The Carolina Football Hour on Franklin UNC Football Pre-Game Show is presented by Chapel Hill Tire, Now open Saturdays at their Crabtree and University Place Locations.

97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell and Michael Koh return to the studio from UNC football’s bye week — one filled with many off-field stories. The pair cover how the ongoing university investigation has hit with the players and their commitment to focusing on their next opponent: East Tennessee State. Former Tar Heel QB Bryn Renner joins to talk about his impressions of Billy Edwards Jr. under center, who he knows from his Virginia high school football ties. Meanwhile, Michael brings a scouting report of the Buccaneers alongside impressions of Carolina’s defensive performance against TCU.

The Carolina Football Hour is your home for football insights from the staff of the flagship station for Tar Heel Sports! Now part of the pregame coverage, hosts Brighton McConnell and Michael Koh prepare UNC fans for the upcoming game by sharing the latest reporting, insight, and analysis on the team — as well as hear from guests covering the program. Tune in Saturdays three hours before kick-off on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and listen on-demand afterward on your favorite audio apps, like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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UNC will host East Tennessee State in its home opener Saturday at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels are looking for their first 2-0 start under head coach Bill Belichick.

If you aren’t attending the game in person, here’s how to follow along at home:

Broadcast Schedule

Those hoping to listen on the radio with Jones Angell on the call can do so at 97.9 FM and 1360 AM, or by streaming the radio broadcast on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 The Hill’s radio coverage of the game will begin at 9 a.m. with The Carolina Football Hour on Franklin. At 10 a.m., stay tuned in for Countdown to Kickoff.

At 11 a.m., the broadcast will shift over to Jones Angell and the Tar Heel Sports Network for their pregame coverage. They will also carry postgame coverage for approximately 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game.

Per college football broadcast restrictions, you can access the stream (computer, tablet or phone) through Chapelboro.com, TuneIN or most streaming apps, but you must be within 75-miles of Chapel Hill and have your location services for your device turned on.  This 75-mile rule applies only to Tar Heel Sports Network pre-game, game, and post-game broadcasts (one hour before kickoff until one and a half hours after the game ends). This does not apply to the Inside Carolina Live pre-game show, which you can stream anywhere.  If you live more than 75 miles outside of Chapel Hill, you can access the Tar Heel Sports Network game broadcast stream through the Varsity Network.

For more information about 97.9 The Hill WCHL’s sports programming, click here.

TV Schedule

Television coverage of the game begins with kickoff at 12 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network. As of today, Spectrum, DirecTV AT&T, Dish Network and Xfinity all carry ACC Network.

What if I don’t have cable?

A live stream will be available through the ESPN app or on ESPN.com. You will need to enter TV provider information to access this stream. Additionally, several cord-cutting options carry ACC Network.

YouTube TV costs $83/month and carries all of ESPN’s channels, including ACC Network.

Hulu TV goes for $89/month and includes ACC Network, but does not carry NBA TV or NFL Red Zone.

Sling TV is the cheapest at $57/month for the Orange + Sports Extra package. Be sure to avoid Sling Blue, as that package does not carry ESPN or ACC Network.

Featured image via Associated Press/Peter Morrison

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post UNC Football vs. East Tennessee State (2026): How to Watch, Cord-Cutting Options and Kickoff Time appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Goals from UNC’s Ryan Zellefrow and Luca Nikolai helped the Tar Heels play to a 2-2 draw against No. 1 Stanford at Dorrance Field Friday night.

Zellefrow’s goal in the 13th minute was Carolina’s first shot of the night. It came against the run of play, as Stanford had manufactured the first two chances of the night. Stanford keeper Alan Rutkowski saved both before Zellefrow found himself in front of a gaping goal mouth after a deflected shot. He made no mistake, sending the ball down off the crossbar and into the net.

The Tar Heels nearly doubled the advantage less than a minute later on a shot by Bertil Rygaard Hansen which was saved by Stanford keeper Rowan Schnebly. The Cardinal equalized in the 37th minute, and the two teams went into halftime even both on the scoreboard and in total shots (5-5).

UNC took the lead back after barely five minutes played in the second half after Rygaard Hansen drew a penalty. Nikolai stepped to the spot and converted to put the Tar Heels ahead 2-1, but that lead lasted less than two minutes. The Cardinal drew their own penalty in the 53rd minute, and Jack Pymm scored it to bring Stanford level again.

Both teams created chances after that, with Nikolai and Zellefrow making bids for braces that were saved by Schnebly. Rutkowski made a save of his own in the 68th minute, denying Stanford’s Logan Tsopanoglou a second goal. Despite that back-and-forth action, no team had a shot on target in the final 12 minutes.

With the 2-2 tie, UNC has now drawn each of its first two ACC matches. The Tar Heels will be back in action Tuesday when they host American at Dorrance Field at 7 p.m.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dalton Wainscott

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post UNC Men’s Soccer Earns Draw vs. No. 1 Stanford in Chapel Hill appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Despite leading 4-1 in the third quarter and carrying a 4-2 lead into the final 15 minutes, UNC fell to No. 20 Old Dominion 5-4 in overtime at Karen Shelton Stadium Friday.

The Tar Heels had race out to a 2-0 lead in a dominant first quarter, one which saw UNC hold the Monarchs without a shot. Ella Barbacci and Molly Nussbaumer scored for Carolina, with Barbacci’s goal giving UNC the lead after just 47 seconds. Charly Bruder scored midway through the second quarter to up that lead to 3-0, but ODU’s Serena Langendoen scored before halftime to cut that advantage down to 3-1.

Barbacci scored again in the third quarter to restore UNC’s three-goal lead before the Monarchs answered just 32 seconds later. The score stood at 4-2 entering the fourth quarter.

That quarter saw the Monarchs dominate possession, as ODU outshot UNC 15-3 across the final 15 minutes. Sofia Marciano, who had scored the Monarchs’ goal in the third quarter, struck again in the fourth to bring the deficit down to one at 4-3. Five minutes later, the Monarchs finally drew even again at 4-4.

UNC had a golden opportunity to steal the game back in the final minutes. After a penalty corner and a blocked shot, the Tar Heels earned a penalty stroke with 1:15 to go. Bruder stepped to the spot, but ODU goalie Suus Broers came up with the clutch stop to preserve the tie. Neither team manufactured another chance in the final seconds of regulation.

In the overtime period, Bruder, Coco Courtright and Barbacci each had chances at the cage, but it was ODU’s Langendoen who struck the winning blow after more than 10 minutes of sudden-death play. She scored the deciding goal on a penalty stroke, giving the Monarchs the upset win after they had not led for a single second.

Friday’s loss drops UNC to 2-3 overall, with each of the team’s three losses coming by one goal and two of them coming in overtime. Up next, Carolina will visit Richmond Sunday at 12 p.m.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post UNC Field Hockey Loses Late Lead, Falls to No. 20 Old Dominion at Home appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Dr. Deborah Stroman — who is a consulting professor for UNC and Virginia, sports businesswoman, former basketball player, and columnist — chats with 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell each week about headlines from the world of sports. Covering both local and national stories, Stroman specializes in connecting the on-field product to the impact of sports on business, culture and society. Listen to their past conversations on Chapelboro, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen:

The post Should HBCUs Keep Scheduling Power 4 Teams? Plus, the US Open’s American Talent – Stroman On Sports (September 11, 2026) appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in the greater Chapel Hill and Carrboro community. Every weekday afternoon, 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports, and everything in-between. Hear compelling stories, breaking news, and more. Find all of Andrew’s Evening News Reports by clicking here.

The post The Evening News: LUMO Discussions, Carolina Covenant, Football Preview appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

On Air Today features interviews and conversations with the latest newsmakers in our community — including local elected leaders, educators, business owners, and anyone else with their finger on the pulse of the greater Chapel Hill community.

The post On Air Today: Former Simpsons Writer and Showrunner Bill Oakley appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Friday, September 11, discussing town news and events. She talked about the Second Fridays ArtWalk happening downtown tonight, and the vibrancy that provides the downtown area. She also discussed a new community composting program that provides compost drop-off locations around the county. She previewed the coming Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, which will be the first since early in the summer, and more.

Conversations With the Mayors is an ongoing series on “News on the Hill” where host Andrew Stuckey visits with the local government leaders who help shape our communities in Chapel Hill and the surrounding area. Each Tuesday he visits with Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell; Wednesdays feature a conversation with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Jean Hamilton; Thursdays feature Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson, and Fridays include a conversation with Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee. You can listen to previous “Conversations With the Mayors” here.

The post Carrboro: Council Meeting Preview, Community Composting, Second Fridays ArtWalk appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Visit Twilark.com.

“I recorded it late summer last year in Nashville,” Pence says of the album – his second, after last year’s debut “The Taming Ties Create.” “I had been looking to record my second album with a different vibe: we did a whole album with a live band in the studio, a different instrumentation… (and) most of the songs were recorded live, (which) was new to me. That was scary.”

But the finished product is just as high-quality as ever: led by memorable singles like “The Deeper I Fall” and “Prettiest Way To Die,” the twelve tracks on “Tide” are a perfect merging of Pence’s “old melancholic indie” sound with lyrics that combine playful irreverence with just the right amount of darkness. (Perhaps best exemplified by “Prettiest Way To Die,” a song inspired by a tree Pence saw that was being slowly choked by invasive wisteria. “As a true Southern musician, I got to have a murder ballad somewhere in there,” he says with a laugh.)

Listen to the album and purchase it on Bandcamp.

As for that name? Twilark is essentially a solo project, but Pence says he wanted a name that would evoke his style of music.

“And it hit me in a dream,” he says. “In the dream, I was like, ‘Twilark!’ And also in the dream I was like, ‘That’s it. That’s the name. I figured it out.'”

Follow Twilark on Instagram.

Now that the album’s out, Pence is celebrating with a pair of shows – starting Friday, September 11, when Twilark will play a set at Schoolkids Records in Raleigh as part of a Hopscotch Music Festival day party. The official album-release show will come a little later: Thursday, October 22, at Neptunes in Raleigh.

“It’s a weird time to be releasing music,” Pence says. “There’s never (been) an easier time to release music – but there’s (also) so much good stuff out, so it’s easy to fear that it’ll go nowhere. But I’m here. I love making it. I’m grateful for the audience I have. And I’m excited for the stuff we have coming up.”

Conor Pence stopped by Live & Local this week to discuss “Never Learned the Tide” and perform three songs live in the 97.9 The Hill studio: “Prettiest Way to Die,” “No Cowboy Song,” and “Impermanence.” Listen:

The post ‘Never Learned the Tide’: Live and Local with Twilark! appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post On Air Today: Previewing UNC-East Tennessee State, with Jones Angell appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Are you looking for romantic date-night ideas in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and the greater Triangle community? Memorable restaurants, cultural experiences, special events, great places to get outdoors? Every Friday morning at 8:30, Aaron Keck and his husband Brad Bednar go on 97.9 The Hill and offer their recommendations during “Date Night” on This Morning with Aaron Keck. Click here to listen back to all their past segments – and tune in to This Morning every Friday at 8:30 to hear “Date Night” live on the air.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post Date Night: 100 Years of Kenan appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Trending today: Victor and Aaron take a deep dive into the “loneliness epidemic,” which is having widespread negative repercussions. Aaron points out that modern technology has made it much, much easier for individuals to entertain themselves – which may be preferable to socializing at any given specific moment, but ultimately leaves us unfulfilled if that’s all we ever do. Victor adds a compounding factor: in the last 25 years there’s been a big decline in the number of “third spaces” where people even have the chance to gather together in the first place. (That includes bowling alleys, which reminds Aaron of the influential 1990s book “Bowling Alone” – which identified a proto-loneliness epidemic by observing that more and more people are going bowling on their own. Is the situation even worse now, since there aren’t even as many bowling alleys for people to leave the house for?) Also on a related note, Aaron remembers a talk he recently heard about a beloved kids’ show – and why it may be so beloved in the first place.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Trending segments – and tune in to “This Morning” on 97.9 The Hill every weekday at 7:45 to hear What’s Trending live on the air.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

What’s Trending is made possible by Dynamic Electric. Listen now:

The post What’s Trending: Not Even Bowling Alone appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Visit PlayMakersRep.org for more information on the 2026-27 season – and to buy tickets to “Oedipus.”

