When Sontina Barnes joined the Army in 1993, she was looking for something new.

“I was a junior at N.C. State and I was burned out,” she recalled.

At the time, she was working three jobs on top of school.

Governor Roy Cooper is easing COVID-19 restrictions, following pressure from the legislature, small business owners and parents. Meanwhile, under a proposed settlement with civil rights groups, 3,500 people who are incarcerated will be released in the next six months. And, the new chancellor of Fayetteville State is not being welcomed by all. Rob Schofield and Becki Gray review some of the stories from this week in North Carolina Politics.

In 1898, the elected government in Wilmington, N.C. was overthrown by white supremacists who sought to undermine Black progress. The impact of the violent insurrection still lingers in the city today and illuminates existing national political tensions. In this special episode, Phoebe Judge, host of the podcast “Criminal,” shares that show's exploration into events that led to the violence and its aftermath.
 

How comfortable do you feel in gyms, fitness studios and exercise classes? With COVID-19 in our midst, we all may feel a little iffy about spending time indoors with people breathing hard — but what about even before the pandemic? 

In and outside of gyms, we get inundated with messaging about what we should look like and how physically fit we should be. This fitness culture tells us that unless we exercise a certain way and achieve a certain ideal — of thinness, whiteness and heteronormative gender presentation — we’re doing it wrong.

Before the pandemic, Kristin Kanipe never expected she'd end up homeschooling her three kids.

"I remember talking to a friend and specifically saying, 'God would have to smack me in the head and make it "you have to homeschool" for me to ever homeschool.' I had no desire to homeschool. I actually did not want to homeschool," Kanipe said.