A yarn-bombed bike rack in Oakland, CA. Photo: Shape Things/Flickr

When most people think about knitting, the images of a granny in a rocking chair or an odd-patterned sweater come to mind.

But there's a nationwide movement called guerilla knitting which treats yarn projects like graffiti. People are tagging trees, signposts, and even bridges with the work.

Here in Charlotte, one group of knitters has a project with a political agenda. Just in time for the DNC.

The state-run Quitline for North Carolina smokers has had a blockbuster year thus far and currently leads the nation in call volume. So far nearly 37,000 people have called the hotline for free guidance. That's twice as many as called during the first six months of 2011.

Ann Staples with the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch attributes the boost to a lucky coincidence. During the first few months of this year, the state offered free nicotine replacement patches, lozenges and gum to Quitline callers, says Staples.

Cornelius police confirmed Saturday night they have arrested two Winston-Salem men in the hit-and-run death of a Cornelius man who was struck while walking on Bethel Church Road early Saturday. Witnesses helped police identify a vehicle that was located later a short distance from the incident scene.

Shaw (left) and Kost

Police responded to the report of a hit and run around 1:56 a.m. and found the man "unresponsive lying in the roadway," according to a police report. Kevin Andrew Sweet, 22, of Cornelius was pronounced dead at the scene.

Service biologist Sue Cameron makes her way through a southern Appalachian bog May 2010 Photo: Gary Peeples/USFWS
www.fws.gov/asheville/

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to protect 23,000 acres in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

Agency biologist Gary Peeples says the area's bogs are home to some of the rarest plants and animals in the region. He says many plants have found ways to adapt to the poor soil of the bogs like the carnivorous pitcher plants that lure insects into their trumpet-shaped tube.