Emails obtained by The Assembly show that UNC-Chapel Hill’s largest journalism-school donor warned against Nikole Hannah-Jones’ hiring. Their divergent views represent a new front in the debate over objectivity and the future of the field.
May 2021
Posted inPolitics
Mandy Cohen’s Fight to Tame DHHS
A massive footprint, enormous budget, and complex mission: NC DHHS is an administrator’s nightmare. As the all-consuming pandemic fades, yet another undertaking looms this summer in Medicaid Transformation. Are Cohen and her agency ready?
Posted inPolitics
The Progressive Fight for Durham’s Soul
Last year, Durham’s county manager accused a commissioner of racism. Last week, commissioners ousted him. This is the inside story of how North Carolina’s most progressive county is tearing itself apart.
Posted inCriminal Justice
The Perfectly Legal Hogtying Death of Marcus Smith
In 2018, Marcus Deon Smith died after Greensboro police used “maximum restraint” on him. Now, The Assembly has obtained depositions from the officers and their bosses in the civil rights lawsuit filed by the family. These previously unreported documents shed disturbing light on why the officers used a form of restraint that neighboring cities have banned.
Posted inBusiness
Apple’s Big Bite
The tech giant’s proposed RTP campus, and its quieter investment in the foothills, demonstrates the unsettling power of global companies to shape a state like North Carolina.