Category Archives: North Carolina

Fort Bragg to drop its Confederate namesake to become Fort Liberty

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Change is part of broad Department of Defense initiative, which includes renaming numerous installations

Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake on Friday to become Fort Liberty, in a ceremony some veterans said was a small but important step in making the US Army more welcoming to current and prospective Black service members.

The change was part of a broad Department of Defense initiative, motivated by the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis that sparked a national reckoning on police brutality and enduring systemic racism in American society.

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North Carolina: Mark Robinson attracts scrutiny as extremist in Republican race

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Lieutenant governor has achieved national notoriety over views on LGBTQ+ rights, guns, abortion and more

The Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, formally entered the race for governor at a rally on Saturday.

The sharp-spoken social conservative, who has made controversial remarks about LGBTQ+ rights, guns and abortion, said North Carolina needed a leader like him who can relate to the challenges and desires of working people.

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Suspect in shooting of six-year-old over stray basketball arrested in Florida

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Robert Singletary will not resist being transferred back to home state of North Carolina to face four attempted murder charges

The North Carolina man who is accused of shooting a six-year-old girl along with her parents after a basketball with which the child was playing rolled into his yard is not resisting being transferred to his home state after being arrested in Florida.

After his arrest on Thursday in Tampa, Florida, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary made a court appearance on Friday during which he was asked whether he would sign the extradition waiver that would allow officials to transport him back to North Carolina, where the shooting occurred two days earlier.

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1,000-year-old Native American canoe retrieved from North Carolina lake

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Elders moved to tears as members of tribe and archaeologists recover canoe discovered in Lake Waccamaw two years ago

Tribal elders were moved to tears by the retrieval of a 1,000-year-old Native American canoe from Lake Waccamaw in North Carolina.

The Waccamaw Siouan chief, Michael Jacobs, told CBC it was emotional to watch the elders “sit on the bank and cry tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of a future for our youth – how this is going to impact them and help them overcome some of the trauma they’ve experienced through being excluded at times, and even counted as not worthy”.

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Boy trapped inside claw machine after climbing inside to get a prize

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Thirteen-year-old was rescued and banned from North Carolina park for one year for attempted theft

A 13-year-old boy had to be freed from a claw machine after he climbed inside hoping to score a prize, according to an official at a North Carolina amusement park.

Carowinds officials were alerted just before 2pm on Sunday that the boy was inside the Cosmic XL Bonus Game, which contained plush prizes, according to Courtney C McGarry Weber, a spokesperson for the park south of Charlotte.

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Man leads police on low-speed chase with stolen tractor in North Carolina

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When officers attempted to stop Ronnie Hicks, he drove the John Deere tractor down US Highway 421 south, hitting 20mph

Call it a low-speed chase.

“What a day,” wrote Andy LeBeau, the police chief of Boone, North Carolina, in a Facebook post. “So, many of you have heard, or have seen the videos, that we got in a pursuit with a tractor.”

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More than 14,000 in Washington state lose power after energy station attacked

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Christmas Day outages add to an alarming string of incidents with similar power grid vandalism in Oregon and North Carolina

More than 14,000 people suffered power outages in Washington state on Christmas Day following burglaries and a series of vandalisms at different power stations.

The Pierce county sheriff said in two statements that no suspects have yet been identified for the incidents.

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North Carolina sheriff who quit after racist remarks gets re-elected within weeks

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Jody Greene resigned on 24 October after local prosecutors filed petition to remove him

A North Carolina sheriff who resigned in late October following revelations he made racist remarks about Black employees will get his job back after voters re-elected him on Tuesday.

Jody Greene stepped down as sheriff of Columbus county on 24 October, after the local district attorney filed a petition to remove him over “highly inappropriate and racially charged statements” made about Black employees in 2019.

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North Carolina shooting: 15-year-old suspect to be charged as an adult

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Authorities have not commented on what charges teen could face after five people killed and two injured

A 15-year-old boy alleged to have killed five people and injured two in a shooting rampage in Raleigh, North Carolina will be charged as an adult, authorities said.

The Wake county district attorney, Lorrin Freeman, said adult charges would be brought. Authorities have not commented on what charges the teen could face.

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Suspect, 15, in custody after North Carolina shooting leaves five dead

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White juvenile male arrested with one survivor in critical condition after shooter opens fire on walking trail in Raleigh

Five people were killed by a shooter who opened fire along a walking trail in North Carolina’s capital city and eluded officers for hours before he was cornered in a home and arrested, police said.

A 15-year-old white male suspect is in custody and in critical condition, the Raleigh police commissioner, Estella Patterson, told a press conference on Friday.

