The Fayetteville Observer
Trump clemency erases $1.7 billion in penalties
President Donald Trump loves a good pardon. His generosity is so well known, in fact, that an industry of lobbyists, lawyers and other insiders has reportedly sprung up to facilitate clemency for wealthy criminals. Clemency, meaning mercy or leniency,...
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CCS prohibits smart glasses on its teachers
A new Cumberland County Schools regulation makes it clear that employees aren’t allowed to use smart glasses in classrooms and other school settings. Smart glasses are worn like regular glasses but include built-in cameras and audio capabilities and...
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Your guide to voting in Cumberland County
Cumberland County voters can head to the polls today when early voting starts in North Carolina for the 2026 midterm elections. Voters will cast ballots in federal, state and local elections. From polling places and voter ID requirements to the...
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Garage elevator could move ahead
Hay Street Parking Garage could get its longawaited elevator after the Fayetteville City Council unanimously voted to direct staff to develop cost estimates and identify funding sources for the project. Mayor Mitch Colvin introduced the idea during an...
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Reports of damage emerge after tornado warnings
A radar-confirmed tornado was reported over Fayetteville at 12:03 p.m. Sunday, causing damage in northern areas of the city after the National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for Cumberland County. The Fayetteville Fire Department said in...
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REBRANDING NICOTINE
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness...
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‘Prepare the next generation of educators’
With a record enrollment of 7,700 students for this school year, Fayetteville State University has several projects in the works to accommodate future growth. From a parking deck to a new health and wellness center, the projects are part of the...
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Loud sounds have hidden health risks
The human body is remarkably good at getting used to the environment around it. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve ever gone to a matinee and emerged from the dark theater into sunshine. Your eyes sting, so you squint and shield your face until...
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Cool Spring offers a big October in downtown
If you have read my column for a minute, you know I’m a fan of the Hurley pots. Named for a former mayor, they are the large, black, cast-iron planters that dot the downtown landscape — a uniquely Fayetteville legacy from an ambitious redevelopment...
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This arts space wants to be more than a gallery
After a seven-year hiatus, a creative space that’s “for artists, by artists” has reemerged in downtown Fayetteville. Concourse 107 operated at 107 Gillespie St. until 2019. After closing its downtown location, the business continued as an online...
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The AI of the storm
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world’s best physics-based prediction systems. h This remarkable progress has been...
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Fayetteville landmark may get one more chance
Does a 19th-century home have one last shot at avoiding the wrecking ball? Let’s just say: Fingers crossed. I wrote recently how the $25 million expansion and rebuild plans of the Cape Fear Regional Theatre in Haymount likely meant lights-out for the...
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Young voters swing away from Trump
A key group of voters who swung toward President Donald Trump in 2024 are now swinging just as sharply away from him ahead of the 2026 midterm elections: young people. Nationwide polls of likely and registered voters from Economist/YouGov, Marquette...
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How will revitalization efforts benefit residents?
City leaders are celebrating a $25 million federal grant that could transform Fayetteville's Murchison Road corridor, a long-neglected and historically Black community. The funding will support new mixedincome housing, infrastructure improvements and...
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Unemployment rate ticks up in September
The Labor Department estimates U.S. employers added 29,000 jobs in September, a month when Federal Reserve officials viewed the labor market as stable even as economists said it remained challenging for unemployed workers to break in. Payroll gains...
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The long afterlife of QAnon
On Election Day in 2024, as voters cast their ballots, Elon Musk posted a campaign music video supporting Donald Trump’s bid for president. Set to Van Halen’s “Jump,” with a montage of 1980s cultural references and images of Trump in various strongman...
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Property near High School could be offered to county
The Cumberland County Board of Education is considering declaring 5.18 acres of land near Jack Britt High School as surplus and transferring it to the county, according to discussions earlier this month. The school board discussed the property with...
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PATCHWORK OF POLICIES
Standing in your local retail store, it can be mindboggling to try to weigh the pros and cons of all the packaging options. Take shampoo, for example. Shampoo can come in a rigid plastic bottle, a flexible squeeze tube, a refillable metal canister or...
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Board OKs changes linked to closures
While the Cumberland County Board of Education did not take further votes on school closures and consolidations at a Sept. 24 meeting, it voted on several items related to some of the proposed closures. Several of the agenda items centered on the...
