Alabama News
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Today is a sad day at Alabama News Network. We are saying goodbye to Alabama News Rising anchor Andrew James.
Andrew is leaving us after five years for a position with WLOS, the ABC station in Asheville, North Carolina. He and his wife are from North Carolina, so this move will get them closer to family.
WLOS is part of the large Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville TV market, which spans western North Carolina and much of the upstate of South Carolina, so this represents a step up in his career.
Gov. Kay Ivey took time to send Andrew a handwritten note, which he read on the air during his final broadcast this morning. She thanked Andrew for making Alabama a part of his life’s journey.
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CHARLOTTE – North Carolina’s economy is nearly back to its pre-pandemic levels, and the worst effects of the recession attributed to the novel coronavirus pandemic are clearly behind us, said Dr. John Connaughton, professor of financial economics at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and the director of the UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast, in presenting the latest economic forecast virtually this afternoon.
“We’ll have more jobs by December 2021 than we had in December 2019,” said Connaughton. “But the unemployment rate will be a little bit higher.” He is forecasting a net increase of about 25,000 jobs in North Carolina between December 2019 and the end of December 2021, and for unemployment to be close to 5 percent in North Carolina by the end of the year.
The East Carolina University Pirates baseball team finished the season on May 22 with a 38-14 record (20-8 American Athletic Conference, 27-4 home, 11-9 away) and a No.11 ranking in the nation.Â
The Pirates started the season with five straight wins. Those wins were against the University of Rhode Island Rams (27-24-1, 14-6 Atlantic 10) in a three game series, the Duke University Blue Devils (28-20, 16-17 Atlantic Coastal Conference) and the first game of the series against the Georgia Southern Eagles (31-22, 14-10 Sun Belt Conference).Â
ECU had five series sweeps in the 2021 season. Those sweeps were against Rhode Island from Feb. 19 through Feb. 21, the Appalachian State Mountaineers (20-30, 11-10 SBC) from March 5 through March 7, the University of North Carolina Charlotte 49ers (39-17, 24-8 Conference USA) from March 12 through March 14, the Illinois State University Redbirds (22-32, 12-15 Missouri Valley Conference) from March 19 through March 21, the University of Cinci