By Sophia Lyons
From around campus, the psychology club and psychology national honor society created a phone app called Habitood for students to track COVID control behaviors, as reported by The Appalachian. The app allows students to enter anonymous behavioral data on themselves so students and others can look at and analyze adherence to COVID control, such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and using hand sanitizer.
From around the state, Republican members of the Watauga County Board of Elections filed a lawsuit in Wake County on Friday asking the courts to stop the state board of elections from using the Blue Ridge Ballroom as an early voting site. The Appalachian reports the university had originally offered the Holmes Convocation Center to hold early and election-day voting because of classes being held in the Blue Ridge Ballroom.
In national news, NPR reports over 19,000 firefighters are battling 27 major wildfires across the state of California. Wildfires around the state have burned more than three and a half million acres and prompted a multitude of evacuation orders during this year. The El Dorado Fire, more commonly known as the fire sparked by a gender reveal party, is 59% contained as of September 20.