Friday@Five

Need to Know: Launching AskNC

We are excited to announce the launch of AskNC, an initiative of the Center, EdNC, and Reach NC Voices designed to put the public back in public policy by answering your questions about North Carolina government and how it impacts your life. Read more about it in our Weekly Insight, add our own questions, and share it with friends, family, and neighbors. Here’s how it works:

We’ve already received some great questions, including:

• Why does NC tax the pensions of military retirees? When states like Alabama, Hawaii and New York (just to name a few) do not?
• Why are the governor and the lieutenant governor elected separately?
• Why does it seem that North Carolina schoolkids are being suspended at a much higher rate than neighboring states, and the national average?

Add your question below!

In the Weeds

Zip code continues to be one of the strongest predictors of health, according to the latest County Health Rankings report from the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Our Weekly Insight next week will take a deeper dive on the report, but the graph below shows the county rankings by health outcomes and health factors.

Wake County, the county with the highest median income, ranked number one in health outcomes. Scotland County, the county with the lowest median income, ranked 99th in health outcomes.

Seeking your feedback

Thank you for reading Friday@Five! We hope you enjoy it and learn something new every week. If you have any feedback, please share with us by emailing [email protected].

What we're reading

 

The North Carolina fracking boom that didn’t happen

Carolina Public Press | 03/14/2018

Once expected to join to join the fracking boom, North Carolina is now farther away from taking the plunge and is now more remarkable for its growth in alternatives like solar and wind.... Read the rest

• Cutting Through the Complexity: A Roadmap for Effective Collaboration

  Stanford Social Innovation Review | 03/15/2018

• What If Companies Were Required to Tell Workers What Their Colleagues Earn?

  Harvard Business Review | 03/14/2018

• Sustainable cities need more than parks, cafes and a riverwalk

  The Conversation | 03/15/2018

• Why Is U.S. Health Care So Expensive? Some of the Reasons You’ve Heard Turn Out to Be Myths

  The Upshot | 03/13/2018

• To Track Opioid Use, More Cities May Soon Screen Wastewater

  Governing | 03/12/2018

• If you go into space for a long time, you come back a genetically different person

  Quartz | 03/15/2018