News

Emergency Dispatch services in Durham County can now receive text messages. Verizon subscribers in distress in Durham can now send an text message to 9-1-1. The six month trial is a joint venture between the wireless company and the county. The capability was installed at no charge to taxpayers. Jim Soukup of the Durham Police Department says the trial opens the door for the integration of sophisticated mobile phone technology.

North Carolina’s legislature has enacted some of the most stringent requirements in the nation for women seeking abortions. How the bill will affect medical practice in the state? What legal challenges is it likely to face? Host Frank Stasio finds out what's in the bill and how this new state law fits into the convoluted history of family planning in America with WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie; Senator Warren Daniel (R-Burke & Caldwell), who is a primary sponsor of the bill; Dr.

The Raleigh City Council has approved a proposal for a downtown light rail line.

City council members voted last night to support a route that goes through the west side of downtown along Harrington Avenue. It's a segment of the light rail proposal from Triangle Transit Authority that would eventually run from Chapel Hill to Garner. The council's plan breaks from a recommendation by the city's Passenger Rail Task Force. That route would have brought tracks into the heart of downtown on both sides of the Capitol building.

Dolly Parton is an American icon. Her skills as a singer, songwriter, musician, actress, performer and businesswoman are legendary. She brings her rhinestone-studded road show to The Durham Performing Arts Center tonight, so we're taking some time today to sing her praises. Host Frank Stasio is joined by Cecelia Tichi, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She’s the author of the books “Reading Country Music: Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky-Tonk Bars" (Duke University Press, 1998) and “High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music,” (The University of North Carolina Press,1994.); Also joining us will be Daniel Boner, Director of Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies at East Tennessee State University.

Last month, Peace College announced that, for the first time in its 154-year history, it will begin admitting men to its undergraduate programs. Along with a new approach, the school has a new name: William Peace University. Many alumnae were outraged and caught off guard by the Board of Trustees’ decision. We take a look at the future of Peace and consider the role that single-sex education plays in our increasingly co-ed world. Host Frank Stasio talks with Debbie Cottrrell, Peace University Provost; Omisade “Billie” Burney-Scott, a Peace graduate from the class of 1987; Jane Stancil, higher education reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh; Jo Allen, president of Meredith College, the lone remaining all-women’s college in Raleigh; and Rosemary Salomone, professor of law at St. John’s University and author of the book “Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling” (Yale University Press, 2003).

The death of a two-week old horse in Corolla has led a conservation group to hire beach patrols to educate the public about the wild horses that roam there. The horse died after being fed, which is against the law. Karen McCalpin is Executive Director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. She says her small staff wasn't able to adequately protect the horses in their 11 mile, 75-hundred acre habitat.

Emergency management officials in Johnston County are launching a local emergency alert system. The county has paired with the company Code Red in an effort to improve response time to natural disasters. Emergency Management coordinator Darrell Alford says the system also warns residents about localized emergencies like boil-water advisories or pipeline bursts.

Victims of a forced sterilization program in North Carolina should receive compensatory damages, according to a preliminary report released today.

A brown pelican blown off course nearly a year ago by Hurricane Earl has been released into the wild on the North Carolina coast. The seabird nicknamed "Ralph" was found injured on the roof of a building in Nova Scotia last September. Ralph was transported earlier this year to the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter in Newport. The nickname stuck despite the fact that Ralph is a female. Clinic supervisor Maria Rush says Ralph completed the rehabilitation process this weekend.

Duke University professor Stuart Pimm’s work is more important than ever. That’s because species are going extinct faster than ever. Pimm, the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, studies endangered species in hopes of curbing accelerated extinction rates. His work as a conservation biologist began in Hawaii in the 1970s – before the field of conservation biology even existed.