Indy Week

For generations, North Carolinians have relied on a basic promise: if an injury, illness, or military service leaves them unable to earn a living, programs such as Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, and Veterans Disability benefits will provide support. That promise remains but accessing it has become more fraught. Agencies responsible for administering these programs face growing backlogs, staffing shortages, procedural complexity, and increased public scrutiny. Delays are longer.

If social media presents an existential threat to reading as a pastime, no one has yet told the romance readers. Apps like TikTok and Instagram have thriving communities of readers—nicknamed BookTok and Bookstagram, respectively—ready to dissect their favorite books. Within these online communities, romance fans are a particularly visible set.

Meredith Bryson and Lauren Brown both credit Bridgerton, Julia Quinn’s popular historical romance series, for reviving their reading lives and inspiring them to open bookstores of their own. “I got back into [reading] as an adult, actually with Bridgerton,” Brown said. “I watched the first season [of the Netflix adaptation], and then I was like, ‘I need more now, not in years.’ I picked up the books, and I read them all so fast.

Last month, INDY staff writer Lena Geller and freelancer Lee Gans published a detailed investigation into how a Durham County board granted billions of dollars in property value reductions to corporate landlords and companies like Blackstone while ordinary homeowners largely stayed on the hook for higher property taxes. City leaders—in the midst of planning for the next fiscal year’s budget and counting on projected tax revenues that wouldn’t materialize—didn’t find out what happened until April.

The neighborhood known either as Cameron Park or Forest Park, depending which side of the debate you’re on, is one of Raleigh’s oldest and stateliest. Tucked off of Hillsborough Street, it’s a patchwork of genteel Colonial and Queen Anne-style homes situated on ample lawns and shaded by oaks, ashes, and elms. Most of the 800 or so residents are wealthy and liberal. Some are politicians and university chancellors. The vibe is friendly: People know their neighbors.

At about 2:30 a.m. on July 6, 2025, Jameka Autry awoke to a frantic call from her neighbor. Floodwater had pooled into their house, they said, and Autry and her mother, Winona, needed to leave fast in case their home was next. Autry, still half asleep, opened the back door of her house on Peppercorn Street. “There was no porch. There were no steps. We were literally surrounded by water and couldn’t get out,” she said.

INDY readers have a tremendous power: To bestow coveted Best of the Triangle stars on the walls, windows, and websites of local businesses and institutions. For two decades, Triangle residents have relied on our reader poll—and the iconic decals winners receive—to find the best of the best in their communities. In this section, you’ll find Best of the Triangle winners in Durham County—a round-up of so many of the people, places, and organizations that make the Bull City special.

Set aside the oaks, the Stanley Cup, and even the Tobacco Road basketball lore. Raleigh is an ice cream town, a cow-to-cone city in a frozen melting pot of a region churning with flavors from Greece, Thailand, Mexico, Japan—and, of course, North Carolina farms. The city’s appetite for ice cream has deep roots.

Discover the Wake County ice cream makers flavoring summer treats with oolong tea, Cheez-Its, churros, good old-fashioned North Carolina strawberries—and more

The concept of the celebrity sex pass has been around for a while, probably since the dawning of celebrity itself. It goes like this: In an otherwise monogamous relationship, each partner gets to select one famous person they’re allowed to sleep with, in the unlikely event that such an opportunity presents itself. It’s a jokey thing—or maybe a half-jokey thing, which is what makes it so fun. But here’s a question: What if it actually happened?