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North Carolina GOP Again Asks Supreme Court To Intervene
North Carolina Republican legislative leaders are asking the U.S. Supreme Court again this month to halt a lower-court redistricting order that went against them, this time on changes to state House and Senate districts.
The GOP lawmakers' lawyers filed a request on Wednesday for an emergency delay to prevent alterations to two dozen legislative districts which a three-judge panel approved last week based on an expert's recommendations. Those districts are supposed to be used for the 2018 elections, beginning with candidate filing next month.
Judge Hears Case On Canceled Judicial Primary
Lawyers for the Democratic Party in North Carolina say Republican legislators have taken away their right to decide who their favored judicial candidates will be this year by passing a law canceling primary elections for trial and appellate court judgeships.
The attorneys made the argument Wednesday in a Greensboro federal courtroom on their request to block the law's enforcement and reinstate the primary for May.
Lawyers for the state and GOP legislators told U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles that the judicial primary cancellation is legal and Democratic Party members still have their constitutional right to associate and choose the candidate they want to back through other means.
Police Issue Warrant For Suspect In Football Player's Death
Police have issued a warrant for a suspect in last weekend's shooting death of a North Carolina college football player.
A news release from Winston-Salem police Wednesday said warrants it obtained charge 21-year-old Jakier Shanique Austin with murder and possession of a firearm on educational property.
Austin is wanted in the fatal shooting of Winston-Salem State University football player Najee Ali Baker during a party outside an events center at Wake Forest University early last Saturday.
Police also said a 16-year-old was arrested and is charged with possession of a handgun by a minor, assault by pointing a gun and possession of a firearm on educational property. He is jailed without bond in the Forsyth County jail.
Residents Speak Out On Proposed Duke Energy Rate Hike
North Carolina residents packed into the Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro Wednesday night voicing their opposition over Duke Energy's proposed rate hike. The public hearing is one of three taking place this month before the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Duke is asking the agency to approve a 16.7 percent increase for customers in the Carolinas division. That's around $18 more a month. And many in attendance didn't want to foot the bill.
Duke Energy says the increase is needed to help pay for coal ash cleanup across the state, to modernize plants and comply with new state and federal laws.
Man Who Helped Desegregate UNC Dies In Texas
One of the three students who successfully challenged racial segregation as undergraduates at North Carolina's flagship university has died.
Christopher Brandon said Wednesday that his father, 80-year-old John Lewis Brandon, died Tuesday at a hospital outside Houston. He said the cause of death was complications from cancer.
Brandon was the second of the students to die recently. LeRoy Frasier died Dec. 29 at a New York City hospital. His brother Ralph Frasier lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Brandon and the Frasier brothers applied to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1955. They were rejected until a federal court judge ordered their admission.