88.5 WFDD - Carolina Curious

Camila Pulgar Guzmán, a researcher and licensed therapist based in Winston-Salem, has been wondering for a long time about the mental health resources available for the Spanish-speaking community. EILEEN RODRIGUEZ/WFDD Finding a mental health provider can be a fairly complicated process. The pandemic has exacerbated the need for many. Yet some people may not have the means or information available to them in their native language to access this information. For this episode of Carolina Curious, we answer this question from listener Camila Pulgar Guzmán: What does the landscape for mental health aid look like for bilingual Spanish-speaking immigrants in North Carolina?  "I'm an immigrant from Chile. I was born and raised in Chile, but I lived in North Carolina for about 15 years," explains Pulgar Guzmán.  Pulgar Guzmán is not a disinterested party regarding the issue. She's a licensed therapist based in Winston-Salem who works closely with the Latino community. In the field, she often sees a lack of bilingual providers for the rapidly growing community in the state, which she says is worrisome. "Our community also doesn't know where to look for them, or they're not accessible to them in way," she says. "Because our community is so isolated, as you probably know, especially here in Winston-Salem, they're very isolated. So it's hard for them sometimes to know where to ask for help." Various resources for the Latino community show different data on exactly how many Spanish-speaking therapists are in an area. For example, the website Latinx Therapy shows in North Carolina there are 11 therapists who speak Spanish. None of those listed are in Winston-Salem. Pulgar Guzmán created a list on her own website Salud Mental Health, where she lists 14 Spanish-speaking therapists and mental health resources in the city, some in churches. In terms of statewide resources, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has Hope4NC, a 24/7 hotline that can help Spanish speakers who might be experiencing emotional distress. It also partnered with local organizations, and there are general wellness resources in Spanish available as well on its website.   Deputy Secretary and Chief Health Equity Officer for North Carolina's Department of Health and Human and Services Debra Farrington says there's still a lot to be done, especially for young people.  "In the cases of the Latino community, we have a number of organizations who provide these community health workers who are responsible for connecting people to medical care and to social support," Farrington explains. "88% of Latino youth have unmet mental health needs. And that compares to 76% of white youth and 77% of Black youth. So we're seeing a higher percentage of Latino youth who have unmet mental health needs." Milton Cepeda is the only bilingual school psychologist in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools system. He says that there's an overall lack of mental health providers in the state, and this also includes schools. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends one psychologist per every 500 students, but the reality is that many are without that resource.  "I service three schools during the week, and then the other two days I provide district-wide support to other schools," says Cepeda.  Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools does have multiple language team support and they use interpreters to help with assessments when necessary. The most recent data from the state shows that suicide rates among youth in 2020 were the highest they've been in a decade, and according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos have shown high rates of anxiety and depression symptoms.  "We don't only have a shortage of bilingual psychologists, we have a shortage of psychologists in general," says Cepeda. "So bilingual psychology is even more rare in this particular field. And there's a difference between someone who is certified as a bilingual psychologist and just someone who is a psychologist that happens to speak Spanish."  In North Carolina, without insurance, a private practice therapy session can cost usually between $150 to $250. There's also the option of doing a sliding scale, which can lower the cost for patients in need to around $50-$75. El Futuro, a non-profit organization that provides support for the Latino community in Durham, is an example of one group that does provide low-cost therapy for, primarily, the Spanish-speaking population in the state.  El Futuro's Communications Manager Mary Hondermann says the organization pays for the patient's therapy thanks to monetary help from counties. "We don't ask about immigration status to provide services," Hondermann says. "Depending on that person's county, we go there, check the funds, and we cover the cost of that person's treatment." El Futuro might be able to provide lower-cost mental health treatments, yet as Camila Pulgar Guzmán — our question-asker explains — not every provider is able to lower their costs. "So that is, you know, a tricky balance because all of our bilingual providers are very passionate about mental health and about talking about these issues," says Pulgar Guzmán. "But we also have to pay our bills and we have to eat." But there are various organizations that are working to provide even more resources.  Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools has partnered with a firm to recruit school psychologists, El Futuro is now providing group therapy, which helped decrease the number of people on their waitlist. The new suicide lifeline, 988, also has Spanish-speaking operators and resources available on its website.  This story was produced by a partnership between WFDD and La Noticia. You can read this story in Spanish at La Noticia. Eileen Rodriguez is a reporter for both WFDD and La Noticia through Report for America, where she covers COVID-19's impact in the Latino Communities. Periodista de La Noticia y 88.5 WFDD, Eileen Rodríguez reporta el impacto de COVID-19 en la comunidad Latina en Carolina del Norte. Rodríguez es miembro del cuerpo de periodistas de Report for America 2021-2022   Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Camila Pulgar Guzmán's full name. Story does not include AP content #immigrant #latinos #mental health #mental health resources Race Health & Safety Normal Tweet

The letter on this chimney on Carver School Road matches the original homeowner's initial. KERI BROWN/WFDD For the latest in WFDD's series Carolina Curious, we head to the Carver School Road community in East Winston-Salem. Listener Kayla Forrest moved to the area a couple years ago and something in the neighborhood caught her eye. “I noticed that when I was walking my dog that there are a number of houses that have letters on them, on the chimneys in particular it seems, so I was just wondering what those letters represent or what they are for,” says Forrest. WFDD's Keri Brown takes us back in time to find out. A tour of the neighborhood On a warm and humid summer morning, Kayla Forrest is excited about showing me around the area. There's a new community center that recently opened and it's hard to miss the large bright yellow and blue rock that sits in front of Carver High School. A home in the Carver School Road community in Winston-Salem. KERI BROWN/WFDD "I really have enjoyed living in this community, and you know the high school has a rich history to it too," says Forrest. "I'm just interested in learning more about the history of the neighborhood itself." As we walk along the roadway, Forrest stops to point out the brick masonry on a nearby chimney. “So see over here there's this house that has an 'H' on the chimney. You can see the 'H' there.” A few houses down a large "C" adorns another brick chimney, and there's also one with the letters "H-O-P." The masonry on each house is unique, and all of the letters were on older homes. Learning more I started researching and making calls to historical societies, the Forsyth County Public Library and the city's planning department. Unfortunately, no one had a clear answer. But local historian Heather Fearnbach gave some historical context. She says embellishment on masonry chimneys — decorative patterns, motifs, or letters — was very common during the mid-20th century. The difficult thing is that most of the masons who would have been working during this time period are no longer living. After a few phone calls however, I was able to connect with 81-year-old Hugh Smith of Winston-Salem. A family connection “My family was involved in home construction,” says Smith. His grandfather was a carpenter and helped build houses in the community in the 1940s and 50s. Smith says at that time, there weren't a lot of homes in this predominantly Black neighborhood in East Winston. KERI BROWN/WFDD Smith thinks the chimney letters stand for the American dream: “After World War II, a lot of, a number of GIs came home or back to the area and they were able to build homes and in building their homes they wanted to put a mark or a symbol on their home that that was their home," says Smith. "So what they had the brick mason to do was build a place in the brickwork on the chimney — the first initial of their last name.” A trip back to 1946 To find out more about Smith's insight, I headed to the hub for public records: the Forsyth County Register of Deeds. That's where I met Timothy Williams, who manages the real estate and indexing division. When asked whether he's ever encountered this question: “In 27 years, no ma'am, I have not come across the question. This is a first,” says Williams. We begin with an online search using the address of the home with the "H" on the chimney. “So, you can see each individual owner. There was a book and page number for each owner for the deed that was recorded for that particular property, which was great, so you can connect all of the previous owners without flaw and without question," says Williams. "It's just, it's a clear title. You can see it all unfold all right out in front of you.” Our online search only took us to 1986 and without a letter match. But that was just the beginning. Williams points out the block and lot number for that parcel of land and we head over to the microfilm machine. We went all the way back to 1946. Harry Truman was president. It was a year of labor strikes, and those born then were the first of the baby-boom generation. And then we find what we are looking for. “There's an 'H' on the chimney and in 1946 we did find that Huntley is the owner, was the owner at that particular time," says Williams. "So Huntley purchased the property in 1941, but he purchased it, just the land, in 1941 and then he built the home in 1946." It's a match! We kept going and plugged in a different address a few houses down, and…found the same result — the letters represented the original homeowners' initial. They prove that history and the stories of our neighborhoods are all around us and can sometimes be found in unexpected places. Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news   Story does not include AP content #carver school road #winston-salem #brick chimney #letters #initials #brick masonry #east winston #homeownership #carolina curious Housing Human Interest Normal Tweet

PAUL GARBER/WFDD There are three Union Cross communities in the Triad area, one each in Forsyth, Yadkin and Surry counties. Listener Robert Myers of Kernersville had a question for Carolina Curious about the origins of the one in southeastern Forsyth County:  I have lived near Union Cross for many years, and I always wondered, where did the community get its name? I've asked many people in the community, but no one seems to know the answer. The North Carolina Gazetteer — an index of the state's geographic features — has a history for the name of only one of those three communities. Yadkin County's Union Cross was apparently named for a Quaker Friends Meeting back in the 1880s. So could Forsyth's name also come from a Friends Meeting place? Not likely, according to Quaker history authorities. The Friends didn't start using the term Union Cross until the time the Yadkin community was named, decades after Forsyth's community was founded.  Michelle DeLapp is chairwoman of the board for the Wachovia Historical Society. Using Moravian archives, she found references to Union Cross in records dating to the early 1860s, well before the Quakers used the term. The timing would also seem to rule out any connection to the Union Army in the Civil War. Forsyth County's Union Cross appears to date back to the days of a plank road in the mid-1800s that ran from Fayetteville, through High Point, and up to the Moravian community of Bethania. DeLapp says the name may simply be a reference to an important convergence of roads during the middle of the 19th Century.   “I believe it had something to do with the location of the road,” she says. “It was an intersection between High Point Road and what is known as Union Cross Road now — it was kind of an intersection.  And it was kind of a main road.”  Today, Union Cross is the site of an elementary school and a county park. Union Cross wasn't the only prominent use of the term “Union” in Forsyth County. The Union Republican newspaper used it during its run from the 1870s to the 1940s, and Winston-Salem's train stop was called Union Station when it was built almost 100 years ago. Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #union cross #moravians #quakers #forsyth county #history Human Interest Normal Tweet

Pigeons take flight in the morning fog. FILE: (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) Rock pigeons — originally known as rock doves — are native to Europe, introduced to this country by colonists in the early 17th century, and due to their ability to adapt, they've thrived in both urban and natural settings ever since. Domesticated some 5,000 years ago, the birds have been used as messengers, in racing clubs, and their refined homing abilities lend the species to research to this day, helping scientists better understand how birds navigate. But it's the feral animals that we see in the Triad — including Greensboro, says North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission bird conservation biologist Scott Anderson. “If they were declining, I would be very surprised,” says Anderson. “The standard story of declining birds is that they rely on more natural habitat — like wood thrushes, for example. There are sort of forests around — and as we convert those forests to other habitat types, whether they're more urban or suburban, then those birds are losing their habitat. But rock pigeons are kind of the opposite ... they do really well in urban environments.” While recent estimates show a net loss of nearly 3 billion birds in North America since 1970, Anderson says pigeons are not on the list of threatened species. He adds there's little way of confirming if there's been a population decline specifically in Greensboro until the completion of the North Carolina Bird Atlas, where bird enthusiasts monitor and report populations among the roughly 470 species in the state. The five-year project wraps up in 2026, and it's open to the public.   Story does not include AP content #pigeons #rock pigeons #threatened #bird atlas #north carolina wildlife resources commission Environment Normal Tweet

