikTok for the 35 students in her Intro to African American Studies class. It ended...

The remains of a North Carolina WWII veteran return home The remains of one of the final victims of the Pearl Harbor bombing have been identified and brought to North Carolina. Neil Frye was 20 years old, and serving as a Mess Attendant 3rd Class in the Navy on the USS West Virginia. For decades, his relatives wanted final confirmation that Frye died, but until recently his remains had not been id...

On the NC News Roundup... We take a look at the local economic impact of fast-paced tariff developments, check in on state legislative happenings and discuss why Tax Day has been extended in  North Carolina. Co-host Jeff Tiberii talks with a panel of journalists about those stories and more, on Due South. Guests: Dawn Vaughan , Capital Bureau Chief, News & Observer; Lynn Bonner , Investigative...