RALEIGH — Schools in the state’s three psychiatric hospitals could be eliminated as officials consider making local school districts responsible for educating hospitalized children.
The change could have its biggest impact on children who are hospitalized for long stretches. Instead of taking classes at hospital schools that have their own teachers and schedules, students would rely more on their home districts to help them keep up with class work.
READ MORE HERE >>>

The governor and legislators have come to the moment of truth on budgeting. Fairness and effectiveness are what matters.

As Gov. Beverly Perdue herself might say, were she looking at the challenges facing, for instance, a governor in a state with 11 percent-plus unemployment, a budget gap of $4.7 billion, serious bickering ahead on both raising taxes and slicing expenditures, even in public education … what was that again? Oh, yes, what the governor might say if the predicament belonged to someone else: Bless your heart. Probably followed by: Lord, have mercy.
READ MORE HERE >>>

Video Report On WRAL website

RALEIGH, N.C. — It’s the last day of the fiscal year and North Carolina lawmakers don’t have a spending plan in place for state government next year.

So the Senate must decide Tuesday whether to accept the temporary spending measure the House approved late Monday or reject it and work out a quick compromise.
READ MORE HERE >>>>

Wake County will break ground on a new inpatient mental health facility on Wednesday, July 1, 2009, at 10 a.m., on Sunnybrook Road, Raleigh (across from Holly Hill Hospital).
The facility, part of Wake’s Mental Health Continuum of Care, will provide inpatient services to citizens with behavioral health disorders, reserving bed space for the most acute and critical cases.
READ MORE HERE >>>

Most of North Carolina’s historical site markers recall something good — even if it’s only the birthplace of another obscure politician. So the new sign in downtown Raleigh stands out. It marks a sad chapter in our history, one whose grotesque injustice is painful to contemplate.

As an N&O article in 2001 put it, “from 1929 to 1975, in pursuit of a more perfect population through eugenics, North Carolina took the right to reproduce away from more than 7,000 people.”

READ MORE HERE >>>

Mental health issues expected to be raised.

WAYNESVILLE — The jury in the trial of Edwardo Wong won’t come from Haywood County because of pretrial publicity in the case, a judge ruled on Monday.
Superior Court Judge Nathaniel Poovey did not decide where the jury would come from or whether the trial itself would be moved, as Wong’s attorneys have asked.

The judge agreed with defense attorneys Mark Melrose and Randall Seago that news reports about the shooting death of N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper David Shawn Blanton Jr. would make it impossible for him to receive a fair trial in front of a local jury. READ MORE HERE >>>

Mental health issues expected to be raised.

WAYNESVILLE — The jury in the trial of Edwardo Wong won’t come from Haywood County because of pretrial publicity in the case, a judge ruled on Monday.
Superior Court Judge Nathaniel Poovey did not decide where the jury would come from or whether the trial itself would be moved, as Wong’s attorneys have asked.

The judge agreed with defense attorneys Mark Melrose and Randall Seago that news reports about the shooting death of N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper David Shawn Blanton Jr. would make it impossible for him to receive a fair trial in front of a local jury. READ MORE HERE >>>

Reading the list of local and state luminaries police say were threatened with bombings and worse by Raleighite Angelos Vangelos, you knew there had to be some noses out of joint.

The list was long and pretty darn comprehensive. The mayor, most of the city council. Most of the county commission. The guv.

But what about the people left off the hit list?

READ MORE HERE >>>

RALEIGH — When N.C. State University junior Dan Marino walks around the vast campus of Dorothea Dix Hospital, he doesn’t picture filling this space with office buildings or townhouses.

Instead, he sees spandex-clad cyclists of all skill levels racing around trails of his design — from mountain bikers bounding over hills, to young children leisurely learning the ropes of riding on their own.

Marino is one of 13 NCSU graphic design students assigned to draw up detailed designs for the Dix campus as a class project for the spring semester.

READ MORE HERE >>>