Bill | The Chatham News + Record

JoAnn Johnson Davis, the executive director of the Chatham County Housing Authority.

JoAnn Davis, the director of the Chatham County Housing Authority charged in a 19-count indictment in late February, has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Davis agreed to plead … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 4/26/23

Emily Sutton is the Haw Riverkeeper for the Haw River Assembly.

Why a Sanford wastewater permit renewal matters

The city of Sanford’s Big Buffalo Wastewater Treatment Facility, located adjacent to the Deep River, was the subject of a recent public hearing held by the N.C. Dept. of Environmental … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 4/5/23

Acclaimed novelist Lee Smith to highlight May event

Lee Smith wasn’t exactly born a writer, but her journey to becoming one of the South’s most beloved novelists began early enough. Her first foray in putting pen to paper, and getting … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 3/29/23

Davis, CCHA’s embattled director, placed on unpaid leave

JoAnn Davis, the indicted director of the Chatham County Housing Authority, has been placed on administrative leave by her board. Housing Authority board attorney Brian Crawford told the News + … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 3/22/23

N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and Le Thi Thu Thuy, Vingroup’s vice chairman and the CEO of VinFast Global, check out the front seat of one of the two VinFast SUVs displayed at the company's plant announcement last March.

VinFast delays vehicle rollout

MONCURE — VinFast’s plan, from the start, was ambitious: to roll out electric vehicles from a sparkling new plant at Chatham County’s Triangle Innovation Point beginning in July of … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 3/15/23

Near the entrance to the former Magneti Marelli facility, CCCC's Margaret Roberton points out a plan to transform the space into a state-of-the-art training and technology center.

High-tech training hub at CCCC will boost region

SANFORD — The events, unrelated and seemingly discordant, would create — rather quickly — the inspiration for something not found anywhere in North Carolina, or perhaps the entire … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 3/8/23

Davis pleads not guilty

JoAnn Davis, accused in a federal indictment of taking more than $200,000 in kickbacks in her role as the executive director of the Chatham County Housing Authority, pleaded not guilty last Thursday … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 3/8/23

Marcia Herman-Giddens poses at her Chatham County home with her cat, Tuffy. A native of New York, she moved to Alabama in 1946, right before turning 6. In time, she came to understand she was living in the most segregated city in the country. 'The subjugation and inequities were clear to me even as a young child,' she says.

Her ‘personal reckoning’ deals with family’s history as enslavers

Even as a young girl, Marcia Herman-Giddens recognized something was amiss. It was 1946. The soon-to-be 6-year-old Marcia had moved with her family from New York to the Southern city of … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 2/15/23

County’s growing economy, location boosts optimism

Large-scale layoffs among U.S. technology companies — including more than 58,000 cuts in January alone — and recession fears are painting a gloomy jobs forecast across the U.S. Not … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 2/1/23

Calvin Dark, a Siler City native, will share the story of his great-great-grandfather, Aaron McMasters as part of the Chatham Community Library's Black History Month observance on Feb. 9.

Dark addressing ‘questions with complicated answers’

SILER CITY — Calvin Dark can trace his family’s lineage in the Chatham County area back three centuries, but what he’ll share next week — and in a book he’s finishing … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 1/25/23

School board presents awards, hears updates

PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Education, meeting on the eve of its day-long planning retreat, presented a number of awards and heard a variety of updates at its regular session last … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 1/25/23

Neighbors: ‘devil church’ rumors put us at risk

SILER CITY — Neighbors of a Chatham County teacher who faces five charges of assault with a deadly weapon say the alleged victims in the case — five teens whom they claim trespassed on … more

BY BEN RAPPAPORT & BILL HORNER III, News + Record Staff | 1/18/23

A barn on the former Reeves family property west of Pittsboro. The property's nearly 500 acres of land have been purchased by local investors for a mixed-use development project. Edward Holmes Jr., Buddy Keller and Carter Keller acquired the property in December, paying almost $19.6 million.

Holmes says new development will ‘complement and enhance’ area

PITTSBORO — An investor who’s acquired nearly 500 acres of land just west of downtown Pittsboro says the mixed-use development he and his partners envision “will be an extension of … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 1/18/23

Viral diseases surging

If there’s growing vaccine hesitancy among parents in some pockets of the U.S., data suggests that’s not necessarily true in Chatham County — where child immunization rates remain … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 1/4/23

Members of the Housing and Homeless Working Group meet to strategize earlier this year.

The United Way taking a more active role in addressing Chatham’s most pressing needs

The United Way of Chatham County has been serving the county as an independent affiliate of the national United Way for nearly four decades. But its mission had a fundamental shift in the last year that coincided with changes and growth within Chatham itself. more

BY BILL HORNER III, News + Record Staff | 12/28/22

Electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast is more than a third finished with site preparation work on its 1,700-acre tract at Triangle Innovation Point near Moncure.

VinFast, Wolfspeed projects hitting timelines

In an age where landing even a $50 million economic development project is considered a major win, Michael Smith sheepishly admits the numbers generated in Chatham County this year are almost … more

BY BILL HORNER III, Publisher | 12/14/22