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J. Cole tour sparks cross-country adventure
Antwan Robinson met Josiah Garcia not too long ago, and in a fairly unremarkable way, when Robinson was invited by a mutual friend to Garcia’s New Year’s party in Miami. Six months later, when J. Cole brought “The Fall-Off Tour” to South Florida,...
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Homecoming concert an ode to his day ones
“I think they feel me, but I know they’re not going to feel me like y’all.” More than a decade after his first Crown Coliseum show in 2015, J. Cole came home once again. His first performance at the Crown 11 years ago followed the release of his...
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Trump, Xi exchange toasts, gifts at dinner
Wild mushrooms are in their peak season across the United States in late September – and for a second time, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan were treated to the fungi at the White House. On the menu for the state dinner hosted by...
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Oil spills a hidden cost of Iran war
As hostilities in the Middle East drag on, the trail of damaged or destroyed oil tankers and energy facilities is increasingly raising concerns about the oily mess the war is leaving behind. Scientists using satellite images to monitor the region say...
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Cursive is making a comeback in schools
Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild. Until the early 20th century, children in the United States were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing...
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Shoppers cope with record beef prices
DES MOINES – Mary Howe loves steak. But the retired mortician, who gets by on Social Security benefits with her husband, doesn’t buy it anymore. “I’ve just really got to watch it,” the 67year-old said at a Hy-Vee supermarket in West Des Moines, Iowa....
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COMING H
J. Cole has spent years putting Fayetteville on the map. Ahead of his long-awaited hometown concert at the Crown Coliseum on Sept. 23, The Fayetteville Observer explores the lifelong connection between the Grammy-winning artist and the city that helped...
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Trump to face world leaders
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and...
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U.N. mission details U.S., Iran allegations
GENEVA – A United Nations factfinding mission on Iran said on Sept. 17 it had reasonable grounds to believe the United States was behind two military strikes on a school and sports facility in Iran in February, and that these constituted war...
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Data shows deterioration of multiple freedoms
In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, how is the U.S. government performing in terms of human rights? Listening to politicians, it can be difficult to know. On one hand, some have pointed to a number of potential human rights abuses committed...
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Serving meals and hope
It’s a family affair. The Ally Foundation, a nonprofit that serves meals to unhoused people downtown, among multiple other endeavors, is the vision of Azalea Ally. “Miss Azalea,” as Foundation volunteers call her — already had a heart for service....
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Major structural flaws found at Crown venues
A comprehensive assessment of Cumberland County’s Crown Theatre and Arena found significant structural and building issues that could push a planned modernization project beyond its original $80 million to $100 million budget, prompting commissioners...
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CCS mechanic resigns over staffing shortages
Robert “Tilly” Vantilburg stood before the Cumberland County Board of Education on Sept. 8 to announce that he will resign from Cumberland County Schools on Sept. 18, citing staffing shortages and workloads among the district’s mechanics. Vantilburg,...
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‘I have solid reason to believe’
Little is left at 544 Castle Drive at Fort Bragg. The duplex-style apartment that once housed Colette, Kimberly, Kristen and Jeffrey MacDonald no longer stands. Neighbors are no longer around, and many people who were related to the MacDonalds or who...
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25th anniversary of 9/11 commemorated
NEW YORK – As the United States marked 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans across the country gathered to honor the nearly 3,000 people who perished and reflect on the day that forever changed the nation. A quarter-century...
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A GENERATION OF AFTERSHOCK
Aquarter-century later, 9/11 still echoes. The worst terrorist attack in U.S. history has been followed by other seismic events, from a once-in-a-century global pandemic to the rise of artificial intelligence that is transforming commerce, education...
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$25 million grant boosts Murchison Road revival
Fayetteville leaders’ longtime goal of revitalizing Murchison Road received a big-time boost Sept. 2 with the awarding of a federal grant worth $25 million. The money through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development will help expand the...
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State releases school rankings
Cumberland County Schools decreased its amount of schools on the state’s low- performing list from 27 to 20 based on test scores from the 202526 school year, district officials announced this month. Only one school in the district, Walker Spivey...
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L
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced in-person classroom instruction to go virtual, students suddenly needed to have their own laptops or tablets in order to interact with teachers and complete assignments. Most states used federal pandemic funding to...
