Fourteen of the 16 UNC System campuses received a “green” rating from FIRE
The climate for free speech and expression on North Carolina’s college campuses is good and improving, according to a new report from the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The group, whose work is frequently cited by campus trustees and members of the UNC System Board of Governors, gave 14 of the system’s 16 university campuses its highest “green light” rating in its new report.
Just two UNC system campuses — North Carolina A&T State University and Winston-Salem State University — earned a lower “yellow light” rating.
Among the private institutions in FIRE rated in the state, Duke University earned a green rating while Wake Forest University and Davidson College both earned yellow ratings. That’s not necessarily unusual, according to the report.
“Private schools were significantly less likely to earn green light ratings and more likely to earn yellow or red light ratings than public schools,” the report reads. “The main contributor to the red light ratings? Schools maintaining overbroad policies on harassment that put protected speech at risk.”
In a letter sent late Saturday to the DPS Board of Education, the Durham Association of Educators announced that employees and classified staff will be taking part in a "Day of Protest" on Monday.
The Durham Association of Educators (DAE) announced employees will be protesting again on Monday.
In a letter sent late Saturday to the Durham Board of Education, the organization, representing approximately half of all classified Durham Public Schools (DPS) employees, announced that employees and classified staff will be taking part in a "Day of Protest" on Monday.
This decision comes after a lengthy 7-hour meeting on Friday where school board members voted 4 to 3 to postpone the discussion on how to address the payment issues for classified staff until the upcoming Thursday.
The Campaign for Southern Equality filed a federal complaint on Tuesday against N.C. Senate Bill 49, the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
The legal basis of the complaint is discrimination based on sex, in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The CSE brought forward the complaint on behalf of LGBTQ+ students, staff, families and faculty that experience discrimination in state public schools.
S.B. 49 requires North Carolina public schools to notify parents prior to the any changes in a student’s name or pronouns used in school records or by school personnel. The law also prohibits instruction on gender identity, sexuality and sexual activity in kindergarten through fourth grade.
According to the complaint, the mandates from the N.C. State Board of Education and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to implement S.B. 49 have created a hostile educational environment in public schools.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction released a guidebook on Jan. 16 for the use of artificial intelligence in public schools. The guidebook provides recommendations for responsibly implementing AI and encourages public schools to incorporate AI literacy for staff and students.
Vanessa Wrenn, the chief information officer for the NCDPI, said these new guidelines are intended to prepare students for the workforce. She said AI will develop 1 million jobs, and that understanding how to use it can help students build their skill set.
“Whenever a tool comes out that's going to help students learn and also be able to prepare them for the workforce, it's the only right thing to do to give them exposure to that while they are students, and while we can do that in a safe way,” Wrenn said.
Wrenn said the guidebook is meant to be a pragmatic resource for teachers to introduce into their classrooms. They can use it to create outlines for events like assemblies, open houses and parent meetings, she said.
A federal study has found that tens of thousands of Marines and Navy personnel, their families, as well as civilians who were stationed at Camp Lejeune from 1975 to 1985 are at an increased risk for eight types of cancer from contaminated drinking water.
In one of the largest studies of its kind, the ATSDR – the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry – compared cancer rates at Camp Lejeune, where the drinking water was contaminated with TCE, PCE, benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals, and Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where the water was not contaminated.
The agency published its initial findings online Feb. 1. They have been submitted for external peer review.
The ATSDR studied medical records of more than 211,000 people who had served or lived at Camp Lejeune and found they had an increased risk for some types of leukemia and lymphoma, as well as for cancers of the lung, breast — including rare male breast cancer — larynx, esophagus, thyroid, and soft tissues. Civilian workers had a higher risk of developing blood and bone marrow cancers and some cancers of the breast and lung. Camp Lejeune is the largest Marine base on the East Coast.
At a glance, Soul City may seem like a ghost town - with an abandoned healthcare clinic, broken windows, cracked asphalt and walls curtained with creeping ivy. But in the 1970s, Soul City was built on the dream of equality and opportunity for Black families in North Carolina.
Just an hour north of Raleigh you can find the remains of a grand dream. Today, few remnants offer clues to the community's past. Decaying wooden street signs etched with names like Freedom Circle and Liberation Road show the streets of Soul City were originally meant to pave a way to something greater. A tall concrete pillar with the words 'Soul City' stands as a monument to all the town hoped to achieve.
In the archives of Black history, many dreams have gone unrealized – snuffed out by forces like urban renewal, racism and inequality. However, some believe the dream of Soul City can still impact the next generation.
Established in the early 1970s by civil rights leader Floyd McKissick, the vision was to create a multi-racial community where Black capitalism and Black-owned businesses could thrive right in the midst of rural North Carolina.
CMS regulations define immediate jeopardy as noncompliance that “has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death. … [It] is the most serious deficiency type, and carries the most serious sanctions. … An immediate jeopardy situation is one that is clearly identifiable due to the severity of its harm or likelihood for serious harm and the immediate need for it to be corrected to avoid further or future serious harm.”
Mission Hospital has been officially informed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that it is in “immediate jeopardy” related to deficiencies in care, according to an internal email obtained by Asheville Watchdog.
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