Aaron welcomes PlayMakers artistic director Vivienne Benesch to the studio to preview the upcoming season (including “Oedipus”) and get the word out about their upcoming Folk Play Project – where you are invited to become the playwright.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post On Air Today: ‘Oedipus’ Launching PlayMakers Repertory Company’s Season, with Vivienne Benesch appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s daily news reports, which you can hear live during “This Morning with Aaron Keck” every weekday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post The Morning News: UNC Football Preview, LUMO, Carolina Covenant appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

It’s been 13 days since UNC got TCU to jump offsides, Christo Kelly tapped a Horned Frog defender on the helmet and Bill Belichick vigorously signaled for a first down, sealing the Tar Heels’ 15-10 win in Ireland.

The messaging after that game was mostly positive. Some pundits who had picked TCU to win believed the Tar Heels could be better than many thought before the season. Others stayed in wait-and-see mode — after all, who knows how good TCU actually is?

The point being, the UNC headlines, for once, were all football related. But that pleasant break didn’t even last a week, as last Thursday suspended general manager Michael Lombardi resigned and WRAL published a bombshell report about the program’s internal investigation. Belichick’s press conference Monday turned surreal as reporters grilled the curmudgeonly coach about whether his program truly is compliant with NCAA rules.

Belichick is no stranger to controversy and wasn’t budging on his pledge to not discuss details of the probe, only saying he had addressed it honestly with the team. Meanwhile, he insisted his full focus was on Saturday’s game against East Tennessee State.

“My expectations are to do the best I can for the team every day and get our team to perform well, coaching staff and players,” Belichick told reporters. “That’ll never change. It’s a day-to-day process. Today, we’re in our process of game planning for this game Saturday. Tomorrow we’ll go out and practice. We’ll practice the next day on third down and two-minute [drills]. We’ll practice the next day on red area and goal line. We’ll review everything and we’ll go out and play on Saturday. We do what we do.”

For the Tar Heels, doing what they do requires heavy insulation against the kinds of questions Belichick answered – or didn’t answer – Monday. But after a chaotic first year which some pundits believed Belichick wouldn’t even finish, the veterans have become used to playing football in a vacuum chamber. Those veterans include Kelly, the talkative offensive lineman who has often served as the team’s de facto spokesman in times of trouble.

“The greatest change or improvement in a team is from Week 1 to Week 2,” Kelly said, holding court at the microphone. “For us, we had two weeks. Being able to attack the bye week was big for us. It was probably some of the harder practices that we had. But really, we’re just focused on getting better each and every day. And it’s been fun getting to do that with these guys. We’re looking forward to keeping it going.”

Belichick was asked several questions about his team’s culture, something which has been under the microscope from the time the legendary coach first stepped on campus. The latest report from WRAL was not the first to implicate Belichick and his players as being non-compliant with either NCAA rules or the rule of law. Linebacker Derek McDonald, a transfer from Syracuse who arrived this past offseason, defended that culture.

“If you look at the guys we brought in, the guys that are on the roster from last year, we have a lot of guys that really want to work and want to get better and want to win games,” said McDonald, who earned ACC Linebacker of the Week honors for his performance against TCU. “I think we have a really strong culture and we’ve done a lot of work this offseason… The way you grow closer as a team is by putting in that work and suffering together. We definitely did plenty of that in the offseason, so it made us a lot closer.”

Then there’s Ben Hall, the running back who shows as much patience at the podium as he does in the backfield. When Hall was asked if he was frustrated his team’s success against TCU was being overshadowed, he paused to think. Then, a smile crept to his face as he delivered his answer.

“I’m gonna be honest with you,” Hall said. “No one in this building is losing any sleep over that.”

Featured image via UNC-Chapel Hill

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post UNC Football Defends Culture, Emphasizes Preparation Ahead of Home Opener appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

UNC held visiting Cal without a single shot on target Thursday night at Dorrance Field, and the Tar Heels cruised to a 3-0 win in their first ACC match of the season.

Carolina took the lead inside the first 10 minutes, as Bella Devey tapped in a loose ball in front of the net mouth off of a corner kick. The Tar Heels’ second goal was just as clunky: on a UNC cross into the penalty area, the Cal goalkeeper ran off her line to punch it away. She connected with the ball, but hit it straight into her own defender and the ball deflected backward into the net for an own goal.

In the second half, BYU transfer Izzi Stratton connected with a cross to head in the first goal of her collegiate career, extending the UNC lead to 3-0. That would be more than enough, as the Tar Heels outshot the Bears 10-2 overall and held the opponent without a shot on target for the second time this season. Carolina has now allowed just one total goal across its past three matches — or four, when counting its 3-0 exhibition win against Irish professional side Shelbourne FC in August.

UNC is now 6-1 overall this season and 1-0 in ACC play. The Tar Heels will continue their homestand Sunday when they host the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) at Dorrance Field at 1 p.m.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dalton Wainscott

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post UNC Women’s Soccer Locks Down Cal, Wins ACC Opener appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in the greater Chapel Hill and Carrboro community. Every weekday afternoon, 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports, and everything in-between. Hear compelling stories, breaking news, and more. Find all of Andrew’s Evening News Reports by clicking here.

The post The Evening News: Poet Laureate Applications, School Bus Assignments, College Basketball appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

On Air Today features interviews and conversations with the latest newsmakers in our community — including local elected leaders, educators, business owners, and anyone else with their finger on the pulse of the greater Chapel Hill community.

The post On Air Today: UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media Professor Daniel Kreiss appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Keeper of the Haw and Executive Director of the Haw River Assembly Emily Sutton spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Thursday, September 10. She discussed recent work of the Haw River Assembly, including the upcoming State of the Haw Report, learning opportunities for 4th graders, and more.

Emily Sutton, Haw River Assembly

Each Thursday, “News on the Hill” centers conversations around climate and sustainability for our Climate Thursday segment. We visit with community leaders, policy makers, and experts in the fields of climate science and sustainability in order to put all of the latest climate news into local context. Find our past Climate Thursday conversations here.

The post Climate Thursday: Keeper of the Haw Emily Sutton appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson joined 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey in studio on Thursday, September 10, discussing town news and events. She discussed the upcoming football home opener, which features a pre game concert by Shaquille O’Neil (as DJ Diesel) on campus at 10 a.m. on Saturday. She also talked about the town council’s return to regular meetings, with Wednesday night’s work session focused on specific aspects of the LUMO document, and more.

Conversations With the Mayors is an ongoing series on “News on the Hill” where host Andrew Stuckey visits with the local government leaders who help shape our communities in Chapel Hill and the surrounding area. Each Tuesday he visits with Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell; Wednesdays feature a conversation with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Jean Hamilton; Thursdays feature Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson, and Fridays include a conversation with Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee. You can listen to previous “Conversations With the Mayors” here.

The post Chapel Hill: LUMO, Football Home Opener, Shaq appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Visit AnneClaireVoice.com.

Anne-Claire Cleaver has been a significant figure in the Triangle’s music scene for a decade, but “Do You Dream” is her first release in a while. It’s been more than five years since her last single, “Jean Jacket” – and more than eight years since her previous album, 2018’s “I Still Look For You.”

“I think ‘relief’ is the first thing that comes to mind,” she says of the feeling on album-release day. “(And) I think some of the best bits are the things that people haven’t heard yet… (so) I guess what I’m feeling too is, like, anticipation. I’m just so excited for people to hear what’s coming next.”

Follow Anne-Claire on Instagram.

Recorded at Manifold Studios in Pittsboro, the lush sound of “Do You Dream” is a departure from Anne-Claire’s previous work. Gone is the 80s-inflected pop-rock of “Jean Jacket”; in its place is a classic chanteuse at the top of her game. Starting with a dramatic and powerful chord on the opening track (a tribute to the 1955 thriller “Night of the Hunter”) and closing with Anne-Claire’s soaring, bittersweet vocals on the title track, “Do You Dream” is a smoky, orchestral masterpiece from start to finish.

“I haven’t made any music that sounds like this yet,” Anne-Claire says. “This is how Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald used to record music, where the orchestra’s in the room (together with) the singers.”

Cleaver’s voice is the star throughout, but she’s supported by a star-studded cast – including Charles Cleaver, Nathan Golub, Casey Toll, Matt Douglas, TJ Maiani, Chris Stamey, Jeff Crawford, Chris Boerner, and many more.

Listen to the album and purchase it on Bandcamp.

And “Do You Dream” also showcases Cleaver’s songwriting skills – though, again, the new songs are very different from her previous output.

“My last record was very confessional, about a very personal time in my life,” she says. “It was about the death of my grandmother and all the struggling that I did with that – and this time, I really wanted to take the focus off of me as a person. It’s more fictional, imaginative. There’s more space for personae. There’s more space for me to try on different hats.”

It’s all a big step forward into the unknown for Anne-Claire, who’s spent the last five years building up her career as a voice teacher. And that’s fitting, she says – because ‘big steps forward into the unknown’ are exactly what she encourages in her students.

“So much of the work that I do with folks is really not about technique, or sounding good, or being good or bad at creating art – it’s really about trusting yourself and being courageous,” she says. “I’d taken a break (from recording) because I didn’t feel confident in what I was doing – (but) when you start to say these things, these encouraging things to people over the years, over and over, it just starts to make you wonder, ‘do I believe this for myself too?’…

“I had the support of a coach, Jess Baldwin, who helps artists work through these blocks. (And) that’s what led me to where I am today.”

Anne-Claire stopped by Live & Local last week (accompanied by Charles Cleaver, who’s also her husband) to discuss the new album and play two songs: “Three Things” and “Do You Dream Of Me Too?” Listen:

The post ‘Do You Dream Of Me Too?’ Live and Local with Anne-Claire! appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

This Just In — Twenty-five years ago tomorrow at about 9:30 in the morning, I was answering an email I had received from my uncle. He lived in Phoenix and as a morning person, I knew he was up.

I disregarded the subject of his email (something about his website, whose hosting I provided) and sent back a terse message that we talked about for years to come.

”Turn on your television,” I told him.

He did so and we watched, along with the world, as the scenes in New York and Washington DC unfolded. We learned later that day about a plane that may have impacted my family in Chicago having crashed in Pennsylvania.

I was thinking about this and the rarity of our collective trauma being played out on national television … a phenomenon existing in my lifetime and not really before.

