Raleigh Public Record

Save the date! Sunday, Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. Join us for local food, local music, and support local independent journalism.

The Raleigh Public Record has updated its Stimulus Tracking page and we need our readers to help provide more transparency to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Homeless people talk about their experiences with county services. This is the second part in a two-part series on gauging Wake County’s efforts to help people facing homelessness.

The recession continues and the news is rife with stories of struggles from board rooms to homeless shelters. Corporate cutbacks, unemployment extension and insurance losses abound, but how’s the recession impacting those who never had much to start with?

The vocal chords of Raleigh’s urban community are being put under the linguistic microscope. Linguists from North Carolina State University, curious about language variation in the city’s population, particularly in the downtown African American community, are sending students into South Park armed with voice recorders and video cameras. They’re interviewing the residents who agree to speak with them about their experiences in the city.

Tension is rife these days between Raleigh and Durham about Falls Lake water quality. Raleigh contends “its” water source – whose headwaters are located in Durham County – is dirty, getting dirtier and Durham allowed it to get that way.

Dirty water is neither cheap nor easy to clean. Raleigh may have to pay $450M to boost its water treatment plant’s cleaning capacity if Falls get dirtier. Durham likely would pay considerably more to clean Falls Lake. Finger pointing is all very fine, but everybody lives downstream.