Protests over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police now stretch around the globe. They erupted after the release of a horrific video which shows an excruciating 8 minutes and 46 seconds of former-police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Chauvin has been fired from his police job and charged with murder. Floyd has been laid to rest, but the protests have not.

The first day of summer is almost upon us but for many kids in the North Carolina public school system, summer vacation started early. In April, state education officials declared that elementary school students would not receive a final grade, middle school students would receive a pass or withdraw designation, and high school students get to choose how their grade appears on their transcript – either a numeric grade as of March 13 th or a pass / withdraw mark.

Anyone who has lived through the loss of a person whom they loved deeply has come face to face with grief. It’s a human emotion that most people will encounter during their lifetime.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is not actually red – except for a tiny, nearly invisible red streak on male birds at the upper border of their cheek. They’re mostly black and white. And they were one of the first federally-protected species – landing on the Endangered Species list in 1970 – three years after officials created the first list in 1967. (The Endangered Species Act had to wait until 1973.) Red-cockaded woodpeckers are still on that list more than half a century later.

The novel Coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at disproportionately high rates. That’s according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

In North Carolina today, people of color face inequities that affect their health and their vulnerability to diseases like Covid-19. CDC and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data show that minorities now represent a disproportionate number of both Covid-19 cases and fatalities. Social factors and implicit bias play a significant role.

North Carolina is set to launch Phase One of its reopening 5 pm on Friday, May 8 th . There are four major metrics that state officials are watching to see how the Covid-19 pandemic is playing out in the state.

Melody Moezzi describes herself first as Iranian-American. She is then Muslim. After that, she’s an author, attorney, and activist. She is also a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

April 22nd marks the 50 th year the world celebrates Earth Day. This Friday, April 24 th is National Arbor Day. As people self-isolate, vehicle traffic has lessened, parks have quieter days, and some environmental essayists suggest the Earth is breathing a sigh of relief.

The Artist’s Way, A Course In Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self , first landed in booktores before the age of Amazon – in 1992. Almost three decades later, Author Julia Cameron can point to a long list of published works, more than 40, fiction and nonfiction -- many of them bestsellers. They include T he Vein of Gold, The Right To Write, Finding Water, Transitions, and her own memoir, Floor Sample . The woman who "invented the way people renovate the creative soul", according to The