Watching the towers be struck by commercial jets was something so surreal that most of us felt as though we were watching a movie. A scary movie.

One of my first thoughts after knowing my own family was accounted for was that since the country was obviously under attack, the trauma would be even more unspeakable if the target was the capitol building or the White House. We’d all seen Independence Day (the movie) at that point. We didn’t have to imagine that that would look Iike.

Imagination. That’s what the Bush administration lacked in preventing such an attack. This was the finding of the nonpartisan 9/11 Commission in its debrief of the cause of America’s vulnerability and the corrections needed to prevent a repeat.

It’s rare in our culture that we have events that transcend politics and sear into our collective mind, as President Roosevelt described it, “a date which will live in infamy.”

December 7th was such a date, as was November 22nd, September 11th and January 6th.

All of these dates represent attacks on all of us. All of them. Whether through bombardment and mass murder, assasination of our leader or the lethal attempted coup, these were attacks on every American and our way of life.

We are still in the wake of January 6th. Preventing its recurrence is a matter of domestic political will. It’s vital that we remain active and attentive politically. It’s our essential protection against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

And yes, we have domestic enemies. Facing that fact is our only way out. To choose just one example, among MANY, yesterday the President of the United States offered to send $5,000 to every American adult if the GOP retains control of Congress in the upcoming midterm election.

While he calls this a “dividend” and compares it to a company’s profit sharing, Trump is offering to buy votes and this is spectacularly illegal. We’ve become accustomed to the president doing illegal things, but we need to slap ourselves out of that and we need to do that without delay.

The path forward runs right through the voting booth. Check your registration. Be ready. Get out to vote as soon as possible, holding hope in our hearts. “Hope,” said the late Gloria Steinem, “is a form of planning.”

Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.

Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc

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“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.

Legion Road and Chapel Hill’s Complete Community Contradiction

A perspective from David Adams

Legion Road is not fundamentally a dispute about a pond. It is a case study in how Chapel Hill’s stated commitments to complete communities, equity, affordable housing, environmental stewardship, and parks can come into conflict — and how those conflicts have actually been resolved.

The Town purchased the Legion property in 2017 for approximately $7.9 million and committed it to multiple community purposes. Nearly nine years later, the pond and surrounding trees are being removed, affordable housing remains a future project, and the park itself is still in the planning and funding process.

The strongest critique is therefore not that Chapel Hill chose affordable housing. That is an important public objective. The critique is that when housing, parkland, environmental amenities, and cost came into conflict, affordable housing became the dominant priority while the park and existing natural amenities were deferred, reduced, or replaced — and that this was a choice among competing objectives, not an inevitability.

The pond did not simply “have to go”

The Town correctly identifies dam safety as a serious issue. But safety and inevitability are not the same thing. The engineering alternatives considered for the site included options for retaining the pond through rehabilitation or modification of the dam, and at least one reduced-pond rehabilitation option was identified as possible before the Town ultimately selected removal.

The engineering analysis also explicitly weighed future affordable housing plans in evaluating pond alternatives. So the question was broader than whether an unsafe dam should be ignored: the Town had to balance safety, cost, operations and maintenance, environmental value, and the configuration of future affordable housing. If preservation was technically possible but more expensive or less compatible with maximizing development, the loss of the pond was a policy choice, not simply a physical inevitability.

What about the wildlife survey?

The public has been told, on at least three separate occasions across two years, that a wildlife and endangered-species assessment exists or is underway. It has not been told what that assessment says.

The Tetra Tech engineering report did find that a constructed wetland would provide more biodiversity than the pond, and this conclusion was weighted twice in the Town’s final analysis. But that is an engineering/environmental-benefits comparison of alternatives — not a wildlife assessment of the existing pond, which should include species surveyed, any required mitigation, and correspondence with state or federal wildlife agencies.

A constructed wetland is not the same as the pond

A constructed wetland may provide legitimate benefits for biodiversity, environmental education, citizen science, and stormwater management, and those benefits should be evaluated on their own merits. But a future constructed wetland is not interchangeable with an existing pond surrounded by mature trees and an established landscape. The Town can acknowledge the value of the future wetland without pretending it replaces what is being lost.

Affordable housing is the dominant priority

Chapel Hill is already one of North Carolina’s leading municipalities in per-capita affordable-housing investment. The Town’s own Affordable Housing Plan reports approximately $170 per resident annually — among the highest levels in North Carolina and higher than many peer communities. Chapel Hill doesn’t need to prove its affordable-housing bona fides by squeezing every possible unit onto the Legion property.

That said, the Town Council designated approximately 8–9 acres along Legion Road for affordable housing, and the selected development concept anticipates about 168 affordable units. This makes the public narrative — “the dam is unsafe, therefore the pond must go” — more complicated than it sounds: the Town chose a site strategy that removes the pond, creates stormwater infrastructure for construction and future housing, and maximizes the affordable-housing project. It has not documented why a smaller housing footprint that retains the pond isn’t feasible.

The sequence: certain losses now, deferred benefits later

The pond, dam, and surrounding trees are being removed now. The pond area is expected to remain fenced and function as construction-related space. Affordable housing construction won’t begin until 2028, and the constructed wetland is planned only after the housing is complete. The park’s own features await the Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan, and the Legion building will eventually be demolished with no firm timeline for the park improvements around it.

This creates an accountability problem: residents are losing an existing amenity immediately in exchange for benefits that are delayed for years. A future wetland and a future park may ultimately be valuable, but a future promise is not equivalent to an existing public amenity.

The equity question

The most important equity question is geographic: which parts of Chapel Hill receive completed, well-funded parks and recreational amenities, and which parts are repeatedly asked to wait? Eastern Chapel Hill has waited nearly a decade since the Town’s purchase of the Legion property, and it is now losing the site’s principal natural amenity while housing, wetland, and major park improvements all remain future projects.

Affordable housing should not mean housing accompanied by fewer parks, less green space, or a lower standard of neighborhood amenity — families who cannot afford market-rate housing deserve the same access to nature, recreation, and quality public space as residents elsewhere in Town. The difficult question is not whether affordable housing is desirable; it is whether Chapel Hill would have accepted this same tradeoff — loss of an established natural amenity, prolonged disruption, an uncertain park timetable — in a wealthier part of Town with stronger existing recreational infrastructure.

The Town has too often let the Legion debate be framed as pond preservation versus affordable housing. That framing is misleading: it implies that supporting lower-income residents requires accepting fewer environmental and recreational amenities, when a genuinely equitable complete community would ask how affordable housing can be integrated with green space and public gathering places from the start, rather than treating those amenities as residual benefits to fund later.

Two local benchmarks: Cedar Falls and Southern Village

Cedar Falls Park shows Chapel Hill’s willingness to invest heavily in established park infrastructure elsewhere in Town. The point isn’t that Cedar Falls should get less — it’s that Legion residents are entitled to ask why their community has waited so long for a comparable amenity, and why its principal existing natural feature is being removed before any replacement is funded and built. That turns Legion into a question of municipal investment priorities and geographic equity, not just neighborhood attachment to a pond.

Southern Village offers the opposite model: housing, streets, commerce, public space, and recreation conceived together from the outset. A genuine complete community shouldn’t mean maximizing residential units first and promising parks later. Legion risks the reverse sequence — remove the existing natural feature, maximize the housing footprint, use the former pond area for construction staging, create a future environmental substitute, and defer the actual park until funding materializes.

The democratic problem: “with us” versus “to us”

Residents have participated in task forces, surveys, workshops, petitions, and public comment. But participation is meaningful only when the public can see how its input shaped the final decision. The deeper legitimacy problem isn’t that some residents lost an argument — difficult decisions inevitably disappoint some constituents. It’s that a major public tradeoff has been described as inevitable rather than acknowledged as a choice among competing values. The public has a right to know what alternatives existed, what they cost, how they affected affordable housing, and why the Town chose to prioritize one over another.

Summary

Legion Road should not be reduced to “save the pond” versus “build affordable housing.” Chapel Hill had an opportunity to deliver a genuinely complete and equitable community — housing, a meaningful park, natural amenities, and connections to existing public space. Instead, when conflicts arose, it prioritized maximizing the affordable-housing component while accepting the loss of the pond and mature landscape and deferring the park to an uncertain future.

The central question is not whether Chapel Hill should have built affordable housing. It’s whether the Town could — and should — have delivered that housing without sacrificing the quality, timing, and equity of the amenities that make a neighborhood complete. That question reaches beyond Legion Road: it tests whether the Town’s commitments to equity, Complete Communities, and environmental stewardship are operating principles or just aspirations. Chapel Hill should be judged not by the aspirations it attaches to Legion Road, but by the balance of benefits and burdens it actually delivers — and by whether that balance is equitable with what it provides elsewhere.

“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.

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The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office says it located a missing Raleigh man Thursday morning. Preston Scott Hill, 35, was found injured in the Haw River near Pittsboro, “in an area of difficult terrain,” according to a release. A helicopter was used to access Hill’s location, and he was then transported to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill for evaluation.

According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Hill had last been seen Monday, Sep. 7 driving a 2015 Ford Fusion with California plates. When Hill was reported missing, investigators believed he may have been in danger.

“Situations like these show the importance of the relationships we have with our local and state emergency response partners,” said Chatham County Sheriff Steve Maynor. “When someone needs help, our agencies work together to bring the resources needed to get that person to safety.”

Among the organizations which assisted in Hill’s rescue were the North Chatham Fire Department, the Pittsboro Fire Department, Chatham County Emergency Management, North Carolina Emergency Management, the North Carolina HART (Helo-Aquatic Rescue Team) and FirstHealth.

Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Henry Taylor

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B3 announced on Tuesday its purchase of space at 308 West Rosemary Street as the future home of the B3 Clubhouse, a “third space” for adults with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The units are on the ground floor of The Fountains office and condo building, previously home to Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.

The B3 organization — which started in 2020 as a pop-up coffee shop alongside three neuro-divergent UNC students, and stands for “Being, Belonging, and Becoming” — has since expanded its mission to provide more opportunities and resources to I/DD residents. Helping build confidence and connections through employment was always central to the group’s goal, and the vision for the B3 Clubhouse is to create a place for even more fun experiences. The nonprofit started the clubhouse model in late 2025 out of rooms in the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, but with the goal of finding a space to permanently call its own.

“The new Clubhouse is an opportunity to create a place intentionally designed for community to happen,” Executive Director of B3 Jacklyn Boheler said in the nonprofit’s release. “It is infrastructure for belonging. It gives people a place to return to, a place where relationships can grow over time, and will be an important visible presence in the broader Chapel Hill community.”

The 308 West Rosemary Street space purchased by B3 faces the road, helping with visibility and accessibility to the community. (Photo via Jacklyn Boheler/B3.)

While B3 has grown to offer several social, education and vocational programs to its more than 300 members, much of its operations to this point have been in shared or borrowed spaces — like Holy Trinity and the Chapel Hill Public Library, which hosts the B3 Coffee kiosk. The new space at West Rosemary Street will add to its offerings by allowing B3 to have a permanent spot for structured and unstructured programming, said Boheler, while maintaining its core features.

“Having a permanent home doesn’t mean we’re leaving the community spaces that have helped us grow,” she said. “It gives us a home base while allowing us to continue building partnerships throughout Chapel Hill.”

