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Cooper Signs Law Keeping Court Of Appeals At 15
North Carolina's intermediate-level appeals court will stay at 15 judges as Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation that repeals a 2017 law that would have reduced the seats to 12 over time.
Cooper announced Thursday that he had signed the law, which Republicans controlling the General Assembly approved quickly over the past several days.
The 2017 law would have prevented the governor from appointing replacements for the next three court vacancies due to retirement or other reasons because the seats would be eliminated instead. The first such vacancy would have occurred at the end of March.
Moore, Other House Republicans Unveil $1.9B Bond Proposal
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore says borrowing money to pay for public school construction is the way to go because it offers certainty to local governments about how much money they'll have at their disposal for projects.
Moore and other House Republicans unveiled on Thursday a $1.9 billion debt proposal, authorized only if voters would approve a 2020 statewide referendum. The package would have $1.5 billion for K-12 school districts and $200 million each for the University of North Carolina and community college systems.
Senate Republicans support a pay-as-you-go construction plan that doesn't require issuing debt.
North Carolina Operative Out Of Jail In Ballot Case
The main suspect in the ballot-fraud allegations at the bottom of a still-unsettled North Carolina congressional election is out of jail.
Leslie McCrae Dowless was released Thursday from the Wake County jail in Raleigh after posting bond. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with seven felonies accusing him of illegally handling ballots during last year's primary election and the 2016 elections.
The charges came less than a week after the state elections board decided Dowless' work on behalf of Republican Mark Harris, starting with the 2018 primary, tainted the GOP candidate's apparent November victory in the 9th Congressional District.
Guilford Delegation Wants To Go Back To Nonpartisan School Board
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has filed bills to make a local election non-partisan.
Six members of the Guilford County delegation - four Democrats and two Republicans - have filed bills to change the way voters pick the school board. One measure is a House bill, and there's an identical bill in the Senate.
If approved, candidates' names would appear on the ballot without party affiliation for both the primary and general elections.
That's a return to the way it was in Guilford County for years, until a bill filed by then-state Sen. Trudy Wade - a Republican - switched the elections to partisan beginning with the 2016 campaign.
North Carolina Mother Missing After Leaving Home 2 Weeks Ago
A North Carolina mother of two who posted on social media that her cousin is missing is now the object of a search after leaving her home two weeks ago.
Winston-Salem police tell the Winston-Salem Journal that 30-year-old Kristen McNeal told her family on Feb. 17 she was stepping out for a minute, but never returned, leaving her 8- and 12-year-old sons at home with their grandfather.
The Davidson County Sheriff's Office says McNeal's cousin, 32-year-old Bradley Shoaf, is also missing, but authorities don't think the cases are related. Shoaf was last seen Jan. 12 in Lexington after the car he was riding in with two friends wrecked.
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