Monday is the first day of school for many students across North Carolina. Some will actually be in class, though most will not. One district that is having limited in-person classes is Buncombe County. After attending a short in-person orientation over the next two weeks, all students will learn remotely for at least the following five weeks. That presents an assortment of challenges for teachers, especially those dealing with first-time students.

Every Friday, BPR's Helen Chickering talks with NC Health News founding editor Rose Hoban. This week (after a week off) they discuss the seemingly stabilizing coronavirus trends as NC college students return to campus and public schools begin to open, the testing numbers error that shines a light on outdated data collection methods and the coronavirus budget breakdown that included a “what if we had expanded Medicaid” moment.

We at Going Deep had to take some time off due to the pandemic, but we're back with a new show in a newly-expanded time slot. The twin pandemics affecting the U.S. - racial injustice and the coronavirus - intersect with sports in so many ways. The Shoops examined that in an op-ed for the News & Observer this summer. In this episode, John and Marcia discuss those intersections with Dr. Deb Stroman, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and former college basketball player at the University of

As the city of Asheville and Buncombe County move forward on formal plans to make amends for slavery and systemic racism, two local college professors say reparations need to address education and the environmental factors affecting it.

The Cherokee Cultural Corridor in rural Western North Carolina took a major step forward this week. Through the rain, officials from the Town of Franklin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians gathered with others together at the Nikwasi Mound. “We’re going to have the actual groundbreaking so get your cameras ready!” Principal Chief Richard Sneed and Mayor Bob Scott used golden shovels to officially mark the construction of an informational kiosk which will be placed next to the mound. This

When then 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn easily defeated a Trump-backed rival to capture the GOP nomination in Western North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, he declared that his mission would be to rescue his party from a “generational time bomb.”

Freedom Isn’t Free – Darin Waters and Marcus Harvey remember John Lewis who believed that an ongoing struggle is needed to assure the success of the civil rights movement. They also return to issues raised in a recent conversation with Dr. William Turner whose career was dedicated to an understanding and appreciation of Southern Appalachia’s deep African American history. One of those is the shared experience of generational poverty in both Black and white communities in the region.

Jackson County Commissioners voted on Tuesday night to keep the county’s Confederate monument in its place. But the conversation over Sylva Sam is far from over, as evidenced by what happened during and immediately after the vote. The discussion over removing Sylva Sam from its perch in front of the old county courthouse created at least two new groups - Reconcile Sylva and the Jackson County Unity Coalition. Both are mostly based on Facebook. Many members attended Tuesday’s commissioners

The first day of class for most UNC System schools is August 17. BPR spoke with a Western Carolina University student who already contracted COVID-19 as school officials set out new policies to address the pandemic. Miranda Curtis is from Murphy. She’s a hospitality and tourism management major at Western Carolina University. Right now she’s rethinking that career path... “I mean it seemed like a good major before all of this started,” says Curtis, who is 23-years-old. Curtis spent the summer

As some schools welcome students back during the pandemic, it’s likely that the only healthcare provider on campus- will be the school nurse. And in North Carolina more than half serve more than one school.