We embrace a Final Four run, help you save on groceries and warn of insurance rate hikes
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The unforgettable stories of 2024
N.C. State basketball. The election. Hurricane Helene. These are the stories that affected The N&O’s reporters, editors and photojournalists the most.
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We watch a debate change an election, learn from a coach’s perseverance and study wolves
Stories of Helene, Chappell Roan’s rise and an NHL player’s gambling addiction stay with us
We embrace a Final Four run, help you save on groceries and warn of insurance rate hikes
We dig into road surveillance and DEI at colleges and remember a bat boy gone too soon
As 2024 comes to a close, we, The N&O staff members, share the coverage that affected us the most professionally and personally.
These are those unforgettable stories.
This is Part 3 of a four-part series.
A superstitious — but magical — path back to team pride
It’s not easy being an N.C. State fan. In fact, many years, the surest form of self-care can be to tune out. Don’t get invested. Let go and let God.
But this past year, as my alma mater slowly clawed its way to an ACC men’s basketball championship and into the NCAA Tournament — and then, improbably, to the Final Four — it was impossible not to get swept up in the hype. Especially when the women’s team was also marching toward a national championship.
So I paid attention. I cheered. I hoped. But what I didn’t do was watch. I hadn’t watched the successes, so I dared not get involved at that point and spoil any possible chance for victory.
I wrote about my superstitions, which started with the ACC Championship game and led up to the Final Four game, and included watching random classic TV shows, wearing the same NC State shirt and jacket, and eating the same meal from Char-Grill for many games in a row.
Those few weeks in March were really special. Everywhere you went in Raleigh, people were talking about the Wolfpack. Neither the men’s nor the women’s teams won their Final Four games, but my pride far outweighed any disappointment, and it resurrected my dormant school pride.
Brooke Cain is a service journalism editor
Helene devastates Spruce Pine music store
There are many moments that will linger with me from the days spent documenting the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the communities of Western North Carolina. Reporter Josh Shaffer and I met Angela Buchanan, owner of Majestic Music, as a team of volunteers cleared a thick layer of debris that coated her store’s floors in downtown Spruce Pine. The relentless buzz of excavators was the only sound that filled the otherwise still street.
People worked tirelessly to retrieve mud-soaked instruments — including, Buchanan told us, her beloved cello that was delegated to a trash pile. As I walked over the threshold of the store, a piece of sheet music caked in grime caught my eye near my feet. Amid a pile of stained belongings on a nearby counter, photos of a smiling young child were just barely visible through the sludge. A treble clef figurine hung on a board of empty hooks along the wall.
The scene pulled at memories of the many people and places who have brought music to my life. I thought of the countless students who had walked through those doors in search of the magic of musical expression, and the educators who encouraged them to do so. I will carry this story with me for a long time to come.
Kaitlin McKeown is a photojournalist
Unabashed comfort food at the world’s best seafood spot
In a year in which so much of the news centered on serious, heartbreaking or divisive topics, I often found myself craving comfort. And nothing provided that quite like the storytelling from food writer Drew Jackson and photojournalist Robert Willett about Calabash, the coastal North Carolina town known worldwide for its seafood.
As a kid growing up in North Carolina, summer always meant a beach vacation for my family. And no beach trip was complete without a visit or two to Calabash for its wholly original and very special brand of fried fish.
If Lexington, NC, abounds with barbecue place after barbecue place (Drew wrote about that last year), Calabash is the coastal equivalent when it comes to seafood. As one fan told Drew, the flashing signs of the many Calabash restaurants always seemed “like going to Las Vegas.” With shrimp and flounder instead of slots and roulette.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Road trip, anyone?
Thad Ogburn is interim executive editor and managing editor
How Duke’s Cooper Flagg, a Maine native, carries the weight of expectations
A transplant from Maine finds his way to the Triangle, assimilates well with his new teammates, helps said teammates find success and ... is the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Tale as old as time, right?
Until the last part, that could have been a (fairly generous) autobiographical note.
Let’s face it, Maine doesn’t necessarily export much beyond seafood, pine trees, potatoes and blueberries. This year, though, perhaps its most famous basketball-playing export ever has landed right here in the Triangle. And we get a front-row seat at The N&O, thanks in large part to my pal Steve Wiseman’s fantastic reporting.
As a Maine native, I love it when anything breaks the stereotypes with which I’ve lived forever. And Cooper Flagg certainly does that. The top recruit in the country after reclassifying to the Class of 2024, he was the centerpiece of coach Jon Scheyer’s freshman class this fall. And he has been as advertised and more early in the season for the Blue Devils.
