Across the United States, fewer girls aged 15 to 19 are are having babies. That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control. A report published last year shows that in 2015, teen pregnancies hit a historic low for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women ages 15 – 19 years old. In New Hanover County, the teen pregnancy rate is slightly lower than the national number: just over twenty 15-19-year-old girls out of a thousand gave birth in 2015. In Pender County, the rate is slightly above the

The North Carolina Fisheries Reform Act will be 20 years old this August. It was the result of heated debate from stakeholders on all sides of the issue – and while most describe it as a compromise bill, signed by Governor Jim Hunt in 1997, most also say it was better than nothing. There is new legislation coming through the pipeline in Raleigh that could fundamentally change the way fisheries are regulated, and that has reignited a decades-old battle – that reaches beyond the obvious binary of

A study recently published in the first issue of the scientific journal, The Lancet Planetary Health , concludes that large and small farms will be needed to meet the global demand for food, which is estimated to require a 70 percent boost in production by the 2050s. That study says small farms are essential in low- and middle-income countries, while surpluses from larger farms can help with scarcity hotspots. The study also highlights the need for crop and livestock diversity. Morgan Milne is

People in New Hanover County are getting fatter. And this is not a body image problem; it’s an issue that’s leading to chronic disease and early death. 60% of New Hanover County residents are either overweight or obese. That’s according to a New Hanover County health report published last year that uses only self-reported data. When the data is broken down according to race – a sad but predictable picture emerges: 58% of white people fall into the overweight / obese category. But people of color

You might have seen Jason Frye’s byline on restaurant reviews published in the Wilmington StarNews. You may have used some of his recommendations from a Moon travel guide pointing the way to old-timey Appalachian music near Asheville, family-friendly beaches at the coast, where to fish in the Smoky Mountains or how to find fresh North Carolina oysters. But Jason Frye and his beard do so much more than travel, eat, and adventure for your sake. On this edition of CoastLine, we have both of them

An American Rivers Report recently identified the Cape Fear and Neuse Rivers as in the top ten Most Endangered in the United States. A 2016 study of the presence of hexavalent chromium in drinking water by the Environmental Working Group found levels higher than it considers safe in the tap water of more than 200 million Americans. This is the same toxin that first landed on the national radar in the early 1990s when Erin Brockovich successfully sued a large utility for contaminating the

Julie Kozlow didn’t set out to be the first woman anything. She has known for years about a penchant for the spiritual world, and that understanding crystallized during a deeply personal experience that we’ll hear about later. But regardless of intention, in 2015, Julie Kozlow became the spiritual leader of B’Nai Israel after Rabbi Robert Waxman retired. The first woman rabbi in Wilmington, North Carolina… And she gained the unsought distinction while seeing what has been a long-held dream

Today is the last day for our Spring Listener Survey . We’ll give away a Smooth Landing or Classical Guest DJ-ship to one respondent, drawn at random. See whqr.org for details. Here are some nuggets from the Survey so far. Anonymous wrote: “Coastline is unremarkable, needs some life breathed in. . .1A is a terrible successor to Dianne Rheem. Josh the host is ateurish, sometimes unnecessarily combative, and rudely uninformed. (Opinionated tone and insterted noise does not substitute for

Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County is the second North Carolina municipality to receive a permit for a terminal groin since a long-standing ban was lifted in 2011.

It was almost exactly two years ago that two North Carolina Representatives – both Democrats – filed a bill in the House that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state. The other three sponsors on the bill -- also Democrats. The proposed legislation passed its first reading in the House and went to the Judiciary Committee – where it never emerged because, bill supporters say, it was too close to the crossover date in the Legislature. That day is the last for a bill to pass out of