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Stephanie Carson talks with Jordan Wilkie, reporter at Carolina Public Press, Leah Kang, staff attorney at the ACLU of NC, and Taleed El-Sabawi, assistant professor of law at Elon University School of Law about conditions in North Carolina's prison system, specifically related to COVID-19.

2020 is a year few of us will forget, but other than COVID-19, what stores are top of mind for our news team at Carolina Public Press? Managing editor Frank Taylor sits down with host Stephanie Carson to discuss the stories of note for this year.

Each year, North Carolina designates the 40 most economically distressed counties as tier one, a middle group of 40 counties with some signs of distress as tier two and the 20 most economically well-off counties as tier three. The N.C. Department of commerce released the annual tier rankings Nov. 30. On this week's show, Carolina Public Press's Capitol Bureau Chief, Kirk Ross who closely follows these rankings; and Nathan Ramsey, Executive Director of Land of Sky Regional Council.

Did you ever think eating in a restaurant would be a novelty? On this week’s Kicker by Carolina Public Press we talk about the impact the pandemic is having on the industry. Lynn Minges, president and CEO of the NC Restaurant & Lodging Association; and Katie Button, CEO of Katie Button Restaurants.

In this week’s kicker by Carolina Public Press, we talk to Alisa Chapman, executive director, Association of Teacher Educators and Chasity Robinson, Former Cumberland County Teacher. Some educators are at least temporarily leaving the profession because of the pressures of virtual schools, or fears of contracting the virus from in-person instruction, and for many the added demands of educating their own children. These stresses fall on top of problems that existed before the pandemic that included low teacher pay, and long hours.

On this week's Kicker, Jess Stanford, demographic analyst with Carolina Demography at the UNC Population Center talks with host Stephanie Carson about what we can learn from the state's election turnout trends, and what is at stake as we await returns of the 2020 Census.

Enrollment is open for health insurance coverage through the federal Health Exchange. The deadline for enrollment is December 15th. On this week's show Mark Van Arnam, director of the NC Navigator Consortium, talks with host Stephanie Carson about what people need to know as they apply for coverage.

Lead and water - two words none of us like to hear together - but it’s a concern one western North Carolina community is facing. On this week’s kicker, we take a deeper look at a story Carolina Public Press has been following for a few months now - the subject of a shooting range in Brevard operated by the police department. Our reporting started after we got a press release about a federal indictment filed in September in Asheville’s U.S. District Court naming Brevard public works director David S. Lutz in the mishandling of lead-laden soil from the city’s abandoned police department firing range. This isn’t the first time our reporting team has investigated the environmental impact of shooting ranges. We’ve covered a proposal for a shooting range near Lake James and a ban on shooting ranges in the Croatan forest. On this show, Dan DeWitt, our reporter who first brought us this story out of Brevard. and Gray Jernigan, southern regional director & green riverkeeper for MountainTrue This week dan is releasing more on this story. if you’d like to get the first to receive his updates, text insider to 919-897-8555

Host Stephanie Carson talks with Carolina Public Press elections reporter Jordan Wilkie about where things stand now that the dust is beginning to settle from November 3rd. There remain outstanding races in the state that could be impacted by the remaining votes. Jordan also explains some of the common questions about the results we do know, including why we have a split governor/lieutenant governor ticket again.