The Assembly

This is an excerpt from Miracle Road: The Story of Research Triangle Park. It is published with permission from Duke University Press. While watching a Battlestar Galactica episode on a long plane flight in 2008, Ned Sharpless, a polymath oncologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was struck by the ingenious weapon the show’s villains had deployed to destroy space travelers from Earth.

Past Sanford’s Southern Lee High School, a former women’s clothing boutique has been transformed into something quite different. The sign in front of the nondescript gray building doesn’t name the establishment inside. Instead, it says, “WARNING: THERE IS NOTHING HERE WORTH DYING FOR.” An image of a gun points toward the approaching customer. Twenty-one rules are posted on the front door. Near the top: No phones or photos inside. Signs posted outside list 21 rules.

Luke Etchison couldn’t do anything for the fish, mussels, and other river critters that he dedicated his professional life to saving. Not with the remnants of a killer hurricane bearing down, a wife and 3-year-old daughter to protect, and a river rampaging below his Western North Carolina home. The conservation biologist woke early that September morning in 2024 as Tropical Storm Helene’s fury reached the southern Appalachians.

State Auditor Dave Boliek pointedly declined to say whether he intended to run for governor in North Carolina during an Assembly Newsmakers event at Cannonball Music Hall in Raleigh on Thursday. “I’m really, really focused on being the best state auditor I can for the people of North Carolina,” Boliek told reporter Bryan Anderson. Boliek’s potential candidacy has drawn widespread speculation since even before he took office in 2025. After voters elected Democratic Gov.

David Decosimo has been at the center of controversy around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership for more than a year. But aside from announcing on X in September 2025 that he had been fired from his post as associate dean of the school, he has said next to nothing publicly. An August 30 Wall Street Journal opinion piece on the school, also known as SCiLL, changed that.

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Since the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement in Charlotte last November, federal agents have escalated efforts to stop and arrest Latino residents without probable cause, according to an amended federal lawsuit filed late last week. The suit claims the activity resulted in a major “checkpoint” operation targeting Latinos this summer in a national forest area.

If you didn’t know former Republican state Rep. Sarah Stevens is running to unseat N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, you probably aren’t alone. Ten days away from the start of in-person early voting in October, Stevens’ campaign hadn’t run any television ads, agreed to any public debates, or posted much on social media. Stevens has also raised very little money in one of the state’s most important races this year. Public opinion polls show Earls with a narrow lead.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work unveiled two new signs on Monday afternoon. One was temporary: an ice sculpture perched atop a table of shrimp and sushi and declaring “She gets it done!” over a portrait of Deloris P. Jordan. The other was permanent, announcing the Deloris P. Jordan Global Social Innovations Center.

North Carolina lawmakers will return to Raleigh on Wednesday for a brief session to address high gas prices. The move comes the week before in-person early voting begins in the state, in a year when voters have overwhelmingly cited the economy as their top concern.