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Cooper Unveiling First Budget Plan As Governor
Democrat Roy Cooper is unveiling his first state budget as North Carolina's governor, a proposal expected to focus heavily on public education.
Cooper will announce his two-year budget Wednesday at Durham Technical Community College.
The governor's office has said Cooper's proposal would aim toward making North Carolina a leader in key education measurements by 2025. Those include pre-kindergarten enrollment, high school graduation rates and the percentage of adults with higher education degrees.
Cooper's Address To Legislature Penciled In For March 13
The legislature is making plans for Roy Cooper to give the North Carolina governor's biennial speech to the General Assembly.
House Republicans filed a resolution Tuesday inviting Cooper to deliver the State of the State address the evening of March 13 to a joint session of the General Assembly in the House chamber.
Rally Supports New Method For Redistricting
Hundreds of people backing a new way to draw North Carolina's congressional and General Assembly districts every 10 years are coming to Raleigh to try to drum up more support for their idea.
The North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform scheduled a rally day Wednesday at the Legislative Building as part of its goal to end gerrymandering.
Coalition members and their allies support a bipartisan bill filed in the House this week that would move the job of drawing the boundaries following each census from the hands of legislators to the General Assembly's nonpartisan staff.
Business Groups Support 'Bathroom Bill' Repeal
Several business groups are supporting a bipartisan effort to take North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill" off the books.
Their executives came to the state's Legislative Building for a Tuesday news conference to back a House measure they hope will gain enough support to repeal the law known as House Bill 2.
The House proposal's chief sponsor, Rep. Chuck McGrady of Hendersonville, says the bill will remain stuck unless Gov. Roy Cooper helps him get votes from House Democrats.
North Carolina School Board Rejects Ban On Confederate Flag
A North Carolina school board has voted not to ban the Confederate flag from school grounds, rejecting two pleas from a local chapter of the NAACP to establish the policy.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the Orange County Schools Board of Education decided instead on Monday to establish an equity committee to advise the board on several issues, including symbolic speech. Board chairman Steven Halkiotis said board members will not tolerate hate speech, bullying or intimidation.
The Northern Orange County NAACP had asked the board to ban the Confederate flag on school grounds during the board's earlier meeting in February.
Facebook Post On VA Treatment Of Patients Causes Uproar
A former Marine and his wife say the scene inside a Veterans Administration hospital in Durham was so shocking that they took pictures and posted them to Facebook.
Now thousands of people are expressing outrage and the head of the medical center says an employee involved has been removed from patient care pending an internal review.
Hanna and Stephen McMenamin posted photos of two struggling veterans. They said both older men were ignored for hours despite complaining of severe pain. They said one practically fell out of his wheelchair, and the other finally lay down on the floor after being denied a place to rest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.