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Police Chief Candidates Meet The Public
The two candidates for Winston-Salem police chief took part in a public forum Wednesday night, putting community at the top of their agenda.
Major Cameron Selvey of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Winston-Salem Police Department Assistant Chief Catrina Thompson are the two vying for the position. The one-and-a-half hour session worked like a public job interview, with citizens getting to ask direct questions to the officers.
Both Selvey and Thompson stressed the importance of engaging positively with the public. Thompson, a 23-year veteran of the department, referred to citizens as her “family,” and Selvey said he wanted to - in his words- “break down biases.”
Chief Barry Rountree will be retiring on September 1st, and his replacement is expected to be named by the end of this month.
County Commissioner Barrett Joining North Carolina Senate
A county commissioner who once ran for North Carolina governor will fill a legislative seat vacated when a Republican senator joined a state board.
Republican activists from Rowan, Davie and Iredell counties in the 34th Senate District chose Davie commissioner Dan Barrett to succeed former Sen. Andrew Brock, who resigned June 30.
The Salisbury Post reports Barrett beat Salisbury attorney Bill Graham and former Rowan commissioner Chad Mitchell at Tuesday's meeting.
Confederate Statues Vandalized In Wilmington
Authorities say two Confederate statues in the coastal North Carolina city of Wilmington have been vandalized.
Wilmington police spokeswoman Linda Rawley Thompson says that early Wednesday, someone placed a rope around a statue known as the Confederate Soldiers Monument and may have been trying to tear it down. The statue also was hit with spray paint.
And she says someone put paint on a second statue dedicated to a man who served as attorney general of the Confederacy.
No arrests have been made, but the vandalism is under investigation.
NC House Plans Its Own Hearing On River Discharge
The North Carolina House will hold its own investigative hearing into the discharge of a little-studied chemical into a river.
House Speaker Tim Moore said Wednesday that he'll soon announce appointments to a special committee that will look at the chemical GenX and its release into the Cape Fear River from a Bladen County plant operated by The Chemours Co.
Senate Republicans already said this week they'll hold a hearing because they were unhappy with the response by Gov. Roy Cooper's administration to their detailed questions. Two Cabinet agencies have asked lawmakers for $2.6 million to beef up water quality efforts on the Cape Fear River and statewide.
Town Finally Qualifies For State Assistance After Floods
A North Carolina town that took a one-two punch last summer from Tropical Storm Julia and Hurricane Matthew can now get financial assistance from the state to pay for cleaning up the first storm.
Gov. Roy Cooper issued a state disaster declaration Wednesday for Windsor, which means 75 percent of the $89,000 spent to recover from the tropical storm will be paid for by state government.