U.S. Ed Secretary DeVos has approved plans for 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Still waiting: California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah.

The Every Student Succeeds Act allows up to seven states to try out new kinds of tests in a handful of districts before taking them statewide.

Sex discrimination against women.

Women -- South Australia -- Biography.

A program that lets retired teachers keep working while collecting retirement benefits is set to expire at the end of the month.

A sea of red swept the capitals of North and South Carolina on Wednesday, as thousands of teachers turned out to demand higher pay and more school funding.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley believes her top-ranked Gamecocks are the women's basketball national champions, even without an NCAA Tournament trophy to put in their display case due to the pandemic-shortened season. The NCAA decided against officially crowning champions after its signature tournaments were called off due to the coronavirus pandemic that has sent much of the world into lock down. Staley spoke from her home where she's spent the past month managing her program and ensuring her players don't linger too much on what they missed.

Names, Personal -- England.

Grant (Family)

Names, Personal -- Welsh.

Names, Personal -- Scottish.

North Carolina officials' switch in reading-test vendors just weeks before the new school year got underway is spotlighting the often murky process of contracts and procurements for K-12 services.

The Delaware Forest Service has dispatched a Type 6 engine and crew to the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina. The unit will provide resource and readiness capability as a combination of drought, fuel moisture, and weather conditions have created above average potential for increased wildfire activity across the Southern Region. Delaware's crew consists of Sam Topper of Maryland, a senior forester with the Delaware Forest Service, and Adam N. Keever of Newark, a conservation technician with DNREC's Division of Parks & Recreation. This is the first assignment of 2019 for the Delaware engine crew.

Death is always a difficult topic to discuss, and death has been in the news a lot during this tragic coronavirus pandemic. Many news stories focus on states, counties, or cities that have the most cases or the most deaths. A related statistic is the case fatality rate, which is [...]

The post Use a funnel plot to visualize rates: The case fatality rate for COVID-19 in North Carolina counties appeared first on The DO Loop.

The 16th CarolinaCon will be hosted in Charlotte at the Embassy Suites April 10th through the 11th, 2020.

CarolinaCon, which was to be hosted in Charlotte at the Embassy Suites April 10th through the 11th, 2020, has been postponed due to COVID-19.

Annual solar energy production in North Carolina jumped 36 percent in 2018, according to the latest government data – firmly placing North Carolina as the No. 2 solar-producing state in the nation.

Duke Energy Corp. will develop six utility-scale solar power projects in North Carolina that may cost up to $404 million as part of the state’s bid to boost renewable energy.

Annual solar energy production in North Carolina jumped 36 percent in 2018, according to the latest government data – firmly placing North Carolina as the No. 2 solar-producing state in the nation.

To the Editor—Bourbon virus (Thogotovirus, Orthomyxoviridae) was discovered in 2014 when a patient with history of multiple tick bites in Kansas died from an unknown infection [1]. Human infections from Bourbon virus have now been recognized in several states (i.e., Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri). The virus was detected in collections of the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) in Missouri [2]. A serosurvey of domestic and wild mammals in Missouri noted the presence of Bourbon virus-neutralizing antibodies in serum samples collected from a variety of species, but most frequently in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and raccoon (Procyon lotor) [3]. We report here that neutralizing antibodies against Bourbon virus were detected in white-tailed deer in North Carolina, suggesting that the virus is present in the state. We screened 32 white-tailed deer for the presence of Bourbon virus-specific neutralizing antibodies. Of 20 plasma samples that reacted with the virus, 18 were confirmed with neutralizing antibody titers ranging from 10 to ≥ 320 for a seroprevalence rate of 56% (95% confidence interval 39%–72%). The seropositive samples were from deer killed during the 2014 hunting season from Stanly and New Hanover counties.

The incidence of Bourbon virus infection in humans in North Carolina is unknown. However, given the abundance of the lone star tick in the state, and the notable proportion of deer with evidence of infection, human infections have likely gone unnoticed or possibly misdiagnosed. Human infection with Bourbon virus results in a nonspecific viral syndrome that includes fever, nausea, diarrhea, myalgia (muscle pain), arthralgia...

The conversation about how we create and maintain health has evolved. We have now clearly expanded our thinking beyond an exclusive focus on traditional medical care, and philanthropy can play an important role

To better the health of all North Carolinians, policymakers must come together to improve access to care, expand broadband, and close the coverage gap.

Current health inequities are rooted in more than simple systems failures and inefficiencies. Historical legacy has corrupted health outcomes, and resolution requires both acknowledgment and intention.

