News

Candidates for Raleigh mayor and city council meet tonight for a candidate forum.

For the first time in 10 years, there is no incumbent running for mayor in Raleigh. In April, Charles Meeker decided not to seek a sixth term.

Three candidates are seeking to replace him and none of them are democrats. Nancy MacFarlane is running as an unaffiliated candidate, although she has been endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party. Randall Williams and Billie Jean Redmond are running as Republicans.

Lawmakers in the North Carolina House have passed a bill to let voters decide whether to add an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. 75 legislators voted in favor of the bill, after three and a half hours of debate.

Drought conditions are improving across North Carolina after rain from Hurricane Irene and the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. Division of Water Resources spokeswoman Sarah Young says some areas of eastern North Carolina were under extreme drought conditions just days before Irene made landfall on the Outer Banks a few weeks ago.

District Court Judge Craig Brown retired in 2008 after working for decades in the Durham judicial system. He was first a criminal defense attorney, then took the bench as a district court judge. Brown's career was not without controversy. He often spoke out against the inequities he saw in the judicial system, and some of his decisions drew criticism. Throughout his career, Brown battled an auto-immune disease that eventually left him blind.

People across the country remembered the victims of 9-11 yesterday. In North Carolina, the ceremonies took many forms and were held in many communities.

Firefighters gathered near the airport in Morrisville to remember fellow first responders killed at the World Trade Center. They did it by climbing and walking the equivalent of 110 stories, while wearing photos of their fallen colleagues around their neck.

And later, the North Carolina Symphony gave a special performance at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.

State lawmakers are back in Raleigh this week for a special session to vote on potential amendments to the state constitution.

Ten years ago, a well-known U-N-C Chapel Hill Economist and his wife found themselves in the middle of the 9-11 attacks.   They were staying at the Marriott Hotel between the World Trade Center towers – attending an Economics Conference.  Jim Smith and Linda Topp had been married just five weeks earlier. 

The Triangle's four major universities are collaborating on a multi-year study of "soft matter." The National Science Foundation awarded a 6-year grant worth nearly 14-million dollars to researchers at Duke, UNC, NC State, and NC Central Universities. Soft matter is usually material that is squishy like proteins, D-N-A solutions, polymers, and gels. They can be assembled into structures that researchers hope will one day prove useful.

Several environmental groups have filed a challenge to the proposed merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy. The merger between the two North Carolina-based companies would create the country's largest utility. Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Gudrun Thompson says that makes Duke and Progress responsible for leading the way in developing clean energy resources.

When the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, the team had a young, Czech player on the ice named Josef Vašíček. “Big Joe,” as ‘Canes fans called him, was drafted by the team in 1998 and before his career in North Carolina was over, Vašíček was a key member in the Hurricanes’ success. The 30-year-old player died in a plane crash in Russia on Wednesday, along with 26 members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, the hockey team Vašíček joined in 2008.