Isaac-Davy Aronson

A cannon that saw service in Wilmington during the Civil War will now mark the plaza in front of the North Carolina Museum of History. The Raleigh museum is unveiling the artifact later this morning, adding to its exhibits marking the sesquicentennial of the conflict.

Child hunger is the target of a collaboration between Triangle-based farmers' markets and nonprofit Farmer Foodshare. Food and money will be collected this week at markets in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and elsewhere. Margaret Gifford is the founder and executive director of Farmer Foodshare. She says there's plenty of food to go around in North Carolina.

About 20 private wells in a Wake Forest neighborhood have been found to be contaminated with a toxic degreasing agent. Kenneth Rhame is a federal on-scene coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says one home off Stony Hill Road had concentrations of TCE more than 65 times the safe drinking limit.

Advocates are speaking out about a spike in domestic violence-related homicides in Wake County. There have been five alleged such killings in the last four months - one more than in all of last year. Organizers of a silent march in downtown Raleigh yesterday say about 75 people turned out to honor Agata Vellotti. Police say she was killed by her estranged husband 2 weeks ago. Another march will be held for Kathleen Bertrand, allegedly shot by her ex-husband at a Raleigh shopping center on Monday.

Raleigh is holding a day of volunteering and "doing good" to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Isaac-Davy Aronson reports, the city is hoping it will become a new annual tradition.

The annual American Mortgage Conference gets underway today in Raleigh. Bankers, regulators, and government officials will meet for 3 days to discuss ways to get the mortgage market moving again. Thad Woodard is president and CEO of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He says the system now is much more strictly regulated under the Dodd-Frank financial reform act.

The economic downturn hit North Carolina harder than much of the country, and it will take the state longer to recover. That's the conclusion of a new report from UNC's Global Research Institute.

With summer drawing to a close, thoughts turn to fall...and the tradition of leaf-peeping in Western North Carolina. While much of the country has been in drought, North Carolina has gotten plenty of rain in recent months...and that means the foliage this year could be particularly spectacular. Pamela McCown is coordinator for the Institute for Climate Education at A-B Tech in Asheville. She says rainfall is the most important factor in predicting a good year for fall foliage.

Tropical Storm Isaac may be far from North Carolina, but it could put a damper on Labor Day weekend travel plans in the Tar Heel state. Angela Daley is with AAA Carolinas. She says the storm has been disrupting oil production at Gulf Coast refineries.

Angela Daley says, "Gas prices had been going up all summer, but certainly in the past few days we've seen a huge spike of almost 10 cents in just a few days. So that's pretty significant, and we think a lot of last-minute travelers will choose not to travel this weekend."

North Carolina's delegates to the Republican National Convention are headed home, after their big week in Tampa. Delegate John Steward from Union County joined thousands of fellow party members at Mitt Romney's nomination acceptance speech last night. He says he likes that Romney is not backing away from cutting federal spending.

John Steward says, "I really liked the fact they're not backing off the Medicaid and Medicare - the only way to save it is to reform it and they're not backing off of that."