The beautiful weather we enjoyed this past weekend always reminds me of why I love North Carolina.  A warm fall day bathed in sunlight along with the orange and yellow hues of the changing leaves is always something to be thankful for.   Somehow the longer I live here the easier it is to forget just how lucky we are.

One Cary neighborhood had a particular glow this past weekend-Lochmere.  After the murder of Nancy Cooper in July it seemed like a permanent black cloud hung over what had been a tranquil suburban community defined by joggers, bikers, dogs and baby strollers.  In the months since that time it seemed as if fewer people were taking advantage of the peaceful nature trails and walkways.   It  was a combination of fear and  sadness that kept them from enjoying the natural amenities of their neighborhood.

But since the arrest of Brad Cooper Monday in connection with his wife's murder, there have been palpable signs of relief...

For as long as I've known Phyllis Rhodes, a CCBI employee, we've talked about the fact that she had never been to the beach.

"When can we take you to the beach, Phyllis?" I would say referring to myself and my photographer, Chad Flowers.

"I'll get there someday," she would say wistfully.

It was a monthly, if not a weekly conversation that became a running joke between us.

Two weeks ago something miraculous happened. I met Phyllis in the crosswalk between the courthouse and the jail.

"Guess what," she said with her trademark ear-to-ear grin that can make your day.

"What?". I said already distracted with what was on my plate.

"I went," she said.

"Went where?" I replied.

"To the beach."

With those three little words Phyllis made my heart skip a few beats. I had a ton of questions, but they would have to wait...

I've heard a lot of great quotes in my years as a reporter, but Cookie Santiago took me by surprise yesterday when she threw me a new one.  She said when someone says something insensitive to her instead of trying to assign evil motives or intentions to their words she tries to see the situation through "Jesus eyes."  She imagines and sometimes explores what bad things might be going on in the person's life that might prompt hateful or simply negligent behavior.  She puts on her "Jesus eyes."

Coming from someone else talking about putting on "your Jesus eyes" might not sound as sincere, but Santiago who is a minister with the United Methodist Church in North Carolina appears to be living every ounce of the phrase.

She is raising two daughters, working, and attending Duke Divinity School all at the same time.  If that's not enough she is also still mourning the death of her only son, Diego, who died after a long battle with...

I'm an avid story collector; I admit it.  I'm not talking about stories to be aired on television, but stories that touched me, interested me, stories I might want to write about someday.  I used to keep story ideas on pieces of scrap paper in a dog-eared folder that was always bulging.  The technological revolution allowed me the convenience of  keeping story notes in my BlackBerry.   Who knows, maybe someday I'll write a book.

Fernando's story was unexpected.  He is a business owner whose store had been recently robbed.  I couldn't help but notice the big American flag on the wall in his office behind his desk.  I had to ask, how had Fernando come to America? 

Be careful what you wish for.  Little did I know that Fernando, like me, was an avid storyteller himself.  But I sat with rapt attention as he told me how as a boy growing up in Honduras he saw planes taking off for the United States and dreamed...

In three weeks Tim Nielsen will leave North Carolina return to his hometown of Layton, Utah, to start a new life.  In June of 2007 as Nielsen puts it he "lost everything" when someone murdered his wife, Jenna Nielsen, behind a Raleigh convenience store as she delivered newspapers.  She was eight months pregnant with their third son, already named Ethen.  In Tim's mind there is nothing left for him here in North Carolina.  He hopes to go back to school and provide a better life for the two young sons he is now raising as a single father.

Nielsen's family had just arrived in the Triangle in 2006 to start a new life.  Tim and his father-in-law were working together at a company in Lillington.  The whole family followed.  None of them could have know what would happen less than a year later, a tragedy that would undermine their warm feelings about their adopted state.

Looking at newly posted pictures of the young mother in her wedding...