The State of Things

The North Carolina Senate released their $22.9 billion spending plan earlier this week . The budget has significant implications for the state’s education system. It shifts how teacher raises are allocated and proposes a $600 million increase in education spending.

Mission Health , a hospital system in Western North Carolina, announced this week that it would close its maternity ward at Angel Hospital in Franklin, North Carolina. The hospital serves a mostly low-income, rural population. Mission Health said it cut the hospital’s labor and delivery services to remain solvent in the face of low reimbursement rates.

Case Farms chicken company produces nearly one billion pounds of meat each year. It supplies food for customers including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Boar’s Head, and the U.S. government. Yet a new report shows it is a business built on the backs of the world’s most vulnerable immigrants. And its factories are some of the most dangerous workplaces in America.

Like many utopian societies, Soul City was a dream that was doomed to fail. It was the brainchild of civil rights leader Floyd McKissick who wanted to build a haven of racial equality for nearly 20,000 people. Construction for the project began in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the 1970s, but constant bureaucratic battles led to its demise.

Many families will not be able to celebrate Mother’s Day together this weekend due to barriers in the criminal justice system. In the United States, nearly 80 percent of women in jail are mothers, and most of those women are also single parents, according to a 2016 report from the Vera Institute of Justice.

Burgeoning interest from foreign architects is sparking hope among High Point furniture manufacturers that they could find a new market overseas. A group of architects from India recently made their first visit to the area. And in Guilford County, one in 20 adults struggles with basic literacy tasks like reading a story or a map.

T heories abound regarding why famed writer Ernest Hemingway shot and killed himself in Idaho in 1961. Some claim he suffered from bipolar disorder or that he had depression. But in the new book “ Hemingway’s Brain ” (University of South Carolina Press/2017), psychiatrist Andrew Farah offers a new theory.

The Gate City Divas are a female-led blues group made up of seasoned singer-songwriters from the Triad. The group had an unconventional start; they were awarded a grant to record an album of original songs by Greensboro-based female performers. After completing the project and releasing the album “ Goin’ To Town, ” they decided to form a full-fledged band.

Growing up in South Los Angeles, Dwight Mullen remembers constant tension between the community and police. He specifically recalls the 1965 Watts riots and the impact it had on the city.

Last week’s jam-packed and dramatic legislative schedule would have been a welcome distraction this week for political reporters in the General Assembly. They mourned the loss of veteran political reporter Mark Binker , an irreplaceable friend and colleague, who passed away suddenly at the age of 43.