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Tuesday June 15th

City & County

Tom Henkel poses for a photo in his garden on April 12, 2021. Henkel is one of the key organizers of the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town and current member of the environmental stewardship. Since 2014, CHALT has successfully run mayoral and Town Council candidates that share the organization’s values of sustainable development.

Who are Chapel Hill’s PACs, and how do they influence the community?

By Kayla Guilliams | Apr. 13

Last year, the Orange County Board of Commissioners election was shaped by endorsements made by two local PACs:

The Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town, or CHALT, is a group of community members who advocate for responsible growth and work to preserve Chapel Hill’s college-town character.
Save Orange Schools and its affiliated PAC, the Save Orange Schools PAC, formed in 2020 in response to concerns over deteriorating infrastructure in CHCCS.

Here's a look into the PACs of Chapel Hill and how they have impacted the community since their creation.

Sunrise Movement gathers outside of the Chapel Hill town hall on April 5, 2021 to demand that the town declare a climate emergency. Photo courtesy of Dana Gentry.

Chapel Hill declares climate emergency, encourages other municipalities to do the same

By Ella Layn | Apr. 13

HVAC units stolen from historic Cedar Grove Ruritan Club, sheriff offering $1500 award

By Chloe Teachey | Apr. 11

These Orange County women help provide resources to the housing insecure

By Emmy Trivette | Apr. 11

Who are Chapel Hill’s PACs, and how do they influence the community?

By Kayla Guilliams | Apr. 13

Last year, the Orange County Board of Commissioners election was shaped by endorsements made by two local PACs: The Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town, or CHALT, is a group of community members who advocate for responsible growth and work to preserve Chapel Hill’s college-town character. Save Orange Schools and its affiliated PAC, the Save Orange Schools PAC, formed in 2020 in response to concerns over deteriorating infrastructure in CHCCS. Here's a look into the PACs of Chapel Hill and how they have impacted the community since their creation.

Chapel Hill declares climate emergency, encourages other municipalities to do the same

By Ella Layn | Apr. 13

The Town worked with community members and environmental organization Sunrise Movement Chapel Hill to revise its Climate Action and Response plan, which council members adopted at an April 7 meeting.

The Cedar Grove Ruritan Club recently had two new, yet-to-be-installed HVAC units stolen. The club had been saving up for three years to buy the units. Photo courtesy of Buck Curtis.

HVAC units stolen from historic Cedar Grove Ruritan Club, sheriff offering $1500 award

By Chloe Teachey | Apr. 11

The Cedar Grove Ruritan Club has been saving up for around three years for these units. Buck Curtis, a club member and former president, said the organization had saved up the necessary $15,000 to completely air condition the facility's gym when the two HVAC units they ordered were stolen.

Emila Sutton poses for a portrait in Durham on Sunday, Apr. 4, 2021. Sutton currently serves as Orange County's Director of Housing and Community Development.

These Orange County women help provide resources to the housing insecure

By Emmy Trivette | Apr. 11

On the heels of Women’s History Month, the Daily Tar Heel is spotlighting six women in Orange County’s public safety system who have helped each of their departments reform the old and create new protocols to aid the community. These women work to care and provide resources to those who experience homelessness.

One of the buildings that was added to the site when it was repurposed as a radioactive waste decay site. Most of the radioactive waste was stored in this building. Pictured on Thursday Feb 25 2021.

Former youth prison turned radioactive waste decay site operated by UNC

By Helen McGinnis | Apr. 9

The Chapel Hill Youth Development and Research Unit, now known as Chydaru, was an experimental youth prison that was later repurposed as a radioactive waste decay site. While there was never any radioactive or hazardous waste buried at the site, the facility would take short-lived radioactive waste generated at the University and store it until the waste was no longer radioactive.

Carrboro High School sophomores Fabiola Perdomo and Sofia Rangel sit in the Carrboro High football stadium. Perdomo and Rangel, like many young people from non-English speaking families, have had to guide their families through participating in school transitions and other difficulties that stem from the pandemic.

For non-English speaking families, the pandemic amplifies educational barriers

By Heidi Pérez-Moreno | Apr. 7

First-generation and immigrant families have historically faced challenges in getting adjusted to the U.S. school system due to difficulties accessing technological resources and language barriers, among other things. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified those issues.

Gov. Roy Cooper and First Lady Kristin Cooper announce their victory in the 2020 election on Nov. 3, 2020 on the steps of the N.C. Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh.

Divided N.C. House passes bill to limit governor’s emergency powers along party lines

By Guillermo Molero | Apr. 7

The Emergency Powers Accountability Act would require the governor to receive approval from a majority of the Council of State – the collective name for the heads of the state's senior executive offices – before exercising any emergency powers or declaring a state of emergency.

Megan Johnson poses for a portrait at the Chapel Hill Police Department on Sunday, Apr. 4, 2021. Johnson is the department's Police Crisis Unit Supervisor and a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor.

Meet the women in charge of Orange County's public safety system

By Emmy Trivette | Apr. 6

These three women focus on documenting and maintaining the portions of Orange County’s public safety system dealing with community involvement and mental health.

