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Legislative Panel Finalizing School Safety Ideas
A legislative committee looking to improve North Carolina school and student safety following the Florida school shooting in February is finalizing its recommendations days before the General Assembly session begins.
The House panel meets Thursday and will consider ideas that surfaced following committee testimony in recent weeks.
One subcommittee recommends mandated training for police officers assigned to school campuses and routine vulnerability reviews for school buildings. The other subcommittee says more counselors, nurses and social workers should be hired for schools and teams created to help identify students exhibiting threatening behavior.
Cooper Unveils Recommended North Carolina Budget Alterations
Gov. Roy Cooper has some ideas for changing the state budget. Whether any of those proposals happen depends on if Republicans like them, too.
Cooper will unveil all his recommended adjustments to the second year of the two-year state government spending plan Thursday. He'll do so the week before the GOP-controlled General Assembly begins its annual work session.
House and Senate leaders have already agreed they'll spend almost $24 billion during the year starting July 1 but are still working out details.
Winston-Salem Cancels Classes As Teachers Join List Of Statehouse Protestors
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools has joined a growing group of districts cancelling classes on May 16.
More than a third of North Carolina's public school students will have a holiday next week as schools close so teachers can attend a march in Raleigh.
Thousands of teachers are expected at the state capital May 16 to ask for better pay and working conditions.
More than a dozen districts comprising more than a half million students will cancel classes that day.
The addition of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County means the state's four largest school systems are among those closing. That includes Wake County, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Guilford County schools.
Judge Slashes $50M Punitive Penalty Against Pork Giant
A federal judge is slashing $50 million in damages that a jury awarded neighbors of an industrial hog operation to punish a pork producer for intense smells, noise and other disturbances.
U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt ruled this week that North Carolina law required him to cut the size of punitive damages to $2.5 million total for the 10 plaintiffs.
Britt cited state law that limits the punishment for corporate misdeeds to no more than $250,000 per person. That's an amount 1/20th the $5 million that jurors ordered Smithfield Foods to pay each neighbor as punishment.
Lehigh Valley Tops Charlotte In 5 Ots In AHL's Longest Game
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms defeated the Charlotte Checkers 2-1 in the longest game in the AHL's 82-year history.
The game lasted 6 hours and 6 minutes, and took more than seven periods to decide. It surpassed the Philadelphia Phantoms' 3-2 win over the Albany River Rats in 2008 that lasted 142 minutes, 58 seconds.