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: James Wood is currently Professor of Latin American and modern world history at North Carolina A&T State University. He is the author of The Society of Equality: Popular Republicanism and Democracy in Santiago de Chile, 1818-1851 and the co-editor of "Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations", now in its fifth edition with Rowman and Littlefield. As a Fulbright scholar for Chile in 2016 he was a visiting professor at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago (where he observed Chilean student activism up close).

This Week: Bill Brown joined the North Carolina Museum of Art as a Conservation Intern in 1988. Thirty-two years later he retired from the Art Museum as Chief Conservator.  He received his M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Studies in Conservation from State University College at Buffalo, NY in 1989. At the Museum, he established the Art + Science Initiative, a collaborative program with Duke University math and science departments. Bill has a passion for Italian Old Master Paintings of the 14th to 18th century. He works part-time as a conservator in private practice and provides conservation support for the Museum and Gallery collection of old master paintings at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC . He enjoys retirement with his wife and young adult son.

This Week: Author Nora Gaskin is a lifelong resident of the Durham-Chapel Hill area. Her latest is novel is "Lammie Loves Cubby". Nora has a bachelor’s degree in English with Honors in Creative Writing from UNC, and a Masters in English from the University of Washington in Seattle. She spent over 24 years as a stockbroker and financial advisor in the Durham office of a major investment firm. She retired in 2005 to focus on writing. She is the publisher at Lystra Books and Literary Services and the author of three novels and one nonfiction book. She lives and writes in Chatham County, inspired by her native landscape, her husband, and dogs. Her favorite word is "gratitude."

Founder and CEO of Therapy Smarts Avani Shah and N.C. District 20 Sen. Natalie Murdock speak with 97.9 The Hill on Monday, June 15.

This Week: Writer Steven Fenberg discovered Jesse Jones was reputedly the most powerful person in the nation next to President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II. As chairman of the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)—the nation’s indispensable infrastructure bank—Jones initiated and managed massive New Deal agencies that saved and expanded the nation’s economy and then shifted the RFC’s priority from domestic economics to global defense to fight and win WWII. Fenberg told this remarkable story as executive producer and co-writer of the Emmy Award winning documentary film “Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?” that was narrated by Walter Cronkite and broadcast nationally on PBS. Fenberg then wrote the biography “Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good.”

Constitutional amendments are supposed to be rare. They are supposed to matter. They are meant to alter foundational principles or governmental structure when absolutely necessary.