Staff and regular bar patrons watch as the The Brewery, a legendary local live music venue was leveled Tuesday, August 2, 2011 to make way for a drug store, parking deck and apartments on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC..

Stills: Travis Long and Takaaki Iwabu
Video: Travis Long
Editing: Travis Long and Takaaki Iwabu
Music: Ryan Adams “My Heart Is Broken” live at The Brewery October 21, 1999

Air Force Capt. Michael Jokhy of the 333rd Fighter Squadron and News & Observer photojournalist Travis Long take you inside the cockpit of a 50 million dollar F-15E Strike Eagle based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, NC. The F-15E Strike Eagle is a dual-role fighter designed to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

Sixteen-year-old Indi Cowie of Cary is considered by many to be the best female soccer freestyler in the world. Watch as Cowie performs some of her mind-blowing tricks.

The Trailer

A preview of Agents’ Secrets: Junk Science, Tainted Testimony at the SBI, The News & Observer’s four-part investigative series exposing systemic problems in North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation. This trailer promoted the series on newsobserver.com a week prior to publication in print and online.

Credits:
Footage: Travis Long, Shawn Rocco, pool, SBI
Stills: Shawn Rocco, provided
Editing: Travis Long, Shawn Rocco.
Music: “34 Ghosts IV,” Nine Inch Nails (Creative Commons)

A Confession Doesn’t Add Up

Floyd Brown, a developmentally disabled man, spent 14 years locked up in a mental hospital because of a murder confession that has been widely discredited. SBI agent Mark Isley testified that he took down Brown’s confession word for word. But those who knew him or examined him said the document couldn’t have come from him.

Credits:
Footage, editing: Travis Long, Shawn Rocco
Interviews, narration: Mandy Locke
Stills: Harry Lynch
Additional footage: Dr. Moira Artigues

Bloodstain analysis: ‘A bunch of malarkey’

An SBI bloodstain pattern experiment draws criticism and catcalls.

Credits:
Footage: Travis Long, SBI.
Interview, script, narration: Joseph Neff.
Editing: Travis Long

A Truth Seeps Out at Last

Jailed for 18 years, Greg Taylor’s exoneration calls into question forensic practices at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Credits:
Footage and editing: Travis Long, Shawn Rocco.
Interviews, narration: Mandy Locke.
Stills: Shawn Rocco, Chuck Liddy, SBI.

Read the entire series at: http://www.newsobserver.com/agents/

Update – August 27, 2010: Scathing SBI audit says 230 cases tainted by shoddy investigations:
An audit commissioned by Attorney General Roy Cooper revealed that the State Bureau of Investigation withheld or distorted evidence in more than 200 cases at the expense of potentially innocent men and women.

Update - January 30, 2011 – CNN airs “CNN Presents: Rogue Justcice”: An hour-long documentary based on the The News & Observer’s investigative series ”Agents’ Secrets: Junk Science, Tainted Testimony at the SBI.” The documentary included a significant amount of News & Observer video footage and photographs as well as interviews with reporters Mandy Locke and Joseph Neff.

Update - February 9, 2011 – “Agents’ Secrets’” series receives McClatchy President’s Award:
“Raleigh’s coverage of the misdeeds of the state Bureau of Investigation uncovered a startling story: The agency responsible for many prosecution cases couldn’t be trusted. Reporters Joseph Neff and Mandy Locke worked for months to review documents, study practices and analyze questionable cases. Their reporting led to sweeping changes in the state agency, and spawned a CNN documentary that ran nationally this month. The project comes with an eloquent online website that includes stories, graphics and photos and tracks the developing coverage of this story. “Wow,” one judge wrote across the top of the entry. The judges panel added, “The treatment of this subject turned into a conversation all across town, which meant the reforms and reaction developed a real momentum. With the excellent reporting and strong online treatment, the series provides a how-to on making the most of an important, ongoing investigative project.”

Update – February 18, 2011: “Agents’ Secrets” receives Public Service award: The News & Observer was awarded the N.C. Press Association’s Public Service award for the investigative series “Agents’ Secrets.” The series also received first place recognition for best video, best multimedia project and investigative reporting.

Related Post -February 17, 2010: Innocence Panel Sets Greg Taylor Free

Today the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is North Carolina’s largest public school district and the 17th largest in the United States with 143,289 students attending 163 schools during the 2010-11 academic year.

In 2009, an off-year election held in the county’s suburban outlying districts ushered in a Tea Party-backed school board majority that campaigned to end socioeconomic diversity based school enrollment. Promising their constituents neighborhood schools, the new conservative majority voted in 2010 to disregard the socioeconomic factors to determine school assignments.

“When you want to dismantle that, based on political ideology, not based on educational research, there’s something real wrong about that and we have to challenge it,” said North Carolina NAACP President William Barber.

Update – : January 13, 2011 U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, voiced his concerns for WCPSS in an editorial for The Washington Post.

Update –  January 19, 2011: Wake County School Board member John Tedesco and the school system’s diversity controversy was the featured subject during The Colbert Report’s segment “The Wørd: Disintegration.”

Playing in a time of segregation, some of the best basketball players in the nation starred in relative obscurity. With blacks shut out of North Carolina universities, many went on to success out of state or in other fields. These are a few stories of a handful of African-American basketball players who, in another time, might have become national athletic heroes. Few of their victories and great moments were recorded by the mainstream press. Now, a half century later, we tell you about some of the greatest high school basketball players to ever play in North Carolina: The Forgotten All-Stars.

Credits:
Footage, interviews, stills and editing: Travis Long

Read the stories:
Lawrence Dunn: In the limelight at last
Paul Grier: The best in his city
Reginald ‘Hawk’ Ennis: ‘The greatest’
Harvey Heartley: Denied a chance to go to NCSU
John ‘Goat’ Bullock: A champion, a mystery
Stephens-Lee High: Led by star trio to title

Credits:
Footage and editing: Travis Long

Cameras: Go Pro Hero and Canon 5D Mark II

Following a nail-biting game, Duke fans erupt inside Cameron Indoor Stadium after winning the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship against Butler 61-59. The celebration quickly moved outdoors where a large bonfire was set.

Credits:
Footage and editing: Travis Long