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Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. In November, construction ground to a halt on a new Raleigh city hall.  The work stopped because, like many industries that are reliant on immigrant labor, Border Patrol and ICE operations in North Carolina frightened workers.  Because of stories like this, the construction industry is asking…

Plus: Yes, a raccoon broke into a liquor store and got drunk Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. If the first few episodes of “Billy Ball Explains NC” lacked for anything, it was holiday cheer. Not a problem for the new one.  This week, I looked at one of our state’s most…

Plus: Where your Thanksgiving food came from Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. It is one of the terrible ironies of North Carolina that we have some of the premier hospitals in the world, but when it comes to ensuring healthy pregnancies for people who live here, we’re falling behind.  We took…

Plus: 3 things happening in NC this week Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. It’s appropriate that “Giving Tuesday” falls a day after most of the “Black Friday” and holiday shopping deals ship out.  The latter is a time of crass commercialism. The former is the opposite.  It’s about finding a cause…

Plus: Something to be grateful for. Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. Gratitude is a funny thing. If you try to force it, it just feels unearned and cheap. Separating the fake kind from the real kind is worth the extra mental flex.  This week, as we take off for the Thanksgiving holiday,…

Plus: Holiday events abound, including a big Thanksgiving parade. Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. Ever heard of the term “popcorn brain?”  “It’s the real, biological phenomenon of feeling your brain is popping because you’re being overstimulated online,” Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Aditi Nerurkar wrote in Harvard Health Publishing. “Then it’s hard…

Plus: The need is great at the Salvation Army’s holiday drive. Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. We begin this last week of November with the holidays. They are, impossibly, upon us. North Carolina’s capital city, Raleigh, held its annual holiday parade Saturday. Cardinal & Pine’s Michael McElroy was there, and he…

Plus: NC’s best choose-and-cut Christmas tree farms Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. Who can argue with a little bit of good news?  Cardinal & Pine’s recurring Friday series—”Good News Friday“—returns today with an animal that is very, very close to not existing anymore.  We’ve reported before on the red wolf. Deforestation,…

Plus: NC’s 9 most magical winter festivals Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. The federal shutdown is over. But as COURIER’s Jessica F. Simmons reports, we’re still untangling the impacts here in North Carolina. Head Start is a federally funded program that works with local organizations to provide early childhood education to…

Plus: The latest on Border Patrol raids in NC. Share with a friend     Hey, it’s Billy. Today, we’ll begin with some good news.  Researchers at Duke Health may have found something extraordinary among participants in a 20-year clinical trial. In that trial, a small group of women with advanced-stage breast cancer took a…