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North Carolina's unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level in four years, and South Carolina's unemployment rate has declined to the lowest point in five years. That's according to figures released Friday for the month of April.

  On March 11, in the music room of Blythe Elementary in Huntersville, 25 first- and third-grade children stepped on stage to receive the gift of a new violin. The children are the first class of MusicalMinds NC, a free, classical music program for “at-risk” children modeled upon the famed El Sistema schools of Venezuela. On stage with the children was Eduardo Cedeño, conductor of the Lake Norman Symphony Orchestra and one of El Sistema’s first students.

Mecklenburg County Chairman Pat Cotham has taken a lot of heat for the firing of County Manager Harry Jones last week.  So she’s decided to fire back at her nay-sayers by releasing results of a poll she commissioned.   

Influential anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist made several stops in North Carolina yesterday. He visited the capitol to show support for Republican proposals to overhaul the state’s tax system, and ended the day in Huntersville. 

Students attend Central Piedmont Community College for many reasons, but the story of 20-year-old Riyam Al Ghrary’s journey to CPCC surely ranks among the most harrowing.

It began in Iraq, about six years ago, on the day she was kidnapped. It will culminate Thursday evening, as she accepts her diploma at Bojangles’ Coliseum, one of about 1,900 graduates, the largest number in CPCC’s 50-year history. She was student body vice president and a scholarship winner. She’s graduating with a 4.0 average.

A high school student from Davidson is among the students from around the world in Arizona this week competing for scholarships and cash prizes in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.    Eighteen-year-old Christopher Panuski's entry in the fair looks at cheaper and more efficient ways to shield electronics from cosmic radiation.  He joined us to talk about the project and the competition.

  At first blush, there’s a lot about the power struggle over Charlotte’s airport that makes no sense. After all, both sides in the debate agree the airport has done extraordinarily well under the city’s control. So what’s happened?

A mysterious death, for one.

And WFAE has reviewed internal airport documents that cast doubt over much of what we thought we knew about that incident.

North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District has a storied and controversial history and the likelihood is that the district will garner even more attention when a variety of events converge within the next few months. 

With Congressman Mel Watt’s nomination to head the Federal Housing Financing Agency, an open-seat contest has already attracted considerable attention, especially from black Democratic candidates seeking to replace the 20-year veteran legislator. 

Most of the state’s counties, including Mecklenburg, are no longer included in a bill that would give counties the authority to build, own, and maintain schools.  The bill passed out of a senate committee Wednesday, only giving nine counties the option to take over ownership of schools from local school districts.  Those counties include Rowan, Wake and Harnett.

Senator Ron Rabin of Harnett County said county commissions are more equipped to handle business deals. 

A meeting of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners Tuesday turned into a series of heated exchanges between commissioners with accusations of ethics violations, sexism and racism. It was the board’s first public meeting since it fired county manager Harry Jones.