I remember watching him when he was a freshman in high school, leading Nokomis of Newport, Maine, to a Class B state title. I followed along as he relocated to Montverde Academy in Florida, along with most of his home state. I watched some of his games on the AAU circuit when highlights were posted online. I was in awe when he went toe-to-toe with this year’s Olympians as part of an elite practice squad before the Paris Games.
There have been many bigger, more serious news stories this year, and many have profoundly impacted me in other ways, but I will always harbor affection for the small-town-boy-makes-good story — especially when that small town is one I know well.
Justin Pelletier is deputy regional sports editor
Our interactive tool tells you how much your next grocery trip will cost. Isn’t that neat?
Grocery shopping is a weekly to do.
I often enjoy it, leisurely spending an hour in the aisles on a Saturday morning after a yoga class. But sometimes it’s a quick pit stop on the way home from the office to grab milk for my morning cappuccino or butter sticks for an evening baking project.
Whether you’re an aisle peruser or a lightning shopper, grocery shopping is a necessary part of life. So we created an interactive receipt maker to show you what you’d spend getting your staples at any of the Triangle’s dozen-plus stores.
The service journalism team went out to Raleigh’s 16 major grocery stores this summer to price check 40 staples, comparing them against the other stores to determine which stores had the best prices. (But we also noted price isn’t everyone’s bottom line, sometimes opting to pay more to buy organic and/or local.)
We then partnered with our wonderful data editor, David Raynor, to turn all our data into a useful tool that our audiences could use, price-checking their own groceries at their own favorite stores. (This was actually the second “receipt maker” we created together this year — the first price-checked our three nearby wholesale clubs to find the best bulk prices.)
Plug in your typical shopping list and select your stores. The tool will tell you which store has the lowest regular prices — before taxes, discounts and any member prices you might receive.
I’m proud to be a member of our service journalism team, and we’ve served our readers practically and locally all year long. What else can we learn (or create) for you? Let us know at ask@newsobserver.com.
Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska is a service journalism editor
Focusing on the workers who make elections happen
Ever since 2020, election officials across the country have faced intense scrutiny as false claims of voter fraud spread and state legislatures implement stricter voting rules.
For this story about election officials, we sought to center on the people who actually make elections happen. In North Carolina, that’s the 100 county elections directors who work nonstop (sometimes by themselves) to ensure that every registered voter can cast their ballot.
We collected salary information for directors across all 100 counties and found that pay varied widely for the difficult position — and didn’t always align with experience.
As the state considers further changes to election laws in the wake of the 2024 election, this piece offers some insight into the workers who are affected by this upheaval and the conditions they endure.
Kyle Ingram is a politics reporter
A golfer’s death reminds us of the importance of mental health
Grayson Murray was dead.
The news of Murray’s passing in May was a jolt to the system. The Raleigh native was a winner on the PGA Tour, had played in the Masters, was scheduled to compete in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, so close to home. He was engaged to be married, his once troubled life seemingly more in balance and giving him a degree of happiness and tranquility.
And then he was gone. His parents said he took his own life on May 25. A year after he almost won the Korn Ferry Tour event at Raleigh County Club, tour officials set up an honorary tee time for Murray on the final day of the 2024 tournament.
It made for a day in early June that can only be described as surreal. On the first tee at Raleigh CC was Murray’s golf bag. His tour caddie was there, standing by the bag. Friends and family were there.
Murray’s death, and writing about it, was another reminder that life is fragile, that many struggle to overcome their inner demons. It was a reminder that mental health is a subject that should be more discussed, especially among professional athletes who face a constant pressure to perform, and that help needs to be provided for those who need it.
Chip Alexander is a sports reporter
A July warning to homeowners that’s even more timely now
Back in July, News & Observer real estate reporter Chantal Allam took a close, hard look at negotiations that were then underway between the state and the companies that write home insurance policies in North Carolina.
The companies had asked the state for an overall rate increase of some 42%.
If that number startles you as a homeowner, you should also know this (from Chantal’s reporting): If you buy insurance in North Carolina, you are assumed to have agreed to pay a “consent to rate.” That refers to a line in state law that lets insurance companies charge up to two and a half times the rate the state has actually agreed to allow.
(As an analogy, if there were such a thing as a “consent to speed limit,” you could drive about 63 mph on a 25 mph road without risking a ticket.)
NC Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey rejected the insurance companies’ 42% request and scheduled a hearing for Oct. 7 in case the two sides could not reach an agreement.
They did not. The hearing began in October and is not over yet.