The terminology and philosophy around third spaces has become a critical part of urban planning in recent years, as people continue to adapt to an increasingly online society that was splintered during the COVID-19 pandemic. By definition, a “third space” is not someone’s home, nor a place of work, where people can gather to meet and spend time together. The B3 Clubhouse aims to achieve that as a spot to welcome adults and encourage engagement between peers, neighbors and allies.

Not only is finding such places difficult for most adults, but those with I/DD especially face challenges. B3 says many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience a drop off in resources and risk of isolation upon graduating high school. At the Clubhouse, members will not only have a chance to meet and see people, but take part in life skills programs and creative activities.

B3 members work together on an art project as part of the nonprofit’s Arts EMPOWER classes in April. The organization plans for events like that to be held in its future Clubhouse space. (Photo via B3 on Facebook.)

“It can be hard to make friends as an adult,” B3 member Sam Wagner said. “The clubhouse creates a safe space to meet people without fear of judgment and do fun activities.”

“People need places where they are known, valued, and empowered to contribute — not just places where they receive support” Dan Gitterman, Chair of B3’s Board of Directors and professor of Public Policy at UNC, added in the release.

While the sale to B3 is official and work has begun to prepare for opening the new clubhouse space, the nonprofit is asking the community for help fulfilling its vision. It launched a fundraising campaign alongside its announcement, aiming to raise $150,000 to finish renovations and furnish the space. An agreement with the Community Bridges Foundation also will see all donations matched up to $25,000. If the campaign’s target is met, the plan is to open the B3 Clubhouse in January 2027.

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We know that United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. But those fighter pilots had taken off immediately without the time to arm the jets with missiles. Their mission was to ram the hijacked plane, sacrificing their lives along with the passengers.

On 9/11, I pray for the dead and their grieving survivors. I shiver at the depths of human cruelty. And my eyes well with tears when I consider the heights of bravery: the police and firefighters rushing again and again into the Towers; the citizens, from stock traders to janitors, helping people escape to safety. I remember the first responders at the Pentagon as well as the passengers on Flight 93 who revolted against the hijackers. These people are all heroes.

On other days of the year, I might use the word “hero” too casually, such as in reference to a baseball game. But now you, too, know the story of two more heroes, Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville and 1^st Lt. Heather Penney. I try to imagine what it would be like to receive orders to sacrifice my life for complete strangers and push the throttle, soaring through the blue sky of a late summer morning and leaving everyone I loved behind.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-five years later, the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, are still remembered as among the most important historic events in many Americans’ lives, according to a new poll.

A new Ipsos poll finds that about half of U.S. adults name the 9/11 attacks in an open-ended question about the most important historic occurrences in their lifetimes. That’s despite other momentous events that have happened since then, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the elections of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The polling points to the enduring legacy of 9/11, even as many Americans today are too young to have experienced or comprehended the event a quarter century ago. Ipsos found that the vast majority of Americans remember where they were when they heard about the attacks, and about two-thirds of Americans say it impacted the country “a great deal.” Separate polling from Gallup finds about 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they permanently changed the way they live their lives because of the attacks.

Despite the widespread impact, the Ipsos poll finds relatively few Americans will be marking the anniversary in some way. Only about 1 in 10 U.S. adults plans to do something to commemorate Friday’s 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Kevin Noel, 51, remembers watching the catastrophe unfold after he got out of a subway station to head to work near the World Trade Center that morning. To this day, the smell of the deadly inferno comes back to him whenever he’s in the area. He views 9/11 as the most historic event he’s lived through and believes “we’re going to be remembering this for the rest of history.” He plans to reflect on it privately on Friday.

“Every Sept. 11, I just — it’s a traumatic day for me where I just go silent,” Noel said.

A general view of the New York skyline during an FDNY memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (Photo via AP Photo/Pamela Smith.)

The 9/11 attacks top the list of historic events in many Americans’ lifetime

For Americans who can remember the Sept. 11 attacks, they were a defining moment.

When U.S. adults were asked to list up to five of the most important historic events in their lifetime in the open-ended question — where respondents answered in their own words — the Sept. 11 attacks overshadowed the much more recent COVID-19 pandemic, which 31% of U.S. adults mentioned.

Other events, including the elections of Trump and Obama, space expeditions and the fall of the Berlin Wall, were cited by many Americans as defining moments. For Americans 65 and older, the most frequently mentioned events were the Sept. 11 attacks, followed by President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, space expeditions and the Vietnam War.

Clara Kiel, 88, says World War II had more impact on her life personally, as it hung over her childhood and she knew people who served. But she recalls the shock of watching 9/11 happen on TV from her living room. She also plans to take a moment to reflect privately on the 25th anniversary.

“It always seems like there’s something in history that changes the way people think,” said Kiel, a retired secretary in Onamia, Minnesota. “9/11 did it for the generation that grew up through that.”

For younger Americans under 35, COVID-19 is more prominent. About half of U.S. adults under 35 say the pandemic was among the most impactful events of their lifetime, while about one-third mention 9/11. A significant share of younger adults were not born when the attacks happened, or were too young to remember where they were at the time.

About 6 in 10 adults who were born after the attacks say they first learned about 9/11 in a class or through schoolwork, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in August.

Kainoa Ilac, an 18-year-old in California, learned about the attacks from his parents, who are history teachers.

“I think that I and a lot of my peers in my generation still feel the effects of that day,” from airport security to awareness of the government’s ability to monitor communications, he said.

Americans overwhelmingly say the 9/11 attacks impacted the country

About 9 in 10 Americans say the attacks on Sept. 11 impacted the United States “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” according to Ipsos. Roughly 7 in 10 say it had at least “quite a bit” of impact on the world, and about 6 in 10 say it had a significant impact on their generation. Closer to 3 in 10 say it impacted their family or them personally.

Americans ages 50 and older are especially likely to say the attacks affected them personally.

Among the roughly 1 in 10 Americans who plan to mark the day, about 7 in 10 say they will participate in a moment of silence, and most, 56%, will display an American flag.

Lakesha Crowell remembers 9/11 in detail, including where she was sitting in her sophomore world history class in Meridian, Mississippi, when the teacher disclosed that two planes had hit New York’s World Trade Center. She recalls the security changes, the economic fallout, the way some people around her began looking differently upon foreigners, and the sense of vigilance at both individual and national levels.

“It affected us a lot, because it changed our way of living, and it changed our way of thinking,” said Crowell, 40.

Confidence in government’s ability to protect Americans from terrorism is down

Americans are divided on whether the country has become safer from foreign attacks since 9/11.

The Ipsos poll found about one-third of U.S. adults say the country is “more safe,” and a similar share say it is “less safe.” The remaining one-third, roughly, say the U.S. is about as safe as it was before the attacks.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the country has become safer.

Recent Gallup polling found most U.S. adults, 55%, have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence in the U.S. government to protect its citizens from future acts of terrorism. That faith was at its highest, 88%, in polling conducted in the days after the 9/11 attack. It has ticked down over the 25-year trend, but the most recent measure is among the lowest recorded, similar to a poll conducted just after a deadly 2015 mass shooting in southern California.

Additionally, about one-third say they are “very” or “somewhat” worried that they or someone in their family will become a victim of terrorism. That’s down from about 6 in 10 who said that in the days following Sept. 11, 2001.

David Bronkhurst, a 49-year-old in Bloomingdale, New Jersey, recalls that after the attacks, his then-partner volunteered at the World Trade Center disaster site, handing out supplies to rescue and recovery workers, and some friends changed career paths to join the fire department. Other friends on the city’s police force died from cancers after they were exposed to toxins from the ash and dust at ground zero, he said.

He plans to attend an annual candlelight procession from a neighboring town to his own.

Bronkhurst doesn’t consider the country safer now than it was before the attacks — but he doesn’t worry too much that terrorism might strike him or his family. “You can’t go through life being scared,” he said.

___

The Ipsos poll of 1,013 adults was conducted Aug. 21-23 using a sample drawn from Ipsos’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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This week in history: Scott and Aaron mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – but also discuss more positive moments in history as well, including the first official reference to the “United States of America,” a step forward in the ratification of the Bill of Rights, and the first publication of the Pledge of Allegiance. (Which was written by a socialist, as it happened.) Also: desegregation icon Ruby Bridges is born in 1954, Charles Kuralt becomes a legendary journalist, and Francis Scott Key is inspired to pen the Star-Spangled Banner.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every Thursday morning, local historian Scott Washington joins 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck for “History Matters,” a look back at notable events and significant figures from this week in history, ranging from pioneers to writers to inventors to civil rights champions and more, locally, nationally, and beyond.

Click here to listen back to the full History Matters archive – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” Thursday mornings at 8:30 on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

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Trending today: Wingstop is one of the fastest-growing fast food chains in the U.S., prompting Victor to ask: what’s up with this chicken craze? Aaron’s not 100 percent sure there is a chicken craze per se, but it’s undeniable that it’s really really easy to get chicken tenders these days.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Trending segments – and tune in to “This Morning” on 97.9 The Hill every weekday at 7:45 to hear What’s Trending live on the air.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

What’s Trending is made possible by Dynamic Electric. Listen now:

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Aaron welcomes Dave Hedeman and Eliza Mae (father and daughter!) to discuss those two shows and play the classic song “Delta Dawn” live in the 97.9 The Hill studio.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

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97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s daily news reports, which you can hear live during “This Morning with Aaron Keck” every weekday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

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Kenan Stadium has become a Chapel Hill staple during the past century, with some families sharing memories across generations. District Court Judge Hathaway Pendergrass grew up in one of those families, and he remembered his father’s stories from playing with Chapel Hill High School in the state championship game on the Kenan grass.

District Court Judge Hathaway Pendergrass’ connections to Kenan Stadium run deep. (Image via UNC-Chapel Hill)

To hear more stories like this one, tune in to 97.9 The Hill Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout football season!

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Chapel Hill is currently seeking applicants for its next Poet Laureate.

The two-year position aims to inspire creativity and celebrate the community through poetry and public programs, working closely with town staff to create events and writing poems for special occasions. Applications are due on September 14 at 5 p.m.

“This role is really an ambassador for poetry in the Chapel Hill community, creating all kinds of poetry experiences for people who live in Chapel Hill,” Community Arts and Culture Marketing and Communications Coordinator Darien Cropper told 97.9 The Hill.

The Poet Laureate will also facilitate workshops and training opportunities, perform at key community moments like festivals, events, and council meetings, and create experiences for poetry to be shared in the community. 

“And that can take a lot of different forms,” Cropper said. “We work with the Poet Laureate to see what that looks like, what they’re interested in and how they want to shape the role. So it changes depending on each Poet Laureate that we have.”

The selected artist will succeed the town’s third Poet Laureate Donovan Livingston, an award-winning educator, spoken word poet, and public speaker whose tenure concludes in December. He is also UNC’s Director of College Thriving and a teaching assistant professor on the history of hip-hop and composition. 

97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey (middle), speaking with Darien Cropper (left) and Donovan Livingston (right) on August 26.

Livingston described the role as an “experience of a lifetime,” expressing how it helps encourage poetry in town by providing more structured opportunities to share and create. 

“I see poetry as essential to furthering our work as artists here in this community,” Livingston said. “It’s been delightful to sort of see how poetry shows up in people’s daily lives. You know, the folks who come to our monthly poetry workshops at Epilogue, or the students that I’ve been able to interact with.”

