Kelsey O'Neill

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Site offers health care options

By Kelsey O'Neill | August 29

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services launched a Web site Tuesday meant to better serve the health-care needs of N.C. residents. The site, www.nccarelink.gov, is a searchable database that allows users to match their health-care needs to specific providers in the state. Melodee Stokes, director of the department's Office of Citizen Services, said the site will improve people's access to and awareness of state health-care options. "There are a lot of citizens across the state that have a variety of needs and don't know where to find services," she said.

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Playboy site targets students

By Kelsey O'Neill | August 24

For those students who find Facebook and MySpace too tame, Playboy has the answer. The infamously racy entertainment company launched their non-nude social-networking Web site Wednesday, www.PlayboyU.com. With options to upload photographs and post messages onto friends' walls, Playboy U is similar to other social-networking Web sites. But other sites don't have groups specifically called "Aspiring Playmates."

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Experts predict active storm season

By Kelsey O'Neill | August 22

As the dog days of summer drag on, soaring temperatures soon could be the least of North Carolinians' weather worries. Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an above-average hurricane season - the Atlantic season begins in June but is strongest between August and October. "We're predicting an active season," said NOAA spokesman Dennis Feltgen, who expects 85 percent more activity than average. Average seasons tend to see fewer than 11 named storms, with only two major hurricanes.

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Price grilled on Iraq War vote

By Kelsey O'Neill | April 16

Orange County Democrat Party leaders met with U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., on Friday to discuss the congressman's voting on a recent Iraq War spending bill. Versions of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health and Iraq Accountability Act were passed by both the House and the Senate in March. President Bush has said that he will veto the legislation. Price, chairman of the House subcommittee on homeland security, voted for the bill, which included provisions for further funding of the war in Iraq while regulating an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal.

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N.C. Democrats apologize for 1898 race riots

By Kelsey O'Neill | January 22

ELON - The N.C. Democratic Party, more than 100 years after the event, has apologized for its central role in the 1898 Wilmington race riots. The unanimously passed resolution, approved during a state executive committee meeting held at Elon University, will both distribute the apology statewide and establish a training program for minority and women candidates for office. "Sometimes moving forward requires a sober look at the past," N.C. Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek said in a press release.

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Mindful of care

By Kelsey O'Neill | January 16

Three years after the death of her son, N.C. novelist Lee Smith shared her family's struggles with mental illness Saturday during the 29th Annual Legislative Breakfast for Mental Health. "One family in five is crucially affected by serious mental illness," said Smith, whose 34-year-old son Josh died from a collapsed heart that she said she believes was caused by weight gained from schizophrenia medication. "I think that my job is to put a face to some of these statistics."

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UNC asked to focus on global warming

By Kelsey O'Neill | November 17

Our generation, more than previous ones, has the opportunity to enrich the environmental future of the planet. That's what Eban Goodstein, project director of Focus the Nation and economics professor at Lewis and Clark College, told UNC students Thursday during his presentation at the Tate-Turner-Kuralt building. Focus the Nation is an organization that hopes to engage the country in a discussion about the state of the environment and global warming.

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Panel discusses effects of poverty on education

By Kelsey O'Neill | November 10

Experts discussed ways of bringing the American dream to more children through a better educational system. Obstacles in educating underprivileged children were highlighted at a panel discussion Thursday hosted by the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. The discussion, titled "Can Schools make a Difference in the 21st Century? Education and Workforce Preparation for Youth in America's Margins," was held at the Tate-Turner-Kuralt building. Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, director of the center, fielded and posed questions following panel presentations.

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Voter deadline approaching

By Kelsey O'Neill | October 11

This year, Friday the 13th is more than a day that gives some people nightmares. It also is the voter-registration deadline in North Carolina. Johnnie McLean, chief deputy director of the N.C. Board of Elections, said gubernatorial and U.S. Senate election years normally see a last-minute surge of voter registrations. "This year you're probably not going to see a lot of that," she said, citing the lower-profile nature of the November ballot.

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"Weightless Lumbees" Share NASA experience

By Kelsey O'Neill | September 29

Kids often say they want to be an astronaut when they grow up, only to take a few science classes and swiftly scrap those plans. Brandon Locklear, who is pursuing his doctorate at Colorado State University, is different. "I would like to be the first Lumbee astronaut." Locklear is the former leader of the Weightless Lumbees, a student group at UNC-Pembroke that in August traveled to Houston to conduct research with NASA. Locklear made the trip with Janet Sanford, a graduate student at Colorado State, and Megan Grimsley, a senior biology and chemistry major at UNC-P.