North Carolina Budget Fast-Track Squeezes Out Amendments
Republicans at the North Carolina legislature are fast-tracking this year's budget adjustments so quickly they're preventing rank-and-file members — particularly Democrats — from formally offering their own changes.
House and Senate GOP leaders have been meeting privately for weeks on adjusting the second year of the two-year government spending plan approved last summer.
House Republicans announced Wednesday a not yet released plan will be voted on next week. Leaders will use a procedural method preventing amendments in committee or during floor debate.
Democratic Rep. Billy Richardson said Republicans want to avoid votes that could be used against them in fall campaigns.
GOP Rep. Chuck McGrady is a top budget-writer. He says he wouldn't have necessarily wanted it this way but says the budgeting process has been efficient.
Democrat: School Safety Campaign Issue If Gun Ideas Ignored
Democratic legislative candidates plan to make school safety a fall campaign issue if Republicans won't consider legislation that includes gun-control provisions backed by Governor Roy Cooper.
Cooper and other Democrats want to raise the age to purchase assault-style rifles from 18 to 21 and to ban "bump stocks," which allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire. They also want judges to be able to force people considered physical threats to themselves or others to surrender weapons temporarily.
Legislative Republicans have avoided gun restrictions, focusing instead on improving building safety and hiring more school psychologists and police officers.
Former North Carolina SBI Director Beatty Nominated For Bench
A longtime state government veteran is among those nominated by Gov. Roy Cooper to become special trial court judges, who often are brought in to handle complex cases or to perform fill-in duties on the bench.
Cooper announced late Wednesday that Bryan Beatty is his choice for one of three special Superior Court judge vacancies. The former State Bureau of Investigation director and public safety secretary recently wrapped up nearly a decade on the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Cooper's other two choices are Robeson County Chief District Court Judge J. Stanley Carmical and Chief District Court Judge Athena Brooks, serving Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties.
Family Apologizes To Community For Man Who Drove Into Eatery
Relatives of a North Carolina man accused of driving into a restaurant, killing two loved ones, are thanking authorities and apologizing to the community.
Monty Self read a statement Wednesday to reporters in Gaston County west of Charlotte. He's the brother of Roger Self, who faces two first-degree murder counts after authorities say he rammed a sport utility vehicle into a restaurant where his family was eating.
The statement says the family is "sorry for this moment" and what it's brought to Gaston County. The family's pastor has said Roger Self was suffering from depression. The crash killed his daughter and daughter-in-law and critically injured two other relatives.
WFU Golf Coach Announces Retirement
Wake Forest University golf coach Diane Dailey announced that she is retiring. The news comes on the heels of mentoring the 2018 NCAA Champion and after decades at the helm of one of the university's most successful athletic programs.
Dailey's 30-year tenure is the second longest for any Wake Forest coach. Along the way her student athletes won dozens of team and individual titles, and several ACC Championships. The team qualified for 15 NCAA Championships under her guidance, and it was Demon Deacon Jennifer Kupcho who became this year's national champion.
Dailey says that the accolades that she and her team have received have been great, but it's the students who have kept her coming back year after year.
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