Sara Wood

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s announcement to lift the combat ban for women serving in the military came as no surprise to author Kirsten Holmstedt. The Iraq War started while she was working on her MFA in creative writing at UNCW in 2003. She heard about women serving in the line of fire and decided to collect their stories first-hand. 

A number of volunteers recently visited shelters, camps and other hard-to-reach areas in Pender, Brunswick and New Hanover counties to collect a 24-hour snapshot of the region’s homeless population. The data collected from this annual Point-in-Time Count will be used to determine funding to help expand housing opportunities.

New Hanover County will begin looking at whether or not it should consolidate two major agencies: the departments of health and social services. The board of commissioners approved the creation of a committee to study the many options of House bill 438.

The group will consist of a patchwork of county interests, including existing boards of health and human services, UNCW, and the New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Chairman Woody White voted in favor of the group but says there’s no need to rush into a decision.

North Carolina House bill 438 opened a new door for county commissioners. It gives them more control over public health and social services departments. Brunswick County’s already switched over. New Hanover and Pender counties are now considering adopting the legislation.

Local county boards of health cover a lot of territory beyond funding birth control and offering flu shots.

Last week electronic sweepstakes machines were officially considered illegal in North Carolina. But according to Wilmington officials, there are still a number of establishments operating machines throughout the city and it’s only a matter of time before code and law enforcement step in.

The long-debated fate of downtown Wilmington's Water Street parking deck will stretch out another week. On Tuesday, the city council approved $670,000 to repair the parking garage but the vote failed a second reading, which means it will have to be voted on again at next week's city council meeting.

A resolution to spend the money to repair and continue generating revenue from the city-owned deck, located on Water Street between Grace and Chestnut, was on the table.

November county unemployment numbers for North Carolina were released Thursday and show a slight increase from October. Though most counties experienced a rise, figures have improved from a year ago.

In an age of digital music, vinyl is on the upswing in Wilmington. The old format will soon find a new home as Wilmington-based Gravity Records, which opened eight years ago on Kerr Avenue, moves to a new downtown location on January 21.

Gravity Records owner Matt Keen said that in the second half of 2012, record sales were up 50 percent from the previous year. And that rise is not due just to diehard record collectors -- it’s across the board, including vinyl lovers old and new.