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Fourteen years after UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth’s killing, prosecutors and defense attorneys are preparing to deliver opening statements that could establish lasting impressions on the jury.

For seven days, the attorneys have asked potential jurors questions, getting to know the 12 individuals they selected, along with three of the four alternatives so far, who will decide whether to convict Miguel Salguero Olivares of raping and killing the 19-year-old Hedgepeth.

In their opening statements, attorneys will tell jurors what they expect the evidence to reveal about Hedgepeth’s 2012 killing and the 2021 charges against the now-33-year-old Salguero Olivares.

Follow newsobserver.com as Virginia Bridges reports live updates from the courtroom. And see the link in our bio for more on what to expect.

✍️Virginia Bridges
📹Ethan Hyman by @newsobserver

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Sen. Thom Tillis is continuing to criticize White House officials in a string of media appearances this week, as the account of his 11-year career in Washington prepares to hit shelves on Tuesday.

Tillis — whose memoir “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” was published Oct. 6 — embarked on a series of press appearances on “60 Minutes” and “The View,” less than a month before North Carolina voters will take to the polls to elect his successor to the Senate.

But his appearances issued stark warnings for the GOP’s outlook in the midterms and took repeated jabs at Trump officials. He also says he has one regret.

See the link in our bio to read more.

✍️Faith Wardwell
📷 60 Minutes/CBS, The View/ABC, HarperCollins by @newsobserver

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North Carolina’s first immigration detention center is set to open in the state’s northeastern corner before year’s end.

While activists have protested against the center, some residents say they don’t sense that opposition in their communities and look forward to the facility’s projected economic gains.

The GEO Group, one of the world’s largest federal prison contractors and owner of Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, said in July that it signed a five-year contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to reopen the 1,320-bed facility this year as Winton ICE Processing Center.

Reporter Ronni Butts attended a recent protest outside the Hertford County facility, about 20 miles south of the Virginia state line. There, 15-year-old Rainier Bradshaw said she opposes the center but notes it might now be “a little too late to hope that it’s not going to open at all.”

“I hope that maybe something can be done quickly after it opens to close it again, or that it won’t just be another place of pain and suffering,” she said.
See the link in our bio for more.

✍️/📹: Ronni Butts
📷: Scott Sharpe by @newsobserver

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As a used book and record store, The Newsagent’s is already stocked with rare treasures, but on Saturday, it offered an even bigger surprise: singer-songwriter Linda Perry in a pop-up concert with just her acoustic guitar, belting out “What’s Up?” in a hearty sing-along.

The singer, formerly of 4 Non Blondes, browsed along Fayetteville Street before her Saturday-night show with the Indigo Girls, dropping into the shop to flip through the old paperbacks and vinyl.

But when the Indigo Girls concert got postponed, @reallindaperry still wanted to play for fans, so she had her manager call the bookstore and ask about setting up there.

Soon, Perry sat in the center of @thenewsagentsshop, just in front of the Dr. Seuss shelf, sporting Chuck Taylors and a big black hat.

For more on the gig and how it came about, see the link in our bio.

✍️Josh Shaffer
📷The Newsagent’s, Linda Perry, Tricia Andrews by @newsobserver

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Thirty years after Michael Jordan’s 1996 donation that created the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC’s School of Social Work, the school is celebrating another major gift from the former UNC and NBA star.

Michael Jordan, class of 1986, is donating $10 million to the School of Social Work, the largest gift in the school’s history, in honor of his mother, Deloris Jordan.

The announcement was made Monday as Deloris Jordan’s decades-long involvement also was celebrated.

“She gets it done,” was etched on an ice sculpture with her image.

The school’s Global Social Development Innovation Center — which was founded in 2017 and is dedicated to solving the social challenges that harm marginalized youth all over the world — is now renamed for her.

For more on how Jordan’s donation will be used, see the link in our bio.

✍️Jane Winik Sartwell
📷 Travis Long, N&O File Photo/Jim Bounds by @newsobserver

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Tiwana McGill, a Durham project manager, initially enrolled her two youngest children in Durham Public Schools. Seeking better opportunities for them, she moved them both to two different private schools.

But for her son, his school’s academic rigor came with a stark demographic reality. He was the only Black boy in his class for several years and never had a Black teacher.

