People across the country remembered the victims of 9-11 yesterday. In North Carolina, the ceremonies took many forms and were held in many communities.

Firefighters gathered near the airport in Morrisville to remember fellow first responders killed at the World Trade Center. They did it by climbing and walking the equivalent of 110 stories, while wearing photos of their fallen colleagues around their neck.

And later, the North Carolina Symphony gave a special performance at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.

State lawmakers are back in Raleigh this week for a special session to vote on potential amendments to the state constitution.

Ten years ago, a well-known U-N-C Chapel Hill Economist and his wife found themselves in the middle of the 9-11 attacks.   They were staying at the Marriott Hotel between the World Trade Center towers – attending an Economics Conference.  Jim Smith and Linda Topp had been married just five weeks earlier. 

The Triangle's four major universities are collaborating on a multi-year study of "soft matter." The National Science Foundation awarded a 6-year grant worth nearly 14-million dollars to researchers at Duke, UNC, NC State, and NC Central Universities. Soft matter is usually material that is squishy like proteins, D-N-A solutions, polymers, and gels. They can be assembled into structures that researchers hope will one day prove useful.

Several environmental groups have filed a challenge to the proposed merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy. The merger between the two North Carolina-based companies would create the country's largest utility. Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Gudrun Thompson says that makes Duke and Progress responsible for leading the way in developing clean energy resources.

When the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, the team had a young, Czech player on the ice named Josef Vašíček. “Big Joe,” as ‘Canes fans called him, was drafted by the team in 1998 and before his career in North Carolina was over, Vašíček was a key member in the Hurricanes’ success. The 30-year-old player died in a plane crash in Russia on Wednesday, along with 26 members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, the hockey team Vašíček joined in 2008.

History comes alive before Tom Magnuson's eyes. All he has to do is take a walk in the woods. Manguson is a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies, and founder of the Trading Path Association. The group trains amateur archeology and history enthusiasts how to identify potentially significant historic sites, especially in rural and suburban areas.

San Francisco indie musician John Vanderslice is well-known for his exhaustive, comprehensive, and lengthy approach to recording music. Legend has it that Vanderslice spent 4,000 hours working on one album. But his latest studio effort called “White Wilderness,” a collaboration with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, was completed in just three days to the surprise of fans and music critics. Vanderslice is in North Carolina to perform at the 2nd annual Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh.

The North Carolina Zoo is leading an emergency fundraising effort for the Tripoli Zoo in war-torn Libya. Political chaos there has left zoo keepers without money to buy food for the animals, and they have only a week's supply on hand. North Carolina Zoo Director David Jones has led similar international fundraising efforts for zoos in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says he's happy to help Libya's main zoo as well.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina is filing a federal lawsuit alleging the state's adoption of "Choose Life" license plates is unconstitutional on the grounds that a pro-choice alternative isn't offered. Katherine Lewis Parker is a Legal Director at the ACLU.