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Supreme Court: NC Doesn't Have To Redraw Maps By Next Week
The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed a lower-court order that would have forced North Carolina Republican lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional districts by next week because of excessive partisan bias in current lines.
The justices announced their decision late Thursday after legal briefs were filed for and against the GOP legislators' request for a delay. Their lawyers successfully argued that a three-judge panel's ruling last week declaring the state congressional map an illegal partisan gerrymander should be put on hold while similar cases from Wisconsin and Maryland currently before the Supreme Court are settled.
Suit: Judges Won't Weigh Bond In Carolinas Immigration Cases
A new lawsuit tries to force immigration judges handling cases in the Carolinas to consider releasing non-citizens on bond as immigration courts around the country do.
Two immigration-rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday contending three of the four immigration judges in Charlotte are refusing to conduct bond hearings even though they are required to do so.
The American Immigration Council and the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition say that means weeks of unnecessary detention for people who are eligible to be released on bond. The groups say detainees are forced to wait until after they are transferred out of the Carolinas before they can again seek bond in a different immigration court.
Greensboro Church Opens Doors Again For Undocumented Immigrant Seeking Sanctuary
A fifth undocumented immigrant is seeking sanctuary in North Carolina. A Greensboro church is opening its doors to shelter a man facing deportation back to El Salvador.
This is the second time that Congregational United Church of Christ in Greensboro has taken someone into sanctuary. Oscar Canales began staying there this week.
Canales first came to the United States from El Salvador in 2005 and had been checking in with federal immigration officials for the past five years.
His wife, who didn't want to give her name, says Canales took sanctuary after being ordered to leave the country by January 18.
The church and other supporters are asking lawmakers for help in allowing Canales to stay in his community.
Sterilization Victims To Get Final Payment Soon
North Carolina officials say the third and final compensation payment to sterilization victims should be mailed soon, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for them.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration tells the Winston-Salem Journal that officials are verifying the final number of qualified claimants and confirming addresses. Spokeswoman Gena Renfrow says payments will be prepared once that's completed.
About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission has certified more than 200 victims, who have received two previous payments of $20,000 and $15,000.
South Awaits Thaw From Snowstorm, Icy Roads And Numbing Cold
Southerners are awaiting an imminent thaw that would end days of icy roads, snow and numbing cold from a fierce winter storm that blasted their normally mild corner of the country.
For a third night, stare troopers warned of ice on roads as the snow that melts refreezes early Friday morning.
After sunrise, forecasters said, a major warmup would be on the way with highs by the weekend expected to reach more typical 50s and 60s for winter in the South.
At least 15 people have died from the midweek snow storm that battered the South from Texas to the Carolinas.