Salem Lake in Winston-Salem, N.C. Image courtesy of Cooper Sullivan. Cooper Sullivan/WFDD Since early September, Salem Lake's water levels have been about 10 feet lower than normal as construction crews are working on the boat ramp and retaining walls. For people, this just means a few months without water activities. But Kernersville native and frequent Salem Lake visitor Elizabeth White wants to know how the construction will impact the surrounding nature life. "I want to know if the draining of Salem Lake, and also the flooding of Salem Creek is having any effect on the biodiversity of the plants and the animals that live in that area. And also what does that mean for our drinking water, since we get our drinking water from Salem Lake as well?" In the 2018 election, Winston-Salem voters approved a bond referendum that allotted $3.7 million toward Salem Lake improvements. And in August 2021, Phase II of these improvements began. The projects planned include renovations of the shoreline bulkhead, rebuilding the boat ramp, adding additional kayak storage, creating boat slips and building a picnic shelter near the playground.  Bobby Hege, the lakes program supervisor for the City of Winston-Salem Recreation and Parks, is overseeing the construction. He said that the construction crews slowly allowed water to flow from the lake through an open valve on the dam into Salem Creek. This process prevented flooding along the creek and drastic changes in the lake. “It hasn't really had a negative effect on the animal life. The water being drawn down does compile and make all the fish closer together, which for the big fish they get real happy. Some of the smaller baitfish, maybe not so much,” says Hege. Hege also mentioned that the lower water levels have attracted more freshwater birds, like egrets and herons to the area.  Wake Forest University professor of biology Miles Silman echoed Hege and said that many Piedmont area lake ecosystems are very resilient when it comes to disturbances because Salem Lake is manmade. “If you think about the amount of flooding that comes down a river due to a hurricane, or a very large rainstorm event, those create tremendous volumes of water. I suspect similar to the kinds of water volumes that were put out by releasing the water to draw down the lake, if not more. The organisms that live in that water are used to having those kinds of disturbances, particularly when you get to larger streams,” Silman says. And in terms of the water releasing into Salem Creek, Silman says it is doing more good than harm. “One of the bad things that happens when you put a bunch of dams in the system is that you eliminate the flood pulses. And what happens then is that vegetation can grow into areas where they normally wouldn't be able to live. It can change the entire way the stream looks, what they call the morphology of the stream,” Silman added. Urbanization can also affect the morphology of streams, and this is evident in the case of Salem Creek. If you were to look at old mapping records of Winston-Salem dating back to when the Moravians settled across Forsyth County, you would see that the streams of today look much different from the 18th century. This is what Wake Forest assistant professor of engineering Lauren Lowman and student Sam Matterazzo saw for themselves.  “The reason why they chose this area was because it had a lot of natural springs and it had a lot of underground stream networks to provide these natural springs. They came here because we are so rich in water. And as time went on and we moved towards industrialization and building this urban center, those streams got in the way. So we built over them,” Lowman says. “Now we have a lot of asphalt and concrete and building groups. Those are all impermeable surfaces, which means that the water can't get absorbed into the soils, so instead it runs off into our streams. So a lot of these streams, like Salem Creek, like some parts of Muddy Creek, you'll see quite a bit of stream bank erosion. So when it rains, the water only has so many places it can go,” Lowman continued. Lowman is talking about the Salem Creek Greenway, where portions of the pathway are subject to constant flooding. Matarazzo, a senior Wake Forest student who has been working with Lowman since his freshman year, says there are ways to mitigate flooding.  “You select a section of stream, usually a couple miles at a time, and you basically redig the channel back to the most natural possible way," Matterazo says. "You're going to use native plants, obviously, like they grow here for a reason. You're going to want to use those as a way to just act as a natural sponge, just to absorb. The Salem Creek Greenway is built almost right along the creek. But ideally, you'd have a riparian area where you have all that vegetation between the creek and the greenway so that it gives a huge natural buffer for it to flood.” This process is called rewilding. But the chances of this happening at Salem Creek are slim as those natural buffer zones have already been built over. This would require extensive construction in a narrow area. However, this does mean that the current Salem Lake construction and draining is not having an impact on the flooding habits of Salem Creek. The construction is also having no effect on the city of Winston-Salem's water supply. Bill Brewer, water treatment superintendent for Winston-Salem, says that no water from Salem Lake is being taken to treatment facilities while the construction is ongoing. “Our system is very resilient in the respect that we have three water plants. And we also have ample capacity in the Yadkin River that we can draw from just in this type of scenario,” Brewer says. So to answer Elizabeth's question, the impacts on biodiversity are minimal and the drinking water supply is still safe. And while the water levels returning to normal depends entirely on the amount of rain this area will get, the lake will hopefully bounce back by the end of the year. There is no reason to worry. Unless you are a small baitfish. Story does not include AP content #salem lake #winston salem #biodiversity #wildlife Environment Normal Tweet

Scientists say the bald cypress trees that line North Carolina's Black River are among the oldest on Earth. APRIL LAISSLE/WFDD North Carolina is known for its natural features — think the Blue Ridge Mountains or the pristine beaches of the Outer Banks. Less attention though is given to its forests. That had listener Gayle Morris wondering: "Where in North Carolina can a person experience old-growth forests?" In short, the answer is along the banks of the Black River in eastern North Carolina, where towering bald cypress trees have stood sentry for more than 2,000 years. WFDD's April Laissle traveled there to learn more about what these trees can tell us about the state's evolving climate.  On the River Just off a remote road about an hour outside of Wilmington, I'm following a group of researchers past an abandoned cabin and down a gravel trail that leads to the banks of the Black River.  My companions today are dendrologists, scientists who study trees. Some have come from as far as the Czech Republic to study the ancient ones rooted under this river's murky waters. We all climb into kayaks and set off on the water. Old-growth bald cypresses line either side of the Black River in eastern North Carolina. APRIL LAISSLE/WFDD The further down the river we get, the older the trees look. Then, as we emerge from a cypress knee obstacle course, the canopy opens and suddenly we're in Jurassic Park. Knobby, moss-covered buttress roots jut out of the water, their grey trunks giving way to branches that sit almost perfectly flat – their bushy tops have long been knocked out by storms.  Then finally, we come across The Old One, a gnarled bald cypress that, at age 2,600, is among the oldest trees in the world. It's been around since the early years of the Roman Republic, but it looks much like the rest of the trees in this area. That's because it likely isn't the oldest one here, it's just the one with the most solid trunk. The characteristic is critical for the technique used to date these trees, called coring.  Coring Trees Each researcher is carrying an increment borer – a kind of T-shaped manual drill. It's what they use to take samples from trees.  I watch as University of Tennessee researcher Savannah Collins-Key aims hers at a smaller tree and begins turning its top handle to drill into the trunk. She pulls out a perfectly cylindrical sample of what's inside of it and stores it in a plastic straw.  Researcher Savannah Collins-Key shares a tree ring a sample she collected using an increment borer. APRIL LAISSLE/WFDD This tree, like the Old One, is solid all the way through, but there are many more in this forest that are rotted on the inside, yet still living. The more solid the core, the more comprehensive the core sample will be.  The coring process is kind of like a mosquito bite for the tree – it doesn't really hurt it. And it yields critical information.  “I sometimes call them like the first information superhighway, or the original thumb drive. There's tons of information in tree rings,” says Neil Pederson, an ecologist with the Harvard Forest who helped coordinate this trip. “Sometimes a tree will stop growing for a year around the base of the tree. And that happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes drought, but sometimes other things. And all that information is stored in tree rings,” Pederson says. “So we can get the age of the tree, we can get growth rates, we can get changes in growth rates. And that all tells us a little bit more information about how these trees have lived. And we can use them to make inferences about what has happened in the past.” Pederson says in effect, these tree rings tell a story. And they can sometimes give clues about mysteries in human history too. Researchers used tree rings to determine that the worst drought in 800 years occurred the same year that the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island disappeared.  Pederson and his team are coring trees along the Black River to do what's called a climate reconstruction, specifically to learn more about how this ecosystem has historically responded to hurricanes. They're selecting several trees in this area to create what he calls “a chorus” of perspectives about what has happened here.  “The hope is that this data will be information for modelers to try to understand how future hurricanes might impact these systems,” says Pederson. Pederson and his team will spend the next few months traveling to old-growth forests along the East Coast for the same reason.  “You put on your backpack, you get your straw, you get your increment borer and you just go looking for the oldest trees,” says Pederson. “I mean, like, don't tell anyone this, but that's what we do often. And so you're like, 'oh my gosh, I get paid to look for old trees.'” Keys to Survival Pederson is following in the footsteps of David Stahle, a dendrologist who teaches at the University of Arkansas. He's been studying the trees along the Black River since the 1980s. He says when he first drove along the roadway through the forest, he knew he'd hit something big. “Old trees are like old people. They don't hide their age that well,” says Stahle. “And so we just stopped right in the middle of the road and got out of the car. And we're dumbfounded by thousand-year-old trees on both sides of the highway.” Stahle set out to core those trees, and eventually, he came across the Old One. He says the cypresses have survived for so long in part because they're in an adverse growing environment. “The Black River is a nutrient-poor, tannin-stained stream, a little bit acidic, you know, really kind of low in natural fertility,” says Stahle. “And so the growth rates are extremely slow.” The environment was poor enough to hinder growth, but not quite bad enough to kill them. Their age is what helped them dodge the logging bullet, Stahle says.  “They're very old trees. From a logging point of view, timber production point of view, they are decrepit, over mature, pecky and heart rotten,” says Stahle. “And those are all negatives when it comes to board footage.” Major storms also couldn't knock these trees out. Stahle says that's because as harsh winds blow in, the trees hold onto each other under the water.  “And so if you're going to blow it over, you've got to blow the entire forest over,” says Stahle. “They'll snap off, especially a hollow cypress will snap off in a hurricane. But rarely will you see them uprooted.” Ghost Trees The continued longevity of these trees is something Stahle worries about though. He says human actions can seriously impact this ecosystem.  “All kinds of industrial activity could be installed within the drainage basin of the Black River that could impact water quality, and, in fact, has impacted water quality of the Cape Fear and her tributary. So, you know, we know this story, right, we know the story of the anthropogenic climate change, the human impact on the environment in North Carolina, and Arkansas, and elsewhere in the United States. And it's just not a trivial problem.” Stahle says his research has also revealed insights into what the future may hold for these ecosystems if more isn't done to address climate change. Tree ring data suggest that it's only gotten wetter in the modern era due to warming temperatures. And with the sea level rising and the forest just two meters above it, these trees could soon be in dire straits.  “With uncontrolled anthropogenic climate change, you know, they're going to be ghost trees in the future,” says Stahle. “Now, that's not tomorrow. It's maybe not for 100 years, maybe 500 years, but, you know, I'm confident we're gonna have to get a handle on the energy crisis.” Stahle says he has hope though. He sees enormous pressure, economic and otherwise, to address climate change.  “But those things are hard to turn around,” he says. “So you don't want to mess with Mother Nature. And we are.” Stahle continues to advocate for conservation both at the state and federal levels. He plans to return to this river this month in search of more ancient trees, and the stories they have yet to tell.    Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #old growth forests #climate change Environment Normal Tweet