The experience highlights an agonizing, almost impossible calculus facing many Black parents across the Triangle: how to advocate for their communities and for their children to have an equitable education.

The tension mirrors a national conversation sparked by New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who recently wrote about her decision to send her daughter to a low-income public school in an effort to uplift Black communities — and the emotional and political toll it took.

Have you had to make similar decisions? Let us know in the comments.

And learn more about how local families are grappling with this choice at the link in our bio.

✍️Kristen Johnson
📷Kaitlin McKeown
📹Travis Long by @newsobserver

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As the sun rises over the vast tobacco fields of Sampson County, hundreds of migrant farmworkers climb aboard repurposed yellow school buses to head out to the farms.

At the start of the summer, nearly every bus was packed. By September, one of those previously crowded buses was nearly empty of the workers who supply the labor for North Carolina’s $117 billion food and agriculture industry.

As climate change leads to hotter, drier summers in North Carolina, extreme weather is taking a toll on the state’s crops, making it harder for both farms and workers to stay afloat. After this summer’s drought, workers say there’s been less work for them, and therefore less pay to sustain themselves and their families.

“Right now, there’s no difference in being here or in Mexico, economically,” said Silviano, a farmworker from Miacatlán, Mexico, who travels to North Carolina each year for work.

Lily Carey explains the situation at the link in our bio.

✍️Lily Carey
📷Robert Willett by @newsobserver

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A Raleigh gambling house is being shut down and forced from its property after hundreds of calls for service pointed authorities to illegal gambling and weapons violations, Raleigh police said Thursday.

In June, Raleigh police and the N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement Division launched a three-month investigation into the Golden 5 Sweepstakes Parlor after an analysis of calls for service showed more than 280 visits to the business within the past year — many for violent offenses.

Police had visited the address for disturbances, assaults, drug violations, stabbings, robberies, weapons violations and assaults involving law enforcement officers, they said. Several people have been charged with these violations following investigations.

For more, see the link in our bio.

✍️Faith Wardwell
📹Robert Willett by @newsobserver

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Hotel Indigo Raleigh Downtown, formerly one of 25 round Holiday Inns ever built, is officially open after a $36 million renovation that upgrades the interior and keeps the history intact.

Built in 1969, the 19-story building was once the tallest in the city and known for its round imprint on the city’s skyline. The property received official historic landmark designation from the city in 2025.

Autumn Coleman and Ethan Hyman got a sneak peek inside Thursday of the 204-room hotel with its mid-century modern design and top floor restaurant and bar.

See the link in our bio for more.

✍️Autumn Coleman
📹Ethan Hyman by @newsobserver

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This season of “Saturday Night Live” will have some North Carolina influences behind the scenes.

North Carolina native Bam Alston has joined Season 52 of the storied sketch comedy show as a writer.

Alston, who is from Raleigh and is now based in New York, has deep ties to the Triangle’s improv scene. He wrote and performed with Mettlesome, the Durham improv group, as well as taught the craft and served on Mettlesome’s board. He also appeared in shows at the former DSI Comedy Theater in Chapel Hill.

For more on @godbamit, see the link in our bio.

✍️Simone Jasper
📷Contributed by @newsobserver

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Longtime coffee shop Cup A Joe is celebrating 35 years with plans to open a third location.

And it won’t be far from the original location on Hillsborough Street that’s been a fixture for NC State students since 1991 -- under a mile in fact.

Cup A Joe has signed a lease for a former restaurant space at the corner of Hillsborough and Gorman streets.

Andi Macko, who co-owns the business with her father Jeff Gold, told The News & Observer they’re still in the planning stages.

For more on what we know, see the link in our bio.
✍️Autumn Coleman
📷McClatchy file photo by @newsobserver

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Raleigh Wide Open kicks off Thursday, Oct. 1, a music festival that presents a range of genres, from bluegrass and Americana to country and gospel. The event runs through Friday and Saturday.

The festival, in its second year, helps fill the gap left when World of Bluegrass ended its longtime run in Raleigh in 2024. Performers include Jim Lauderdale, Shinyribs, The Fairfield Four, Alice Gerrard and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys.

Look for a free street festival, numerous stages of music and impromptu performances on the street and in hotels.

Check out our guide at the link in our bio.

✍️ Simone Jasper
📷Travis Long by @newsobserver

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