The Assembly

23 hours ago | theassemblync.com | Sayaka Matsuoka

Freeman’s Grub & Pub will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Sunday, May 18, with a special menu, vendors in the parking lot off Spring Garden Street, and gratitude for a decade of community support. But the road to a decade wasn’t always clear or easy. When Kevin and Emily Purcell got the call in November 2021 asking them to take over the restaurant, they were living 3,000 miles away on a houseboat in Seattle.

1 day ago | theassemblync.com | Ben Rappaport

A Columbus County Superior Court judge issued an order Monday requiring the county and the sheriff’s office to release additional public records to The Assembly and Border Belt Independent concerning former sheriff Jody Greene and operations at his office.

5 days ago | theassemblync.com | Thomas Beller

In the summer of 2022, I drove to Michael Jordan’s childhood home in Wilmington with my 11-year-old son. It was a balmy, sun-dappled afternoon. We arrived at an unassuming but comfortable two-story house flanked by a green lawn and some trees. The ground floor is pale-brown brick; the second story has white wood siding. The garage doors were open, and a couple of cars were parked in the driveway–nothing fancy. I checked the address to make sure we were in the right place. We were: 4647 Gordon Road.

6 days ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

In the early days of the Trump administration, when the White House was “flooding the zone” with immigration actions, ending diversity programs, and yanking security clearances, a quieter change started to worry scientists around the country. A decades-long survey about behavioral risk factors, normally posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, went offline. So did the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Demographic and Health Surveys and the CDC’s .

6 days ago | theassemblync.com | Ben Rappaport

This story was produced with the Border Belt Independent, which is part of The Assembly’s statewide network of local news outlets. Ruth Letizia wept as the St. Andrews Pipe Band played the final notes of “Amazing Grace.”Graduation day was supposed to be a happy occasion. But to the dozens of St. Andrews University alumni who attended the school’s 127th and final graduation ceremony on Sunday, it felt more like a funeral. The small private school closed the next day after years of .