Historical maps of Forsyth County displayed in the Wachovia Room at Old Salem's Moravian Research and Archaeology Lab. APRIL LAISSLE/WFDD County border lines in North Carolina are often far from symmetrical. That's especially the case for Forsyth County, which is certainly not a perfect square. That had listener John Strong wondering:  “Why do Forsyth County's southern boundaries look like Swiss cheese?” WFDD's April Laissle spoke to Martha Hartley, the director of research at Old Salem's Moravian Research and Archaeology Lab, to find the answer.  Diagram excerpted from The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait of a Changing Southern State. “Forsyth County's distinctive outline is a product of history and nature," Hartley says. That history is centered around the Moravian Church and its purchase of 100,000 acres of land in 1753 in the backcountry of North Carolina. Hartley says they named their new colony Wachovia after the Wachau Valley they knew in Austria with its similar rolling landscape. The Moravians chose the land due in large part to the richness of water resources. “The Moravians were thinking about the long term, they were thinking about a place that would support their plans for congregations and long-term stability," says Hartley. "And so this water, this amazing Muddy Creek system that is the backbone of Wachovia, is fed by thousands of springs and smaller tributaries. And when you think about where people are going to live in the 18th century, water is life." Wachovia was situated in Rowan County for the first 20 years the Moravians lived there. But by 1771, population growth prompted colony leaders to create Surry County by splitting up Rowan. But, they drew a dividing line right through the center of Wachovia, worrying the Moravians.  “So the Moravians petitioned, and the line was redrawn in 1773, and it was redrawn by the Moravian surveyor. The southern line of Forsyth County is mostly from this particular moment, and it included the southern boundary of Wachovia, the distinct form that we see today.” Both the southern and eastern lines of present-day Forsyth County came mostly from the split that created Surry County. For the next 18 years, Wachovia sat in the southeastern quadrant of Surry County, but by 1789 the population had reached another tipping point. “As the population continued to grow, there was a need for people to be close to their county seat and courthouse, because that's where all the business is done, and it's a powerful place," Hartley says. So, Surry County was cut down the middle, with the eastern half becoming Stokes County. The lower western side of Stokes was generally drawn along the Yadkin River. Rivers made logical borders because they had to be crossed.  The divide that would finally establish Forsyth County as we know it today didn't come for another 60 years.  “In 1849 Stokes County was cut in half. And the lower portion, which contained Wachovia the whole while, was named Forsyth County after Benjamin Forsyth, a local statesman and war hero who was fatally wounded in the War of 1812," says Hartley.   From there, leaders had to decide where to place the county seat in the new Forsyth County.  “At that time, Salem was a center for trade and growing industry and was located in the middle of the new county, the logical place for a county seat," Hartley says. "But Salem was a theocratic community. It was a religious place, and church leaders did not want a courthouse in Salem with its courthouse business and places of execution. So within the Salem town lot, they sold 51 acres in the northern part for the new county seat, which was ultimately named Winston.” The borders of the county have stayed more or less the same since then. The original Wachovia tract still fills the middle of it. And in many ways, Winston-Salem's city limits reflect Wachovia's historic borders.  Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #forsyth county #old salem museum and gardens Human Interest Normal Tweet

Downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. KERI BROWN/WFDD In this edition of Carolina Curious WFDD listener and High Point University Spanish Professor Adam Winkel wants to know the origins of his home city's name: Greensboro. “Why is the ‘boro' suffix in North Carolina usually spelled 'b-o-r-o' rather than 'b-u-r-g' or 'b-o-r-o-u-g-h'?'” As WFDD's David Ford soon found out, it all goes back to history and other languages, because “burg,” “borough” — however you want to spell it — and “bury” for that matter (as in Salisbury) are all Anglo-Saxon in origin dating back centuries to the land of lederhosen and bratwurst. In Germany, “burg” means a town surrounded by a wall. And there are lots of them there: Nuremberg, Brandenburg, Hamburg. So, in England, the closer you are to Germany the more you'll find “burg”s. Director of Local History and Genealogy at the Randolph County Public Library “Mac” Whatley says the suffix “borough” — which also means town — has gone through an evolution over the centuries. For example, Edinburgh, Scotland may be spelled b-u-r-g-h, but it is pronounced as if it ended in b-o-r-o-u-g-h but just runs out of gas on the last syllable. “So, there are all kinds of linguistic rules about dropping the vowels and things like that because of lazy pronunciation, but in England, all of these kinds of things come from history and language,” he says. “You know the Celts, the Saxons, the Vikings, everything in England goes back to some kind of historical event.” Fewer than 100 people? That's a Hamlet. Roughly 1,000 or less? Village. Less than 50,000? Town. More than 100,000? City. More than a million? Metropolis. Meanwhile, here in the New World, America, terms that may have been treated historically back in the day become political. “That's why there's such a variety of names — or suffixes really instead of just names — because in this state in this country, cities and towns are created by the state legislature, and people petition the legislature for incorporating a city or town,” says Whatley. “And whoever is doing the petition can choose the name.” He says, take Charlotte for example: 800,000 people and it's a city. But Kannapolis is also known as a city, and it only has 45,000 people. “And of course, it's a real outlier because “polis” is Greek,” says Whatley. “It means city, so, it was named city of the cannons, you know the cannon mills founded it. But then you've got Pinehurst which is officially a village, and they have 16,000-some-odd people, but Franklinville, where I live, is a town and it only has 1,600 people.” Whatley says some historical suffix influences do endure here in the South. “Ville” from the French began catching on shortly after the French Revolution starting with Louisville, Kentucky, in 1780, and three years later, Campbellton, North Carolina, switched to Fayetteville. And Asheville? Well, that's where things get political. “You would use ‘ville' if there was already a ‘borough.' So, Asheboro is 1796, and Asheville is 1797. And both of them are named after Governor Samuel Ashe. You also had Greenville, which is 1786 in eastern North Carolina, but you had Greensboro which is 1808, and they're both after General Nathaniel Greene. Then you had Princeton in Johnson County 1861, but Princeville in Edgecombe County in 1885." So, when you have lots of little towns like North Carolina has, you've got to be inventive with names. Interchanging suffixes is one way to do that. Whatley says the sounds of words count too. There are lots of Franklinvilles (after Ben Franklin), but no Franklinboroughs. As for all the b-o-r-o cities in the Tar Heel state —Greensboro, Asheboro, Tarboro, Carrboro, Pittsboro, Wilkesboro, Swansboro — he says, they just all sound better than “burg.” But, getting back to our listener Adam Winkel and his question about the mysterious b-o-r-o ending to “Greensboro.” Will we ever know the answer as to why? “Well, I think it's linguistic laziness,” says Whatley. “Because Asheboro, when it was incorporated in 1796 was a ‘borough,' and then it went through a whole period for 100 years where it was just Ashboro. And so, they weren't even spelling Ashe right since it's named after a governor, Samuel Ashe. But they didn't know it had an ‘e' on it, so they just did the quick and easy thing. So, b-o-r-o, it's just easier — quicker when you're writing a letter or [an] envelope or something like that.”   So, after all that history, politics, and linguistic evolution, the answer to our listener's question is, “Because people are inherently lazy?” “Yeah,” says Whatley. “I think that, and bad spellers,” he laughs. Well, ask a simple question, and get a simple answer, but always know this: no question is too big or too small for the Carolina Curious. Support for Carolina Curious comes from Buie's Market Winston-Salem.    Story does not include AP content #suffix #greensboro #boro #borough #bury #burg #carolina curious Culture Normal Tweet

A doe and her twin fawns graze comfortably in WFDD listener Donna Jaffe's yard in Winston-Salem. Photograph courtesy of Donna Jaffe. Picture if you will a tranquil scene: two innocent, speckled twin fawns gently frolicking together on soft green grasses as their mother looks on protectively nearby. WFDD listener and Winston-Salem resident Donna Jaffe has front row seats to scenes like this one in her own backyard, and she's curious about something: “Do twin fawns stay friends or pals after they grow up?” For this week's Carolina Curious, WFDD's David Ford starts at the very beginning — and that's a very fine place to start. When European settlers first arrived here in the Piedmont, white-tailed deer were plentiful. But within a century those populations were practically wiped out from over-hunting. Today, about a million of the animals call North Carolina home, and they're so adaptable, they can be found in just about every type of habitat — including neighborhoods like the west side of Winston-Salem where Donna Jaffe and her husband live. “So, last year, I often saw a doe and twin fawns come into my yard and eat my vegetables and my wildflowers, and the fawns would play together,” says Jaffe. “And then later in the season I would see just the fawns. Mom told them you can go up there in that yard, but stay together, so they'd stay together.”   These days, that's about par for the course, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Biologist Jason Smith. Over the years, he's been getting more and more phone calls from urban-area homeowners complaining about deer eating their ornamental shrubs and other landscaping plants. He says the conflict is inevitable as the human population expands into what was once wooded deer territory “Deer are very generalist, and they learn to adapt especially if there's a good nutrition food source and they feel safe and secure in these urban areas,” says Smith. “And oftentimes urban areas don't have hunting. The cities that don't have that don't really have a good control mechanism to help keep the population sort of in check as in the more rural areas where you have hunting, and they're being harvested.” As the number of urban deer continues to grow, so does the strain on the animals' relationship with their two-legged neighbors — us. The maximum number of deer, or other animal species, that the human population will tolerate, forms what Smith calls the "cultural carrying capacity," and it varies from person to person. Thankfully for the deer family in Donna Jaffe's backyard, the only shots she's taking are photographs chronicling their development as the seasons come and go. “This year, I've started seeing two grown-up-size deer come in,” she says. “They seem to be together. They seem playful as if they're young. Maybe they're yearlings? Maybe they're last year's spotted fawns? But they seem to be playing together. One time I actually saw the two of them rear up on their hind legs and spar like boxers. It was an amazing thing.”   So, do twin fawns remain playmates after they're all grown up? According to Smith, it depends. He says fawns typically remain together with their mother throughout weaning — two to four months — and they continue to reside with the doe for the first year. “Where the difference is, is with yearling does and bucks,” says Smith. “Yearling bucks, they will disperse and leave the area and begin establishing their own home range. And this can be up to three to five or more miles from where they were raised. But for yearling does, they will generally stay in the area where they were born, and they can often form family groups.” Smith adds that while it's most likely that twins would be one buck and one doe, there is a possibility that there could be two doe fawns born together still residing in the same area. So, it's a potentially storybook ending for our twin fawns, playing together side-by-side in their own little deer herd in Winston-Salem. But the fun is relatively short-lived. Does typically survive in the wild for just three to six years. For bucks, it's two to five.  Story does not include AP content #deer #fawns #doe #carolina curious #winston-salem #populations #urban Environment Normal Tweet

