The State of Things

Nearly 55 million Americans live in communities that are governed by homeowners associations, or HOAs. In exchange for dues, residents have access to neighborhood amenities like pools, parks and club houses. But more and more, HOAs are responsible for providing services and maintenance once offered by city and municipal governments – like trash pick-up and sewage system repairs.

A complicated terrorism trial began unfolding in federal court in New Bern last week. Facing charges are Omar Hassan, 24, Ziyad Yaghi, 23, and Hysen Sherifi, 27. The three men are accused of belonging to a home-grown terrorist network, a web that stretches from the rural Wake County hamlet of Willow Spring to the Middle East. At the center of this web is a man named Daniel Boyd. Boyd pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to “murder, kidnap, injure or maim” people overseas. The charges carry a possible life sentence.

Alternative rock band Wilco is based in Chicago and has a worldwide following, but when they take the stage in Raleigh tonight, it will be in support of a North Carolina-based nonprofit called Farmer Foodshare. The band is donating a portion of its concert merchandise sales to the organization, which collects fresh, local food and monetary donations for hunger relief. Host Frank Stasio talks with Wilco lead guitarist Nels Cline and Margaret Gifford, founder and executive director of Farmer Foodshare, about their partnership to end food insecurity in North Carolina and Wilco’s new CD, “The Whole Love.”

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Kenneth Montague often felt like an outsider in his Windsor, Canada community. As he got older, he found himself drawn to art that explored self-identity and found a connection with the work of African-American photographers, in particular. Soon Montague, now a practicing dentist in Toronto, began collecting art. He has shared a portion of his impressive photography collection with Duke University’s Nasher Museum for a new exhibit called “Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection.”

The key to greater peace and health is as simple as "mindfulness" — the act of paying attention on purpose. However, practicing mindfulness isn't as simple or as easy as it sounds. Dr. Jeffrey Brantley helps patients find their way to mindful living and a stronger connection between their minds and their bodies. He is the director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at Duke Integrative Medicine. He is the author of a number of books on mindful living, including "Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You From Anxiety, Fear, and Panic" (New Harbinger Publications/2007) and, with co-author Wendy Millstine, the "Five Good Minutes" series (New Harbinger Publications), which offers bite-size mindfulness exercises to meet the needs of busy people. Host Frank Stasio talks with Dr. Brantley about his life and work.

Attendees of this weekend's NC Pride parade and festival will have a lot on their minds, including North Carolina's proposed same-sex marriage amendment and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The event has grown steadily since its beginning in 1981, and now represents one of the best opportunities for North Carolina's LGBT communities to get together for celebration and contemplation. Host Frank Stasio talks about some of the issues facing gays and lesbians today with Steven Petrow, author of the book, "Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners: The Definitive Guide to LGBT Life" (Workman Publishing Company/2011); Pam Spaulding, editor and publisher of the LGBT advocacy blog, “Pam’s House Blend”; Reverend Brett Webb-Mitchell, a former pastor and visiting faculty at North Carolina Central University; and Randy Jones, the cowboy from Village People and the keynote speaker at this weekend's NC Pride parade and festival.

Joan Soriano's musical career began in the rural Dominican countryside when he made an instrument with a tin can and fishing line. Soon after, he and some of his 15 siblings formed a bachata band, a type of Dominican music they'd been hearing on the radio for years. Soriano left his family at age 13 to pursue a career in music and was eventually christened “The Duke of Bachata.” Today, he continues to perform with his family, traveling internationally to spread bachata to the world.

The nature of consciousness is hotly debated among philosophers, scientists and artists. We have thoughts, we feel, we remember the past and we anticipate the future. We think that is what it means to be conscious, but nobody can explain just exactly what that is or how it comes into being.

High unemployment persists in North Carolina, more than two years after the official start of the economic recovery and many of those who are working are slipping into poverty, unable to work enough hours or earn an adequate wage.

Given how often we turn to The Weather Channel to find out what to wear, when to wash our cars or whether we should be evacuating in the face of a hurricane, it's hard to believe there was a time when the idea seemed like a joke. But media mogul Frank Batten believed a 24-hour weather network could both save lives and make money. Host Frank Stasio talks with author Connie Sage about Batten's life and his achievements in a new book, "Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel" (University of Virginia Press/2011).