• What’s Next for Northgate Mall?
  • Citizen Detained by Border Patrol in Cary 
  • Things To Do in the Triangle This week
  • ICYMI: Status of Book Bans in Wake County
  • Durham Christmas Tree Lighting Delayed

Good morning, readers.

“A bit underwhelming.”

“Deeply disappointing.”

These were some of the reactions INDY’s Justin Laidlaw heard from residents and advocates in response to the news that a developer had submitted plans to turn about a third of the Northgate Mall property into—wait for it—a shopping center.

As an INDY reader, you’re probably already familiar with the years of advocacy around the redevelopment of Northgate mall, with residents of surrounding neighborhoods lobbying for things like affordable housing to be included to help address gentrification and make the most of the prime 55-acre site. 

This week, Justin has a follow-up digging into the plans for the proposed Ellerbe Square. Does this mean the end of the community’s ability to influence the site going forward, and what lessons can be learned from the whole saga?

Read more below and have a good weekend.

—Sarah W.

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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: Fernando Vazquez

“Basically Just Kidnapped Me”

NC Newsline speaks with a man who was detained by Border Patrol in Cary this week, then dumped in a parking lot when agents realized he was a U.S. citizen.

INDY Selects

Three nights of “Next-Gen Hip Hop,” the 2025 Sundance Indigenous Shorts Tour, and more events around the Triangle we recommend this week.

Illustration by Nicole Pajor Moore

Silence in the Library

After policy changes, Wake County libraries are seeing fewer book challenges. But librarians are still feeling a chilling effect, Jasmine Gallup writes for INDY.

If you’d like to advertise your business to The Daily’s 20,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected].

LOCAL: A 9th Street Journal reporter’s efforts to sort rumor from truth take her to a Raleigh hotel in search of Border Patrol agents.

STATE: Benevolence Farm breaks literal and figurative ground as the state’s first tiny home community for women transitioning out of incarceration, WUNC reports.

STATE: Border Patrol is leaving North Carolina. NC Local has a good explainer on what we know, and don’t know, about where people detained this week are now.

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  • There’s an anti-ICE student walkout and protest happening in Durham’s CCB plaza today. In light of these plans and this week’s Border Patrol activity, the Christmas tree lighting, originally scheduled for tonight, is being postponed.
  • If you’re itching for some Christmas spirit, Raleigh’s Christmas parade is tomorrow.
  • Siembra NC is holding a training in Raleigh tonight for volunteers who want to help ensure immigrants can get to school and work safely.
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