Don "Chef Don" McMillan with his homemade chess pie. DAVID FORD/WFDD Traditional chess pie is easy to make and calls for the simplest of household ingredients — eggs, butter, sugar, cornmeal, and vinegar — and it's been a Southern dessert favorite for more than a century. And WFDD listener Sam Edwards wants to know more about it. "I'm interested in the etymological root of chess pie," says Edwards. "It's a favorite delicacy of mine. It's a Southern dessert dish and I've always been fascinated by it — a.) because I enjoy the heck out of it, but b.) because I've always wondered where the name came from. It's a curious title for a name. Blueberry pie. I can get my arms around that. Chocolate pie. I can get my arms around that. Apple pie. But chess pie?" There are lots of chess pie variations, and almost as many theories on the history behind the name, and every Southern chef has a personal favorite. American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Famer Don “Chef Don” McMillan is a New York transplant who's called the Triad home for decades, and a trusted source on chess pie.  This is a pie from my childhood that I remember and a chess pie that my mom would keep in a pie chest if you can believe it. This is before the refrigerators became part of the kitchen. We even had ice boxes in the kitchen. But I remember we kept pies in the pie chest as well as bread was kept in there too, so baked goods were kept there. I think this is how it got its name: the "pie chest." This pie is loaded with so much sugar I don't think it's going to go bad anywhere. You don't have to keep it in the refrigerator.  Nancie McDermott is a James Beard Foundation award nominee who has authored several books, including Southern Pies with an entire chapter dedicated to chess pies and their many iterations including Molasses Pie, Transparent Pie, Vinegar Pie, and more. "The one that makes the most sense is that chess is a corruption of cheese. To make cheese the traditional way is to make milk curdle, strain off the whey, and you're left with the curds," says McDermott.  She's referring to the British sweets kitchen — cheese pies with sugar, butter, and eggs, but without any cheese. In fact, the early British cheese pies simply meant those with curds.  "And you will find a lemon cheese pie — if you look back in cookbooks to 1910 and 1920, you'll find a lemon cheese cake. It's separate words. So, the presence in Southern baking of lemon cheese and cheese pie, that makes sense that this would have been called by somebody a cheese pie because it's made with — the iconic one is vinegar, probably apple cider vinegar, and a little bit of cornmeal." Stephanie Tyson is the chef whose recipes have been featured in the New York Times, and co-owner of the award-winning Sweet Potatoes restaurant in Winston-Salem, where they serve a unique blend of Southern-inspired uptown, down-home cooking. Before cornmeal — because that's the basic ingredient in the chess pie is cornmeal, the binder was chestnut flour. And I was reading that and it's like, okay, that's a concrete thing for me as a cook that's not lore, it's fact. Before you had this, you used this. So, it makes sense to call the pie a chess pie. And then because of the American chestnut tree blight, the American chestnut tree disappeared, so they turned to cornmeal. Chestnut Pie to chess pie, cheese pie to chess pie, and pie chest to chess pie are three of the most often cited explanations for how this delicious pie got its name. But the most colorful of chess pie origin anecdotes is perhaps the most famous, and like the pie itself, every chef and culinary enthusiast has a favorite version.  As one of the dozens of variations goes, an 18th-century woman was baking pies for neighbors at a time when nuts were scarce. To get around it, she made a sugar pie with eggs, sugar, flour or cornmeal, butter, and a splash of vinegar to cut the sweetness. Stephanie Tyson recalls the story instantly. “The slave that was making the pie with basic ingredients and somebody said, ‘Oh, yeah. That's great,' and the slave said, ‘Oh, no it's jes' pie.' And you know how we Southerners say stuff, ‘Jes pie…chess pie,” says Tyson. In the end, it's clear that the elusive answer to our Carolina Curious question remains elusive. We may never know the etymological root of “chess pie.” And that's okay, because, after all, it's "jes pie." If this edition of "Carolina Curious" whetted your appetite, you can try your hand at this simple chess pie recipe from Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan. Betty Thomason's Classic Chess Pie Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 tablespoon cornmeal 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 eggs, beaten well 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup butter, melted Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust, then crimp the edges decoratively. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cornmeal, and salt, and stir together well. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, vinegar, and vanilla and stir to mix everything well. Add the melted butter and stir well to evenly combine everything into a smooth, thick filling. Pour it into the piecrust. Place the pie in a 325 degree F oven. Bake until the edges puff up and the center is fairly firm, wiggling only a little when you gently nudge the pan, 40 to 45 minutes. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool to room temperature. Makes one 9-inch pie. Story does not include AP content #chess pie #sugar #etymological root #carolina curious Culture Normal Tweet

“Wachovia,” P.C.G. Reuter, 1766, Collection of Moravian Archives, Herrnhut, Germany. Centuries ago, thousands of Moravian and Quaker settlers came to the Piedmont in search of a better life, and their legacy lives on here in countless ways. WFDD listener James Sims had one specific contribution in mind and asked this question for Carolina Curious. “What are the oldest streets in the three Triad cities that are still in use today?” asks Sims. WFDD reporter David Ford set out for answers beginning in the Wachovia Room at Old Salem's Moravian Research and Archaeology Lab. Martha Hartley directs that research and says the answer is complicated, with many layers of history. Wachovia in the Backcountry. Photo courtesy of Martha Hartley, Old Salem's Moravian Research and Archaeology Lab.   “Now, if we think about the time when the Moravians came to North Carolina to begin their colony — they had purchased the land and they came in the fall of 1753 — and they came from southeastern Pennsylvania where they were settled in Bethlehem and Nazareth,” says Hartley. “And they came along a colonial highway, The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road, and it started in Philadelphia, came through the valley of Virginia, and into North Carolina, and crossed the Yadkin River in what we know as the Shallowford today. But when the Moravians came this was not a road, it was more a path known as Morgan Bryan's Road.” Hartley says through diaries, we know the trip wasn't easy for the early Moravians. For starters, they were forced to narrow their enormous Pennsylvania wagon in order to accommodate the small pathway. “They had to cut trees and make way for themselves because it was a path, but it did become a colonial highway,” she says. “And if you're in Virginia — if you're in the Roanoke Valley for instance — there are highway markers about this road, but it's called the Carolina Road because it was on the way to Carolina. But we typically call it The Great Wagon Road or the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road. So, this road is what I know of as the earliest road that Europeans were using here in what we know of as Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.” And the first major roadway here is still going strong. “Parts of this road are certainly currently in use, and if you're in northern Forsyth County right as you come down Highway 8 and it breaks off into Stanleyville Drive, there's a huge road cut that you can see that's enormous, and that is the vestige of the Wagon Road,” says Hartley. “And so, Stanleyville Drive parallels the old roadbed, and it comes through sort of urban Winston-Salem. But we know this road very well in the Lewisville area because from Lewisville out towards the river is the Shallowford Road.” Hartley says The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road — the path pioneered by Quaker Morgan Bryan in the 1740s — was a crucial part of North Carolina's backcountry settlement in the colonial period. It's the granddaddy of Winston-Salem area streets, but there are plenty of other centuries-old roadways still with us today, many of which developed along the ridges of waterways like Muddy Creek and its tributaries where springs provided a ready source of clean water: Indiana, Akron and Old Walkertown Roads; parts of Reynolda in the north, Miller Street in the south, and Polo Road in the west. Highway 8 at Stanleyville Drive, view south, Wagon Road cut (2015). Photo courtesy of Martha Hartley, Old Salem's Moravian Research and Archaeology Lab.   And what about the earliest street in the Gate City? Greensboro History Museum Curator of Community History Glenn Perkins says it's hard to say exactly — commuters there are still probably unwittingly following trading paths of the Indigenous Keyauwee and Saura peoples from centuries ago — but he says one of the most important colonial roads still in existence today is New Garden. “It ties so much to Guilford County history,” says Perkins. “So, right now you know one stretch of this road is a multi-lane expressway almost between Guilford College and the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. But that was an old route by which the Quaker settlers who founded the New Garden Meeting in the 1750s traveled and connected to what would become in the 1770s the administrative center of the new Guilford County.” Perkins says the New Garden Quaker Community thrived and the roadway that made it possible eventually supported other Quaker settlements, providing a means for travel and commerce. Even the city's namesake, Quaker General and Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene, was likely familiar with New Garden Road. “Because there was a skirmish before the battle of Guilford Courthouse called the Battle of New Garden that occurred in 1781,” he says. “So, you have both the British and the colonial troops traveling along that road and making their way up to what would become the big battle at Guilford Courthouse. Then about ten years later, George Washington came to visit the area, and he would have traveled up that route as well because he stayed at a tavern that was near what is today Guilford College and would have wound his way up New Garden Road to see the courthouse site.” The road's impact was felt strongly in the 19th century as well, providing the pathway to Guilford College founded in 1837, and before that, leading enslaved people from bondage. “In the early 1800s, it becomes known for its connection too to the Underground Railroad of course because the New Garden community was so critical in helping freedom-seeking enslaved people to find their way north to freedom,” says Perkins. “So, this highway where you might even see a coffle of enslaved people walking along is also going to become a point from which people can depart and go off onto the Underground Railroad trails and find their way to Indiana or another free state.” The Haley House which is located on the Museum's campus and is the oldest house in Guilford County still on its original foundation was located on the Petersburg-Salisbury Road and appears on an 1808 map of North Carolina. Public domain. Image provided courtesy of High Point Museum.   So, Greensboro's New Garden, a road for travel, commerce, education, battles for independence, and freedom. And in High Point? According to Marian Inabinett, the Curator of Collections at the High Point Museum, one of the most important historic roads still in use is what is now Greensboro Road and Lexington Avenue. She says today the road comes from Greensboro, connects with Gate City Boulevard, continues straight to northern High Point, and arrives there as Lexington Avenue. But it dates to the mid-1700s. “And it was the Petersburg-Salisbury Stage Road,” says Inabinett. “Jamestown's main street was also part of that road, but it was one of the most important north-south routes through North Carolina, and it started in Petersburg, Virginia, on the James River and came down and obviously met up with Salisbury in North Carolina going through what was in Martinsville, the county seat of Guilford County, and catching New Garden and going down through Lexington. Well, High Point wasn't here then as a city. So, it connected all those places and once it got to Salisbury, other roads led out to the western part of North Carolina to Charlotte and down into upstate South Carolina.” Inabinett says the Petersburg-Salisbury brought settlers here from the coast of Virginia, circumventing the dangerous fall lines and cliffs near Raleigh. And unlike most of the Triad's oldest streets, Petersburg-Salisbury has a clear marker dating back to the road's early beginnings. “For us here in High Point and the High Point Museum, the 1786 Haley House is actually sitting on that road,” she says. “And it's still sitting on that road. The Haley House is the oldest house in Guilford County still on its own foundations, and it appears on early maps. In fact, the first official state map in 1808 of North Carolina shows the Haley House sitting on that road. And Mr. Haley was a sheriff, a landowner, a blacksmith, so it was to his advantage to be sitting on the main road that's going through — one of the main roads — going through North Carolina.” Curious to learn more? The public is free to view the Haley House in person on Saturdays on the High Point Museum campus and learn about the New Garden community — including its connections to the Underground Railroad and the life of one of its most famous residents, Dolley Madison — at the Greensboro History Museum. And beginning in August, The Old Salem Visitors Center will reopen with the new exhibit “On the Road Again,” exploring travel and transportation in 18th and 19th century Salem.  Story does not include AP content #old salem #greensboro history museum #high point museum #quakers #moravians #settlers #new garden #shallowford road #petersburg-salisbury stage road Transportation Normal Tweet

