What You Need to Know about North Carolina for July 9, 2014

Can’t forget our horse, plus all the other animals that fly. And no, our state horse is not Pegasus. Plus news from across the state.

Today we highlight the state animals that fly and because we left them out in a previous post, our state horse.

Our state horse is the colonial Spanish mustang. They are native to Spain, but since colonial times, have made a home out on the Outer Banks. Due to all the tourism and home building on the barrier islands, they are in danger of losing their habitat. Yet, they are a resilient breed, having already survived many storms, diseases, prior abandonment and biting insects. They have been our state horse since 2010. Learn more about them here and check out what they look like below.

“Wild Spanish Colonial Mustangs” by Joye~ – originally posted to Flickr as Wild Spanish Colonial Mustangs. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Speaking of insects, our state insect is one you might know very well, the honeybee. Bees were not native to the colonial lands, but since that time, beeswax and honey have intermittently been major exports of our state. We’ve written in other forums about urban beekeeping and how it’s becoming a thing. Another piece of that article is how bees are going extinct in certain areas. Well, North Carolina has already dealt with some of that, yet has still managed to sustain many beekeeping operations over many cycles of disease and is addressing the current challenges as well. The honeybee has been our state insect since 1973. Learn more about their history in North Carolina here and get a good look at one below.

“Gaint Honey Bee (Apis dorsata) on Tribulus terrestris W IMG 1020” by J.M.Garg – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Our state butterfly, of course, an insect in its own right, is the eastern tiger swallowtail. This butterfly was chosen as our state butterfly in 2012, because it was drawn by John White, a colonist thought to be part of the Roanoke Island Lost Colony. His drawing is thought to be the first known drawing of the butterfly. Find out more about this history here and check out that drawing below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, our state bird, the northern cardinal, who seems ubiquitous, especially on the Eastern Seaboard. Yet, the cardinal, named in 1943 as our state bird, wasn’t our first state bird. It was the Carolina Chickadee, which had been named as the state bird for only a few days a few years prior. However that bird has a nickname that some lawmakers thought to be undignified. Ten years later, after a major campaign and vote led by the North Carolina Bird Club, the cardinal was named. And even though you may think of them as red birds, only the male bird is red. The female bird has some red in her, but tends to be grey. The birds are also unique in that both sexes sing, unlike other bird species. Take a look at both of them together below, courtesy of NCpedia and learn more about them there.

And now your news.

A new, possibly national, entertainment venue, is coming to Greensboro.

Who has filed for election in High Point.

The latest on the plans for the Greensboro Skatepark.

Things that the Triad does have, yet.

Publix will be off of that list by the end of 2015.

The Guilford school board is looking at how to spend some revenue from sales taxes.

In case you missed this map as it’s floated around the internet, Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro,the I-85 corridor, and the mountain areas are considered as one of the country’s major urban megaregions, the Piedmont Atlantic, by the Regional Plan Association.

A court has ordered that CTS can be held responsible by the EPA to clean up a superfund site in Asheville.

The oldest surviving inn in North Carolina is for sale.

Buncombe County is boosting funding for its schools.

The former Charlotte mayor’s parking lot business has fallen off since his arrest.

Public school teacher tenure is no longer in danger.

There are now 600 Bojangles.

Wilmington has plans to replace four of its fire stations.

Wilmington area residents will vote on a 50 million dollar transportation bond.

The director of the N.C. Film Office has stepped down.

Fayetteville residents and leaders held a rally on Tuesday to call for the end of street violence.

An additional lawsuit has been filed against Cumberland County’s Board of Education.

Raleigh’s Rock and Roll Marathon brought 8 million dollars of economic impact to the area.

And finally, more on the ecoPRT project in Raleigh.