The Newsroom

On today’s show, a conversation with Republican 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, an...

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...

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 tau...

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 med...

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.