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Iran aims to tackle economic issues
DUBAI – Iran said it will step up efforts to tackle problems created by the U.S. sanctions that are crippling its economy, while a senior Iranian official warned of a “painful response” if it comes under further attack. Six months after U.S.-Israeli...
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Construction stalled
Construction on a downtown Fayetteville hotel and apartment tower has stalled as the new developers evaluate the project’s next steps. The delay comes after the city selected new developers — Fay Hay Master Venture LLC, a subsidiary of Lansing...
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AN IDLE THREAT
Abus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution. The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the...
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Celebrating a legacy of unity
On the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington, a new Fayetteville banquet sought to connect Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for civil rights, racial justice and unity to the present. The nonprofit The Dream Lives Inc. hosted the inaugural banquet...
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County presses forward on Crown audio contract
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted 4-2 to move forward with a roughly $1.72 million contract to replace the Crown Coliseum’s audio system despite an ongoing lawsuit alleging the bidding process was unfair. Commissioners approved the...
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THE SQUEEZE
Shannon Drive is a short road off busy Bragg Boulevard that is one of the turn-ins for the Sycamore Square shopping center and the neighborhood behind it, which includes radio station WFNC. It is anchored by Food Lion. It is just east of Sycamore Dairy...
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Confession thrown out in 9/11 case
A U.S. military judge has thrown out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 2007 confession to FBI agents about his alleged lead role in the 9/11 attacks, ruling that it wasn’t given voluntarily and can’t be used against him at trial. The Aug. 28 ruling by the...
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‘ISOLATED’
Severe storms, heat waves and wildfires can shut down the social life of a community, flooding out festivals, canceling community events and keeping people indoors. They’re also evidence of how climate change isn’t just changing the environments we...
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‘I feel right at home here’
Dolly Parton once told a Fayetteville crowd that the city reminded her of home. The country music icon, who died Aug. 25 at age 80, spent time backstage with The Fayetteville Observer before a 1976 show here, discussing her career and why she enjoyed...
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Colleges confront decline in reading
Anyone who has spent time on a college campus lately has probably heard laments from faculty about their students’ reading habits, or rather nonreading habits. Such complaints are more than an unfounded nostalgia for a bygone age. Reading – not just...
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Fort Bragg lands spot in Army’s nuclear power push
FORT BRAGG — Fort Bragg is one of five sites selected to host a nuclear microreactor under a new energy program, the Army announced Aug. 26. Fort Bragg’s vendor will be Antares, a nuclear fission energy company that was founded in 2023 and develops...
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Future of Wade tract remains uncertain
Cumberland County commissioners have sent a proposed rezoning for a 36.6-acre tract in Wade back to the Joint Planning Board, requesting alternatives that could ease residents’ concerns while allowing the landowner to develop the...
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Embryo personhood debate gains notice
About 100,000 babies were born through in vitro fertilization in 2024, according to the most recent U.S. data. But IVF commonly involves trying to create multiple embryos, because success is never guaranteed. If unused, those embryos can be frozen,...
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FSU opens new College of Education building
The opening of the new College of Education building on the morning of Aug. 20 at Fayetteville State University represented a full-circle moment for the school. The institution was founded as the Howard School in 1867, just two years after the Civil...
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New Cumberland County school opens
In just a few days, students who previously attended Ramsey Street Alternative High School will walk into a new building, under a new name, as Pauline Jones High School begins its first school year. The newly named high school held a ribbon-cutting...
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What is Cumberland County’s oldest school?
Four Cumberland County schools have served students for more than a century, but only two have earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places, leaving some of the county’s oldest school buildings without formal historic recognition. h Some...
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Trump plan could hit science funding
Most Americans don’t read the rules that govern the federal grants funding science. Those rules, called the Uniform Guidance, shape how cancer research is funded, graduate students are trained, clinical trials are sustained, universities stock their...
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Local pitmaster introduces new barbecue throwdown
Fayetteville will become a mecca for pitmasters across the Southeast this Saturday at the inaugural 2-6 K.A. Barbecue Throwdown. The throwdown, which will take place at 5319 Yadkin Road from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 22, includes more than 20 teams...
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Veteran’s grave marker found at city site raises questions
A mistaken grave marker found in a concrete pile at a Fayetteville construction site is different from the marker now at the veteran’s grave at Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery, state officials confirmed Aug. 17. The state says an error was...