Litter Sweep volunteers help clear trash from the roadside. The next sweep will run from April 10-24. Photograph courtesy of NCDOT. There are familiar signs of spring in North Carolina — birds singing, daffodils popping up everywhere — but there’s also something unfamiliar going on that’s making the views around here far less scenic. WFDD listener Karen Mercer asks, “Why is there so much trash on the roads and byways of North Carolina?” State Roadside Environmental Engineer David Harris says he’s well aware of the problem, and the answer boils down to available resources. The North Carolina Department of Transportation took a huge hit with the high costs of road repairs following massive storms last year. Then came COVID-19 and the pandemic-related budget cuts. “They were predicting a $700-million drop in revenue,” says Harris. “So, if someone told you that you were going to have a reduction in your salary by a significant amount, how many things would you put to a higher priority? Litter and roadside items don’t really kill people. So, we want to keep our roads safe. We want to keep traffic signals operating. That’s our priority. And so, yeah, we started pulling back hard when the forecasters started predicting that.” Last month as revenues began returning, the Board of Transportation shifted more than $30-million dollars within the department to contract more workers and address roadside issues. Harris says since January they’ve picked up more than two million pounds of trash along the more than 80,000 miles of roads they control, with hopes of collecting an additional $18-million pounds by year’s end. But there’s much ground to make up following the temporary shutdown of all NCDOT-sponsored Litter Sweep programs due to the pandemic. “This time last year, we didn’t know what to do,” says Harris. “We were being told to wear masks, stay safe — so, we felt like it was just best to cancel that event because we weren’t sure. That led us into the fall. But now, people wear masks, and we as a society have learned how to handle COVID-19 and we feel like people are going to go out there and they’re going to be safe. So, the April 10 through 24 [Litter Sweep] is still on.” That’s welcome news for WFDD listener Keisha Redd. The Winston-Salem attorney says she passes piles of litter during her frequent drives along Highway 52. “If people wanted to volunteer and clean it up, is there somewhere we would need to get permission from?” she asks. “I imagine they don’t want just groups of people walking around the highway.” Harris says the department’s volunteer base is the backbone of the operation, with Adopt-A-Highway program volunteers alone picking up roughly 160,000 pounds of trash to date this year. For individuals like Redd willing to roll up their sleeves, Harris has a ready solution. “I would encourage them to look up Litter Sweep,” he says. “At the NCDOT website, there’s a lot of information there. It’s going to tell you who to contact in your county. We have resources like trash bags, gloves, and vests. And that individual at the county DOT office can say, ‘That’s a good road,’ or ‘Maybe you need to pick another road; our traffic’s pretty bad out there,’ and they’ll try and steer them toward a safer environment.” Harris says he’s troubled by the amount of trash that continues to be discarded along roadways. Last year NCDOT spent roughly $20-million dollars cleaning it up, money he says that could have been spent improving roadways and bridges. He adds as the current generation of volunteers gets older and less able to get out for Litter Sweeps, he’s excited to see more young people getting involved and taking pride in their communities and their roads. “North Carolina has a history of looking really good,” says Harris. “Our wildflower program is legendary. People come to this state and will detour on their way down south or up north to come here. But recently we’ve been getting these letters saying, ‘Oh my god, what’s happened to North Carolina?’ So, the Department of Transportation wants to get the state back to looking great, because when this COVID-19 is over with, tourism is going to come back full steam and I know everybody wants to get out of their houses. So, just make sure that the trash ends up where it needs to go.” For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content #ncdot #trash #pick up #litter sweep. adopt a highway #dot #david harris #coronavirusnc Environment Normal Tweet

In this Jan. 4, 2021, file photo, Carlos Dennis, left, 65, rolls up his sleeve so that Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue paramedic, Capt. Javier Crespo, can administer a COVID-19 vaccine shot. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) With the recent rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, many people in the Triad area are wondering, ‘When’s my turn?’ A WFDD listener in Summerfield asks: “Where do I get the COVID-19 vaccine? I am over 75 and anxious to get the ‘jab.'" For this edition of Carolina Curious, reporter David Ford has more on where things stand right now. So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advice on priorities for the vaccine have been in flux. But county officials are already rolling out the vaccine for the 75 and older population across the state. North Carolina Institute of Medicine Project Director Brieanne Lyda-McDonald says the situation is evolving. “The recent guidance from the federal government would lower that to 65, however, North Carolina and all other states apply these guidelines in different ways,” says Lyda-McDonald. “So, over the coming days we’re going to be hearing from the Department of Health and Human Services in North Carolina to find out how they’re applying that guidance.” Because vaccine supplies are currently very limited, seniors 75 and older may have to wait a little while. They’ll likely need to make an appointment with their local health department or hospital. Those seeking a COVID-19 vaccination can search online by zip code on the NC Department of Health and Human Services “find your spot” website, or call their toll-free number. Lyda-McDonald says frontline health care workers have been in the highest prioritization group. “If they are in contact with patients who are known to have COVID-19 or have risk of contact with those patients, many of those workers have already been vaccinated or are in the process of being vaccinated still,” she says. “And none of the prioritization for that worker-group will be changed.” As of January 13, North Carolina lagged behind most other states in the number of vaccines administered thus far with roughly 2,500 out of every 100,000 people. For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content Health & Safety Normal Tweet

Deer in the Great Smoky Mountains. Photo credit: Missy McGaw, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and his pals may hold a special place in our hearts during the holidays, but what about big herds of deer descending on neighborhoods and eating everything in sight? WFDD listener Kate Brinko wonders what’s going on in Boone.  White-tailed deer in the Great Smoky Mountains. Photo credit: Missy McGaw, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. “We live on the mountain in the northwest corner of Boone, so we’re up against a lot of woods above and around us,” she says. “We have so many deer in the High Country here and beyond. Is there any program to limit their numbers to protect their health and safety?” Reporter David Ford set out for answers in this installment of Carolina Curious. First off, he wanted to know more about the conditions on the ground. “Year before last there would be herds of 8, 10, or 12 deer that would come passing through," says Brinko. "And they’re hungry and eat everything. We put in eight field-grown rhododendrons and the first week they were down to nubbins. I asked some friends to do some bow hunting and they went down along our property and said, ‘This is like Highway 95 over here,’ so many deer. But then this year, all we saw were a doe, her two fawns, and I did have a sighting of two yearling buck.” One thing that’s clear: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission data for Watauga County show that there haven’t been too many deer at least in terms of the available habitat. In general, they’re not overrunning their surroundings. But District 7 Wildlife Biologist Jason Smith says people’s tolerance is another concern. Feeding patterns change year to year — often due to urban development. And when local deer populations do surge? “The best answer to that is actually hunting,” says Smith. “Because hunting is the best tool and program that we recommend and has a long-term solution. It helps to maintain herd health in the deer population and also reduce these human/wildlife conflicts.”  Smith says residents would have to change their local ordinances to allow for hunting there, but the Town of Boone can participate in the Commission’s urban archery season. And for neighborhoods like Kate Brinko’s on the outskirts, the Community Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) allows homeowners associations to request extra tags for hunters to use in designated areas. And for those residents who want to live in harmony with area deer populations but who also would like to keep their gardens and landscaping plants from being eaten every year? “Even in rural areas, deer are going to get into people’s gardens just because these plants are very palatable and generally preferred by the animals,” says Smith. “The best method for protecting them really that I’ve seen and have folks do is use electric fencing to fence off these garden areas. And we have information concerning the proper ways to fence off these areas on our website.”    Story does not include AP content #deer #boone #watauga county #population #doe #buck #garden #bow hunt Environment Normal Tweet

Forsyth County's COVID-19 dashboard showing numbers from December 16, 2020. Screenshot courtesy of Forsyth County Public Health. Late last month, Forsyth County announced that 20% of its COVID-19 tests were coming back positive. It was more than double the rate the state had calculated for the county. The discrepancy wasn’t unusual. For several weeks, the county has reported a much higher percent positive rate than the state. That’s been confusing to Levi Bennett, a Winston-Salem resident, who asked Carolina Curious for an explanation.  “It’s so important to me because people need to know what's actually going on,” he said. “And the disparity, I think, just sows more doubt in a lot of people's minds.”  WFDD’s April Laissle spoke with state and local public health officials to uncover the reasons behind the discrepancy.  Why is there such a big difference between the percent positive rates from Forsyth County and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS)? The county looks at a bigger scope of test results when they calculate that rate. NCDHHS only factors in electronically reported results. They say this is because manually reported results can occur in batches, so it can’t be confirmed that positive and negatives occurred on the same day. They estimate that about 20% of all test results are reported manually, and all of those are left out of their calculation. Results from rapid tests are also left out. Joshua Swift, Forsyth County’s public health director, says the county factors in those manually reported results, and those from rapid tests. He says they’re able to do this in part because they have an epidemiologist on staff who is able to take a closer look at everything.  “She scrubs the data that we get from the state to make sure that they're all Forsyth County residents, not just people that are tested in Forsyth County,” said Swift. “The state cannot necessarily do that because they're looking out for one hundred counties and not every county has an epidemiologist on staff that can do that.” How much does this difference really matter?  We know that some agencies use the percent positive rate to help make important decisions.  It’s one of the numbers the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district monitors, though in a statement they said they don’t have a “hard line to serve as a marker of whether to continue” to reopen schools. They also said they could change their minds about that at any time.  Percent positive is also taken into account for the state’s county level COVID-19 alert system. The state does not consider the county’s calculation when assigning those alert levels. Last month, the state designated Forsyth County orange, in part because it had its rate at 9%; 10% would have landed it in the red tier. At the time, Forsyth’s calculation was 20%, more than double what the state had.  Does it seem like officials are worried about this discrepancy? Forsyth County public health officials have said it’s more important to pay attention to the overall trends in the metrics rather than little changes in each individual number. Health Director Joshua Swift says it’s pretty clear that viral spread is high in Forsyth County, no matter which calculation you look at. He says the upward trends alone should give citizens enough information to make decisions about safety.  But we also know that changes in individual numbers do matter when it comes to certain guidelines, like the state’s county-level alert system. And if the difference is large enough, that could impact decisions citizens make about whether to go to the grocery store rather than have food delivered, for example. So it’s important to understand how these rates are calculated, and why they may vary.  For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #coronavirusnc #covid-19 #forsyth county #north carolina department of health and human services #joshua swift Health & Safety Normal Tweet