Those who are over 18 years-old and have little, some, or substantial work published and active poetry projects in the last five years are eligible to apply. While applicants do not need to live in Chapel Hill, they must have a professional or personal connection to the town. The selected poet will receive a $6,000 stipend, and finalists will get a $200 stipend for their proposals. 

Since starting in the position in January 2025, Livingston has worked closely with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Orange County’s correctional system, and UNC’s music department as faculty member. The spoken word poet said art and lyricism have the opportunity to bring people together, and he gave his advice to prospective applicants.

“Dream big. Like really, really dream big,” Livingston said. “I didn’t realize how much permission I would have to just be able to explore what’s possible as Poet Laureate, and I’d be surprised every month when we’d meet, if I threw out an idea, people would be like, ‘Yeah, let’s try that. Let’s do that, or let’s put some weight behind that and really set it in motion.’”

One of those ideas is Talk of the Town, a collaborative mixtape and musical time capsule of the Chapel Hill community. Set to release in November, Donovan said it brought together writers, poets, emcees, and storytellers of all ages, and its lyrics were recently incorporated into a visual art piece on the exterior of a town transit bus. Created by local artist Alison Hawkins, the bus with the artistic (w)rap will also likely house musical programming and performances.

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Livingston said both projects are representative of what the Poet Laureate role is all about: growing Chapel Hill’s creative ecosystem. 

“I’ve always wanted to represent a place with my lyricism and art, and I’m grateful to have been able to do that in a place that means so much to me,” Livingston said. “It’s bittersweet that it’s coming to an end, but we want to go out with a bang. I’m looking forward to ushering in the new person, welcoming them with open arms, and drumming up a little bit more excitement before we walk out the door.” 

Apply to be Chapel Hill’s 2027-2028 Poet Laureate by clicking here.

Featured image via Chapel Hill Community Arts and Culture.

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The post Chapel Hill Accepting Applicants for Its Next Poet Laureate, Donovan Livingston Reflects on His Term appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

UNC fell in three sets to No. 3 Kentucky on the road in Lexington Wednesday night, suffering its first loss of the 2026 season.

The Wildcats dominated the first set, winning 16 of the final 21 points on their way to a 25-11 victory. Carolina was more competitive in the final two sets, but ultimately failed to reach the 20-point plateau in either. Kentucky won the second set 25-19 and the third 25-18, closing the match on a 7-1 scoring run after the score stood at 18-17.

Bridget Malone and Safi Hampton tied for the UNC team lead with seven kills. As a team, Kentucky totaled 49 kills to Carolina’s 27.

The Tar Heels are now 4-1 on the season. Up next, Carolina will travel to New York City to face Vanderbilt at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan. The match is part of the “Anchor Down in Midtown” event, commemorating the opening of Vanderbilt University’s New York campus. First serve between the Tar Heels and Commodores is set for Sunday at 2 p.m.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dalton Wainscott

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The post UNC Volleyball Swept at No. 3 Kentucky, Suffers First Loss of 2026 Season appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Chair of the Orange County Commissioner Jean Hamilton spoke with 97.9 The hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Wednesday, September 9, discussing county news and events. She previewed several upcoming gatherings of the Orange County Commissioners over the next week, which includes a Thursday work session, a Monday retreat and a regular Tuesday meeting. She also previewed upcoming events and more.

 

Photo via Hamilton for Orange County.

Conversations With the Mayors is an ongoing series on “News on the Hill” where host Andrew Stuckey visits with the local government leaders who help shape our communities in Chapel Hill and the surrounding area. Each Tuesday he visits with Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell; Wednesdays feature a conversation with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Jean Hamilton; Thursdays feature Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson, and Fridays include a conversation with Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee. You can listen to previous “Conversations With the Mayors” here.

The post Orange County: Preview of Work Session, Retreat, and Business Meeting appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Lombardi’s UNC Resignation: Looking Back, To The Future

By David Glenn

Here are three things to know about the recent resignation of UNC football coach Bill Belichick’s right-hand man, 67-year-old Michael Lombardi, who was the highest-paid general manager in college football, at $1.5 million dollars per year:

#1—Lombardi’s football résumé had been razor-thin for almost a full decade prior to his hiring at UNC.

This is one reason why most football people weren’t even a little bit surprised at the catastrophic nature of Lombardi’s relatively brief tenure in Chapel Hill.

Lombardi’s roughly 20-month tenure at Carolina included last year’s 4-8 debacle on the field and, more recently, several alarming headlines. Those included questions related to his paid administrative leave over human-resources allegations to inquiries regarding his handling of the NCAA’s revenue-sharing and Name-Image-Likeness rules to his recent resignation from the extremely important GM position.

Prior to taking his post at UNC in December 2024, Lombardi’s only general manager job — at any level — was with the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns more than a decade prior, in 2013. The Browns finished with the third-worst record in the league that year, at 4-12, and Lombardi was fired after less than one year on the job.

Meanwhile, Lombardi’s only previous experience as a staff member at the college level had come when he was UNLV’s recruiting coordinator way back in the early 1980s, and his most recent job with any football team — at any level — prior to his hiring in Chapel Hill had come almost a full decade earlier, when he worked as a special assistant to Belichick in New England from 2014 into the summer of 2016, which of course is now a full decade ago.

Michael Lombardi on the sidelines (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.)

Since then, Lombardi had been almost entirely a media member and a sports gambling podcaster, which made virtually everyone except Belichick wonder if Lombardi was really qualified for that pivotal UNC position in the first place.

#2—Lombardi has been leaving a trail of strange questions and negativity in his wake for decades.

Long after Lombardi had worked as a scout in the San Francisco 49ers organization in the mid-1980, he made various statements suggesting he had been a right-hand man of sorts for legendary, Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh.

However, according to Walsh’s own son, Craig, Lombardi actually had been just a low-level “gofer” during his time with the 49ers. When journalist Pablo Torre interviewed long-time San Francisco columnist Ray Ratto on the same subject, Ratto also said that Lombardi’s presence with the 49ers was practically invisible and that he “never heard his name mentioned in the building.”

By 2008, legendary Raiders owner Al Davis, whose organization employed Lombardi from 1998-2006, was quoted saying the following: “Mike Lombardi has been fired from every job he’s ever had. Every job. He can’t get a job. Last year, he was fired from a job he was working for for nothing.” Davis added that Lombardi “does have some ability.”

In January 2025, within a month or so of Lombardi taking his GM job at UNC, at least one former Carolina worker says she already had complained about his behavior to the university’s athletic administration. In the months that followed, Lombardi also sometimes reportedly verbally abused media members with profanity-laced tirades and there-will-be-consequences statements when he didn’t like their coverage of the Tar Heels.

Most recently, this summer, Bruce Feldman, an award-winning college football writer for The Athletic and a New York Times best-selling author who is definitely considered a serious journalist and definitely not a “cheap-shot artist,” described Lombardi as “without question, the worst general manager in college sports.”

After a highly critical July article by Feldman in The Athletic included the sentence “Here’s what we do know about Lombardi’s time in Chapel Hill: Arrogance plus incompetence is a lethal combination,” Feldman said that many people who knew Lombardi from his NFL or media careers reached out with their own stories about Lombardi. According to Feldman, it was one of the most extreme audience reactions he’d ever experienced, with perhaps as much as 99 percent of that feedback being negative toward Lombardi, and much of it referring to his arrogance, abrasiveness and other undesirable qualities.

According to Feldman, “(Lombardi) has left quite a trail, and I can’t remember ever writing or talking about anyone that people were so strongly disgusted by.”

#3—Last, but certainly not least, it’s important to both “follow the money” and understand the law as the dominoes continue to fall around Lombardi and perhaps the rest of the UNC football program.

Most fans know by now that when a coach or other staff member is fired “for cause,” he is not owed any buyout money, but if he is fired “without cause” — which usually means the team he worked for simply didn’t win enough games — then that fired person is owed whatever chunk of the remaining amount of money is specified in his contract.

There are many types of behavior that can cost someone his buyout money, including criminal activity, severe human-resources violations (e.g., racism, bigotry, misogyny, bullying) or sometimes just repeated or severe violations of university policies and/or NCAA rules.

In one famous case about five years ago, the University of Tennessee would have owed its fired football coach Jeremy Pruitt more than $12 million if he were fired just for losing too much. But UT officials opted to fire him “with cause,” alleging that he ”failed to promote an atmosphere of NCAA rules compliance” and/or he “failed to monitor the activities of his coaches and other staff members.”

Pruitt initially threatened to fight that decision through the legal system in pursuit of the $12 million, as most coaches do in such situations, but when the NCAA later came out with a long laundry list of the Volunteers’ major NCAA violations on Pruitt’s watch, Tennessee stuck to its initial legal position — “we don’t owe you a dime” — and Pruitt ended up not getting a single penny of that $12 million buyout money.

At the end of August, Lombardi still was owed about $2 million on his original three-year, $4.5 million contract, and his recent resignation did not specify — at least publicly — how he and UNC were going to handle that remaining money, suggesting that perhaps the university’s ongoing investigations might impact that financial outcome down the road.

Similarly, UNC would owe Belichick himself a $20 million buyout if he were fired here in 2026 “without cause,” although that number will drop to $10 million in January 2027, and of course the number would drop to $0 if UNC at some point could fire Belichick with cause.

For now, at least, that option doesn’t seem to be on the table, given the available facts, with the HR-related and NCAA-related issues instead surrounding Lombardi, with the questions about inappropriate sexual activity between coaches and members of the program’s recruiting staff not yet naming names, and with various drug-related inquiries instead surrounding Bill’s son Steve, the Tar Heels’ still-on-medical-leave defensive coordinator.

However, if UNC goes on to a second straight losing season under Belichick, and if — and only if — these circus-sideshow questions later bring the head coach’s actions or inactions into play, that’s when the “with cause” and “without cause” firing phrases would become a much, much bigger-dollar conversation.

David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

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LUMO Drop-In Open House at Chapel Hill Public Library

Thursday, September 10 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.; 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

The Town of Chapel Hill will be having a drop in open house at the public library twice this Thursday for the public to review and comment on the draft of the updated LUMO. For more information, click here.

Two Brains: Restoring Histories : Plantation Lives in the American South

Thursday, September 10 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Carolina Public Humanities is having another two brains discussion. This mini lecture and group conversation will be discussing plantation lives in the American South. Click here for more information.

Dog Adoption Special!

Friday, September 11 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Adopt your new best friend at the Orange County Animal Services this weekend. Adoptable dogs are only $50 now through September 17. For more information, click here.

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Extended Art Museum Hours

Friday, September 11 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Ackland will be offering extended hours as part of Carrboro-Chapel Hill 2nd Friday ArtWalk. Visitors have more time to explore Ackland’s collections and have the opportunity to sketch in the gallery. Click here for more information.

Center Theater Company’s Production of 12 Angry Jurors

Friday, September 11 7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Come out to Center Theater Company this weekend in Carrboro for the opening weekend of their production 12 Angry Jurors. It’s a tense courtroom drama that follows twelve diverse individuals deliberating the fate of a young man accused of murder. For more information, click here.

Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market at University Place

Saturday, September 12 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

This Saturday morning, shop at the Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market. Shop from local vendors and score delicious produce. Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market is now operating in their spring hours. Click here for more information.

