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It’s Tuesday, April 29.
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, North Carolina Museum of Art: Now on view at the NCMA—special exhibition, “The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure.”
Featuring the work of 23 contemporary African diasporic artists from the US and UK, this groundbreaking exhibition presents works of art that depict and celebrate the Black figure from the perspective of Black artists.
Learn more and get your tickets at visit.ncartmuseum.org/events
Support free and local independent journalism.
Good morning, readers.
No one would ever accuse Durham’s Community Safety Department of stealing Christmas. But on June 16, when the city council votes to adopt its 2025-26 fiscal year budget, Director Ryan Smith hopes to share one thing in common with the Grinch: his HEART growing three sizes that day.
This year, Community Safety has requested a $4 million funding increase to hire additional staff, expand operating hours for HEART’s crisis response teams to 24/7, and provide some overnight coverage for crisis call diversion.
The increased funding would also allow the crisis response team to get to a majority of “eligible” calls that flow to HEART from the 911 dispatcher. Currently, HEART teams are only able to respond to 50 to 55 percent of eligible calls overall, says Smith. Last year, the team missed 20,000 calls due to understaffing.
City budgets are always competitive. No department is guaranteed to get every present on their wishlist. But the HEART team has been well-received by the city council, and continues to be a beacon of hope for Durham residents and public safety departments across the country looking to replicate HEART’s successes.
Even without an influx of new funding, reinforcements could be on the horizon. On April 17, Durham city manager Bo Ferguson announced forthcoming changes to the city’s organizational chart, including bringing more divisions under the Community Safety Department.
Read more about the potential changes to the city’s public safety network, and what it would mean to local Durham residents.
Happy Tuesday, readers.
—Justin
Durham
Did you miss Rhiannon Giddens’ Biscuits & Banjos festival? INDY’s Sarah Edwards has a recap of the weekend’s free programming. Warning: Reading will give you FOMO.
Wake
ICYMI: The chair of the board of trustees for Saint Augustine’s University dropped a bomb of a statement, saying school administrators falsified financial records, wired federal COVID relief money to unknown sources, and more. INDY’s Chloe Courtney Bohl has the story on his allegations of a decade of financial mismanagement at the Raleigh HBCU.
Orange
The New York Times goes behind the scenes of an effort to turn UNC athletes into lucrative social media influencers.
North Carolina
With progressive policies under fire at the federal level, a group of Democratic House members are pushing back by leaning in. Ahead of a virtual town hall tonight, INDY’s Justin Laidlaw talked with Durham representative Marcia Morey about the new Progressive House Caucus.
Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 83 degrees.
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