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP As of Thursday, nearly 2,500 North Carolinians have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. More than 150 of those deaths were of Guilford County residents. A listener asked Carolina Curious how the county tallies those COVID-19 deaths, and why Guilford’s mortality rate is higher than other North Carolina counties. We spoke with experts from Cone Health and the Guilford County Public Health Department to find the answers.  How exactly does Guilford County count COVID-19 deaths? It first depends on whether a person dies at home or in a hospital. If the death occurs in a medical facility, a doctor will determine the cause of death. If it happens at home, a medical examiner will step in. Under the state’s guidance (which is followed by Guilford County), a death is included in the official COVID-19 total if a person:  Tests positive for COVID-19 Died without fully recovering from COVID-19 Had no other alternative cause of death The positive test piece is critically important. If a person was never tested for COVID-19, their death won’t be included in the official count, even if their doctor suspected coronavirus played a role. Post-mortem tests can be done. If the case meets all the criteria, doctors and medical examiners are required to fill out a form and send it to the health department within 24 hours.  Is it a straightforward call in most cases? Yes, in a vast majority of cases, it’s an easy determination for a doctor to make. If someone enters a hospital with shortness of breath, tests positive for COVID-19, declines, and eventually passes away – the situation is pretty cut and dry. But it gets more complicated in other cases because even experts don’t have a comprehensive understanding of all the ways COVID-19 affects the body quite yet. Dr. Bruce Swords, the Chief Executive Physician for Cone Health, said, for example, someone could come into the ER with a heart attack, test positive for COVID-19 one hour later, and then pass away.  “So what is that physician going to list as the cause of death? That physician would be in somewhat of a conundrum,” said Swords. “They know that the patient had a heart attack, and that's for sure. But is it possible that being infected with the coronavirus actually caused the heart attack? Very hard to figure out.” These cases are relatively rare though, Dr. Swords said.  Could this lead to an undercount of deaths? It’s definitely possible. “There are almost certainly patients who have died with coronavirus outside of the hospital who have not been captured as a coronavirus death,” said Swords. “And there are almost certainly patients who died of a heart attack or a stroke or something else that were also infected with coronavirus.” Dr. Iulia Vann, the director of the Guilford County Public Health Department, said they have a series of checks and balances in place to make sure their data is as accurate as possible. She says the county has a team that can flag death certificates if they suspect a death was related to COVID-19 but was not reported as such. But she says there’s still room for improvement.   “We're still learning,” said Vann. “The process might have some areas in which it might not be 100 percent perfect. So we're trying the best that we can to have the best numbers that are reported. But sometimes we know that there might be some more information that we will have to learn from the virus in order to make that the best classification that we can.” Why does Guilford County have a higher mortality rate than other counties in North Carolina? Dr. Vann says the answer isn’t quite clear cut, but several factors may be contributing to the higher rate. For example, Guilford’s life expectancy was already lower than peer counties before the pandemic even hit. “So that leads you to understand the fact that we have some stronger and some more serious underlying social determinants of health and medical situations in our community that puts members at a higher risk of negative medical outcomes," she said. Vann also noted that the county has a significant number of long-term care facilities, and outbreaks in them have led to more deaths because those residents are more vulnerable.  For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing.   Story does not include AP content #coronavirusnc #covid-19 mortality rate #guilford county #cone health #carolina curious Health & Safety Normal Tweet

(MIC SMITH/AP) Governor Roy Cooper has said his administration is relying on science and data to make decisions about how to keep the public safe from COVID-19. Many North Carolinians have been trying to do the same – checking the latest numbers on the DHHS website to decide whether it’s safe to go to a restaurant or even send their children back to school. But it can be hard to tell how those numbers are determined. A listener asked Carolina Curious how Forsyth County counts active COVID-19 cases. We took a look at the latest policies and spoke with experts to learn more.  How does the county public health department determine if a COVID-19 case is active or recovered? If contact tracers can monitor the case, Forsyth County considers someone recovered: 10 days after the date of testing, if they never show symptoms of the virus 10 days after the onset of symptoms, if those symptoms have improved and it has been at least 24 hours since they last had a fever If health officials aren’t able to reach someone after a positive test, they consider the case recovered: 14 days after the date of testing, if the case is non-fatal and doesn’t require hospitalization At a press conference earlier this week though, Health Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said the CDC is now saying that people with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 only remain infectious for 10 days after the onset of symptoms. “So now someone who has had symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19 can stop isolating when they can answer 'yes' to the following three questions,” said Cohen. “First, has it been at least 10 days since symptoms, since your symptoms started? Has it been 24 hours since you last had a fever without using fever-reducing medicines? And three, have your symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath improved?” Cohen says she knows a lot of businesses were requiring employees to test negative before returning to work, but this new guidance says that’s no longer necessary. She said the state will be revising its recovery guidelines given this new information. But for now, the county is counting active cases under the current rules. And, it’s important to note that Forsyth County is only releasing the active case numbers for county residents.  Is that the case for all the numbers the county reports to the public? Yes, and that is a critical distinction to make when talking about hospitalization numbers. The county only releases the number of Forsyth County residents hospitalized at county facilities. So for example, if you live in Surry County but are being treated at Wake Baptist in Winston-Salem, you won’t be included in the Forsyth tally. Because so many people from rural areas come to the county to receive medical treatment, that number isn’t a complete picture of how full our hospitals are.  The state has recently released more local data about hospitalizations.  You can now view numbers from each of eight different defined regions of the state. The Triad’s region covers 16 different counties.  The state also released information about how many total hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators are available region by region. WUNC Data Reporter Jason Debruyn has been following these numbers closely and says this is a big deal.  “If you have just a broad brush stroke look at how many people are in hospitals, well, you may have a high number, but if a lot of those people are just sort of your low level, not super sick patients, that tells a completely different story than if you have half or two-thirds of those patients on ventilators or in ICU.” Why did the state choose to release all this new information now? We don’t know for sure, but it could be related to a recent lawsuit filed on behalf of several different news organizations asking the state to fulfill a number of public records requests related to the pandemic.  Dozens of unfulfilled requests were listed in the complaint. Reporters are asking for data on prison inspections, outbreaks at meat processing facilities, and more granular information about case demographics among other things.  Attorney Michael Tadych, who is representing the news organizations in the lawsuit, says it seems like the state has set a high bar as far as confidentiality because they are concerned about the stigmatization of COVID patients. But he says it’s hard to see how some of this data could lead to patients being identified, and the lack of information has made it harder for people to assess the level of risk in their communities.  “We're experiencing a pandemic and the governor with his staff are making decisions about it,” said Tadych. “But the data that is driving those decisions is not available in such a way where somebody could go to other experts to say, do you think that this is appropriate under the circumstances? It's obviously a constantly moving target. And so the more data, the better.” In an emailed statement, NCDHHS did not specifically comment on the pending litigation but did say the department “has been and continues to be committed to responding to public records requests as promptly as possible; however, the department is experiencing a very high volume of requests, and the fulfillment of requests may be affected by the agency’s work responding to COVID-19.” Some of the requests that were outlined in that initial complaint have since been fulfilled, and there’s a chance more could be before the court steps in.  For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content #coronavirusnc #ncdhhs #covid-19 #forsyth county #carolina curious News Health & Safety Normal Tweet

Photo Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Revenue declines brought on by the pandemic have put many state projects on hold, including some roadwork.  A WFDD listener was wondering about one of these. She asked a Carolina Curious question about the status of the first phase of the Winston-Salem Loop. Pat Ivey, with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, says the loop project, which is the first segment of the beltway from Salem Parkway to U.S. 158, has been delayed, but not because of the pandemic. "Mainly because of weather, issues with the contractor, and different things like that. It should have opened earlier this year," said Ivey. "But we did have some issues that we're trying to work through on that project and they're almost finished with those.” Ivey says the loop is now scheduled to open early this fall. The pandemic has affected other projects though, including the widening of U.S. 158. That’s been delayed six months to January of next year, and it could be pushed back further if the money needed still isn’t available.  The department lost more than $300 million in revenue due to COVID-19 this fiscal year. That’s led to widespread layoffs and other cuts. For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content #transportation #carolina curious #ncdot Transportation Normal Tweet

In this photo taken Tuesday, April 28, 2020 in Raleigh, N.C. a woman holds a no job sign during a rally near the General Assembly. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) The past few months have seen a drastic rise in the numbers of unemployment claims in North Carolina, and the agency that deals with processing them is overwhelmed — endless phone waits, online confusion — leaving thousands in desperate need of financial relief now. For WFDD's series Carolina Curious, we’ve received a slew of questions from listeners who want to know where their money is, why it’s taking so long, and the best way to file. First, some background on unemployment benefits: to get them, you either have to be out of work or received reduced hours through no fault of your own. You can apply by phone or online at the state’s Division of Employment Security (DES) website. Create an account, fill out an interactive application — the entire process typically takes less than an hour.  But if conflicts arise, it’s a different story according to Legal Aid of North Carolina supervising attorney John Keller. “Let’s say there was a question of, ‘Well, the employer said I was fired for insubordination, but it’s not true. I didn’t say anything that was wrong,’” says Keller. RELATED: Carolina Curious: (Your) Unemployment Benefits Questions Answered In that case, he says, things can get complicated quickly, generating additional paperwork to include the employer’s side of the dispute.  “And someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose,” he says. “And based on that decision, the losing party can request to have a hearing in front of an appeals referee, and then the appeals referee will listen to both sides and then make a decision about whether or not the employee is going to get unemployment benefits.” And he says that process can take anywhere from four to eight weeks. Keller says the unemployment applications themselves are simple and pretty straightforward. Today’s COVID-19 landscape is anything but.  “In sort of normal times, DES would be accepting and processing approximately 3,000 unemployment applications per week,” says Keller. “And during the month of April, there were days where they were receiving 1,000 applications per hour.”  A typical year sees roughly 150,000 applications for unemployment benefits in North Carolina. Just in the last few months alone, there have more than a million. “That gives you a sense of why there’s so much frustration with folks applying saying that either they can’t get in, or once they got in, the application has remained in some kind of a pending status, and they can’t get through and find out what’s going on with their application,” says Keller. DES has more than doubled its staff responding at the call center, and significantly increased tech staff to process applications. But it’s still not adequate, and Keller recommends applying online.  Adding to the backlog is the addition of three new benefits programs designed to help jobless individuals through the COVID recession. All three are federally funded as part of the $2 trillion economic stimulus package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act. Keller says each brings economic relief, but also its own set of unique processing headaches, and one confusing acronym after another.  Pandemic Unemployment Assistance The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, covers folks working outside of the typical 9-5 model who were previously denied unemployment assistance. “It is allowing people who are self-employed or people who are independent contractors, or people who are just simply part-time workers without a lot of wage history built up in the past year," says Keller. "These three groups of people can now apply for unemployment benefits.” Prior to the pandemic, if you ran your own hair salon, for example, and business got slow, that was your problem. PUA accepts all these applications. But Keller says, between the minimal federal guidelines, and confusion surrounding which documents and payment history to upload, handling the claims has led to huge backlogs.  Pandemic Unemployment Compensation The second new program is PUC: Pandemic Unemployment Compensation. You can think of this as bonus dollars from the federal government.  “If you generate your state unemployment claim, whatever you get per week you’re going to get $600 per week on top of that up through the end of July,” says Keller. “If you are one of these independent contractors, self-employed; you’re now out of work; you generate a PUA claim; you get a $600-dollar PUC payment on top of your PUA benefit.”  Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Finally, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensations program, or PEUC, is designed to help folks who’ve tapped out their state unemployment benefits. It provides up to thirteen weeks of additional support. Taken all together, these programs mean a substantial amount of money for many households, adding to the frustration level for the thousands who’ve been left waiting. “DES is well aware of the delays in processing applications, and they’re well aware of peoples’ inability to get in on the phone,” Keller says. “And they are working as hard as they can from our perspective to try to get these problems fixed.” That may be cold comfort to former DES head Lockhart Taylor. On Wednesday, following numerous complaints about long waits being faced by the unemployed, Taylor was removed from his post by Governor Roy Cooper.  For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing.   Story does not include AP content #coronavirusnc #benefits #claims #unemployment #pua #puc #peuc #north carolina #john keller #legal aid of north carolina Economy Normal Tweet