UNC Football vs. East Tennessee State on 97.9 The Hill

Saturday, September 12 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Carolina football looks for their second win of the young season this weekend against East Tennessee State. Our coverage starts with Carolina Football Hour on Franklin with our own Brighton McConnell and Michael Koh. Countdown to Kickoff will be at 10:00. Tar Heel Sports Network Pre-Game Show will be at 11:00 with kickoff at 12:00 against East Tennessee State. Stay tuned immediately after the game for the Tar Heel Sports Network Post-Game Show for all the highlights and analysis of what will hopefully be a Carolina victory. For more information, click here.

Mark Hewitt Pottery’s LocoPops and Pottery Pop-Up

Saturday, September 12 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Enjoy Locopop this weekend while shopping for pottery at Mark Hewitt Pottery. They’re having their pop-up sale with great deals on coffee mugs, iced tea tumblers, and more! Click here for more information.

The Big Stomp

Saturday, September 12 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Stomp on some grapes this weekend at Botanist and Barrel. They’re inviting the public out to help them start the process of making wine. Enjoy wood-fired pizza, live music, and a wine tasting also. For more information, click here.

Egyptian Festival

Saturday, September 12 and 13 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Archangel Raphael and St. John the Beloved Coptic Orthodox Church is having their Egyptian Festival this weekend. There will be authentic Egyptian food, live entertainment, cultural exhibits, a vendor market, and more. Click here for more information.

The Lavender Social’s Rainbow Exchange Vendor Market and Queer Cabaret and Dance Party!

Saturday, September 12 1:00 p.m.

Join the Lavender Social this weekend for a vendor market and their queer cabaret and dance party. Celebrate local artisans then stick around and enjoy their queer cabaret drag show hosted by AmanDuh Barron followed by a dance party with DJ NIHL. For more information, click here.

Oedipus: King/Colonus Pre-Performance Talk

Saturday, September 12 6:30 p.m.

Before opening night of the Playmakers Repertory Company’s production of Oedipus, join Carolina Public Humanities for a pre-performance talk. The informal conversation will explore some of the history and themes of the play. Click here for more information.

Patriotic Pops Celebrating America 250: North Carolina Symphony Free Concert in your Community

Saturday, September 12 7:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.

Enjoy some live music this weekend with the North Carolina Symphony. This Patriotic Pops themed show will feature the music of Sousa, Copland, and John Williams. For more information, click here.

The Endless Summer Bazaar

Sunday, September 13 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Come out this weekend to the Carrboro Town Commons for the Endless Summer Bazaar. Shop from talented local makers, enjoy local eats, and more! Click here for more information.

Artist Conversation: Phaan Howng

Sunday, September 13 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Ackland will be having an artist conversation this weekend with Phaan Howng. They will be speaking about Phaan Howng: Against Nature and its place within Howng’s work. For more information, click here.

Grandparents Day Celebration

Sunday, September 13 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village will be having a grandparents day celebration this weekend. Celebrate the special grandparents in your life with an afternoon of stories, creativity, animals, and family fun. Click here for more information.

Flyleaf Second Sunday Poetry Series: Grey Brown and Michael Hettich

Sunday, September 13 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Flyleaf Books’ monthly poetry series will continue this weekend. Grey Brown and Michael Hettich will each read some of their work for 20 minutes then guests are invited to read their work during the open mic portion. For more information, click here.

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On Air Today features interviews and conversations with the latest newsmakers in our community — including local elected leaders, educators, business owners, and anyone else with their finger on the pulse of the greater Chapel Hill community.

The post On Air Today: Science Education Specialist Amy Sayle appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

The UNC football program will not host any unofficial or official recruiting visits at its home opener against East Tennessee State Saturday afternoon. A university spokesman confirmed the news, which was first reported by Inside Carolina Wednesday.

“Last season we self-reported a violation through our normal university compliance measures,” the spokesman told Chapelboro. “We are still permitted to host official visits this weekend but have decided as a program to concentrate our official visits on the remaining five home games.”

The statement went on to say that the situation has been “properly resolved” and that the university worked with the NCAA on an “appropriate and corrective” response to the violations.

The recruiting ban comes less than a week after the resignation of UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi, who had been placed on paid administrative leave in late July. Since then, WRAL has published a report detailing a larger investigation into the program and its compliance with NCAA rules. UNC has not yet named a replacement for Lombardi. Last season, the program also suspended cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins in October for a violation of NCAA rules, reported to be in connection with providing improper benefits. He was reinstated later that month.

In a press conference Monday, UNC head coach Bill Belichick said he believed his program was “totally” compliant with NCAA rules, and that he had addressed the investigation with his team. WRAL reports the investigation could potentially implicate defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, Bill’s son. Steve Belichick has been absent from the program on medical leave since the beginning of fall training camp.

The Tar Heels and East Tennessee State will kick off at 12 p.m. Saturday in Kenan Stadium.

Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Chance Bragg

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post After Violations, UNC Football Will Not Host Recruits at East Tennessee State Game appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.

The World That Never Got to Exist

A perspective from Matt Hughes

I was ten years old on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, and like millions of Americans, the day started like any other under a perfect, crystal blue sky.

I was going to be late to school because, for whatever reason, the school bus had forgotten to stop at my house. As I was waiting for my mom to drive me to Central Elementary in Hillsborough, Good Morning America was on and my great-grandpa and I were watching like we did most mornings when news of the first plane’s collision with the North Tower of the World Trade Center, later determined to be American Airlines Flight 11, flashed across the screen. Everyone on television was trying to understand how a plane could have crashed on such a perfect day.

Then United Airlines Flight 175 came into view and struck the South Tower in a moment forever seared into my memory. I turned to my great-grandpa, who often told me what it was like growing up during World War II, and said, “We’re at war.”

I was only ten, but I knew enough about what was happening in the world to understand that what we were watching was not an accident. I remembered the bombing of the USS Cole the year before. Seeing that second plane hit made it clear, even to ten-year-old me, that America was under attack and things would be different.

By that evening, even home felt different. I went outside and looked up at a completely empty sky. We lived close enough to RDU that airplanes flying overhead were ordinary sights, but that night there were none. America’s skies were silent in a way they had scarcely been since the earliest days of aviation.

And some of that feeling never completely went away.

For nearly a decade after September 11, the mere thought of getting on an airplane could bring me to the brink of an anxiety attack. Even today, when I fly, there is sometimes a thought in the back of my mind about a possible lapse in airport security or someone with bad intentions being on my flight. I still don’t particularly like spending long periods of time in tall buildings either. I know intellectually that both are safe, but September 11 left behind an instinct that is harder to reason away.

For those of us who were kids that morning, ordinary things had become instruments of unimaginable violence. An airplane was no longer just an airplane. A skyscraper was no longer simply a building. Some measure of our innocence disappeared before we were really old enough to understand why.

Twenty-five years later, there remains a clear dividing line between the world before September 11 and the world that came after it. Our laws, airports, military, government agencies and understanding of national security changed. America entered wars whose consequences stretched across decades. Our relationship with ourselves and the rest of the world changed with them.

Nearly 3,000 people from countries, faiths and backgrounds around the world were murdered that morning in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists turned four commercial airplanes into weapons as part of a plot orchestrated by the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden.

Nearly a decade later, in May 2011, American forces finally brought bin Laden to justice in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was a moment of justice for an America that had waited nearly ten years, but his death could neither restore the lives he helped take nor undo the world his actions helped create.

But remembering September 11 requires remembering more than the people who attacked us. It requires remembering the people who responded: the first responders who ran toward danger, strangers who helped strangers, coworkers who refused to leave one another behind and the passengers of Flight 93 who fought back.

On one of the darkest days in American history, ordinary people demonstrated extraordinary courage.

I encountered those stories in a different way in January 2018, when I visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York.

What struck me most were the individual lives behind them. These were ordinary people helping other ordinary people, people whose paths likely never would have crossed but for the terrible circumstances that brought them together that morning.

We sometimes tell stories of heroism in ways that make the people involved seem almost mythical, and some of what happened that day really does feel like heroism befitting a Greek tragedy. But standing there, confronted with their names, photographs, possessions and stories, I was reminded that they were human beings who, when confronted with extraordinary circumstances, did extraordinary things.

The visit affected me in a way I hadn’t expected. I grew up in Hillsborough, North Carolina, hundreds of miles from Manhattan, the Pentagon and Shanksville. I didn’t lose a parent, sibling or friend that morning. Yet September 11 has been a presence in my life since I was ten years old, as it has been for so many who lived through that day and even those who had not yet been born. Visiting the memorial gave me a measure of closure I didn’t realize I had been looking for.

But closure isn’t quite the same thing as letting go.

There is still an unshakable grief when I think about September 11, not only for the lives taken that morning, but for everything that came afterward. Sometimes I find myself grieving a world that never got to exist.

I wonder what America and the world would have been had those 19 men never boarded those planes. What wars might never have been fought? What lives might never have been lost? How much human potential was snuffed out in 102 minutes? What fears might never have become part of our daily lives? What might our country look like today?

History doesn’t allow us to know. But there is something profoundly sad about knowing that one morning altered the trajectory of millions of lives around the world.

A quarter-century also gives us enough distance to remember September 11 without pretending everything America did afterward was right.

Sometimes fear overwhelmed our better judgment. Muslim Americans and people perceived to be Muslim endured suspicion, harassment and violence for crimes they did not commit. Our government adopted policies in the name of security that tested our commitments to civil liberties and human rights. Afghanistan became America’s longest war. The invasion of Iraq followed, based on intelligence claims that proved disastrously wrong, with consequences that would reverberate across the region for decades.

Acknowledging those failures does not diminish the evil of September 11, nor does condemning that evil require defending every decision our government made in our names afterward. We can honor those who were murdered and those who demonstrated extraordinary courage while examining honestly what fear ended up costing us.

We should also remember the solidarity that followed. Americans hung flags from their homes, filled blood banks, held vigils and signed up to defend their country. Members of Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol and sang together. That unity was imperfect and, for some Americans, painfully incomplete. But the instinct behind it was real.

Twenty-five years later, we too often speak about fellow Americans as though they are enemies rather than family, neighbors, friends or coworkers. Distrust is easier to cultivate than confidence. Outrage travels faster than empathy.

But unity should not be confused with conformity. Ours has always been a fractious and disputational republic. We argue about what freedom requires, what justice demands and how democracy should work because disagreement itself is part of the freedom we defend. The lesson of September 11 should not be that Americans must think alike, speak with one voice or fall in line behind our government. We learned enough in the years that followed about the dangers of allowing fear or appeals to national unity to silence legitimate dissent.

Perhaps the better lesson is that our disagreements, however profound, exist within something larger that we share. We can argue fiercely over how America should live up to its ideals without treating those who disagree with us as enemies of America.

The attack was aimed not only at American lives, but at what America represented. For all of our imperfections and all the times we have fallen short of our own ideals, America has stood as a beacon of freedom, democracy and justice. For all the times we have failed to live up to that promise, people from around the world have continued to come to our shores believing in America’s potential. Those ideals were part of what the terrorists sought to attack that morning. They are also part of what endured that day.

Our failure to live up to those ideals perfectly does not make them less worthy of defending. It makes the work of realizing them more important.

Defending them requires more than military strength. It means refusing to surrender our values when we are afraid, distinguishing terrorists and extremists from entire religions or peoples, and protecting both our homeland security and our constitutional freedoms. Patriotism can include questioning our country’s decisions because wanting America to live up to its ideals is itself one of the greatest expressions of faith in America.

