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Cooper's First Legislative Address Follows Conflict With GOP
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's speech to the North Carolina General Assembly likely will highlight his budget priorities and potential areas of agreement elsewhere with Republican legislative leaders.
Monday night marks Cooper's first State of the State address. The House and Senate will gather in the House chamber at the Legislative Building to listen.
The speech marks a major opportunity for the new governor to push his agenda and speak directly to the voters who narrowly elected him.
Rockingham District Attorney Quits Days After SBI Search
A North Carolina district attorney has resigned amid allegations he conspired with a colleague to hire each other's wives and allow them to collect salaries for little work.
Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer resigned Friday. Gov. Roy Cooper said Saturday he had appointed former district attorney Tom Keith to serve as interim DA.
Blitzer's resignation came two days after agents from the State Bureau of Investigation searched his office. A whistleblower lawsuit accuses Blitzer and Wallace Bradsher, district attorney for Person and Caswell counties, of hiring their own wives. Shortly thereafter, the women swapped jobs.
Prosecutors In AP Report On Church Abuse No Longer Employed
A North Carolina district attorney says two assistant prosecutors are no longer working for him following a report by The Associated Press on a church where they are members. Ex-congregants there say officials beat members and derailed criminal investigations.
District Attorney David Learner said in a statement Friday that he can't let the integrity of his office be called into question.
The announcement came two days after Learner requested a State Bureau of Investigation probe into prosecutors Frank Webster and Chris Back and four days after an AP story about the men.
Ex-members of Word of Faith church in Spindale told the AP Webster and Back provided legal advice, helped at strategy sessions and participated in a mock trial for four congregants charged with harassing a former member.
NC's NAACP Protests Deportation Of Pregnant Guatemalan Woman
North Carolina's NAACP chapter is protesting the pending deportation of a pregnant woman back to the violent Central American country she left as a teenager.
The civil-rights organization is taking up the cause of 33-year-old Lillian Cardona-Perez, a wife and mother of four.
North Carolina NAACP president William Barber and other ministers urged elected officials to intervene in the case during a vigil late Saturday in Harnett County.
Cardona-Perez says she has a work permit that is valid through October. She has a hearing Thursday before U.S. immigration officials in Charlotte and can be sent back to Guatemala if her permit renewal is denied.
KKK Planning Event In Asheboro
A North Carolina Ku Klux Klan group is planning to hold a rally and cross burning in Asheboro.
The event is being planned for May by the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Pelham, about 45 minutes north of Burlington, near the Virginia line.
According to the group's website, the Asheboro event will take place May 6th, and will feature speeches, dinner and a cross burning at dark.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports the group's most recent event was a parade which ran through Roxboro in December, which drew more than 100 participants. The parade celebrated Donald Trump's presidential election victory.
The KKK has not announced a time or location for the Asheboro event.
Carolinas Get Snow As End Of Winter Approaches
Snow stretched from the mountains of North Carolina east to Raleigh as a warm winter turned normal briefly.
Up to 4 inches of snow fell in western North Carolina on Sunday and the National Weather Service said cold weather is expected to last most of the week.
A winter weather advisory was posted for a dozen counties in western North Carolina from 8 p.m. Monday until 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Temperatures were below freezing across the western Carolinas on Monday morning. Significant warming is not expected until Thursday.
Another inch of snow is possible Monday night in the mountains of western North Carolina. Up to 6 inches of snow could fall in upper elevations by Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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