Michael Tomsic

"A good first step." That's how some North Carolina immigration advocates and business leaders are describing the immigration overhaul filed in the U.S. Senate Wednesday.

A hospital patient in Charlotte is going home Tuesday after doctors successfully treated her with a new kind of heart surgery. Doctors at Carolinas HealthCare System's Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute became the first in the world to try it are among the first to try it.

 Immigration advocates in Charlotte are waiting anxiously for a group of U.S. senators known as the "Gang of Eight" to unveil their plan for immigration reform.

That plan may create a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But advocates are concerned that immigrants may also lose something as part of a deal – a chance to reunite with their families.

Governor Pat McCrory outlined a plan to significantly change North Carolina's Medicaid program last week. A key person responsible for filling in the details is Carol Steckel. She's the director of the state's Medicaid program, and she spoke to WFAE's Michael Tomsic about the reasons for the overhaul and how it's designed to work.

The Charlotte airport plans to buy out a neighborhood less than a mile south of its newest runway. There are almost 70 homes there, and the airport advisory committee agreed Thursday to budget $35 million to buy those properties.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory plans to make major changes to the state's Medicaid system. About 1.8 1.5 million North Carolinians who are low-income, young, elderly or disabled rely on Medicaid for health coverage.

McCrory said the current system is broken and inefficient.  He pointed to an audit that showed the state has been horrible at managing the cost of the program. He said the state hasn't been much better at managing the care people get, either.

North Carolina's unemployment rate declined slightly in February to 9.4 percent. But the report released Thursday shows that unemployment is no longer steadily declining year to year.

Back in February 2010, the unemployment rate peaked in the state at 11.3 percent.

Then North Carolina started slowly but steadily recovering from the recession. In February 2011, the rate was 10.3 percent. A year later, 9.5 percent. And you could see those kind of year-over-year improvements no matter what month you looked at - at least, until this year.

Nine of 10 cancer doctors nationwide have had to delay or change chemotherapy treatments because of drug shortages. That's according to a study released last week, and it's another example of how shortages affect patients.