Twenty-five years ago, I stood outside my home and looked into a sky without planes. At ten years old, I knew something had changed. What I could not understand was how much of my life, and the lives of millions of others, would unfold in the shadow of that day.

September 11 is becoming history for a growing number of Americans. There are adults today who were not alive when the towers fell. That makes remembering more important, not less.

We should remember the 2,977 people who were killed, the first responders who ran toward danger, the passengers who fought back, those who later died from illnesses linked to Ground Zero and the service members who answered their country’s call. We should remember the families who went to bed on September 10 expecting an ordinary tomorrow and whose lives were never ordinary again.

We should remember our mistakes, too, because history is useful only if we are willing to learn from it, especially when it hurts to do so.

We cannot choose the history we inherited from that day. But we can choose what we carry forward from it: the courage, the belief in one another and the resolve.

And may we never forget.

Matt Hughes is a Commissioner for the Town of Hillsborough and a member of the Democratic National Committee.

“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.

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The ACC revealed the men’s basketball league schedule for the 2026-27 season Wednesday afternoon. UNC’s league games begin Dec. 30 and end March 6.

The Tar Heels will begin conference play by hosting Cal at the Smith Center Wednesday, Dec. 30. Carolina is looking to avenge a loss to the Bears in Berkeley last season. After the new year, UNC will make visits to Boston College (Jan. 2) and Louisville (Jan. 5), where former Tar Heel Seth Trimble will be suiting up for the Cardinals.

Among UNC’s notable home fixtures are contests against NC State (Jan. 9, less than a month after the two teams play in Greensboro), Virginia (Jan. 19), Louisville again (Feb. 8) and Miami (Feb. 22). Notable road games include visits to Florida State (Jan. 13), Notre Dame (Feb. 2) and Wake Forest (Feb. 20). Per the ACC’s scheduling model, the conference foe UNC won’t play this year is Clemson, marking the first time since 1950-51 that the Tar Heels and Tigers won’t play during the regular season.

UNC will visit Duke Feb. 13 in the first of the two annual games between the rivals. The Blue Devils will make the return trip to Chapel Hill in the regular season finale March 6. No tip-off times for any league games have yet been finalized.

The Tar Heels’ 2026-27 preseason and regular season schedule is now complete. To view the full schedule, click here.

Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Todd Melet

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

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MINAB, Iran (AP) — The sun set over this southern Iranian city, and Heydar Sadeghi was where he can be found almost every evening: on a bench next to the shattered remains of his grandson’s school. His face was soaked with tears.

A banner strung around the rubble showed the faces of children and teachers killed here by an American airstrike on Feb. 28, the first day of the war on Iran. Among them are Sadeghi’s 11-year-old grandson Hami and the boy’s mother, Neda Salehizadeh.

“I searched the bodies for my kids, thinking maybe one would be among them,” Sadeghi said Monday evening as he recounted how he rushed to the school in the moments after the explosions. He called out their names, saying, “‘Come with me! I’ve come to get you.’ They weren’t there,” he said, weeping.

The Shajareh Tayyebeh school has become a place to wrestle with grief and preserve the memories of the dead. Here, relatives try to comprehend the incomprehensible — how around 120 of their children could be snuffed out, just after they’d been dropped off for a day of classes.

At least one U.S. missile hit the school that morning in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation, but there has been no final accounting of what happened. Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.

The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the bombing.

A grandfather grieves every day

For Sadeghi, the day of the strike began as every school day did.

He drove Hami and the boy’s 9-year-old sister Nila to school along with their mother, his daughter-in-law Salehizadeh, who was a teacher. As usual, he planned to pick them up at 1 p.m.

“But the bell was rung early — by Trump,” he said.

Hami was a fifth grader who loved soccer and riding his bicycle, Sadeghi said. His body was so mangled in the blast, they could only identify him from the clothes he was wearing, he said.

Nila was pulled alive from the rubble.

“Thank God, she is physically fine,” Sadeghi said. “But mentally, no.”

The girl and her father have moved in with Sadeghi and his wife. The slightest, unexpected noise frightens her. She often goes to bed in her grandmother’s arms but lies awake for much of the night.

Sadeghi said he often invites Nila’s friends to come spend the night, hoping their presence will distract her.

He wants to see Nila smile. So he grieves here at the school away from her.

“I come here and cry,” he said. “Then I go home and dance in front of the girl.”

The site is becoming a memorial to the dead

The school had a girls’ school upstairs and a boys’ school and preschool on the ground floor. Some of the students were children of officers at a Revolutionary Guard base located next to the school; many were local children from Minab, which is populated predominantly by members of Iran’s Baluch ethnic minority.

The banner at the site listed 120 students killed – 47 girls and 73 boys – and 26 teachers and staff. Three more children are presumed dead but their bodies were never found.

The governor of Hormozgan province, where Minab is located, has said the damaged building would be preserved to be turned into a memorial and war museum.

Several dozen visitors there Monday evening included relatives of the dead but also out-of-towners who had come to see.

In a government-sponsored mourning ceremony held every evening, men and women – including one in the Guards uniform — took turns at a microphone, telling wrenching stories about those who died and describing in graphic detail the day of the attack. Some visitors broke down weeping from their accounts.

A separate section of Minab’s cemetery has also been set aside for those killed at the school. Every grave has a photo of the dead, with a shade overhead and artificial grass around so families can sit with their loved ones. Some lay flowers and prayer beads on the graves. Others bring dishes of “shuleh-zard,” a saffron rice pudding eaten at funerals.

One teacher tried to protect her students

At the cemetery, Fatemeh Barani sat by the grave of her daughter, Nasim Neyestani, a second grade teacher at the school. Barani comes several times a week to be with her daughter.

She thinks about her daughter’s last hours, which school staffers later described to her, and how everything could have turned out differently.

At around 9 a.m. news came of the airstrikes in the capital Tehran that had hit the compound of Iran’s supreme leader. They didn’t know it at the time, but those initial Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of the top military leadership.

Neyestani was alarmed, fearing wider strikes, and urged the principal to cancel classes and call parents to come collect their children, Barani said, according to what she was told by other staffers. The principal didn’t think that was necessary. But Neyestani began calling the parents of her 22 students herself, urging them to come get their children, Barani said.

Fourteen of Neyestani’s children were picked up before the strike, Barani said. The parents of eight others did not get there in time.

Neyestani took the eight children into the schoolyard, her mother said. But the principal told her to take them into the school’s prayer room, thinking it would be safe.

The prayer room was hit. Barani said her daughter and all eight children with her were killed.

“My daughter’s classroom was mostly left intact,” she said. “Probably if she had been in that classroom, she would not have been killed.”

Details of Barani’s account could not be independently verified, but it meshes with other accounts. The AP’s investigation of the strike found that several teachers called parents to pick up their children before Iran’s government ordered schools closed nationwide at 10:15 a.m. The first missile hit the school about an hour later. Accounts of the strikes posted on banners at the school say three missiles struck. The principals of both the boys and girls schools were among those killed.

A teacher’s mother is overwhelmed with grief

After the strikes, Barani’s husband and sons went to the school; later, they told her her daughter had been killed.

They found Neyestani’s bag. But Barani said her sons have hidden it from her because they fear seeing it would only hurt her more.

Parents of students who escaped the school because Neyestani had called them visited the family to pay their condolences, but Barani said she was so overwhelmed with grief that she doesn’t remember any of their visits.

She said she still hasn’t been able to enter her daughter’s bedroom.

She talked about how her daughter, who had not married, was rarely idle. She taught in the mornings and worked as a salesperson at a cosmetics store in the evenings. At home, she stayed busy with her hobby making handicrafts, particularly “minakari,” a traditional art of decorating objects with enamel. The enamel work relaxed her, Barani said.

The enamels are still there around the house, a reminder of her daughter.

“Every day, this grief feels fresh again,” Barani said.

The post Families Grieve in the Ruins of an Iranian School Where a US Strike Killed Dozens of Children appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Welcome to Talking Culture! In this weekly interview series from 97.9 The Hill WCHL, you’ll hear from writers, performers, musicians and individuals involved in advancing and promoting cultural arts in our community.

Talking Culture is proudly sponsored by Duke Graduate Liberal Studies; a 30-hour, self-designed liberal arts master’s program at Duke University, offering an interdisciplinary graduate experience tailored to your interests and life experiences. Welcoming students from all walks of life, learn more here!

This week, Aaron welcomes two of the artists behind Future Hooman, a new immersive, interactive art experience in downtown Durham. Future Hooman is an inventive, visually striking collaboration between a growing collective local artists – and for you, it’s a wild ride through dimensions, puzzles, and uncanny spaces. (All with a mission: your task is to stop the spread of something called “iFlu.” Or maybe help spread it even more. Your call.)

Visit FutureHooman.com to get all the details and plan your own visit.

Aaron Keck and Brad Bednar inside Future Hooman – exploring a room that’s somehow entirely sepia-toned.

Aaron chats with Megan Frothingham and Bethany Neigebauer – and Dr. Toofio, one of the (good? evil?) characters you may encounter along your Future Hooman journey.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post Talking Culture: Saving the Dimension with Future Hooman, Durham’s Newest Immersive Art Experience appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Trending today: Obnoxious social-media influencers are disrupting the U.S. Open tennis tourney by recording videos during play. Aaron and Michael Koh discuss how the U.S. Open might respond – while Aaron wonders who these influencers even are, and Michael tries out his Wimbledon impression. (Also: second-hand marijuana smoke becomes an issue as well.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Trending segments – and tune in to “This Morning” on 97.9 The Hill every weekday at 7:45 to hear What’s Trending live on the air.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

What’s Trending is made possible by Dynamic Electric. Listen now:

The post What’s Trending: Smash That Like Button If You Want To See Me Interrupt More Tennis! appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Aaron welcomes H.C. McEntire – an acclaimed musician who’s also the event & store manager for the Eno River Association – to discuss this year’s event.

Conversation presented by the Eno River Association. Visit EnoRiver.org for more information about Saturday’s festival – including details about a silent auction, which is ongoing now and open to everyone.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post On Air Today: A New Festival for the Eno, Celebrating 60 Years appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

And in sports: UNC women’s basketball head coach Courtney Banghart addresses the media two months out from the season opener; two Tar Heel field hockey stars earn all-conference honors; UNC women’s golf opens its season in Minnesota; and UNC athletics launches a new Tar Heel-branded alcohol.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s daily news reports, which you can hear live during “This Morning with Aaron Keck” every weekday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

You can also listen to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” on Spotify. Click here to follow Aaron and listen to all his segments, from local news to fun features to hard-hitting interviews.

Listen:

The post The Morning News: CHCCS Bus Snafu, Greenlaw Hall Incident Update appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

For many Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students and parents, the first weeks of the new school year were marred by issues with buses. A data issue and lack of timely response by the district’s transportation office led to hundreds of students expecting school bus assignments being left without one – and even three weeks into the school year, CHCCS leaders are still working to resolve the issue.

The Board of Education and members of the public got an extensive update last Thursday about what went haywire and what is being done.

After sending an apology to families during the first week of school when the bus assignment problems arose, CHCCS Superintendent Rodney Trice offered another apology to families to begin the discussion with board members. He acknowledged the “significant disruption” many district families have experienced and said another apology was necessary because the district understands “the seriousness of what they are experiencing.”

