• Activist Banned from Durham City Hall
  • Durham Expands Winter Shelter Capacity
  • Raleigh LGBT Center Gets New Home
  • ICYMI: Cary Town Manager Resigns
  • Raleigh’s Chances of a White Christmas
Credit: Illustration by Nicole Pajor Moore with photo by Abigail Bromberger for The 9th Street Journal

Good morning, readers.

A Durham resident has been given a two-year ban from city hall after disrupting a council member’s swearing-in ceremony earlier this month.

Amanda Wallace, an activist whose work centers on child protective services reform, interrupted council member Matt Kopac’s oath of office to loudly denounce the amount of money Kopac raised and spent during his campaign, among other sundry grievances.

Three days later, City Manager Bo Ferguson issued Wallace a trespass notice that prohibits her from entering city hall for two years—potentially the first ban of its kind to be implemented in Durham.

City council members are divided on whether it was the right call. Mayor Leonardo Williams, who compared Wallace’s disruption of Kopac’s swearing-in to the January 6 insurrection, defended the city manager’s decision. Council member Shanetta Burris expressed distaste for both the trespass and the city code that allows for it, saying, “If we’re going to fight authoritarianism at the national level, we can’t silently try to silence people at the local level.”

Read the full story below. Have a good Wednesday.

—Lena

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The latest from INDY, plus other stories around the state you’ll want to read. Handpicked every day by INDY Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets.

Credit: Illustration by Aiden Siobhan

Shelter in the Cold

Durham is adding dozens of new beds available to homeless residents on “white flag nights” when temperatures are freezing, INDY’s Justin Laidlaw reports.

Credit: Courtesy of Cooper Tacia

Welcome Home

After years of bouncing around downtown, the LGBT Center of Raleigh finally has a new home, Jasmine Gallup reports for the INDY.

Credit: Photo by Matt Ramey

Departure Time

INDY’s Chloe Courtney Bohl breaks down what we know about Cary Town Manager Sean Stegall’s resignation amid concerns about his spending.

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STATE: Federal recognition for North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe, which has about 55,000 members, is tucked into a national defense spending bill, Border Belt Independent reports. The Senate could vote on it today.

STATE: An initiative intended to promote transparency in health care pricing ended up costing the state nearly $450 million over the past three years than projected, North Carolina Health News reports.

EDUCATION: N.C. State University has launched an agrivoltaics site in Raleigh, combining solar panels, livestock grazing, and lessons on the interactions between them, Canary Media reports.

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  • TIL the giant acorn Raleigh drops on New Year’s Eve gets driven through the city to the studio of the artist who created it to receive an annual polishing before its big day.
  • Durham Public Schools has extended the deadline to apply to join its legislative steering committee.
  • Based on historical data, Raleigh has about a 1% chance of getting snow on Christmas, per CBS17.
  • The City of Raleigh is hosting an open house tonight to get input on the future of the Neuse River Park, including trails and play spaces.
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