More than 21% of North Carolina's four-year-olds enrolled in the state's pre-kindergarten programs during the 2022-2023 school year, up from the prior year but still below the state's pre-pandemic highs, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.

North Carolina ranks 29th in public pre-K enrollment, new report shows

Durham County budget increases funding for pre-K students

Compared to pre-pandemic prices, ground beef is up 35%, chips are up 45%, bread is up 57% and a 12-ounce can of soda is up 66%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks trends on common grocery store items.

WRAL Investigates: 'Greedflation' and other drivers behind inflation at the grocery store

A look at inflation at the grocery store

Meme Coverage

Of the thousands of snow photos taken in North Carolina, one of the most talked about and shared shots came from a Raleigh woman who captured the chaos on Glenwood Avenue on Feb. 12, 2014.

Fire & Ice: In February 2014, snow summoned flames and launched memes in Raleigh

'Oh my gosh!' Raleigh woman's snow photo goes viral

Online communities are becoming the first platforms where people are expressing their intentions to cause harm. And those ideas often come in the form of provocative jokes, expressed in graphical memes.

Extremist memes spread hate, are hard to track

right-wing, extremist memes

The patch worn by the mass shooter who took eight lives at a Texas mall last week meant nothing to most people. But the acronym R wds for right wing death squad has for years been a popular meme in far right circles. It's the latest example of how experts say violent extremists are using memes to fuel radicalization. It's like grassroots organizing and that you feel like you're really involved, but it's also at scale and that's what a meme can do and they spread like wildfire. The US National Counterterrorism Center recently warned in an intelligence bulletin that memes are full of coded language that makes it harder for social media platforms to flag them as extremist content. The intent is to hide these provocative and extremist messaging under a veil of to avert detection. Memes have been a feature of hate motivated violence for years. The man sentenced to life in prison for killing 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket last year plastered his gun with racist slogans. In the winter of 2020 Aaron Swenson posted these crude anti police memes on Facebook. A few months later, Swenson, a self described member of the Far right extremist group. The booga boys started a Facebook live stream capturing what he said was a mission to hunt and kill a police officer. Prosecutors say this is the moment he tried to ambush a Texas patrolman. He ultimately was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison for attempted murder. We can see how these things that appear innocuous as phony sequel jokes as mean cartoons. They can really rapidly and dangerously convert into real world violence after both Facebook and Twitter cracked down on extremist users following the January 6th attack. Experts say many groups have flocked to more loosely moderated platforms such as Gab Telegram and Discord where Airman Jack Tahera is accused of posting classified documents. I think these gaming sites have really come into the fore in public notice as a way for people to be radicalized and then organized unfortunately, but law enforcement faces the twin challenges of anonymity and free speech protections. A lot of extremist content is posted under pseudonyms and the FBI has been reluctant to monitor public social media posts by Americans. I don't think we've taken this homegrown extremism seriously enough and we've been very hesitant and of course, we need to protect the First Amendment, respect the first Amendment, but we also have to take extremism seriously.

How hateful memes are a threat to national security

A woman in South Carolina makes the same type of mittens that Bernie Sanders made famous at the inauguration, but she's found there's not a lot of need for them in Hilton Head. 

<p>I like men. Sweater is the best because I could get more pair out of them. It seems to be a little bit larger. Um, you can do all kinds of things. Like I mix mix different patterns together like sometimes I make the back one color in the palm and other color.</p>

SC woman creates mittens similar to Bernie Sanders inauguration mittens 

SC woman creates recycled mittens

On Jan. 20, Bernie Sanders was seen wearing a parka and a pair of handmade mittens at the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Bernie Sanders meme sweatshirt raises $1.8 million for charity 

Bernie Sanders raising money for charity with meme sweatshirt 

During President Biden's inauguration, a photo was taken of Sanders sitting cross-legged in a chair, bundled up and wearing mittens.

Bernie Sanders turns inauguration meme into sweatshirt for charity 

After a Raleigh woman shared a photo of a car fire and abandoned vehicles on Glenwood Avenue, the internet took over, adding various attackers to the background.