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If you've gone to the legislature these past four Mondays, you likely encountered a group of demonstrators singing, chanting, holding hands and raising signs. And a lot of them are getting arrested. Since April 29th, 153 people have arrested at what the NAACP and other organizers are calling "Moral Mondays."

A group of community members and scholars joined Host Frank Stasio on WUNC's The State of Things to talk about the recent arrests, as well as the theory and history behind civil disobedience on a global scale.

Farmers in North Carolina and around the country are keeping their eyes on Washington, where Congress is crafting a new Farm Bill. 

The Senate's version cuts more than $2 billion in agricultural spending per year, but includes about $100 billion in subsides over the next five years.  President Obama has asked Senators to find more ways to save money, including cuts to a farm insurance program.

Charlotte's NBA franchise has begun the journey toward re-embracing the past.  Bobcats owner Michael Jordan announced Tuesday that his team is on its way to being known as the Charlotte Hornets.

Jordan said he has informed the league of his decision and feels the NBA's Board of Governors will approve the name change when they convene in July.  He says this is only the first step.

Lawmakers in the House have approved a bill that would allow the Department of Transportation to add new toll lanes to interstate highways, but only if some of the old lanes are kept toll-free.

The new toll lanes would essentially be express lanes, with less congestion and higher speed limits. Republican representative John Faircloth says North Carolina's roads are desperately in need of funding. Faircloth says he agrees with Representative Jeff Collins, who is the bill's sponsor.

North Carolina's Attorney General is warning state residents to not be swindled in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy.  Roy Cooper says he understands that there are many North Carolinians who want to help the people of Oklahoma, but he urges people to do their homework because there are scammers who see the Midwestern tragedy as an opportunity to take your money.

Daniel Wallace is best known for his debut novel “Big Fish,” which became a Hollywood movie.  which became a Hollywood movie and is soon debuting as a musical. But he's written four more novels since then. His latest is called "The Kings and Queens of Roam," and it follows two sisters as they grow up in an imaginary former textile town.

  Tanya Olson will tell you that being an eight-year-old child in the world allows you a lot of room to be whoever and whatever you want. You can be a whale, a man, a spaceship, and few will tell you otherwise. After that age though, the feeling doesn't necessarily go away. She explores that desire to transform in her first book of poems, "Boyishly" (YesYes Books, 2013). Tanya Olson is a poet and an English professor at Vance-Granville Community College.

Patricia McAnany had a moment of clarity when a young girl of Maya descent asked her why all the Maya people had to die. McAnany knew that the ancient Maya civilization collapsed in the 8th and 9th centuries, but she also knew that the Maya people continued to exist right up until the modern day.