Port City Daily
CAROLINA BEACH — The Cape Fear region welcomed the season’s first big storm last night after Hurricane Isaias made landfall at Ocean Isle at 11:10 p.m., dousing the area with heavy rains and sustained winds of 85 mph.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — County and city law enforcement officers responded to what appeared to be an initially nonviolent but also disobedient and profanity-laced protest outside City Hall with tear gas and stun grenades, dispersing the protestors throughout the streets of downtown Wilmington Sunday night. Officials defended the use of force, saying there were concerns about armed protestors and damage to the downtown area.
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The state notified the nonprofit Ocean Cure that it must remove its wheelchair beach access mat because it threatened sea turtles and shorebirds. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Kevin Murphy)
CAROLINA BEACH — For the past three summers, a nonprofit called Ocean Cure has laid down a 3,000-square-foot plastic mat right above the high tide line near the Carolina Beach Boardwalk to provide what few coastal towns in the region can provide: easy beach access for those in wheelchairs.
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U.S. Representative David Rouzer speaks at a Trump rally last week, where he told the crowd that recent congressional investigations into the U.S. Postal Service were a “hoax.” (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Last week, U.S. Representative David Rouzer told a crowd of about 50 Donald Trump supporters that, just like other investigations and criticisms aimed at the president since his inauguration, recent congressional investigations of the U.S. Postal Service and its moves to downscale operations were part of a “hoax.”
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On Friday, the Pender County School district announced 24 system employees had been quarantined. Heide Trask High School will start with two weeks of remote learning, a last-minute decision prompted by the quarantine and staffing shortages. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Heide Trask High School)
PENDER COUNTY — A coalition of about 60 Pender County School teachers sent a letter to the Board of Education on Friday afternoon — less than three days before the start of the fall semester — stating they would not report for in-classroom instruction on Monday out of fears that it would further spread the coronavirus.
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A runner jogs across the entranceway to the Wrightsville Beach Town Hall, where Sheri Chisholm was hit by an unmarked police vehicle earlier this summer. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — When Sheri Chisholm was hit by a Wrightsville Beach Police SUV as she walked along a crosswalk in front of Town Hall, she didn’t expect to be the one blamed for the incident.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — “That was something not many people get a chance to see.” Mark Winneberger was one of the first people to dive down to North Carolina’s newest artificial reef — a retired Coast Guard cutter, rechristened The Brian Davis, sunk 21 miles off the coast of Wrightsville Beach on Friday.
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The state has tested all 626 inmates at the Pender Correctional Institution for Covid-19. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
BURGAW — The state tested all 626 inmates at the Pender Correctional Institution in response to a Wake County judge’s ruling that conditions in state prisons during the pandemic were likely unconstitutional, and a subsequent ruling that the state had failed to comply with the initial order to test all inmates.
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The investigation began after Pender High basketball coach Ray Hankins, pictured at a Board of Education meeting last month, published several documents to social media indicating racist behavior of two colleagues. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
BURGAW — Pender County Schools did not answer questions regarding the use of an outside law firm to investigate alleged racist comments by Pender High employees, instead of using its contracted firm Schwartz and Shaw, whose attorney was reprimanded in 2006 for detrimental conduct in a school sexual assault investigation in Avery County.
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Wilmington Police riot officers walk down Chestnut Street during a late May protest. Weeks later, three WPD officers were fired after unintentionally recorded conversations went public revealing racist and violent language. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — One of three former Wilmington Police Officers fired last month after unintentionally recorded conversations became public, revealing racist and violent language, has filed an appeal for reinstatement.
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BURGAW — Pender County and the American Skin plant in Burgaw, which produces pork skin products, both remain silent on many details of a Covid-19 outbreak at the facility.
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A woman walks past Wilmington’s Confederate Memorial on Monday morning. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — City leaders have largely stayed silent concerning the requested removal and preservation of two Confederacy statues that have overlooked downtown Wilmington since at least 1924. Meanwhile, Mayor Bill Saffo has issued a curfew to protect the statues, banning foot traffic in four city blocks surrounding the monuments for at least five consecutive nights.
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At 8:07 p.m, after riot control officers with the New Hanover and Brunswick county sheriff’s offices fired a second volley of tear gas canisters at protestors on Third Street, Sunday, May 31. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Questions have swirled following a protest nearly two weeks ago that began peacefully, turned angry and disobedient in nature, and later caused the streets of downtown Wilmington to fill with clouds of tear gas, flash-bang explosions, rubber bullets, and lines of riot control officers blocking off city streets.
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Protestors finish the rally with nine minutes of silence in honor of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis Police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Hundreds gathered for a sixth night of protest on the front steps of City Hall Friday evening, honoring the names of George Floyd and others — including former Wilmington resident Brandon Smith — killed by law enforcement officers. They also called for criminal justice reform and the lifting of the 9 p.m. curfew imposed earlier this week.
Read More![Greg Casaletto inside one of the freezers at the Food Bank’s distribution facility in Wilmington. “Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], we’d get 800 pounds of meat from grocery stores [per day]. After this started, we get maybe 250 to 300 pounds, some da…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a72319251a5843d6a1d9a9b/1602129174073-5UJP8C51I86VFJXT99T3/MFD_7468.jpg)
Greg Casaletto inside one of the freezers at the Food Bank’s distribution facility in Wilmington. “Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], we’d get 800 pounds of meat from grocery stores [per day]. After this started, we get maybe 250 to 300 pounds, some days 40 to 50 pounds,” Casaletto said. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Since the pandemic forced massive economic shutdowns in March, leaders of more than 40 food assistance agencies have held weekly internet conference meetings to address the rising demand among the groups they serve, and others who are seeking food assistance for the first time in their lives.
Tugboats push the bow of the 357-meter MV Hyundai Hope cargo ship back downriver before it docked at the Port of Wilmington Wednesday evening. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — The 1,200-foot MV Hyundai Hope crept up the Cape Fear River on Wednesday evening through thick sheets of rain before tugboats pushed the container ship back downriver, guiding it to dock beneath four lit-up cranes at the Port of Wilmington.
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On April 29, 10 days after a missing persons report was filed, WPD Captain Thomas Tilmon announces efforts to find two missing Wilmington women. Asked why parents were first notified only four days before, Tilmon said the “normal bureaucratic process” for filing a report into the system may have been delayed by Covid-19 work restrictions. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — The Wilmington Police Department has publicly defended how it handled the missing persons case of two Wilmington women — a defense that is at odds with family members, close friends, and roommates of the victims who have sharply criticized the investigation.
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Monica Shepard, wearing all black at right, talks to neighbors as Pender County Sheriff’s deputies’ vehicles are parked behind them. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Kelly Estes)
PENDER COUNTY — Neighbors of an 18-year-old Laney High student who opened his family’s door to an armed “vigilante group” in the Avendale neighborhood of southern Pender County last week captured security footage and photos of the scene, confirming key elements of the story later recalled by neighbors and the family itself.
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Lauren Henderson, a friend of Stephanie Mayorga, lays flowers at a tree where it appears the car struck before resting in a swampy marsh ten feet away. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Wilmington Police, EMS, and Fire crews were on the scene of a reported high-speed car accident for approximately eight minutes before giving up on a search of a crashed vehicle, according to 911 records.
Read MoreBURGAW — A New Hanover deputy has been fired and faces criminal charges for his role in what has been described as an armed “vigilante group” that attempted to force its way into the home of a Laney High student, Dameon Shepard.
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