The State of Things

Historian Nancy MacLean stumbled upon the work of James M. Buchanan when she was on the hunt for the ideological roots of the school voucher system. The Nobel Prize-winning economist was at the forefront of a push to popularize libertarianism.

There is a common misconception that black people do not hike, camp or spend much time in the outdoors. This perception is perpetuated by images featured in nature magazines and fitness Instagram accounts that still predominantly feature white individuals and families.

State lawmakers are considering another voter ID bill that would be brought to voters as a constitutional amendment. In 2013 lawmakers passed a voter ID measure that was deemed unconstitutional last year by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals .

In Jeff VanderMeer’s highly successful Southern Reach trilogy, characters were cut off from one another, and their stories unfolded against the backdrop of a devastated landscape. In his latest novel “ Borne ,” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/2017) he highlights how a new cast of characters attempt to make connections with each other.

In his new novel “ The Reason You’re Alive ” ( HarperCollins /2017), writer Matthew Quick tells the story of an aging Vietnam veteran grappling with civilian life.

Wendell Tabb spent much of his life training for a career as a stage actor. So when an opportunity arose to teach drama at Hillside High Schoo l in Durham, he thought the gig would be a detour on his life journey.

Senate Republican leaders unveiled the newest version of their health care bill intended to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The new bill differs from the Senate’s last attempt in a few significant ways, namely a resurrection of two Obama-era taxes on high-income individuals.

The 1979 North Carolina Supreme Court ruling in State v. Way declared that women cannot legally revoke consent during a sexual encounter.

Last year Omar Ruiz-Lopez began playing alongside songstress Lizzy Ross. Ruiz-Lopez is a classically trained violinist, viola and cello player who complements her folksy sound. As their collaboration grew, he became more than just an accompanist, and the duo became known as Violet Bell . The band has since performed about 200 shows together and recently returned from a tour that took them from the Outer Banks to Massachusetts. Their songs reflect the beauty they find all around them and their

In 1955, a group of white men in the Mississippi Delta kidnapped and murdered a young boy named Emmett Till. Till was 14 years old from and was visiting relatives in Mississippi. News of the tragedy spread as Till’s murder helped spark the modern civil rights movement. In his new book “The Blood of Emmett Till” (Simon & Schuster/2017), writer Tim Tyson examines race relations in Chicago and the Mississippi Delta in the 20th century and how this case became an international story. Using oral