This Wednesday, we have some inspiring news out of the River Arts District, the Asheville arts hub that was shellacked by Helene. But first:

We’ve got a good one this week on Billy Ball Explains NC. 

This time of year, people are looking for big takeaways about the upcoming election out of very little actual information. 

But in a new video, we take a look at the info we do have in one eastern NC Congressional district. What it tell us is that a “long-shot” Democrat—an Army veteran named Richard Ojeda—might actually have a shot.

And if he does, we could be heading for a real “blue wave.” Let me explain.

Watch the new video here.

A “long-shot” candidate in eastern NC is shaking things up. And if he wins, it’s officially a “blue wave.” Watch the new Billy Ball Explains NC here. (Graphic by Desirée Tapia)

Help us make the Cardinal & Pine newsletter the biggest in North Carolina. Share it with friends and family. 

Here’s what you’ll get in today’s edition: 

Today’s View from NC comes from C&P reader Lynne Harmelin, who photographed Johnny Mercer’s Pier at Wrightsville Beach. 

I can hear the waves and smell the ocean just by looking at it. 

Do you have a great View from NC? Send it to me!

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Elizabeth Griffin (left) and Marisa Muldoon play critical roles in the operation of Leona Wild Collective. The group is behind the first post-Helene music festival in Asheville’s River Arts District. (USA Today via Reuters)

Asheville’s River Arts District was underwater two years ago at this time. 

It’s inspiring that this weekend, the district hosts a music festival to celebrate its endurance. Check out out this inspiring story about the women-led festival that one organizer is calling “a big hug” to the River Arts area. 

Read the story here.

More at Cardinal & Pine:

1. Caterpillar plans $1 billion investment in Sanford manufacturing facility. ABC-11

“North Carolina was selected for the investment because of Caterpillar’s longstanding presence in the state, the strength of the local workforce and the opportunity to build on existing manufacturing expertise and operations in Sanford.”

2. Q&A with Wiley Cash: ‘If you wanna fire me for standing up to fascism, good luck’. The Living South

“One of the most celebrated North Carolina writers of the last 20 years on Trump, fighting oligarchs, and leaving a record of his dissent for his kids.”

3. Lake Lure Dam at 100 years old: It held through Helene. So why a $174M replacement? WLOS

“Lake Lure and state regulators began planning its replacement in 2021, years before Helene. The storm did not create the need for a new dam. It made the stakes impossible to ignore.”

4. Heat delays fall color in North Carolina. WRAL

“Fall color is running late in North Carolina after a hot September. Mountain color could still shine, while heat and drought may leave Triangle trees bare early.”

Photo courtesy of New York Public Library Digital Collections 

In this world, we’re born and we tend to walk down a path that many people before us walked. 

Sometimes though, people are born and they walk in a direction that everything was stacked against. Harriet Jacobs was one of those people. 

She was born into slavery in Edenton, NC, in 1813, and went on to write the first autobiographical full-length book written by a formerly enslaved woman—that we know of. 

The thing to understand is that before Jacobs’ book, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” many people, even the non-slaveholding white people of the South, had entrenched beliefs about the intellectual capacity of Black folks. 

It was based on racism and an old, old effort to pretend there was something scientific about that. 

Remarkable people like Harriet Jacobs dismantled that ideology, brick by brick. That’s why, this year, Jacobs was posthumously inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame along several other game-changers.

Cardinal & Pine featured Jacobs this year in our guide to women’s history landmarks in NC.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m an NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Today’s edition includes stories from USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. It was edited by Crystal Niforos.

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