The Ackland Art Museum sits on Columbia Street in Chapel Hill on April 6, 2021.

Zooming in: Ackland student guides program engages audiences with art

By Sophia Ramirez | Apr. 6

With a piece of sarcophagus, a pocket watch, and a portrait of an unidentified sex worker called “Peaches,” a student tour guide at the Ackland can create a conversation about telling time through art.

DTH Photo Illustration. North Carolina state legislators have introduced HB 358, which intends to ban transgender women and girls from playing women's sports in high school and college.

N.C. House introduces bill that would ban trans athletes from gender-identifying teams

By Kathryn Goodwin | Apr. 6

House Bill 358, introduced on March 22 in the N.C. House of Representatives, would require middle, high school and collegiate athletes to compete on the team correlating with their sex assigned at birth.

A family plays in Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill on April 5, 2021.

A guide to outdoor activities in Chapel Hill and Carrboro

By Cloris Huan | Apr. 5

Although restrictions in the state are lifting, there are still many outdoor, COVID-safe activities in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area.

Carrboro resident and UNC Research Director Kathryn Peters wins Jeopardy with a score of $20,001.

Who is ... Kathryn Peters? Carrboro civic technologist wins 'Jeopardy!' game

By Britney Nguyen | Apr. 5

Peters won first place on a "Jeopardy!" episode that aired on March 22. She then returned as the reigning champ on an episode that aired March 23, where she finished in second place.

Fourth year pharmacy student Hannah Kim prepares syringes at the end of a day of of vaccinations at the Friday Center on Monday, Mar. 22, 2021.

No vaccine left behind: UNC Health provides surplus COVID-19 vaccines to residents

By Isabella Reilly | Mar. 30

The vaccination site is currently utilizing an independent Twitter account to notify the Chapel Hill community of excess doses. From Twitter, residents are instructed to call the surplus line, a dedicated phone number used for gathering patient names. The phone line operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, and callers who get through are placed on the vaccine list.

There has been discussion surrounding a new proposed development on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Estes Drive. Some of the conversation about the development has revolved around traffic concerns in the area.

Proposed Aura development draws comments over traffic and affordable housing concerns

By Trevor Moore | Mar. 30

Chapel Hill's advisory boards are considering if they want to recommend the project before it is sent to the Town Council for a final decision. If approved, the development is scheduled to be completed and occupied by the end of 2023.

UNC junior Grace Ingledue is a member of the trans community. "The fact that students are now able to change their name in PowerSchool without going through that hellish process is so great," said Ingledue.

Most public school records in N.C. will now show students' preferred names

By Ella Layn | Mar. 30

A recent change from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction will now allow North Carolina public school students to list their preferred name on most state records, like PowerSchool and report cards.

CHCCS students, teachers return to in-person instruction for the first time in a year

By Jacob Meredith-Andrews | Mar. 30

On Friday morning, about one hundred students returned to Frank Porter Graham Elementary School to finish out their first week of in-person instruction in a year. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted in early March to offer in-person instruction to all students beginning March 22. Frank Porter Graham Elementary Principal Karen Galassi-Ferrer said it has been important to think creatively about safety measures, like holding lunch and breakfast outside or placing colorful tape on the ground for students to follow for social distancing.

An in-person, socially-distant celebration in summer 2020 celebrated the women who created and contributed to the I Was Still Singing exhibit. Photo courtesy of Mandella Younge.

'I Was Still Singing' offers digital look at Black women's history in Chapel Hill

By Niharika Vattikonda | Mar. 29

Led by community historian Danita Mason-Hogans, “I Was Still Singing” offers a look into the perspectives of the Black women who shaped Chapel Hill's civil rights movements.

Poet Rajiv Mohabir speaks at an event on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, hosted by the UNC Asian American Center in celebration of Holi.

Rajiv Mohabir reads century-old poetry, now translated, to mark Holi

By Noah Robert Houser | Mar. 29

"Rajiv Mohabir sharing these poems educated more people about what Holi is and the history behind it," Shivam Bhargava said. "It's very easy to celebrate Holi without understanding the cultural and religious significance behind it, but Rajiv's poems add historical and cultural context to the celebration so that more people know what they are celebrating."

A City of Chapel Hill police car is parked on Franklin Street on Sunday, March 28, 2021. The town said that there would be more monitoring of pedestrian areas on main streets.

Chapel Hill increases monitoring of busy roads following recent pedestrian crashes

By Audrey Selley | Mar. 28

The Town conducted the first of these sessions on March 23 and March 27. March’s efforts focused on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where two pedestrian were hit in the last two weeks, one resulting in death.

Shontea Smith, executive director of United Voices of Efland-Cheeks, stands next to a grave in her family's plot in Cheeks Crossing, North Carolina. Smith wrote a letter detailing the impact that development has had on the Cheeks community, and why the current development plans are harmful to her community.

Efland-Cheeks community voices concerns over marginalization of Black voices

By Kayla Guilliams | Mar. 28

A letter, read aloud at a recent BOCC meeting, raised concerns about income inequality, expressed disappointment about how the board has handled issues in the community and noted that ancestors of many Black community members have lived in the area since the end of slavery.