CHCCS Superintendent Rodney Trice addresses the Board of Education from the podium as part of the September 4 meeting. (Photo via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.)

“Some students have been dropped from our systems,” Trice said. “Families have received conflicting or incomplete information. Parents have had to rearrange work schedules to find alternative transportation, as was shared earlier, and [had] to spend far too much time trying to get answers from us. Our families expected reliable transportation and clear communication, and this was at the start of the school year… too many did not experience that.”

Chief Operations Officer André Stewart presented to the board alongside Director of Transportation Thaddeus Alston. He said many of those problems stem from a bad download of data submitted by schools and families from Infinite Campus to the Transportation Information Management System (TIMS), which is used to develop transportation routes. The number of requests looked normal, if not higher than normal – and because of that, Stewart said staff did not realize many of the bus assignments were either incorrect or dropped entirely during the transfer of information. The Transportation Department was unaware of the software problem until the first day of class, when hundreds of calls flooded the office asking where the bus service was or where assignments could be found.

Stewart called it “an absolute data nightmare,” which could only be resolved by individually reviewing update requests by hand. While the district administrators are working with TIMS to review what happened with the incorrect data, the easiest self-inflicted mistake to identify is the timeline for creating bus routes, which is not started until June and sees assignments distributed in August.

“We were using a time frame that CHCCS has used for probably two decades and we were caught in a perfect storm,” Stewart said. “The time frame failed us. Our software failed us. We had a retirement in the middle of the summer. And the information that we received was insufficient for us to know that there was a problem with this magnitude.”

CHCCS Chief Operations Officer André Stewart (right) and Director of Transportation Thaddeus Alston (left) listen to feedback from the Board of Education during the September 4 meeting. (Photo via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.)

While the apologies might be appreciated, said Board of Education members, they don’t reroute buses and put students in seats. Roughly 800 request updates remained as of Thursday and board members said they were continuing to hear from parents, even during the meeting. Many of the elected officials questioned the rate at which those requests are being handled and whether the scope of the debacle has been fully captured. Board Member George Griffin shared frustration about the bad data transfer not being recognized by staff and urged the transportation department to react more broadly to meet students’ ongoing need for buses rather than following normal protocols.

“The system’s not working,” Griffin said in the most heated moment of the meeting. “We’re not going to get 800 kids back [on buses] in another week. It’s the third week of school next week. The kitchen’s on fire. Somebody needs to go out there and find out who’s got a bus problem, not waiting for parents to contact you for the third time saying, ‘Nobody’s told me anything for nine days.’ That’s just not good enough.”

Board Member Barbara Fedders said the lack of answer around why this issue happened this summer instead of last year – when the district first transitioned student data to the Infinite Campus software – clouds how the district can respond. But she echoed Griffin in questioning the transportation office’s failure to recognize and initially respond to the issue foreshadowed in the summer.

“I don’t understand why we didn’t hire somebody faster after the person quit in the middle of the summer — and I don’t understand why we didn’t get [temporary workers] right away, like on August 25,” she said. “I’m upset also, like George, and it’s not getting matched. I’m not feeling enough urgency in any of this…I’m not an operations expert, but it’s something has to happen that’s different.”

CHCCS Board of Education Member Vickie Feaster Fornville speaks as part of the school bus and Transportation Office update during the September 4 meeting. (Photo via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.)

Board Member Vickie Feaster Fornville responded by saying she believes it’s important for the CHCCS staff to not feel attacked by the board members during the response to this problem.

“Our families are hurting and the kitchen may be on fire – but we’re not going to act like we don’t have water from University Lake and OWASA,” she said, responding to Griffin. “We’re going to deal with this and we’re going to get it fixed. I, as a board member, say I’m sorry to our families.

“I, as a former bus driver, will be glad to volunteer my time and get in a van to help you get our children to school,” Feaster Fornville added. “What I want to know is how and what is the fastest way to get every little person on a bus in a van and a car?”

In addition to the students whose data was lost, several families were confused by an update in the district’s walk zones. CHCCS chose this year to better enforce and implement walk zones in the system based on state laws, with students within a 1.5-mile range of their school often not qualifying for bus service. But the changes were not communicated enough times to families and missed several families who recently moved into those walk zones, according to the district’s early review. That aspect of the bus assignment missteps similarly deserves scrutiny, said Board Member Meredith Ballew.

“The descriptions that we’re getting from a lot of families who are affected by that [change] are like, ‘This is not safe…my kindergartner can’t cross Smith Level [Road]… you know, just things like that,” she told Stewart. “And it just made me feel a little uneasy that those [changes] were kind of just decided without board approval. I know two years ago there were some changes…I remember voting on a change that was due to the state regulations or the state’s recommendations. And you know, that seemed like that was a bigger board approval process. So, this time, [parents complaining] was the first I’d heard of it.

“That concerned me,” Ballew concluded, “and I still don’t have a sense of how many families were affected by that.”

CHCCS leaders have stressed that the bus assignment issues that have roiled the start of the 2026-27 year are not for a lack of drivers. The district led a push around 2023 to raise their driver pay to improve recruitment and retention, which has largely worked at steadying its workforce. (Photo via Town of Chapel Hill.)

Matthew Palm is the undergraduate studies director for UNC’s City and Regional Planning Department. He told Chapelboro not only have many people in the department been impacted by the assignment issues, but the incident raises their curiosity to what happened and how everyone responds. While not intimately familiar with the district’s review and data transfer mishap, Palm said it is not unusual at a time when public school funding is being threatened and districts are forced to either cut corners or multi-task employees. Often, he said, communication and implementation are where things get rocky.

“Costs for school buses have gone up and many school districts across the country are just struggling to maintain these services,” Palm said. “And they’re trying to do things like this, where they try to get the most bang for their buck by redesigning routes, combining different types of services and introducing [or enforcing] these kinds of walk zones. The rollout for something this big [every year], I wouldn’t be surprised that something went wrong.”

The transportation planning researcher added that his department ran a survey of CHCCS and Durham parents about school transportation options a few years ago. Largely based on this ongoing incident, a team is conducting a new survey and looks to build off that study. Describing it as a “natural experiment” to track how people are having to pivot and change their routines based on a short-term lack of transportation, he said it provides an opportunity for people to study the broader impacts of school bus services. As of Tuesday, 80 parents have already responded to the survey.

“It becomes a story about resilience, which can also reveal for whom this becomes urgently important service,” Palm said. “As parents [are] dealing with this and telling us about it, they’re also going to be telling us things like, ‘We tried walking, and it didn’t work,’ or, ‘We tried this [instead].’ Those lessons are going to be really useful for that long-term picture of how we build a total transportation system that’s resilient and supportive to families.”

In the short term and beyond the student-by-student reviews, schools are filling out spreadsheets of students who rely on buses to keep track of the weekly ridership. A former transportation employee trained on TIMS who was moved into another division is being brought back temporarily to help with the manual routing and the school board approved the hiring of a new person to replace the staffer who retired in the summer. And Stewart added that district staff met with the software company and provided its logs to it last week with the goal of discovering why the transfer from Infinite Campus went wrong.

Long-term solutions, according to Stewart and Trice, include a district-wide review of how the transportation office’s operations overlap with other relevant departments. Stewart said he plans to also overhaul the timeline for gathering bus requests and creating bus routes, moving that process to March-April and alerting parents in June what students’ assignments are for the upcoming school year.

In the meantime, the Board of Education asked district staff to provide weekly updates on how many correction requests remain, as well as preventing any students impacted from the transportation issues from being punished at their school.

“I know generally for transportation, if kids are late and things like that, it gets noted as excused and they’re not penalized for it,” Chair Riza Jenkins said to punctuate her comments. “But I think also, Dr. Trice, it would go a long way that if kids miss assignments because they’ve missed the entire first period or whatever…that we ask the teachers [to] provide some flexibility.”

For any CHCCS students still not receiving bus service who need it, families are encouraged to contact Stewart and Alston directly by email (adstewart@chccs.k12.nc.us or thaddeus.alston@chccs.k12.nc.us).

The full Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education meeting from Thursday, September 4, can be watched here.

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.

The post ‘An Absolute Data Nightmare’: CHCCS Board Learns More About School Bus Assignment Debacle appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Follow the Carolina Junebugs on Instagram.

Bishop and Smith have teamed up with Booth Bassett to form the Junebugs, a bluegrass trio that first came together last year, when all three were students at UNC.

“We all met as part of the Carolina Bluegrass Band, which is an ensemble through the music department,” says Bishop. That band has made a significant contribution to the Triangle’s music scene; it’s also produced artists like Warner Vaughan and Bill Moore, among others.

As for the Junebugs’ origin: “There was a show on campus last year that a friend was putting together, and she said, ‘Do you have anybody you could pull together to play, like, tomorrow?'” Smith says with a laugh. “I knew Booth and I knew Emma, so I asked them both separately…

“(And) I just remember we finished playing that gig and walked to the car (saying) ‘you know, we should keep doing this. This was pretty fun.”

The trio initially called themselves Bassett and the Hounds, but quickly rebranded themselves as the Carolina Junebugs: Smith and Bishop were both born in June. Since then, they’ve quickly established themselves as major players in the Triangle’s bluegrass scene, debuting last year with the acclaimed EP “Down in the Valley” and reaching for new heights now with “Sweet Enough.”

Both releases blend beloved folk classics with spectacular new originals that stand proudly alongside the very best songs in the traditional American songbook.

Listen to “Sweet Enough” on YouTube.

Now that “Sweet Enough” is out, the Junebugs are celebrating with an album-release show this Wednesday, September 9, at Cat’s Cradle Back Room as part of their “Bluegrass in the Backroom” series. Bassett will be back in town for the show after a recent move to Denver, and Italian-American bluegrass prodigy Ettore Buzzini is also sharing the bill.

Click here to buy tickets to Wednesday’s show.

Emma Bishop and Ellary Smith stopped by Live & Local to discuss “Sweet Enough” and play four songs: “Sweet Enough,” “My Sweet Eliza,” “Gaston County Blues,” and “While He’s Loving.” Listen:

The post Music That’s ‘Sweet Enough’: Live and Local with the Carolina Junebugs! appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Each week, News on The Hill engages in conversation with Chatham County leaders for the Chatham County Roundup. You can find previous conversations with Pittsboro Mayor Kyle Shipp, Chatham County Commissioner Karen Howard, and other county leaders by clicking here.

The post Chatham County Roundup: Pittsboro Mayor Kyle Shipp on PBO Businesses, Upcoming Board Meeting appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Tuesday, September 8. He discussed the closure of a longtime downtown business and the general state of local businesses in the downtown area. He also previewed next week’s meeting of the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners, as they begin their regular fall meeting schedule. He also previewed upcoming events, and more.

Conversations With the Mayors is an ongoing series on “News on the Hill” where host Andrew Stuckey visits with the local government leaders who help shape our communities in Chapel Hill and the surrounding area. Each Tuesday he visits with Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell; Wednesdays feature a conversation with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Jean Hamilton; Thursdays feature Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson, and Fridays include a conversation with Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee. You can listen to previous “Conversations With the Mayors” here.

The post Hillsborough: Dual Supply and Downtown Businesses, Board Meeting Preview, and More appeared first on Chapelboro.com.