The dashboard that an unemployment insurance applicant sees when logging into the NC Department of Commerce Division of Employment Security website. DES has received a record amount of claims as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. WFDD/SCREENSHOT DES.NC.GOV Nationwide, unemployment claims are being made in unprecedented numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In North Carolina, the Division of Employment Security typically processes 3,000 requests a week.  Now they’re averaging 20,000 per day. For this edition of Carolina Curious, we answer listener questions about navigating the unemployment benefits system. WFDD’s Eddie Garcia spoke with DES Public Information Officer Larry Parker about what changes are coming, and when those filing unemployment claims can expect to start seeing their payments.   When should people see their first unemployment insurance payment? Typically, we're paying people after they file their second weekly certification. We've paid out nearly $28 million. And that’s with over 400,000 claims to process, so we're getting payments out. We're processing claims, but most certainly, at its earliest, it's going to be two weeks before you'd receive a payment. What can people making claims do to keep on track or help expedite the process? We're trying to really remind folks that every week you must certify what you did the week prior. Some folks are playing catch-up and filing weekly certifications for two and three times because they didn't know they had to file a weekly certification. So we're trying to remind folks — don't forget to do that. Because if you don't file a weekly certification, you don't get paid. What if you were let go more than 14 days ago, but haven't yet made your claim? We're essentially going to start your claim on the date that you tried to file it. So let's say you still had issues a week ago, or two weeks ago, and you haven't been able to complete it. We're going to backdate that to the date that you began to file your claim. In some cases, we may go back to when you're separated from work, if there was a technical issue when you were trying to file a claim. But for the most part, we're going to start that claim from the date you tried to begin filing.  Why are applicants still being asked to fulfill their weekly work search requirement on the website when Governor Roy Cooper's Executive Order No. 118 waived that?  They should answer in the affirmative that they are looking for work on those questions. Again, since the governor's executive order waives work search, that essentially allows them to say "yes," they did look for work. That'll make the process go a lot smoother. That's how we instructed on the website as well. DES is waiting for further instructions from the federal government to implement new guidelines, which include additional weeks of benefits and a $600 increase. What exactly is the department waiting for? Well, there are three additional programs that are going to affect unemployment. The first is what's called Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation. That's the extra $600 you've heard about. We did receive final guidance on Sunday evening, and we are working as quickly as we can to implement that so folks can get paid those additional $600 a week. The second is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and this one's like a disaster unemployment assistance. So a lot of these folks who may be self-employed, or independent contractors, or might have other reasons why they can't file a regular claim might be eligible under the PUA. So they'll file a regular claim, then they're likely going to get denied. That's just one of the rules, you've got to check and make sure you're eligible for regular benefits first. Then they roll over into the PUA program. We hope to have more details on that one later on our website. And then the third one is Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC). And that'll be the additional 13 weeks of benefits, should folks run out. So when folks exhaust their 12 weeks, they can pick back up for an additional 13. So we'll have those definitive rules and everything that goes along with that on our website. Hopefully very soon. What is the best time to reach DES? We are taking on a lot of emails. We're taking on a lot of calls. We're taking steps to try to improve that process. We are utilizing staff from the NC Division of Workforce Solutions to not only answer emails, but to help folks out with password resets, etc., and to also file claims for folks over the phone that may be having difficulty online. So we're continually shuffling staff around that we have in the building to help certain areas out that might be overloaded more than others. So I would just tell folks, be patient, we're gonna take care of you. We're going to make sure that your claim is processed and filed, and we'll make sure that you get any monies that you're eligible for. It's a new normal for us. It's an all hands on deck situation. DES staff is working overtime, and working weekends, to help out folks in North Carolina. *This interview was lightly edited for clarity. For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Story does not include AP content #coronavirusnc #coronavirus #covid-19 #unemployment #des #pandemic #benefits Economy Health & Safety Normal Tweet

Roy Schwartzman heads the Department of Communication Studies at UNC-Greensboro. Photo courtesy of Roy Schwartzman. This month on "Carolina Curious," we’ve been taking a look at how language is used to deflect from the truth.  WFDD listener Christina Connell wants to know how certain techniques are used in politics, for example. Last week, UNC-Greensboro Communications Professor Roy Schwartzman tackled “red herring.” Today we look at the term “false dichotomy.”  Schwartzman relays the perils of black-and-white thinking to WFDD’s David Ford.    Retired Surry Community College educator Christina Connell. DAVID FORD/WFDD Interview Highlights On the long history of false dichotomy: This way of thinking has been labeled many, many different things over the centuries. In fact, what's interesting about this fallacy is that more recent research is indicating that this type of thinking may well be hardwired into our evolutionary biology in a sense, so that automatically our senses and our perceptions of the world are designed to make categorization very easy by saying something we encounter that is new or different is either all one thing or all another. And you can see where this is very functional from a survival standpoint. So, for example, you know, think back into the prehistoric age. We see some large wooly thing approaching us. Well, immediately false dichotomy can kick in and say, "Well, we've got to classify that one of two ways. Is it something we can eat? Or is it something that is going to eat me?" So, of course, your life depends on having a correct answer to that. But the reason it's a dichotomy is because there are only two choices. You can make this intuitive decision very, very quickly — "That's coming toward me, really big. Now I'm seeing big teeth. I better run away."  On the pitfalls of black-and-white thinking: The problem is that the world is not a true-false test. Things aren't just all one thing or another. Most choices we have to make and most alternatives are matters of degree. The world is much more richly textured than all one thing or another. Another popular name for this fallacy is called black-white thinking, and I think that has particular resonance in our region of the country in the South with a history of segregation because, indeed, it is false dichotomy and that kind of thinking that directly resulted in racial segregation. People were classified as either black or white. Well, in reality, there is no such thing as a singular "white" race or a singular "black" race, because there is no such thing as racial purity in that sense. As a matter of fact, the notion of clearly defined races is a human imposed categorization scheme.  On what happens when false dichotomy falls into the political realm:  That's part of the reason for dysfunction in government. You're either conservative or liberal. That's it. Nothing in between. Well, what happens? No compromise, no dialog, no entertaining of possibilities. You're either Republican or Democrat. You're either pro-life or pro-choice. And here's an actual example from a very important moment in history, which is 9/11. You're either with us — the United States — or you're with the terrorists. Now, in some cases, those dichotomies are important. So, for example, in morality, we very often will talk about needing to differentiate between good and evil. However, even those distinctions need to be looked at much more specifically. Is it the case when we're confronted with moral choices that something is either totally good or totally evil? This idea of being so quick to make categories that are all or nothing has historically and continues to have terribly damaging results. We need to appreciate the richness of life's textures beyond just two choices.  EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was lightly edited for clarity. Story does not include AP content #false dichotomy #logical fallacies #unc-greensboro #roy schwartzman #carolina curious Politics & Government Normal Tweet

Retired Surry Community College educator Christina Connell. DAVID FORD/WFDD In the midst of a pandemic and highly charged election season, being able to distinguish between truth and fiction is critically important. But doing so has become increasingly difficult with the explosion of digital media, and countless news platforms to choose from. WFDD listener and retired Surry Community College educator Christina Connell says understanding an age-old method of misleading people may help. “Could you find someone, perhaps an expert, who can present, explain, give examples of several logical fallacies?” she asks. “I believe it would be very instructive to help your listeners understand that these techniques can be used to deflect from truth.”  Simply put, logical fallacies are errors in reasoning; the ideas might be arranged correctly, but the content’s off-kilter. There are lots of different kinds: false dichotomy, equivocation, and straw man, just to name a few. UNC-Greensboro Communication Studies Professor Roy Schwartzman. Photo courtesy of Roy Schwartzman. To help navigate through them, WFDD’s David Ford reached out to UNC-Greensboro Communication Studies Professor Roy Schwartzman.  Interview Highlights On red herrings: The easiest way to remember what the fallacy is, is to think of the literal red herring, which is a very spicy and rather odiferous fish. The only thing that you start paying attention to is that strongly smelling fish and all of your focus is on dealing with that fish, and you totally get sidetracked from enjoying your meal. And that is exactly what a red herring fallacy does. It introduces something that usually has a strong emotional reaction, positive or negative, and throws people off. And red herrings are very common when you're talking about public health issues. For example, people will talk about something to do with a disease such as the coronavirus and risk factors. And someone will say, "Well, no, I'm not going to do any of these sorts of things despite the health evidence, despite the arguments for why we should try to avoid unnecessary contact and travel and things like that. Because my grandpappy lived to the ripe old age of 120 and he never paid attention to hygiene. And he was touching his face all the time. He was eating garbage foods. He didn't pay attention to anything they're asking us to pay attention to. And he was perfectly happy and healthy." Now, all of that is possibly quite true. But the question is, does that actually refute the medical evidence about transmission of coronavirus? And the answer is it has nothing whatsoever to do with it. But it's very vivid and very memorable. So, people start arguing about, well, something to do with your grandpappy and the 1918 flu and now all of a sudden, we're not talking about coronavirus anymore.  On post hoc fallacy:  The full name being post hoc, ergo propter hoc, which is the Latin for "after which, therefore, because of which," the idea that simply because one thing comes before another, it causes it, or if one thing comes after another, then it is the direct result of that one thing. Something like, "You know what? We quarantined everyone wearing blue shoes. And sure enough, immediately after that happened, we found that the coronavirus infection rates dramatically declined. Therefore, clearly, blue shoes are extraordinarily dangerous. And it was a brilliant strategy to concentrate on segregating people with blue shoes from the rest of the population."  It may well be true, of course, that both of those things happened, but that does not necessarily mean that one is the direct cause of the other. And you're going to run into these statements a lot, particularly with who tries to take credit for whether this gets better or worse in the short term. So, you know, if we find a spike in the infection rates, in the morbidity mortality rates, everyone is going to try to point the finger at someone or something else to blame for it — usually with minimal evidence. And if things improve, then everyone will be scrambling to say, "Well, it was because of something I did, or people on my side did." And I guarantee you will hear this coming from every corner of the political room as this thing runs its course.  EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was lightly edited for clarity.     Story does not include AP content #coronavirus #logical fallacies #red herring #post hoc fallacy #roy schwartzman #uncg Health & Safety Normal Tweet

KERI BROWN/WFDD After a primary or an election, data is quickly available about how certain demographics voted. WFDD listener Susan DeVaney wants to know where this information comes from. WFDD finds out in this quick edition of Carolina Curious. Voting data comes from two places: official election statistics from state government and more commonly, what are called exit polls. “Typically exit polling is done when people are walking out of the voting area and someone asks them to answer a few questions about who they are and why they voted, how they voted,” says Elon University Poll Director Jason Husser.  Husser says these findings are supplemented with telephone surveys before the election to account for early voting. Exit polls are helpful for media and analysts reporting on outcomes because the information is available quickly, but they’re not perfect. “They often are designed to represent bellwether precincts rather than necessarily a perfect sample or representation of all the subgroups throughout the state or the country.” The main organization that does exit polling in the U.S. is Edison Media Research. Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #exit polls #election 2020 Politics & Government Normal Tweet