The timing was such that the insurance companies could bolster their argument by pointing to the billions of dollars in damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
Once the hearing concludes, Causey has 45 days to issue a decision on how much the companies will be “allowed” to charge. Chantal’s reporting is must-reading for any homeowner trying to write a 2025 budget.
Dave Hendrickson is a business and real estate editor
Watching NC State’s DJ Burns become a legend
Over six months before NC State’s D.J. Burns became a household name — thanks to the Wolfpack’s epic run during the ACC and NCAA men’s basketball tournaments — he hammed it up for the cameras on media day.
With the easygoing encouragement of News & Observer photojournalist Kaitlin McKeown, the 6-9 forward struck a few poses. He peered over his sunglasses. He crossed his arms, cocking his head to the side. He broke out in a grin.
“Give me some personality,” McKeown coaxed, as seen in a video of the encounter. “This is about having fun.”
Both Burns and McKeown laughed.
That was Sept. 21, 2023, during the Wolfpack’s media day. McKeown knew — long before some of us — that Burns was filled with personality. He’s the type who can endear the most casual basketball fan, and even prompt fans of a rival school, to truly emotionally invest in a basketball team. (Ask me how I know.)
She captured Burns’ spirit in the photo from that exchange.
Fast-forward to April. By then, Coach Kevin Keatts had led Burns and his teammates, including D.J. Horne, Mo Diarra and Michael O’Connell, to the Wolfpack’s first Final Four since 1983.
Inspired, Raleigh artist Sean Kernick headed to the Free Expression Tunnel on N.C. State’s Raleigh campus. With McKeown’s portrait as a reference, he created a wall-sized painting of Burns and his outsized personality. Students and passersby paused to watch him paint, and the final image was shared all over.
“It’s the team that got us there, but sometimes, in moments like this, it is worth throwing flowers at somebody like him who’s going to be an absolute Raleigh legend for life,” Kernick told reporter Avi Bajpai, who wrote about the mural.
“No matter what happens this weekend, he has cemented himself as a legend here.”
Jessica Banov is an audience growth editor and a Tar Heels fan
The victims of Helene could have been any of us
We dance obliviously close to disaster every day, never thinking a car crash or illness could instantly alter the landscapes of our lives.
It’s why we connected with the people of Western North Carolina when Helene rolled in. People were out there being parents and kids and friends and neighbors and a monster storm washed everything away.
Change a wind pattern here, shift a stalled-out cold front there, and it could have been any of us, homeless and scared.
Like Kelli Ball of Barnardsville, who snatched her children out of the way of a landslide, we know: We’re lucky. We’re alive.
Martha Quillin is a service journalism reporter
VP Roy Cooper? Nope, but what a July
I’ve covered North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper since 2019. My reporting about him these past five years has been dominated by budget fights with the General Assembly, Medicaid expansion, the COVID-19 pandemic and, this past summer, the chance of him becoming vice president.
After President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate in June, every day of July was a flurry of news. First, if Biden was dropping out. Then if Kamala Harris was getting in, and who she might pick as a running mate.
Suddenly all eyes were on Cooper as a possible vice president, though his top adviser said later it was never meant to be. Still, as he dodged questions, I kept trying to get an answer for News & Observer readers.
Cooper decided after being mentioned as a contender that “I’m just not going to talk about this at all,” adviser Morgan Jackson told me as July rushed toward August and Harris went in another direction. “So he wasn’t saying he was in, wasn’t saying he was out,” Jackson said.
Nevertheless, I tried to get answers, or at least ask more questions. In the end, there were a variety of reasons Cooper didn’t want the job, including the potential distraction of Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who ended up losing his race to be the next governor to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. That election is another story.
The photo with this story shows Cooper’s expression while he was trying not to answer my questions at a press conference.
Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan is the Capitol Bureau Chief
I’ve covered natural disasters for years. Helene hit home
After spending two weeks covering the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, I can honestly say this experience has changed me. Having documented more than 20 major storms and natural disasters for newspapers throughout my career, I’ve learned to respect the devastating effects and threats that climate change poses.
But this time was different. This time, it was home. Half my family lives in Western North Carolina, and I maintain a second home on land on the Qualla Boundary that has been in my family for generations. The mountains are where I feel most comfortable, where I find solace and retreat. To see a place I love suffering so immensely has taken its toll. We were fortunate, though. While I went without power and running water for eight days, my inconveniences were minor compared to those who lost everything and now face months and years of recovery.
The road to recovery will not be swift. When the headlines shift to the next disaster or political spat, thousands will still be working toward some sense of normalcy for years to come.
Travis Long is a photojournalist
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.