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Poll: Trump approval rating hits new low
President Donald Trump’s polling woes continue as he fell to a new record low since his return to the White House, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey, with only one in three Americans approving of his job performance. The poll, released Aug. 17,...
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Mass hearings held in immigration courts
Lines have stretched out the front door of courthouses. Overflow seating has been set up in hallways. And there have been classroom-style exchanges, with judges asking people to raise their hands in response to generic questions about their...
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Umoja Wall of Honor mosaic makeover nearly complete
The makeover of the Wall of Honor at the corner of Murchison Road and Langdon Street is nearly complete. I wrote last month that the scaffolding that had partly concealed the community mural, which is affiliated with the Umoja Group, was being made...
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EVOLVING BOUNDARIES
Market Square and Hay Street are widely considered the heart of downtown Fayetteville. Yet, beyond that historic core, where downtown begins and ends is less clear, with city leaders, business owners and residents often drawing boundaries in very...
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U.S. tells Iran it will step up pressure
LONDON – Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Aug. 14 after two more ships were attacked there and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely. A senior Iranian source said...
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Al-Qaida, Islamic State group adopting AI
Artificial intelligence may not create a new kind of terrorism, but it makes existing tactics cheaper, faster and easier. That is the central argument of a July report from the U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. h It...
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Fayetteville puts off data center rules
After a contentious public hearing marked by protests and multiple removals from City Hall, the Fayetteville City Council voted 7-3 on Aug. 10 to send proposed data center regulations back to staff for revisions, with an updated ordinance expected to...
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More than movies
The CAMEO Collective offers more than movies, according to Brian Kline, the nonprofit’s artistic director. For 26 years, the former CAMEO Art House Theatre hosted films and live events. Since rebranding as the CAMEO Collective, Kline said the...
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Union files lawsuit over TSA Gold+ information
The union representing 47,000 Transportation Security Administration workers is suing TSA. The lawsuit is looking to force the release of records regarding the expansion of privatized security screening at airports, a new program known as TSA...
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Service honors Staff Sgt. Michael Swinton
Outside Southview Baptist Church, a woman pressed her hand against the hearse carrying the flag-draped coffin of Staff Sgt. Michael Swinton before collapsing into the arms of a man beside her. h Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, was killed in action July...
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NC ends key race data requirement that improved traffic stops
Unbeknownst to most, the state legislators in the recently passed North Carolina budget struck a major blow against unbiased policing. The action will set back efforts by local police departments statewide to become more responsive (and less reactive)...
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Gunshot detection tech ignites controversy
When gunshots ring out on America’s streets, bystanders face an instant, high-stakes dilemma. h Do I call the cops? Were those even gunshots? Maybe it was just fireworks. h Every moment of hesitation risks a delay in medical treatment or gives a...
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Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt
WASHINGTON – A Republican-led Senate committee voted Aug. 6 to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal official who led the government’s COVID-19 response in 2020, in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions during a July 29 hearing. The...
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FSU gathering space expands dining options
Food trucks have gone from curbside convenience to destinations of their own, and now Fayetteville State University is carving out a permanent campus spot for a rotating lineup of mobile eateries. FSU is unveiling a new outdoor gathering space known...
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Rubio sees progress in Hormuz talks
DUBAI – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Aug. 4 there has been progress made in discussions with Iran and Oman on getting more ships through the Strait of Hormuz but no final agreement has been reached. “There’s been progress made in those...
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Rolling the dice on community
The brick wall that used to divide The Sweet Palette and Blanc Coffee Roasters is gone. In its stead stand three 10-foottall arches that Sweet Palette owner Patsy Crawford said were built to resemble the Market House. Since the coffee shop at 103...
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‘Shuttle Buddy’ is local veteran’s latest mission
After helping coordinate one of the U.S. military’s most chaotic evacuation operations, Tauheed “Ty” Wood found a new mission back home in Fayetteville to help travelers get where they need to go. His Fayetteville-based company Shuttle Buddy provides...
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‘Restoring vital long-term care’
More than two years after structural problems forced the closure of the Fayetteville State Veterans Home and displaced dozens of veterans, North Carolina has approved $40 million to rebuild the facility. But the requirement that the Department of...
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