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It’s that time of year again, when I’m supposed to pick my favorite Assembly stories of 2023 and tell you why you should read them, if you haven’t already.
(And if you haven’t … the end of the year is a great time to do that.)
I’ll have a separate list next week about our most-read stories this year. But these are the ones I kept thinking about, long after I’d hit “publish.” For a variety of reasons, they remind me why we do this work.
But before I get to the list, I have a request. If you’ve been enjoying our deep reporting on power and place in North Carolina this year, please consider becoming a subscriber. If you’re already a subscriber, please consider sending this to a friend as a kind of “Assembly starter pack.”
And now, the list:
“The night was young. The neighbors were not.” remains my favorite line of any Assembly story this year. While Winston-Salem’s student housing fight has some local peculiarities, many towns can identify with debates about development.
Jesse Helms, Family Values, and His Gay Granddaughter
What’s it like to come to terms with your sexual identity when your grandfather is the country’s highest-profile anti-gay senator? This was a touching look at how the bonds of family can both sustain us and hold us back.
The State Employees’ Credit Union is massive, but it’s not an organization that gets a lot of media attention. This story captured a power struggle on its board that has big implications for the future of lending in our state.
How Morrisville Became a U.S. Cricket Capital
I knew this Raleigh suburb was changing quickly, and the story of how it became a world cricket hub tells that so well. It’s a sports story, but also about culture, community, and municipal choices.
This story was a good reminder that the past is never over; history echoes through our decisions every day. It was also a reminder that one person can significantly shift how we look back on people or issues many years later.
The Troubled Last Days of Speaker Tim Moore
Ten years is a long time to be in power, and Tim Moore’s departure as speaker leaves a lot of questions about the leadership of the state House, not to mention his own ambitions for the future.
Greg Lindberg’s Plan to Live Forever
There are so many … memorable details in this story. Whether learning about his wild fasting plan or the many children Greg Lindberg has accumulated, there was a lot to chew on beyond the legal details of this high-profile bribery case.
Is This Asheville Photographer a Wronged Artist or a ‘Copyright Troll’?
This gave us a very specific, wild example to demonstrate why copyright law may be in need of reform, complete with some eye-popping figures.
He Sought A New Life Outside A War Zone. Bullets Still Found Him.
The kicker of this story makes me cry every time I read it. Ainzargul Totakhil was a hero who risked his life supporting American soldiers in Afghanistan and wanted to make a new life for his family in N.C. His unsolved murder should be a call to action on gun violence.
I love a good story about local beef, and this fight managed to draw the attention of a powerful state lawmaker.
A Black Teen. A White Woman. A Life Sentence.
Charles McNeair was 16 when a white woman accused him of rape. He’s still in prison 44 years later. There are big questions about the legitimacy of his conviction, but even without those, that is a sentence far greater than what he’d get today.
Development Might Be Shaw’s Future. Can It Hold on to Its Past?
This is a zoning story, but it’s really about the ways HBCUs are struggling to maintain both their financial health and historical grounding.
There are so many compelling people and findings in this three-part investigation on the state child welfare system that we did with WBTV in Charlotte. I was glad we could spend so much time on this and give new insight to a system that wields enormous power with little accountability.
Yes, it’s morbid, but I was captivated by what this Western North Carolina facility shows us about what happens to our bodies after we die. I also loved getting to know some of the people who have committed to donating their body to be part of that science.
Can Asheville Learn To Live With Bears?
This story wins the prize for most vivid anecdote: “McVey is most often the one out in the field dealing with these routine inconveniences—and occasionally more bizarre ones, like the time he was summoned to the UNC-Asheville campus to separate mating bears. ‘They were literally up against a classroom window.’”
Come for the poignant prose, stay for the cats.
Kate Sheppard is The Assembly’s managing editor. She was previously a senior enterprise and national editor at HuffPost and has covered environment, health, and labor for Mother Jones, Grist, and The American Prospect. Email her at kate@theassemblync.com.