The Final Four, cruising across NC, stolen guns and a list of books will stick with us
Part 3 of a five-part project revisiting the 2022 stories that had an impact on The N&O’s staff.
A stolen gun and a missed opportunity
Twenty-five years ago I began my career at The News & Observer covering the police beat in Durham.
The previous year, the city had a record number of homicides. Residents needed answers.
I noticed in Durham police reports that gun owners were losing their weapons by not securing them. I also learned Durham, unlike anywhere else in the state, had a decades-old, paper-tiger of a law requiring gun owners to register their weapons.
The subsequent stories drove a failed effort to digitize those registrations, which could have helped take some guns off the streets. But in the end, gun rights advocates persuaded lawmakers to kill the law, and Durham officials to destroy the paper registrations.
Last year, Durham reached a new high for homicides. A good time, I thought, to revisit the stolen gun problem (it’s much worse). Sure enough, the first victim I spoke with knew about the old law, and saw that it could have helped police identify and return her stolen handgun.
Dan Kane is on the investigative team.
Learning about the Triangle and the Methodist church
When I began my internship at The News & Observer this past summer, I knew nothing about the United Methodist Church and had never been to the South. Working on this series gave me the opportunity to connect with and build relationships with communities all over the Triangle and with other reporters in the newsroom, namely, Martha Quillin, who served as a guide for me as I reported this story.
Upon publication of the series, I heard from readers about their own experiences in the Methodist church, further illuminating the impact of the fracture on local United Methodists and the communities that surround them. I’m grateful for the welcome that various Methodist congregations extended me, and for the opportunity to get to know the Triangle in reporting this story.
Kayla Guo was an intern this past summer.
The memory of UNC and Duke in the Final Four will endure
There are a lot of stories that will stay with me from 2022. A lot of them are heavier. As much as any, though, I hope I remember a lighter one, and a fun one: the Final Four.
For a long time we wondered what might happen if Duke and UNC ever met in the Final Four. Now we know. The world didn’t end, but Coach K’s career did. And for someone like me who grew up here, obsessed with college basketball — who snuck into the occasional game, even a Duke-UNC game at Cameron — it proved to be a career highlight, chronicling the moment from courtside.
Andrew Carter is an enterprise and sports reporter.
Serving readers with a list of books to read
Our polarized society argued over just about everything in 2022. But after weeks of debate in the spring about books some didn’t want in school libraries, we reframed the question: tell us the books you DO like and think everyone should read.
Answers ranged from “Walden” to “Invisible Man,” “The Bible” to “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.” It’s a varied and valuable list to keep you reading well into 2023. (And my editor’s heart grew three sizes to see that the great punctuation guide “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” made the cut.)
Thad Ogburn is managing editor of The News & Observer
Series highlighting the strength of single mothers
This summer, The News & Observer began a series that aims to question how our state can better serve single mothers and their families.
Each story has been singular and complex, but the opportunity to get to know LaSherron Geddie is an experience that will stay with me for a long time. As I made pictures of her and her daughters at an extended stay hotel, I was moved by the unwavering tenacity with which she greets every day, despite its unknowns.
This resolve, coupled with the kind of love that fills a room to the brim, has been a common denominator in every part of this series. It’s reminded me that there is a great deal of work to be done to create equal opportunities for everyone who calls this area home. It’s also filled me with gratitude for all that I’ve learned from my own mother and other strong women along the way.
Kaitlin McKeown is a member of the visuals team.
Bravery in the face of danger at one LGBTQ event
In the last year, attacks on LGBTQ people have been visible and jarring. This has been particularly noticeable with family-friendly events. This June, I went to Apex to report on Drag Queen Story Hour.
Initially, threats of violence from extremists led to the story hour’s cancellation. Equality NC stepped in to ensure it went as planned. Performer Naomi Dix donned a real-life Cinderella ballgown and read a version of the fairy tale where Cinderelliot won over his prince with his impressive baking skills.
It was a reminder to me that these events are important, even healing, for so many. It took bravery, from Dix, the families and Equality NC, to show up in the face of danger. I’m so glad they did.
Sara Pequeño is an opinion writer.
Inspired by colleagues on one of Raleigh’s darkest days
When I was asked to monitor reports of a shooting on Oct. 13, I said yes — not yet knowing we’d work, as a team, through the night to cover the horror that unfolded in the Hedingham neighborhood.
Covering a mass shooting is inevitable for journalists today. The N&O has now taken its turn. It will stay with me forever.
Through it all, I was — still am — in awe of my colleagues’ nimble, caring and dogged reporting on that first night and in the days, weeks and months that followed. On the darkest day, they inspired me beyond measure.
Korie Dean is a service journalism reporter.
A magical 12 weeks of travel from the beach to the mountains
Last spring, the N&O’s still-new executive editor asked me where to take his wife to the beach. My answer turned into a seven-installment summer series we called, “Cruising Across Carolina.”
It was a magical 12 weeks of travel from beachfront campgrounds to a muddy Piedmont river to a train ride through the Nantahala Gorge.
It was the perfect antidote to two-plus years of pandemic-induced isolation and immobility; an invigorating reintroduction to the state whose stories I love the most; and a reminder that to understand a place, you have to go there, smell the dirt and listen to people talk.
Martha Quillin is a general assignment reporter for The News & Observer
Meeting voters to learn what they care about
When reporting stories, it can be tempting at times to rely on clips, phone calls and research to understand issues, especially as there are treasure troves of information to be found this way.
And this research is essential. But there is little that can replace going in person to a location, seeing things first-hand and meeting someone one-on-one.
I did this for an article that looked at the political leanings of people across North Carolina. In the weeks before the midterm election, I got to speak with voters and hear what they cared about. I also traveled to a mix of counties and experienced a taste of what life is like in them. This tremendously aided my understanding of the politics at play in these areas as well as helped my writing process.
Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi covers North Carolina state politics and government.
Bringing the risks of growing corporate landlords home
At a recent talk with college students about our series exploring the rise of corporate landlords, I asked how many planned to buy a house one day.
Nearly every hand shot up.
The American Dream of homeownership is still alive and well among Generation Z.
But the teenagers and twenty-somethings in that audience will have to outbid sophisticated, faceless LLCs backed by Wall Street cash, an industry that didn’t exist when I bought my modest three-bedroom a decade ago.
The N&O’s reporting put both data and humanity behind the impacts of the exploding single-family rental industry in North Carolina.
But for me, it also underscored how would-be homebuyers now face a much different landscape than the generations before them. And given that homeownership is how most of us gain some semblance of financial security in the U.S., continued scrutiny of this adolescent industry is critical.
Tyler Dukes is an investigative reporter.
An unfinished life: A father and husband lost to gun violence
In the days after Kenneth Hawley, 35, from Oxford, was fatally shot in Durham, his family still couldn’t believe he was gone.
I spent an hour on the phone with Kenneth’s wife, Latricia, who agreed to interview. Soon, I found myself crying with her.
Kenneth had six children. A slew of friends. An unfinished life.
Breaking news reporting is like that. You report about sudden death, get all the preliminary facts, work with officials but you don’t always get to talk to families. When you do, you’re reminded of the very, real fragility of life and the people left to grapple with their loss.
Kristen Johnson is a reporter on the breaking news team and covers western Wake County.
Read the rest of the series:
