Isaac-Davy Aronson

Better incentives for economic development are one way to tackle North Carolina's high unemployment rate. That's according to the non-profit North Carolina Budget & Tax Center. Report author Allan Freyer says the state should change how it attracts companies.

In 2003, Vamsi Tadepalli was looking to form a band. He knew a lot of great musicians from his time as a music major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but he wanted to play really crowd-pleasing stuff - songs that would make audiences jump to their feet and dance. Tadepalli found his groove in the music of pop icon Michael Jackson. That next year, he founded Who’s Bad?, a tribute band that puts a funky, jazzy spin on Jackson’s hits. The group quickly grew in popularity with college crowds and eventually began traveling all over the world to perform, selling out venues in China the UK. Tonight, Who’s Bad? returns to their hometown to play at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro.

In his new novel, "Nightwoods" (Random House/2011), acclaimed writer Charles Frazier returns to the familiar setting of North Carolina's Appalachian mountains. This time, the action takes place in the 20th century, instead of the 19th, but some familiar themes run through all of Frazier's works. As in "Cold Mountain" and "Thirteen Moons," characters are defined in part by their relationship to the land and their quest for peace in the face of violence.

High unemployment persists in North Carolina, more than two years after the official start of the economic recovery and many of those who are working are slipping into poverty, unable to work enough hours or earn an adequate wage.

Doug Rader's family has lived in North Carolina's mountains for centuries, but as a child it was the coast that fascinated him. As he combed the tidal swamps for wildlife, he knew he wanted to spend his life studying and protecting the state's aquatic ecosystems. Now he's chief oceans scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, and he's gained a reputation for finding consensus among fishermen, environmentalists and regulators.

This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and Americans will be inundated with commemorations. Amidst that flood of images and stories, how can people find an intimate and meaningful way to reconnect with the events of a decade ago? At the same time, is there a collective way to memorialize a tragedy that changed the country, but changed each of us in different ways? What roles are played by artists, scholars, and theologians?

Winston-Salem, NC has the worst rate of family hunger of any metropolitan area in the nation, according to a new study by the Food Research and Action Center. Winston-Salem is only a particularly acute example of what's happening across North Carolina and the nation: increased hunger and poverty, and the suburbanization of poverty as it surges out of inner cities and pulls in the formerly middle class.

Last month, a Charlotte jury awarded $10 million to the family of a teenager who died after a police officer used a Taser on him. Hundreds of people have died over the last decade in similar situations involving police and Taser use. Opponents of the electroshock devices say they've led to an epidemic of police brutality; police say they're effective tools that reduce injuries and deaths caused by more traditional weapons. Host Frank Stasio discusses Tasers, policing, and civil liberties with Sam Walker, an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and author of several books on policing and accountability; Katy Parker, Legal Director of the ACLU of North Carolina; Darrel Stephens, former chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department; and David Cole, law professor at Georgetown University and author of "Less Safe, Less Free: Why We Are Losing the War on Terrorism." (The New Press/2007).

When Congress reconvenes after Labor Day, it will have the opportunity to consider a major expansion of online antipiracy law. The Protect-IP Act, which passed unanimously out of a Senate committee in May, would allow the government to seek a court order against a Web site allegedly violating copyright – and that site could then be entirely removed from the Internet. Industry groups including the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support the bill, but consumer rights groups and free speech advocates oppose it as a threat to a free and open Internet.

A new study of primary care in North Carolina suggests that the state's robust network of community health centers is significantly reducing health care costs. Host Frank Stasio finds out what's so special about North Carolina's CHCs with the study's lead author Peter Shin, associate professor of health policy and director of the Geiger Gibson program at The George Washington University, and Brian Toomey, CEO of Piedmont Health Services and Board Chair of the North Carolina Community Health Center Association.