Update: On January 17th, The Local Reporter appears to have deleted the article from their homepage, with no editorial note or indication that they published it in the first place. You can see the original article here. It’s also still available at the original URL.
On January 15th, The Local Reporter published an in-depth piece about what Chapel Hill Town Council discussed at a work session on January 11.
There’s just one problem: the work session didn’t take place. The town sent out an email on January 10th to cancel the retreat due to weather. Everything in the piece appears to have been taken from the agenda documents posted online in advance of the retreat, which did not take place.

The piece talks about what happened at the beginning and end of the work session, using phrases like “the session began with” and “town staff explained that” and “As the work session came to a conclusion, town staff reiterated to the council.”
None of that happened, because there was no retreat. The town staff was not present. Neither was council.
The bottom of the piece says “All information for this article was gleaned from the Town of Chapel Hill agenda on Jan. 11 and the FY 2026 Budget Update from the Council Retreat.”
Again, the retreat did not take place. The author of the piece did not attend the retreat or speak to any town council members, as we did both before and after the canceled retreat. This is how we knew the retreat was canceled and typically, how journalism works.
You can read our additional coverage of The Local Reporter here.