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Florida man lands plane on North Carolina road after losing engine power

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Vincent Fraser, who aspires to be a commercial pilot, missed cars and power lines as he touched down on the four-lane road

A Florida man who aspires to be a commercial pilot showed his skills in an emergency when he landed a single-engine aircraft on a four-lane North Carolina road, missing cars and power lines as he touched down.

Vincent Fraser was flying the plane 3 July when the aircraft began to lose engine power as he was checking out land he had bought near a lake. Fraser’s father-in-law also was aboard.

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US primary elections: Dr Oz tied with McCormick in test of Trump’s influence on Republicans – live

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Joe Biden will welcome the prime minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, and the president of Finland Sauli Niinistö to Washington tomorrow.

It will be a very visual symbol of US support for those two European, Russia-adjacent nations joining the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

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Republican Madison Cawthorn cited for carrying gun in his bag at airport

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North Carolina congressman faces misdemeanor criminal charge after gun spotted at security screening checkpoint

The far-right North Carolina Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing a misdemeanor criminal charge after police at an airport in his home state said they found a gun in his bag Tuesday.

Police at Charlotte Douglas international airport handed Cawthorn, 26, a municipal citation accusing him of possessing a dangerous weapon on city property, officers said in a statement.

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Congressman Madison Cawthorn under fire over claims of DC drugs and orgies

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Republican faces condemnation from House minority leader over podcast remarks but will not face immediate discipline

The North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn will not face immediate disciplinary action over his claim to have been invited to orgies and to have seen Washington figures using cocaine.

After meeting Cawthorn on Wednesday, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters the comments were “unacceptable”.

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Trump’s ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows investigated for voter registration fraud

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North Carolina authorities are investigating claims Mark Meadows did not reside, visit or own the address he is registered at

Mark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff and has echoed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, is being investigated in North Carolina over his voter registration, state authorities said.

North Carolina’s state bureau of investigation was assigned to lead the inquiry after a district attorney referred the matter to the state department of justice special prosecutions section, a department spokeswoman, Nazneen Ahmed, said in an email.

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Tens of thousands without power as winter storm blasts US south-east

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Dangerous storm with high winds and ice sweeps through as highway patrols report hundreds of vehicle accidents

A dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice began sweeping through parts of the US south-east on Sunday, knocking out power, felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous frigid glaze.

Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Highway patrols were reporting hundreds of vehicle accidents, and a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Florida. More than 1,200 Sunday flights at Charlotte Douglas international were cancelled more than 90% of the airport’s Sunday schedule, according to the flight tracking service flightaware.com.

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Is the US nearing its Covid peak? Experts warn against letting guard down

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Cases seem to be subsiding in states with high vaccination rates, but observers are reluctant to make firm predictions

In February 2021, Dr Craig Spencer wrote in a Medium post that he was as “eager as anyone to see the end of this pandemic. Thankfully, that may be in sight”.

“Covid cases and hospitalizations are dropping,” wrote Spencer, director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. “Vaccines are getting into arms. So, what happens next?”

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‘It’s like hunting aliens’: inside the town besieged by armadillos

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Thanks to climate change, armadillos, native to southern America, are making their way up north. And there’s no sign of them stopping their relentless march

In the pitch dark, Jason Bullard adroitly shoulders his rifle and levels it at the object. “That looks like one!” he mutters. It turns out to be a fuse box. Another candidate, again aimed at with the gun, reveals itself as a rock.

In this town besieged by armadillos, anything with a passing similarity to the armored nemesis is under suspicion.

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North Carolina man wrongfully imprisoned for 24 years pardoned

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Dontae Sharpe, who was given a life sentence at age 19, will be able apply for compensation of up to $750,000

A North Carolina man who spent 24 years behind bars for a murder he has long said he did not commit has been pardoned by the state’s governor.

Dontae Sharpe has been out of prison since 2019 and the pardon allows him to apply for compensation of up to $750,000 for his wrongful conviction.

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Hail, tornadoes and flooded New York subways as stormy weather hits east coast

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Rainstorms drenched New York while Tropical Storm Elsa sparked tornadoes in North Carolina and Virginia

The US east coast was battered by extreme weather on Thursday as heavy thunderstorms brought flooding and travel disruption to the New York City area, while Tropical Storm Elsa dumped heavy rainfall and even sparked tornadoes in North Carolina and Georgia.

Some subway system ya got there. This is the 157th St. 1 line right now. @NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio pic.twitter.com/xyfTAUPPNu

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