Lisa Miller

Ganging up on classmates online can get students suspended.

But sometimes teachers are the target of cyberbullying, and in North Carolina, educators have said enough is enough. State officials have now made it a crime to "intimidate or torment" teachers online.

Chip Douglas knew something was up with his 10th-grade English class. When he was teaching, sometimes he'd get a strange question and the kids would laugh. It started to make sense when he learned a student had created a fake Twitter account using his name.

Winthrop University has named a new president.  Jayne Marie Comstock has served as a senior administrator at a handful of small universities. 

For the first time in twenty-four years, there will be a new face in the president’s house at Winthrop this summer.  Comstock is leaving her post at the American Council on Education to replace retiring president Tony DiGiorgio.  She says she’s long been impressed with the school and is eager to be a part of its next chapter.    

  Sometimes love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially when you fall for a con- artist.  The North Carolina Attorney General’s office identified at least 25 of these victims last year.  Together they forked over more than $2 million to their online sweethearts who turned out to be not so true.     

The number of applications to open charter schools has jumped significantly since the charter school cap was lifted in 2011.  There used to be a couple dozen applications per year.  This year 156 groups plan to apply and that means a whole lot of work for the people who review them. 

Joel Medley is in charge of the office that oversees all of the state’s charter schools.  This year, he expected to hear from a lot of groups wanting to open schools, but not quite this many. 

The new Mecklenburg County commission and county staff members haven’t gotten off to a good start.  Improving that rocky relationship was at the top of the agenda of a three day planning session that kicked off Wednesday.

Commissioners and County Manager Harry Jones are locked in a marriage of sorts.  Right now, it’s not a good one.  Everyone agrees communication could be a lot better.  For that reason, Jones decided the planning session would begin with a sit down. 

South Carolina has some of the laxest ethics laws on the books.  But if the state legislature followed the advice of a bi-partisan commission, the state would have some of the toughest in the country.

Governor Nikki Haley appointed the commission last year.  It includes former attorneys general, prosecutors, former lawmakers, and a journalism professor. 

The Centers for Disease Control estimates one out of every twenty patients winds up with an infection when they get treated in a hospital.  Those infections can be serious and even fatal.  For the first time, North Carolina has published hospital-acquired infection rates for most of the acute-care hospitals in the state.

The idea behind publishing these rates is that infections are preventable.  A patient shouldn’t get an infection from undergoing surgery or having an IV treatment, if the proper precautions are taken.    

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has not had an easy three years.  Mecklenburg County cut a big chunk of its budget.  In response, the library drastically cut hours.  But now library CEO Lee Keesler says things are moving in the right direction.  

What a difference three years makes.  Back then, library board meetings were somber affairs.  But at yesterday’s meeting, the mood was light.  There were even some jokes.   

Visiting inmates at the Catawba County jail no longer requires a trip to the actual jail, but it’s going to cost you 50 cents a minute.  People who want to talk with their loved one or friend can pick a time, then sit at their home computer, and talk through video software. 

It’s not so different from what visitors did before.  A few years ago, the jail did away with face-to-face visits and set up monitors at the jail so visitors could talk through video. 

Four CMS schools that serve pre-k through 8th graders could move to a year-round calendar next year in an effort to boost learning.  The CMS school board plans to vote on the proposal tonight.
 

All kids have experienced the “summer slide.”  When students get back to school in the fall, they spend time re-learning what they forgot over the summer.  But for low-income kids, that backsliding can be even bigger since camp and other enriching activities are harder to come by.