On Air Today: Rebecca Tippett of Carolina Demography

There are now more than 1 million people in North Carolina who identify as Hispanic, making it one of the faster growing populations in the state. Carolina Demography’s Rebecca Tippett joins 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell to share data from a new report.

Recently released data from the 2020 U.S. Census shows a substantial population increase in North Carolina, with the state topping 10 million residents for the first time. A majority of that growth comes from an influx of adults and people of color in the state’s biggest cities.

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people thought there could be a baby boom. It could actually be the opposite. Preliminary data from the Carolina Demography Center shows there is evidence of a baby bust during the COVID-19 pandemic.

State redistricting plans, allocated federal funding and congressional appointments remain up in the air as U.S. Census data is slowly calculated after delays stemming from the pandemic.

This Week: Lisa Sorg is the North Carolina reporter for Inside Climate News. A journalist for 30 years, Sorg covers energy, climate environment and agriculture, as well as the social justice impacts of pollution and corporate malfeasance. She has won dozens of awards for her news, public service and investigative reporting. In 2022, she received the Stokes Award from the National Press Foundation for her two-part story about the environmental damage from a former missile plant on a Black and Latinx neighborhood in Burlington. Sorg was previously an environmental investigative reporter at NC Newsline, a nonprofit media outlet based in Raleigh. She has also worked at alt-weeklies, dailies and magazines. Originally from rural Indiana, she lives in Durham, N.C.

This Week: Holly Lux-Sullivan of Heartwood Death Doula & Bereavement Care is a trusted end-of-life guide, grief counselor, and board-certified chaplain with 18 years of experience supporting people through illness. She is a respected death doula whose passion is caring for those at life’s margins, particularly during severe and terminal illness, and normalizing conversations about mortality. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, she serves people facing the end of life across central North Carolina. HeartwoodDeathDoula.com

North Carolina legislators are pushing to remove 63 LGBTQ-themed books from CHCCS elementary schools, saying they violate state law for being available in libraries.

This Week: Deana Joy has spent her career working in the nonprofit sector with victims of crime. She began by working with victims of sexual violence then, in 2006, she was promoted to Executive Director of a local Children’s Advocacy and Sexual Assault Center. In 2014, Deana began working as the CEO of Children’s Advocacy Centers of North Carolina, the state chapter for Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs). In 2017, Deana became a national accreditation site reviewer for National Children’s Alliance, the accrediting body of Children’s Advocacy Centers. Deana currently serves as the Chair of the Children’s Justice Act for the Governor's Crime Commission and is on the NC Human Trafficking Commission, the NCDHHS Safety Design Team, the central region Citizen Review Panel, and the statewide Mass Violence Committee.

The Japanese candy company Morinaga held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday to celebrate the opening of its expansion Hi-Chew plant in Mebane.

Roughly 4 in 10 Black voters in North Carolina’s last presidential election said they live in small towns or rural communities.