Leoneda Inge

North Carolina’s jobless rate may not be anything to cheer about, but the state’s job growth is getting some applause. 

The state’s unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in January.  It's one of the highest in the nation, hovering hovered around that amount for the past year. The national rate sits at 7.9 percent.

There are thousands of young, undocumented immigrants in North Carolina, dreaming of going to the school of their choice, finding a good job and getting a driver’s license.   Many of these ‘dreamers’ are waiting for official papers from the federal government after applying through the ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ program.  But in this state, they’re also waiting to find out for if their new legal status warrants a ‘No Lawful Status’ banner stamped on their driver’s licenses.

The latest Global Business Outlook survey from Duke University and CFO Magazine shows companies are hungry for immigration reform.  Close to 90 percent of Chief Financial Officers surveyed say the U.S. government should adopt a merit-based system to determine which immigrants would get to stay and work in this country.

Duke Finance Professor John Graham is director of the quarterly Global Business Outlook survey.  He says they had not asked this type of immigration question before.

A researcher from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business has helped analyze a series of studies and publish a paper on the prevalence of racial slurs used in the workplace.  There’s a growing body of online humor that has been pegged “friendly prejudice.”  You can hear it in this popular video titled – “Dear White People.”

The largest law enforcement agencies in the state are being questioned about their use of military style weapons, technology and arrest tactics.  The North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union has sent public records requests to 62 law enforcement agencies.

“One of the reasons that we were very interested in sending out these public records requests, we learned that Gaston County had a drone.  And that was a big revelation,” says state ACLU director Chris Brook.

Cree technology is in all types of lighting panels and fixtures, but now the Durham-based company has branded its own light bulb.  Cree says its LED light bulb is a big deal.  Mike Watson is a spokesman for Cree.

“Our tag line is the best thing since the light bulb and we believe it.  And we believe with the release of the Cree LED bulb we fundamentally are changing the way people use and view light forever,” said Watson. 

The Durham Performing Arts Center has announced what it calls its biggest season ever.  The Tony Award winning musical “The Book of Mormon” is singing its way to Durham in February 2014.

Duke University has forged a relationship with South Sudan that it hopes will fill the stomach and the soul. 

A new survey shows farmers across North Carolina are worried about the agricultural workforce shortage.  And they want Immigration Reform to help fix it.  More than 600 farmers filled out the Agricultural Workforce survey spear-headed by the North Carolina Farm Bureau.  Faylene Whitaker of Whitaker Farms in Climax, NC, filled one out.

There has been a lot of movement from big banks in meeting their obligations in the National Mortgage Settlement.  A report out last week shows the five national banks in the settlement administered $350-million in total relief to North Carolinians in the last year.  That affects about 7,600 borrowers.   Settlement Monitor Joseph Smith runs down the national numbers in this video statement.