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North Carolina Crime Victims, Testing Bills Signed By Cooper

Gov. Roy Cooper, seen here speaking to reporters in August, announced on Thursday he has signed a half-dozen bills sent to him from the General Assembly. KERI BROWN/WFDD

New laws in North Carolina will scale back the number of standardized tests that public school students take and lay out expanded rights for crime victims. 

The crime victims' bill implements what's known as Marsy's Law, the constitutional amendment approved by voters last fall that expands rights given to crime victims. The measure explains which additional crimes trigger those rights and the process by which a victim can assert them.

The testing legislation approved by the General Assembly eliminates over 20 state exams currently given to students. It will be implemented next school year.

Also among the half-dozen bills that Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Thursday that he signed is one directing the State Lottery Commission to study the feasibility of state-regulated sports and steeplechase betting.

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Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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