Road Funding Is Good News For Northern Beltway
The state's transportation board has officially approved funding for a list of road projects across the state. The move brings Winston-Salem's long-debated Northern Beltway closer to reality.
The beltway project cleared the state's final hoop last week when the board agreed to make it part of its 10-year transportation plan.
The money will speed up construction of the eastern leg of the northern beltway. That section runs roughly from US 52 in northern Winston-Salem to US 311 toward High Point.
The General Assembly included money for several major road projects in the budget it passed in September – including the beltway funding. Part of that money is expected to come from higher DMV fees.
The eastern leg of the beltway consists of eight segments, one of which is currently under construction.
Blue Cross And Blue Shield NC Customers Can Expect Refunds
Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers in North Carolina will be getting refunds as the company works on what officials say are their most serious system failures in years.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Blue Cross CEO Brad Wilson has been apologizing to customers and promising to refund any money wrongly drafted from customers' bank accounts.
The Chapel Hill insurer has been dealing with the problem for a week, shortly after individual policies under the Affordable Care Act went into effect Jan. 1.
Some customers were upset when they could not confirm whether they were insured.
Wilson says about 25,000 customers were accidentally put into the wrong health plans. He says the company took the wrong amount from the bank accounts of about 3,200 customers.
State Cracks Down On Employers Without Proper Insurance
The commission responsible for enforcing workers' compensation laws has cracked down in the last year on employers who don't carry proper insurance, collecting $1 million in civil fines from uninsured companies.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that the state Industrial Commission also charged 100 employers with misdemeanors for willingly going without coverage.
State law requires any employer with three or more employees to provide workers' compensation insurance at no cost to the workers.
In April 2012 as many as 30,000 employers in North Carolina required to purchase workers' compensation hadn't. The following year, the state auditor reported the commission had done nothing to intervene as more than 11,000 businesses in 2012 canceled policies or let them lapse.
Forsyth County Group Needs Volunteers For Homeless Count
A group that works with homeless people in Forsyth County is looking for volunteers who will help count those who live on the streets later this month.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports the organization called the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness at United Way of Forsyth County is heading the homeless count on Jan. 27.
Program assistant Kathleen Wiener says the group is looking for 75 to 100 people to survey the homeless. Separate counts are taken at shelters.
Wiener said that the count usually finds 15 to 20 people not staying in shelters.
Community leaders say they're trying to end chronic homelessness by December 2016. In 2015, the community was certified as having ended veteran homelessness, meaning the city has services to ensure any veteran needing shelter gets it.
Duke University To Honor NC Black Congressman George White
Duke University is planning a banquet later this month to remember George Henry White, the last black U.S. representative in Congress at the turn of the 20th century.
The Sun-Journal of New Bern reports the banquet will be held Jan. 29, marking the 115th anniversary of White's farewell address to Congress. In that speech, he said blacks were bidding a "temporary farewell to the American Congress" but that they would "rise up some day and come again."
White served two terms, leaving Congress in 1901. It took 28 years for another black representative to follow him.
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield will be the keynote at the Duke banquet. Butterfield is a former justice of the N.C. Supreme Court and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
State Bar Disciplinary Hearing Slated For Attorney
An attorney who worked tirelessly for the release of at least a half dozen wrongly imprisoned men now faces possible disciplinary action.
A five-day hearing is scheduled to begin today for Chris Mumma, who's accused of violating rules of professional conduct in a case involving Joseph Sledge, who was imprisoned for almost 40 years for a double murder before being released one year ago.
Some of the men whom she helped free from prison plan to attend the hearing, including Greg Taylor, the first person exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission that Mumma helped establish.
The attorney who leads the North Carolina State Bar's prosecution declined to discuss the case, as did Mumma and her attorneys.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad