Category Archives: North Carolina

Officers killed in shootout identified as rifle found in suspect’s North Carolina home

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Police say four officers who died serving warrant over firearms possession were ‘heroes’ as investigation into shooting continues

Eight law-enforcement officers were shot, four fatally, during a shootout on Monday outside a home in North Carolina while serving a warrant to someone wanted for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. It was the deadliest attack on US law enforcement since 2016.

Three of the four law-enforcement officers killed were working on a fugitive taskforce as agents with the US Marshals Service, and the fourth was a police officer who had recently been named officer of the month by his department.

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Four officers killed and four wounded in shooting at North Carolina home

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Police say officers were in Charlotte serving warrant for suspect, who was also killed, wanted over firearms possession

Eight law-enforcement officers were shot, four fatally, during a shootout on Monday outside a home in North Carolina. The officers were serving a warrant to a person wanted for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon when the shooting began.

As marshals approached a home on the 5000 block of Galway Drive in Charlotte, the subject of the warrant began shooting at them in the front yard, police said. Officers shot back and killed the man.

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Trump cancels North Carolina rally due to storm in first public address since New York trial

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Former president told thousands of supporters gathered at Wilmington airport the event would be rescheduled ‘bigger and better’

Donald Trump called for debates with Joe Biden before cancelling his own appearance at a planned rally in Wilmington, North Carolina as a rain storm approached the airport where it was staged on Saturday.

Trump called as he was approaching the international airport to tell rally goers that the event would be rescheduled “bigger and better”. This would have been the first time he addressed supporters in public after a week of relative silence in a New York courtroom.

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One last dish: US restaurateur drives six hours to fulfil dying woman’s wish

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Heather Bowers was suffering from cancer and wanted to eat her favorite meal from Mama Kwans – Kevin Cherry made it happen

Kevin Cherry didn’t want recognition for dropping everything he was doing and driving a half-dozen hours across state lines to fulfil a person’s dying wish.

But he got it anyway after loved ones of a West Virginia woman who received one last act of kindness in her final hours publicly expressed their eternal gratitude to Cherry, a North Carolina restaurant owner whose benevolence has vaulted him to internet virality.

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North Carolina schools candidate who called for Obama’s death put on the spot

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Michele Morrow, the far-right Republican running to oversee public schools in the state, said she is facing ‘radical extremists’

A far-right Republican candidate running to oversee public schools in North Carolina decried “extreme agendas that threaten our children’s future”, after being confronted by reporters over tweets in which she called for the executions of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“Don’t let extreme agendas threaten our children’s future,” Michele Morrow said on social media on Thursday, posting an address in which she said she was “facing the most radical extremist Democrats [that] have ever run for superintendent in the history of North Carolina”.

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Super Tuesday 2024 live: millions of voters head to polls in the US as Haley suggests she could stay in the race

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Donald Trump looks all but certain of Republican presidential nomination as Nikki Haley rejects suggestions of third-party bid and says she may keep fighting

Over at CNN, Ronald Brownstein has an analysis piece which looks a little at the potential weakness of Donald Trump support away from his core base. Brownstein writes:

[Trump’s] performance so far reflects his success at transforming the Republican Party in his image. He’s reshaped the Republicans into a more blue-collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the Ronald Reagan-era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley has stressed.

But while the primaries have underscored Trump’s grip on the GOP, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015 – particularly among the white-collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the GOP before his emergence. The early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of Republican-leaning voters remain resistant to Trump’s vision.

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Students for Trump founder arrested, accused of striking girlfriend with gun

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Ryan Fournier, 27, charged with domestic assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon over incident in North Carolina

The co-founder of Students for Trump, a supporters group formed ahead of the 2016 election, was arrested last week on domestic violence charges in North Carolina, court documents show.

Ryan Fournier, 27, was detained last Tuesday and accused of assaulting a woman, later identified as his girlfriend, by “grabbing her right arm and striking her in the forehead” with a handgun, according to an order issued by a magistrate in Johnston county.

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UN human rights experts express alarm over PFAS pollution in North Carolina

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Evidence of Chemours-operated plant contaminating region is ‘alleged human rights violations’, say experts appointed by council

A new investigation by human rights experts appointed by the United Nations has expressed alarm at evidence of pollution from a North Carolina PFAS manufacturing plant, describing it as “alleged human rights violations and abuses against residents”.

The ongoing PFAS crisis in North Carolina has been linked to a Fayetteville Works plant operated by Chemours, a chemical giant that was spun off from DuPont in 2015.

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Tails I win: coin toss sends North Carolina candidate into mayor’s office

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Robert Burns and Bob Yanacsek tie for 970 votes in race for Monroe mayor – and Burns wins it after Yanacsek incorrectly calls heads

In US politics, the slimmer the margins, the crazier things can get. And that reality has vaulted the winner of a coin flip into the mayor’s office of a North Carolina city.

The new mayor of Monroe, Robert Burns, and the runner-up, Bob Yanacsek, had signed up to run alongside three other candidates in a 7 November election that generated low voter turnout.

