RALEIGH -- A new report examining the status of women in North Carolina shows improvement in some areas but work needed in others. The 2019 Status of Women in North Carolina Health and Wellness Report had some good news about women’s health. A press release from the Governor’s Office said the report found decreases in mortality rates for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and breast cancer since the last report in 2013. But the report also highlighted areas in need of improvement. North Carolina has the 9th highest rate of stroke mortality among women. The state also had the 11th highest infant mortality rate. North Carolina was ranked 27th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for heart disease mortality rates. Black women had heart disease rates three times that of Hispanic women, the group with the lowest rate. The report was released by the state Department of Administration’s Council for Women and Youth Involvement.
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.