Nineteen people have applied for a vacancy on Durham’s Civilian Police Review Board, an unprecedented number, according to the city clerk’s office. There is increased interest in the board because of tumult within the department, including two officer-related shootings and an in-custody death of a suspect in the past year. The nine-member board is appointed […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
Posted inSoapboxer
His dream was to get a guitar, and now he has one to perform in Durham
Zac, aka Casper View—his stage name—has been panhandling in downtown Durham most of the winter. He used to play a fake guitar; I photographed him for a previous blog post, “Cardboard guitar blues.” His dream was to get a real guitar, and someone from a neighboring office building kindly him gave him one, an Oscar […]
Posted inNews
No charges against cop
Editor’s note: This story combines parts of stories the INDY has broken on its news blog with the most reporting on Tuesday afternoon. From the moment of the 9-1-1 call reporting Jesus Huerta as a runaway, to his death 44 minutes later in the back of Durham Police Car No. 225, law enforcement made several […]
Posted inUncategorized
Questions for Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez—and his answers
On a coffee table in Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez’s office, there is a chessboard with New York Yankees players on one side and Boston Red Sox players on the other. You could view those chess pieces as symbolic of the police department’s tense relationship with some factions of the Durham community—as well as some […]
Posted inNews
Durham Police chatter reveals what officers knew about Jesus Huerta’s mental state
Durham Police knew that Jesus Huerta may have been mentally unstable when Officer Samuel Duncan picked him up at the corner of Washington and Trinity streets on Nov. 19, according to recordings released to City Council late yesterday afternoon. However, at a press conference on Friday, the department released results of an internal investigation indicating […]
Posted inNews
Troubled man breaks windows in former Jack Tarr motel in downtown Durham
People heading downtown this morning may have heard the sound of broken glass falling from the top floor of the former Jack Tarr motel, after a man began yelling, breaking his windows and throwing his belongings to the sidewalk below. According to a parking garage attendant, the man, whom he described as “quiet and humble,” […]
Posted inSoapboxer
Paging Alfred Hitchcock: Gulls find a heat island far from the coast
Even though Durham is 150 miles from the East Coast, I occasionally see seagulls roosting in parking lots. Cities have ample garbage, ideal for foraging, and heat islands perfect for roasting in the sun. These appear to be ring-billed gulls, which have adapted to suburban living far from the beach. The New York Times explains […]
Posted inSoapboxer
Homeless person’s bed is gone, but not the wealth disparity
About 10 days ago, we published a photo essay “30 feet separates the haves from the have nots”—online on Dec. 30 and then in the print edition on Jan. 2. It concerned the wealth disparity in downtown Durham: half-million dollar condos at Main and Mangum streets right across from where a homeless person had made […]
Posted inNews
Durham Police investigation: Huerta shot self in patrol car
From the moment of the 9-1-1 call reporting Jesus Huerta as a runaway, to his death 44 minutes later in the back of Durham Police Car No. 225, law enforcement made several pivotal decisions. Any one of them, in retrospect, could have changed the arc of a boy’s life, a family’s grief and the fate […]
Posted inUncategorized
Raleigh’s green acres
If you were to cut a cross section of a green roof, it would look like a parfait or a terrine: layers of waterproofing, root barriers, insulation, drainage, soil and the plants themselves. As part of its sustainability project, the City of Raleigh lists 13 spots that have vegetative green roofs, ranging from private homes […]