Mayfair Street Partners is renovating 633 N. Liberty St. in Winston-Salem. This building falls into one of the census tracts known as an Opportunity Zone. EDDIE GARCIA/WFDD When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed, the legislation included six pages that could have a big impact on cities. It’s a program built to entice long-term investment in low-income communities, areas that are called "Opportunity Zones." Listener Walter Fyler wants to know more about the program, and what the formation of Opportunity Zones could mean for our cities. For this edition of "Carolina Curious," Eddie Garcia spoke with business and city leaders in Winston-Salem in search of the answer.   In downtown Winston-Salem, it seems like a new brewery or restaurant is opening up every other week.  Mayfair Street Partners, an investment group from Alpharetta, Georgia, has multiple hotels planned downtown and recently announced a new food and entertainment center. Local managing director Simon Burgess says this two-story mixed-use development will feature duck-pin bowling, golf simulators, virtual reality games, restaurants, and events space. Sounds nice — but that’s not all. “On the roof, we’re putting five see-through igloos so you can use the roof bar in the winter,” he says. Yes, a rooftop igloo bar. You won’t have to go to a major metropolitan to try this one out. Part of the reason is that a large swath of downtown Winston-Salem has been designated as an Opportunity Zone. That’s a geographic region identified as economically distressed, where certain investments made there get tax advantages. These regions are called census tracts, and North Carolina has 252 marked as Opportunity Zones.  Winston-Salem has 10 of them, 11 if you include the county. And this big tax break can entice developers. Mark Owens, CEO of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, says capital is flowing from all over into the city. “It has attracted investors from New York, different parts of the country, to look at Winston-Salem,” says Owens. “And maybe they have looked before, but they’re looking in the Opportunity Zones.” This map of Winston-Salem shows some of the areas marked as Opportunity Zones in green. There are 11 such designations in the area. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Commerce.   Not just anyone can take advantage of investing in an Opportunity Zone. Here’s how it works: Step one: an investor sells an asset and makes a profit, generating capital gains. Step two: that money is reinvested into an Opportunity Zone fund.  Step three: a good deal of waiting. To get the full tax benefit, the investment has to be held for at least 10 years. Then the investor is permanently excluded from paying those capital gains taxes on it. So, who exactly is making these investments, and how many have there been in Winston-Salem?  It turns out these investments aren’t directly tracked. The Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, champions of the program, doesn’t even know for sure. “They’re private transactions between people, so we’re not involved,” says Owens. “So it’s hard for us to know the true number of transactions.” City government also appears to be somewhat out of the loop. Business licenses haven’t been required in North Carolina since 2015, so cities don’t have a paper trail to know who’s opening up shop in an Opportunity Zone. Winston-Salem City Assistant Manager Evan Raleigh says there’s little limit on what those taking advantage of the program can build. “Because it is private-sector led, and the government isn't actively sitting at the driver’s seat, and there’s no mechanism by which an Opportunity Zone would have to tell us, ya’ know, we’re really more in the observer role more than anything,” Raleigh says. There are still zoning regulations in place that dictate what can go where, but the private market can make these investments in Opportunity Zones with little to no local oversight. But what about those distressed areas that Opportunity Zones were designed to serve?  That's where Vincent Wilkins comes in. He and his cousin Marlin Wilkins started The Emergent Group to put together a homegrown Opportunity Zone fund.  “I’m not interested in downtown. Downtown is taken care of, pretty much,” says Wilkins. "But let's build up those individuals that are on the outskirts of it because they need the help too.” Wilkins says that while their fund is still being developed, they have some ideas about what they would invest in — something like a mixed-use office and apartment building funneling into downtown. They say it’s a no-brainer to include some kind of housing, and would like to see more investors taking up that charge. But pointing investors and developers into economically underperforming areas is a challenge.  “And I know it's difficult because most people say ‘Hey, it's in a place that's been a desert for economics,’” Wilkins says. “And that’s where me and Marlin come in, because we’re used to working in a place that was distressed for whatever reason. And distressed has so many categories.” The development gold rush is happening right now, but this tax incentive is still in its infancy. It may be years before we see who's really taking advantage of it, and how it’ll shape the look and feel of Winston-Salem and the thousands of Opportunity Zones across the country.   Story does not include AP content #opportunity zones #investor #development #winston salem #business #housing #mayfair #chamber of commerce #downtown #distressed Politics & Government Business Normal Tweet

FILE (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) This week on Carolina Curious, we take a look at what makes the Tar Heel state so purple. Listener Kennette Thomas asks: “Why is it that historically it seems as if North Carolinians will often elect a Democrat for the position of governor but then elect a majority Republican house?” Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer tells WFDD’s David Ford it’s a classic case of “divided government.” Interview Highlights On divided elections: South Carolina is a very Republican state. And so, you're going to have the Republicans control the legislature and governor's mansion. That’s unified party government. North Carolina has typically tended to see very divided elections. In 2000 and 2004, for example, George W. Bush won this state, but then a Democrat, Mike Easley, won the governorship. And there we're talking about ticket-splitting voters willing to vote for one party at one level of political office and then another party for another level. Now, here in North Carolina, it's been since 2010 that the Republicans have been able to control the state legislature through gerrymandering. So, a lot of us would look at that and say the maps for the legislature are very much pro-Republican. But in most recent times, particularly with Roy Cooper's election in 2016, a Democrat was elected to the governorship. So, North Carolina has kind of what I would almost term a bipolar political habit in terms of being very willing to vote for the individuals at times rather than the political parties. But over recent elections, we've been seeing that party loyalty really tightened up, and I think we’re in a new North Carolina. Is North Carolina still considered a purple state? I think it still applies to North Carolina. I think we will see the statewide races really decided probably by less than five percentage points. Remember that Barack Obama in 2008 won with less than half a percentage point. Mitt Romney in 2012 won by two percentage points. And Donald Trump won with about three and a half percent. So, if any statewide official wins with more than I would say five percentage points, that's almost considered a landslide. And I think North Carolina is kind of indicative of some national trends. We're a very competitive state when you talk about the statewide races. When you get down into the congressional level and the state legislative level and the districts, that's much more of, well, one party is going to control a district over another party.  On the history of North Carolina politics: If you go back to the beginning of the 20th century, it was solid Democratic control and that was part of the solid Democratic South. By the time you get to the late 1960s, early 1970s, the Republican Party begins to become very competitive. North Carolina elects Holshouser as the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. And so, we enter a kind of competitiveness in North Carolina from the 1970s up through the 2000s, where North Carolina would vote Republican at the presidential level, but Democratic particularly at the gubernatorial level. By 2008 and 2010's elections, I really look at those elections as kind of being the new North Carolina. It's competitive. Races are decided by very few percentage points, and this is just, I think, the norm for us moving forward in North Carolina politics.  EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was lightly edited for clarity. Story does not include AP content #election 2020 #purple state #michael bitzer #political scientist #democratic #republican #divided government #unified party government Normal Tweet

Children in Winston-Salem play in the snow after a winter storm in December 2018. KERI BROWN/WFDD Many Triad parents were greeted with a flurry of messages Wednesday announcing weather-related changes to school schedules.   Listener John Dillard has received these kinds of alerts many times since his daughter enrolled in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. But, he says, he still doesn’t understand how that decision is made.  “There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to it. They'll be calling for a certainty of sleet or ice or frozen precipitation. But we anticipate it to be mild and they won't delay or cancel school," he says. "And then the very next circumstance will be similar [and] they’ll completely cancel school or jump the gun in going on a delay. And it just doesn't seem to be any consistency to the matter.” In this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD looks into who determines when school gets canceled and why.  It turns out, there’s not just one snow-day decider. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools spokesperson Brent Campbell says it’s a team of people, and he’s part of it.   “The transportation folks and then our folks that manage and secure and keep our campuses safe, along with the operations team, my department," he says. "Of course, the superintendent of schools is included and our instructional superintendents.”  The district’s operations team monitors the weather, and when conditions start looking dicey, they email forecasts to the rest of the group. If things get worse, they call a meeting to try to figure out what to do next. There, they take another look at the forecasts and review an analysis of major roadways.  The transportation folks are the heavyweights in the room. That’s because, Campbell says, the most critical factor is whether or not students can get to school safely. There’s a lot to consider.  “How could these things impact things like road temperatures and conditions, what the roads are going to be like? How could they impact our travel times? How might they impact student drivers?” he says. The district’s size and complex transportation system mean these meetings sometimes stretch into hours.  “We've had instances where, say, the northern parts of Forsyth County get a lot more precipitation," he says. "There's even been times when there's some freezing weather in one part of the county and not in the other. We have to take all of that into consideration.” Campbell says if weather disrupts even one bus route, the entire system is affected. Road conditions, visibility, and even lunch schedules are all taken into account. They also consider how long students may have to spend waiting for a bus or walking home in bad weather.  There are some facts that can make the decision easier. School buses can’t run if winds are greater than 50 miles per hour, according to the manufacturer. And if it’s colder than 20 degrees, some bus engines don’t start up correctly. The deadline to make the call is typically around 5 a.m. because buses begin running at 5:30 a.m.  Campbell acknowledges that sometimes their decisions are controversial. “We do not want to put anyone in harm's way. So we will always err on the side of caution. And sometimes the weather doesn't happen exactly as predicted. And you can second guess it and say, 'Well, why did they make that decision?' I think you can always rest assured that the decision was made with safety at top of mind.” On average, the district cancels about four days of school a year due to weather. The most it’s ever called off is 12, back in 1995.     Story does not include AP content #carolina curious #school closures #weather Weather Education Normal Tweet

File photo. PAUL GARBER/WFDD With primary season in full swing, WFDD listener Julie Coulter has voting security on her mind.  She asks, “Which is the safest way to vote to make sure that my vote is counted: early voting, absentee, or voting Election Day at my local precinct?” WFDD’s David Ford set out for answers on this edition of Carolina Curious. He spoke with Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer.  Interview Highlights On the upsides of early voting: With absentee by mail ballots, you know, there's the concern about the ballot coming in, you filling it out correctly, and then mailing it back and making sure that that's all done within a proper amount of time. If you go absentee one-stop or in-person voting, you basically just walk in, get your ballot, you fill it out, you turn it in and you're done just like you would do on Election Day. Now, the beauty of North Carolina is that all of this information about who is requesting absentee by mail and doing one-stop voting is publicly available. So, you can check on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website to see if indeed your ballot was submitted, it was accepted, and that ballot is basically part of the elections and the votes that will be tabulated on Election Day. North Carolinians have really taken to this in the general elections. In fact, in 2016, two thirds of all the ballots cast in the presidential election for November of 2016 came before Election Day.  On the concerns over election interference and ballot tampering:  I think certainly after the 2018 debacle with absentee by mail ballots in the North Carolina 9th Congressional District and the allegations of vote tampering by individuals, I think North Carolinians are much more concerned about that issue. Really, they shouldn't be, though, if they cast their ballots in person and then go on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website and can type in their name and see that indeed that ballot was submitted and accepted.  On the mood of North Carolina voters ahead of Super Tuesday: I have been tracking the early votes in North Carolina for the March 3rd primary. And they're coming in, but at a kind of slow pace. And I think on the Democratic side, this is to be expected because the field is still so muddy. Yes, we've had two primaries and caucuses. We've got two more coming up before we cast our ballots on Super Tuesday. But I think for North Carolina Democrats and those unaffiliateds who want to vote in the Democratic primary, it really is a watch and see. So, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the bulk of the ballots for March 3rd come in on Election Day. EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was edited slightly for clarity.               Story does not include AP content #election 2020 #early voting #in-person voting #absentee voting #election day #super tuesday Politics & Government Normal Tweet