The State of Things
11:26 am
Mon April 29, 2013

Top Raleigh Chef Takes The National Stage As A James Beard Award Finalist

Credit ac-restaurants.com
Chef Ashley Christensen is a finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southeast.
  • Ashley Christensen, a Raleigh chef and finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southeast, talks about her life and career with host Frank Stasio

To Ashley Christensen, a restaurant is not just a place where you sit down to eat.  It’s an entire concept.  She carefully plots an immersive experience for her diners. 

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Science & Technology
9:26 am
Mon April 29, 2013

Connecting Hog Farms To Pipelines Could Streamline Methane Gas Energy

Credit Jeff Vanuga, USDA NRCS
A new study looks at generating energy from hog waste.

Researchers at Duke University say they have shed more light on the prospects of using hog waste to produce energy. 

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Arts & Culture
5:00 am
Mon April 29, 2013

Roanoke Island's Lost Colony To Receive Tony Honor

Credit The Lost Colony
A scene from a Lost Colony performance.

The North Carolina outdoor drama The Lost Colony has been tapped for a 2013 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.  With 75 seasons under its belt, the yearly production on Roanoke Island began in the summer of 1937 and has continued almost every year since. It is the longest-running symphonic drama in the country. This video shows clips from the play:

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For 25 years, Maria Hinojosa has helped tell America’s untold stories and brought to light unsung heroes in America and abroad. In April 2010, Hinojosa launched The Futuro Media Group with the mission to produce multiplatform, community-based journalism that respects and celebrates the cultural richness of the American Experience. She is currently reporting for “Frontline” on immigration detention.

As the anchor and managing editor of her own long-running weekly NPR show, Latino USA, and anchor of the Emmy Award winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One from WGBH/ La Plaza, Hinojosa has informed millions of Americans about the fastest growing group in our country. Previously, a Senior Correspondent for NOW on PBS, and currently, a contributing Correspondent for Need to Know, Hinojosa has reported hundreds of important stories — from the immigrant work camps in NOLA after Katrina, to teen girl victims of sexual harassment on the job, to Emmy award winning stories of the poor in Alabama. Her investigative journalism presses the powerful for the truth while giving voice to lives and stories that illuminate the world we live in. Hinojosa has won top honors in American journalism including 2 Emmy’s, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged, and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best documentary for her groundbreaking “Child Brides: Stolen Lives.” In 2009, Hinojosa was honored with an AWRT Gracie Award for Individual Achievement as Best TV correspondent. In 2010 she was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by DePaul University in Chicago, as well as the Sidney Hillman Prize honoring her social and economic justice reporting.

Credit Min Soh / NPR

Doualy Xaykaothao covers breaking news from Asia for NPR News. She's based in Bangkok, Thailand, and her reports can be heard across all NPR News programs.

Xaykaothao joined NPR in 1999 as a production assistant for Morning Edition and has since worked as an NPR producer, editor, director and reporter for NPR's award-winning programs. As a producer for NPR's Newscast Unit, she was a member of the team receiving the 2001 Peabody Award for its coverage of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Xaykaothao began reporting about anti-war protests from Seoul, South Korea. A year later, Xaykaothao was in the Phang Nga region of Thailand reporting on the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In 2006, Xaykaothao served as a fellow for the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS with a focus on women inside Nepal's 10 year civil war. Xaykaothao was also an Annenberg Fellow for NPR member station KPCC in Los Angeles in 2007, and was part of the reporting team to receive a LA Press Club Award for breaking coverage of the California wildfires. By 2009, Xaykaothao was in Indonesia reporting on the earthquake that devastated Padang. In 2010, she reported about North Korea's deadly attack on a South Korean warship. When Japan was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, Xaykaothao was the first NPR reporter to reach Fukushima to report on the triple disasters in 2011.

Xaykaothao is Lao-Hmong American. She was born in Vientiane, Laos, but raised in France and the United States. She attended college in upstate New York, where she specialized in television, radio, political science, and ethnic studies. Her radio career began at Harlem community radio station WHCR 90.3 FM, where she volunteered as news-reader. Later, at Pacifica Radio's WBAI 99.5 FM, she worked for the station's resident film critic, the late Paul Wunder. At Pacifica, she also coordinated and produced Asia Pacific Forum, a program on politics, culture and arts inside Asian American communities, as well as missed stories from Asia.

For those who are curious, Doualy Xaykaothao is pronounced "dwah-hlee sigh-kow-tao."

Arts & Culture
5:00 am
Sat April 27, 2013

The Triangle Foodie Scene Makes Way For Dogs

Credit courtesy of McKinney
Dogs wait in line for treats from the Waggin' Wagon.

The Triangle has some of the state’s most sought-after flavors: a recent slew of James-Beard Award semifinalists and Durham’s newest title, “Tastiest Town in the South,” have people chatting happily about the region’s good tastes.

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Health
5:13 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Workers Who Died On The Job Remembered

Credit Gurnal Scott
Friends gathered in Raleigh to remember workers killed on the job

  • WUNC's Gurnal Scott reports on a memorial observance by friends of North Carolina workers who died on the job.

Friends of workers who died on the job honored their memory in Raleigh.   An observance of what they're calling Workers' Memorial Day included people reciting the names of employees killed on the job in North Carolina. 

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Education
4:49 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Guilford County Students To Get Tablets

Credit Guilford County Schools
Students in a Guilford County school classroom on computers.

This fall about 13,000 middle school students in the Guilford County Schools district will receive tablets. It’s part of a $30 million Race to the Top grant that Guilford won last year. Administrators and teachers will receive training from a company called Amplify in the coming months. 

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Environment
1:30 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Study Shows How Trees Help CREATE Smog

Credit Laura Candler
Leaves produce a substance that exacerbates smog, a new study finds.

A new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has revealed exactly how trees play a role in smog production. The question has been a source of scientific uncertainty for years, and the findings are a milestone in air pollution research, with potentially significant implications for public health.

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Tanya Koonce is the News Director at Peoria Public Radio.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism from Eastern Illinois University, and a M.A. in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield.  
Tanya started her news career in TV, managed two political campaigns after college, worked in state government and did some state association work before going back to school.  Post masterââââ

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