News

Annabeth Barnes knows exactly what she wants. She wants to make it to the top level of NASCAR. She'd like to be the first woman to win the Daytona 500. Her family is fully behind her and is willing to sell their home to make it happen.

Annabeth lives in Hiddenite, a tiny town in western North Carolina. She's known in certain racing circles for her skills behind the wheel.

The state Board of Dental Examiners is considering changes to rules about conscious sedation procedures after two deaths were tied to the practice. 

Conscious sedation is frequently used during some surgeries to depress consciousness, but keep patients responsive and breathing on their own.  Two have died in the last year and a half during those procedures, which the board says are rare incidents. 

COO Bobby White says an investigation found that doctors did not properly monitor the patient's breathing in at least one of those cases.

State Senator Martin Nesbitt will be laid to rest today near his hometown of Asheville.  The Democratic leader of the Senate died last week of stomach cancer after more than three decades in the legislature. WUNC's Capitol Bureau Chief Jessica Jones and WCQS news director David Hurrand joined Eric Hodge to talk about Sen. Nesbitt's legacy.

The new executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party is looking to revamp how the party raises money -- as it faces more than a year of leadership turnover, fundraising troubles and distancing from the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan.

  In the future, neuroscientific evidence may be as prevalent as DNA evidence in the criminal justice system. Today on The State of Things experts discussed the future of neuroscience and the law. Here are some highlights. 

This week, an archaeological team is expected to set out to see if they can find remains of the CSS Neuse, a battleship that met a watery grave near Kinston, NC, during the Civil War. Now, many of you history buffs might know why parts of an ironclad ship is lying inland, at the bottom of the Neuse River, but we did not. The story is at times dramatic, frustrating and incredibly sad.

Democratic state Senator Martin Nesbitt's memorial service will take place Tuesday.

Senator Nesbitt died last week of stomach cancer. He stepped down from his post as Minority Leader of the Senate just two days before he died at his home. An ambulance drove him there from UNC hospital. Until Nesbitt's death, the public did not know just how sick he was.

Judge Mamie Dowd Walker was a widow with two children when she was appointed the first female judge in North Carolina in 1934.  It was a first for North Carolina not only because Judge Walker was female, but also because she had no legal training.  But her grandson Milo Pyne says his grandmother "needed the money." 

Former UNC-Chapel Hill men's basketball coach Dean Smith's 83rd birthday was last week, and several major news organizations have marked his life and legacy with extraordinary articles. Smith has dementia now, and that makes both of the articles we'll highlight here so moving.