Nicole Campbell

As the media covered the tragic Boston Marathon bombing, they also made mistakes. News outlets, with reputations built on truth and accuracy, spent air-time speculating rather than reporting.  Some of the early, incorrect reports posed threats to innocent people who were wrongly-implicated in the bombing.

The natural gas extraction process called hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has been a source of debate and contention in the state for quite some time now. It involves drilling horizontally through thousands of feet of shale and blasting the shale with water, sand and chemicals to release natural gas. Several states allow the process, some are in the process of figuring out how to regulate it, and some, like New York, have placed a moratorium on the process due to environmental concerns.

North Carolina Central University became the first university in the state to offer a jazz degree in 1977. The university has since been a force on a state and national level in keeping the jazz scene alive.

The university is now throwing its 23rd annual Jazz Festival this week. Ira Wiggins, director of their jazz department, founded the festival in 1990 with hopes of creating a space for students to meet and learn from seasoned jazz musicians. This year the festival features jazz artists Carl Allen and Benny Golson. Benny Golson is a world-renowned saxophonist, composer, and producers.  Ira Wiggins and Benny Golson join Host Frank Stasio to talk about the state of jazz education today, and give us a sneak peek of the festival.

When Juan Gutiérrez arrived in Harlem from Puerto Rico in the early 1970s, he had hopes of becoming a professional concert musician. But soon enough he started longing for a community that embraced and celebrated his roots.

The United States has for centuries been a nation of multiculturality, with many cultures and communities existing within it, but not necessarily integrated. Many scholars say that the way to true peace is through interculturality, where cultures are educated about other culture through methods like language, arts and education.

Yesterday was the first home game for the 2013 baseball season at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and fans gathered to watch the heroic Bulls defeat the Gwinnett Braves.

While growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jeanette Stokes never imagined she would become a minister. After all, as a young girl, she had never even seen a woman lead a congregation. But she eventually followed her faith, fulfilled her ambition, and helped other women to better nurture their own spirituality.

This week the North Carolina Senate voted along party lines to repeal the Racial Justice Act. Also in the legislation are measures designed to restart executions, which have been unofficially on hold in the state since 2006.

Critics contend that eliminating the Racial Justice Act will prevent those unfairly sentenced to death because of racial bias from getting justice. More than 150 people in the state are awaiting execution.

Republican Senator Thom Goolsby of New Hanover County sponsored the legislation repealing the Racial Justice Act, and he said on The State of Things that the Act isn’t necessary.

In 1976, Joseph Sledge was accused of murdering a mother and daughter in Bladen County, NC. Because of the many limits of scientific evidence at the time, hairs found at the scene of the crime were identified as "Negroid." And because Joseph Sledge was a Black man, the hairs were linked to him. Over 34 years later, the use of DNA testing has been used to prove that those hairs were not Sledges'. 

Dozens of Wake County residents filled a legislative committee room yesterday to weigh in on several controversial bills affecting the county.

One of the measures would scrap the lease between the state and the city of Raleigh to create a destination park on the site of the old Dorothea Dix hospital.