It’s Monday, March 25.

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Good morning, readers.  

It was a big weekend for Triangle basketball. Congrats to all the fans with teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Here are four stories we’re watching as March Madness continues.  

But as basketball carries on, there’s a consequential debate developing in Raleigh’s City Council. The city is once again considering changes to how it elects its city council members.. 

At its meeting last week, the council adopted two resolutions to begin the process of changing the city’s charter that dictates how elections take place. In the future, council members could be elected to four-year staggered terms with nonpartisan primaries in even-numbered years. The council could also add three district seats to its current eight-member board. 

The potential changes come after a 10-member study group recommended them to the council. The changes would bring Raleigh in line with peer cities such as Durham, Asheville, and Greensboro who use the same election method. And while switching to four-year staggered terms may not be popular—an online survey that the city sponsored found that 50 percent of around 1,000 respondents were not supportive or not at all supportive of all of the proposed change—adding more seats to the council does seem to have public support. 

The council will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes on April 2. It will also decide whether to make the changes to the city’s charter or to put them to voters in a referendum in the fall, when all eight seats on the council, including the mayor’s seat, will be up for election. 

Read more here. And have a good Monday. 

—Jane

Durham

Higher pay for city workers and an Office of Survivor Care topped Durham residents’ wishlists at last week’s budget hearing. 

In response to a claim by the conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro posted on X, Duke School of Medicine denied lowering its admission standards to meet DEI goals. 

Wake

Alumni groups are calling for the resignations of St. Augustine’s board of trustees members.

Orange

Carrboro’s town council has committed to helping transform UNC’s cogeneration rail line into a multi-modal greenway. 

North Carolina

NC DEQ is considering adding more than 400 miles of streams and rivers to its list of impaired waterways.

Today’s weather

Sunny with a high of 64 degrees.

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