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Cooper Seeks Fast Movement Following Elections Board Ruling
Gov. Roy Cooper wants the legal wheels to spin faster after a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling threw out laws addressing membership of a combined state elections and ethics board.
Cooper's attorneys asked justices Tuesday to speed up the process by which last Friday's split decision favoring Cooper otherwise reaches a three-judge panel Feb. 15. That panel is to enter an order based on the Supreme Court ruling.
The governor's lawyers say quicker resolution is needed because candidate filing begins Feb. 12 and there's currently no board in place, so formalizing the ruling could help create one sooner.
North Carolina Agency Opens Online Comment On Monument Move
People can give written comments to a special committee assigned to make recommendations on a proposal to move three Confederate monuments on North Carolina's old Capitol grounds to a Civil War battlefield.
The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources this week announced a web portal to send information and opinions to a five-member panel comprised of members of the North Carolina Historical Commission. People can also send statements by regular mail. Committee members also agreed last week they would have at least one public hearing.
Gov. Roy Cooper's administration wants to move the monuments to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Johnston County.
North Carolina Below National Average On Recent Public Education Report Card
North Carolina's schools aren't making the grade according to the recent Quality Counts report from Education Week.
It's a state-by-state assessment of public education, and it gives North Carolina a C- in the latest evaluation.
The average grade for educational performance in the nation was a C, the same as last year.
North Carolina scored below that average in three categories including chance for success, school finance and K-12 achievement; that puts it 40th in the country.
Sterling Lloyd with Education Week Research Center says North Carolina dropped in the rankings when the report changed its grading criteria in recent years.
Tire Company Settles Lawsuit In 2013 Bus Crash That Killed 8
A lawsuit over a 2013 crash that killed six members of a North Carolina church and two others has been settled, just before opening statements were set to begin.
Brandon Peak, the attorney for the 12 survivors of the crash and the estates of five victims, tells the Statesville Record & Landmark attorneys for Hankook Tire Co. agreed to a private settlement.
The plaintiffs filed suit in September 2014 over the Tennessee crash involving a Front Street Baptist Church bus, SUV and tractor-trailer after a bus tire blew out.
Company Plans To Offer Filters To Some North Carolinians
The company that makes a chemical that's been found in private wells near its North Carolina plant wants to install water filter systems at homes served by those wells.
The Fayetteville Observer reports state records show Chemours wants to put carbon treatment systems in the wells. A state official recommended not implementing the plan or telling residents about it until it receives state approval.
The compound GenX is made at Chemours' plant in Bladen County. State environmental officials have been investigating since GenX was found in the Cape Fear River in 2016.