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Revealed: how a little-known pollution rule keeps the air dirty for millions of Americans

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Major investigation shows local governments are increasingly exploiting a loophole in the Clean Air Act, leaving more than 21 million Americans with air that’s dirtier than they realize

A legal loophole has allowed the US Environmental Protection Agency to strike pollution from clean air tallies in more than 70 counties, enabling local regulators to claim the air was cleaner than it really was for more than 21 million Americans.

Regulators have exploited a little-known provision in the Clean Air Act called the “exceptional events rule” to forgive pollution caused by “natural” or “uncontrollable” events – including wildfires – on records used by the EPA for regulatory decisions, a new investigation from The California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian reveals.

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Abortions in North Carolina drop by 30% in wake of new restrictions, data shows

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Nearby states didn’t see similar increases, suggesting those denied abortions in the state are self-managing, or going without

Abortions in North Carolina fell by more than 30% after the state enacted new abortion restrictions on 1 July, including a 12-week abortion ban, new data released on Wednesday by the Guttmacher Institute shows.

North Carolina abortion clinics performed more than 4,200 abortions in June, but just 2,920 abortions in July. Nearby states did not see a comparable surge in abortions, suggesting that patients denied abortions in North Carolina had to self-manage their own – or simply went without.

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Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina as it moves up east coast

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Governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declare states of emergency as storm expected to bring heavy rainfall

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall on the coast of North Carolina near Emerald Isle early on Saturday as the storm moved north along the US east coast.

Before the storm’s landfall, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declared states of emergency. Ophelia was predicted to bring heavy rainfall, tropical-storm-force winds and minor flooding along the states’ coasts through the weekend.

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Hurricane Lee prompts weekend beach warnings on US east coast

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Dangerous surf and rip currents expected along most of Atlantic coast from Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Lee is making its way through the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through early next week, prompting warnings of dangerous beach conditions on the US east coast over the weekend.

Between Wednesday and Thursday night, Lee evolved from a category 1 tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. It then dropped down to a category 4 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center announced on Friday morning.

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‘This is psychological warfare’: Starbucks workers allege anti-union firings

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The National Labor Relations Board has reinstated 28 of the more than 200 pro-union workers fired since late 2021

Alicia Flores had worked at Starbucks in Portland, Oregon, for seven years until June, when she received a voicemail from a manager – filling in for her usual boss, who was taking a leave of absence – who informed her she was being fired.

Flores is far from alone.

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Weather tracker: Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of damage in Florida

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Category 3 storm causes extensive flooding in south-east US, while heavy rain and winds also hit France and Italy

Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.

Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

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Hurricane Idalia brings intense flooding to Carolinas as Floridians count cost – live

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More than 50,000 customers in Carolinas still without power despite category 3 tempest weakening to tropical storm

Joe Biden signed a major disaster declaration for Florida following Hurricane Idalia.

The declaration provides the state with federal resources to support clean up, rescue, and more in response to the tropical storm.

The White House shares the following: “This morning, President Biden called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to convey that he has signed a Major Disaster Declaration and ordered all available federal resources to help with the continued response to Tropical Storm Idalia.

The President reiterated that the people of Florida have his full support as they recover from the storm

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Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of floods and wreckage in south-eastern US

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Tropical storm moves into Atlantic but torrential rain and inland flooding still likely in North Carolina, officials warn

Recovery efforts were under way in four states on Thursday as the remains of Hurricane Idalia, still a tropical storm with 60mph winds, moved into the Atlantic off the coast of the Carolinas.

Crews were sifting through wreckage across North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where the storm came ashore on Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane with gusts of 160mph and sent a surge of seawater up to 16ft high inland through vulnerable coastal areas.

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Six injured after man drives vehicle into migrant workers in North Carolina

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The police had been searching for the driver of the car, when a person of interest came forward and was taken into custody

A man drove a sport-utility vehicle into six people in North Carolina who were described as migrant workers in what “appears to be an intentional assault”, police have said.

All six victims were taken to hospital after the apparent attack, and have since been released.

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High levels of toxic chemicals in pets living near US manufacturing plant

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Researchers alarmed by results of study of dogs and horses living close to Chemours factory in North Carolina

Pets living near a PFAS manufacturing plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina have concerning levels of the toxic chemicals in their blood, and show evidence of health effects linked to exposure, new research finds.

PFAS were present in all 32 dog and 31 horse blood samples checked, and the findings provide evidence that human and animal exposures to the chemicals impacts their bodies, said Scott Belcher, a North Carolina State University researcher and co-author.

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‘I will never be detained’: Trump defiant in first speech since federal indictment

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Former president, who faces 37 charges related to retention of secret documents, addresses Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina

Donald Trump delivered his first public address following the announcement of his federal indictment this week in Columbus, Georgia, on Saturday.

The former president took the stage at state Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina where he lashed out against the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Biden administration, called his recent indictment “a travesty of justice” and repeated unsupported conspiratorial claims that Joe Biden had stashed secret documents in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington DC.

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