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Elections Board Nominees Made Amid Undecided Congress Race
Democrats and Republicans have nominated members for a reconstituted North Carolina elections board tasked with resolving the nation's last undecided congressional election.
The state parties' leaders this week each provided four nominees to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who makes the appointments. There will be three Democrats and two Republicans on the board.
A new law creates the five-member board Jan. 31 that succeeds a nine-member board struck down by a court as unconstitutional.
The new board will decide if Republican Mark Harris won the 9th District race in November or it could order a new election because of absentee ballot irregularities.
North Carolina's Fight For Dams, Control Of River, Fizzling Out
North Carolina's decade-long battle to control one of the state's largest rivers and the electricity that once fueled a factory employing 1,000 is drying up.
A federal appeals court in Washington last week rejected the state's lawsuit trying to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider licensing the Yadkin River dams until 2055. A spokeswoman for state Attorney General Josh Stein said Thursday that a U.S. Supreme Court appeal is being considered. The court accepts about 1 percent of appeals.
North Carolina legislators and governors have fought for the dams since Alcoa shuttered the aluminum smelter powered by the water-produced electricity in 2009.
Melissa Harris-Perry Levels New Complaints Against Wake Forest University
Melissa Harris-Perry, a Wake Forest University professor and former talk show host on MSNBC, is criticizing the school and academic freedom on campus.
During a speech at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event on Monday, Harris-Perry questioned the university's labor practices for some employees, among other things.
She has since taken to Twitter, objecting to the timing of an email she allegedly received from an administrator inviting her to eliminate the Anna Julia Cooper Center, an organization she leads on campus. She also claimed that academic freedom at the university “is Truly Dead.”
A Wake Forest University spokesperson says Harris-Perry's recent comments about the university are misleading and disappointing.
Harris-Perry did not return a request for comment about her Twitter posts in time for this story.
Bennett Receives 2 Major Gifts In 1 Day
Bennett College in Greensboro has received $1 million in less than 24 hours, thanks to two large gifts. Early Thursday the school tweeted that the Papa Johns Foundation had donated $500,000.
At a press conference later that day, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation announced that it will give Bennett College half a million dollars as well.
Bennett College is seeking to raise $5 million by February 1st in an effort to save its accreditation. With the new gifts, it has collected $2.7 million so far.
Mom: 3-Year-Old Found After 2 Days Missing Is Doing Well
The mother of a 3-year-old boy who was missing for two days before he was found alive in North Carolina says he's doing well and "already asked to watch Netflix."
The man who found Casey Lynn Hathaway spoke at a news conference Thursday night, alongside Brittany Hathaway and Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes.
Shane Grier said searchers responding to a tip heard Casey calling for his mother. Grier found him around 50 yards into the woods, entangled in briars.
Hughes believes Casey had moved around before ending up where he was found, not far from the house from which he went missing Tuesday.
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