Did you know that North Carolina has seven museums that are officially affiliated with the Smithsonian?

The state landed its seventh this week. The Charlotte Museum of History joins six other institutions around the state.

Cardinal & Pine contributor Ryan Pitkin reported in this week’s “Good News Friday” that the 8-acre campus in the Queen City is home to the 1774 Alexander Rock House, the oldest surviving structure in Mecklenburg County and the only one still standing from the county’s Revolutionary period.

The museum also houses the recently restored Siloam School, which is used to tell the story of early African American education in the South.

The Siloam School is one of the historic Rosenwald schools, so named for the segregation-era collaboration between philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and famed teacher Booker T. Washington to build schools for Black kids in the segregated South.

Check out this and more—including some big “Giving Tuesday” gifts and Gov. Josh Stein’s rural NC grants—in today’s “Good News Friday.”

A demonstration of Revolutionary War-era cooking at the Charlotte Museum of History. (Charlotte Museum of History)

Welcome Friday. Here’s what’s in today’s Cardinal & Pine newsletter: 

Today’s “View from NC” is a science lesson too. 👏 Cardinal & Pine reader Otto Brauer took this shot of the moon with a lunar halo in Beaufort County.

As Otto points out, lunar halos are really cool. They’re created when ice crystals in the atmosphere refract the moonlight.

“In effect, these suspended or falling flecks of ice mean the atmosphere is transformed into a giant lens,” according to Space.com, “causing arcs and halos to appear around the moon or the sun depending on whether the effect is happening during the night or day respectively. “

Thanks, Otto!

Our end-of-year fundraising drive runs through Dec. 16, and your support keeps this work strong. 

Every dollar, every cent, makes a difference. 

1. What the obsession with Bill Belichick’s girlfriend says about us. The Living South

“Whatever you think about the age difference between Belichick and Jordon Hudson, the story—and the coverage of it—has revealed more about the state of American media and us than it has about them. It’s as sexist as ever.”

2. On the hunt for North Carolina’s biggest trees. The Assembly

“Two arborists’ uncommon hobby takes them deep into the woods to look for the state’s leafy giants.”

3. Hidden PFAS pollution uncovered in NC as EPA proposes reporting rollback. NC Health News

“EPA says the change will cut red tape, but new research suggests regulators may already be missing major sources of contamination.”

A new WalletHub study didn’t rank NC too highly on its best places to retire. But the top-ranked city in the state was Raleigh. (Shutterstock)

NC’s getting more expensive to live in.

That’s probably why the state didn’t rank too highly in a new WalletHub study of the best places to retire in America. WalletHub is a company that specializes in creating tools for consumers.

We’ve published a new report on the study, which ranked six cities in the state in the top 182. They include Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem, and others.

However, NC didn’t crack the top 50. Take a look at the story by clicking below.

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m an NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Today’s edition includes stories from Ryan Pitkin, NC Health News, and USA Today via Reuters. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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