North Carolina has received national attention for its approach to health care payment and delivery reform. Importantly, payment reform alone is not enough to drive systematic changes in care delivery. We highlight the importance of progress in four complementary areas to achieve system-wide payment and care reform.

Among the many trends influencing health and health care delivery over the next decade, three are particularly important: the transition to value-based care and increased focus on population health; the shift of care from acute to community-based settings; and addressing the vulnerability of rural health care systems in North Carolina.

In recent years, North Carolina has attracted significant national attention due to numerous health care reforms underway across government and the private sector. These reforms encompass new incentives, new partnerships, and new models of delivering care, and collectively, they have important implications for health care data.

In 2019, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) turned to the all-important state level to draw insights on the status of health and health care within the context of the NAM Vital Directions for Health and Health Care initiative. The NAM held a two-day symposium in the Research Triangle to bring together various stakeholders to better understand actions that states and localities are taking to achieve—and the barriers they face in pursuing—more affordable, value-driven quality care and health outcomes. The NAM purposefully chose to pivot to the state level with North Carolina given that it has been at the forefront of health care transformation and illustrates the promise but also the challenges facing US health and health care nationally. A 19-member planning committee, cochaired by NAM President Victor Dzau and Secretary Mandy Cohen of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, selected topics that resonate with the state's activities within the context of the Vital Directions framework, ranging from empowering people and connecting care through the integration of social, physical, and behavioral health to payer alignment though the advancement of new payment models (Figure 1). The priorities discussed during the symposium continue to be central to health reform in North Carolina and are further explored in the commentaries in this issue.

BACKGROUND Pregnant patients from rural counties of Western North Carolina face additional barriers when accessing comprehensive perinatal substance use disorders care at Project CARA as compared to patients local to the program in Buncombe County. We hypothesized regional patients would be less engaged in care.

METHOD Using a retrospective cohort design, univariate analyses (², t-test; P < .05) compared patients' characteristics, engagement in care, and delivery outcomes. Engagement in care, the primary outcome, was operationalized as: attendance at expected, program-specific prenatal and postpartum visits, utilization of in-house counseling, community-based and/or inpatient substance use disorders treatment, and maternal urine drug screen at delivery negative for illicit substances.

RESULTS Regional patients (n = 324) were more likely than Buncombe County patients (n = 284) to have opioid [209 (64.5%) versus 162 (57.0%)] or amphetamine/methamphetamine use disorders (25 [7.7%] versus 13 [4.6%]), but less likely to have cannabis use (19 [5.9%] versus 38 [13.4%]; P = .009) and concurrent psychiatric disorders (214 [66.0%] versus 220 [77.5%]; P = .002). Engagement at postpartum visits was the significantly different outcome between patients (110/221 [49.8%] versus 146/226 [64.6%]; P = .002).

LIMITATIONS Outcomes were available for 66.8% of regional and 79.6% of Buncombe County patients of one program in one predominately white, non-Hispanic region of the state.

CONCLUSION Contrary to our hypothesis, regional and Buncombe County women engaged in prenatal care equally. However, a more formal transition into the postpartum period is needed, especially for regional women. A "hub-and-spokes" model that extends delivery of perinatal substance use disorders care into rural communities may be more effective for engagement retention.

Ever since Tiger King dropped on Netflix, the world has...

The post Two YouTubers Tricked Carole Baskin Into Giving An Exclusive Interview – Watch appeared first on Man's World India.

This will be my 23rd Mother’s Day without my mother and while it gets easier, it is never easy.

After self-isolating for two weeks she plans to attend another rally

In today's Diary: Prankster on what it was like to fool Carole Baskin / Miriam Margolyes reveals why she's so in demand on chat shoes / MP bags Shetland pony assistant / Fox the toast of Downing Street

Zoo owner also accuses Netflix of sensationalising' story to make him 'villain' in new aftershow

She accused hit Netflix show of 'betrayal' in first interview since it began

'I'll make you a rich man if you kill Carole'

Fans had speculated that Lowe could be Baskin's first husband Michael Murdock in disguise

'One foot wrong and you don't know what could happen'

Baskin has denied any involvement in the disappearance of her ex-husband

'What do I know of Carole Baskin – or any of these people – aside from what I've seen in this documentary?'

Sanctuary owner has avoided the media after revealing she was unhappy with how she was portrayed on the show

O'Porter and Flack were good friends

Plus, more celebs rocking their natural hair!

Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in North Carolina and the latest news about the COVID-19 outbreak.