Marshall Terry

Last year, we told you about the North Carolina Zoo fitting its oldest elephant, C'Sar, with contact lenses to correct his failing eyesight.  We checked back in with the zoo's senior veterinarian, Dr. Ryan De Voe, to see how the lenses worked.

A bill in the North Carolina Senate would make it illegal for anyone to lie on a job application for the purpose of getting inside a business just to uncover any possible abuses.   Undercover investigations are often associated with the agriculture industry in North Carolina.  But Gary Salamido of the state Chamber of Commerce says the agriculture industry is not the driving force behind this bill.  He says many industries in the state have complained about people lying on job applications.  Salamido is the Chamber’s chief lobbyist on the bill. We asked him why he thinks it’s necessary.

If you listen regularly to NPR, you’re probably not familiar with the name Frank Tavares. But you surely know his voice. 

He reads NPR's funding credits, the ones that go like this: "Support for NPR comes from..."  But after this summer, you won’t hear Tavares doing that anymore. 

He's leaving NPR after 31 years in that role.  Needless to say, NPR will sound different.  Before he leaves, we wanted to get to know Mr. Tavares a little bit. Here's our interview with him. 

As long as you try hard, grades of zero are not given at Mallard Creek High School. The worst grade a students can get is a 50, even if they turn in homework late or get less than half the questions right on a test. The policy went into effect last fall, and now CMS officials are reviewing it to see if it should be implemented system wide.

Mark Bosco is a big supporter of the policy. He’s the Executive Director of the Northeast Zone of CMS. Bosco says the grading policy doesn’t mean a 50 is the new 0.

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.

Fashion magazines are under a lot of scrutiny for the distorted view of beauty they portray.  Photo editors often significantly airbrush the imperfections of models and celebrities.  There’s growing concern this contributes to body image and other self-esteem problems in impressionable young girls.

Take a second to remember the last time you left a stadium after a football game.  You probably noticed a lot trash - cups, plastic bottles, and other garbage scattered about the stands and walkways.

But a group at UNC Charlotte is hoping to avoid that for the school's brand new football stadium with a “Zero Waste” initiative.  The school had a beta run a couple of weeks ago during the team’s spring practice game, which was attended by more than 13,000 people.

Kate Popejoy is an education professor at UNC Charlotte and the faculty advisor for the student group behind the initiative. She stopped by ours studios to discuss the initiative with WFAE’s Marshall Terry.

More regulations are likely coming for Charlotte pedicabs – those three-wheeled bikes that carry people around Uptown on the weekend.  A proposed ordinance goes before the Charlotte Council Monday night.  The changes the ordinance calls for are being welcomed by some pedicab operators. 

Lowe’s Home Improvement says its profits jumped 76 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year ago. The company headquartered in Mooresville says it made $396 million. Part of the increase comes from sales related to Hurricane Sandy.

South Carolina officials have added more operators to a hotline for residents to call if they believe they may have been affected during a hacking of the state’s Department of Revenue. About 3-and-half-million Social Security numbers and almost 400,000 credit or debit card numbers were exposed during the security breach, which was first announced Friday. During a press conference Monday, Governor Nikki Haley stressed there’s still plenty of time to sign up for free credit protection service the state is offering in the wake of the hack.