Jim Morrill

Jan 15, 2025 | theassemblync.com | Jim Morrill

The city of Lenoir sits in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, close to the hardwood forests that fueled its rise as the self-proclaimed “” Families like Broyhill, Bernhardt, Kincaid, and Harper became brand names as their factories hummed with armies of workers from as far away as Tennessee. Furniture barons brought jobs, prosperity, and generations of civic leadership. But by the time Destin Hall was coming of age two decades ago, all that was changing.

Dec 15, 2024 | charlotteobserver.com | Jim Morrill

Democrat John Spratt, a longtime South Carolina congressman who played a key role in the passage of America's last balanced budget, died Saturday, his daugher said. He was 82. Over 28 years in the U.S. House, Spratt became an unrivaled authority on budgetary and defense issues, though his interests were as broad as his intellect. With innate curiosity, he could discuss 19th Century German literature or Soviet tritium production as easily as politics. But many remember his simple decency.

Nov 25, 2024 | charlottemagazine.com | Jim Morrill

When Newell Presbyterian Church opened its first sanctuary in 1892, the area was surrounded by dairy farms, cotton mills, and tobacco fields. Trees covered nearby hills. The city of Charlotte was miles away. Today, Newell is part of fast-growing northeast Charlotte. Subdivisions and apartment complexes line Rocky River Road West. Another 650-home development is in the works nearby. Bustling commercial districts, as well as one of the state’s largest universities, are minutes away.

Oct 27, 2024 | theassemblync.com | Jim Morrill

On an unseasonably warm October afternoon, Stephanie Moler and her husband, Ed, were walking a suburban neighborhood in east Kannapolis. Stopping in a cul-de-sac, Stephanie looked at her phone. Navigating a voter contact app called MiniVAN, she guided her husband to another door. “Who am I looking for?” he asked. “Juana,” she replied. “Thirty-seven-year-old female. Unaffiliated.”Ed, 55 years old and wearing a navy Harris-Walz t-shirt, knocked. Juana answered. “I assume you know why I’m here,” he said.

Sep 16, 2024 | theassemblync.com | Jim Morrill

The sun was falling at the end of a long, hot day in June as a handful of farm workers gathered around Letitia Zavala’s truck near Zebulon in eastern Wake County. Zavala, an organizer for a migrant advocacy group, warned them about the dangers of working in the heat. She showed them a picture of Jose Arturo Gonzalez Mendoza, a Mexican migrant who died in a Nash County sweet potato field last fall. The temperature that day reached 97 degrees.