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Maria Moves Out As A Tropical Storm
Maria has weakened to a tropical storm as it moves out to sea in the Atlantic.
The storm's maximum sustained winds decreased Thursday morning to near 70 mph with little change in strength expected over the next two days.
Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico and lashed North Carolina's Outer Banks with high water, is centered about 275 miles east-northeast of Cape Hatteras and is moving east-northeast at 8 mph.
In North Carolina, officials expect conditions to improve quickly on the Outer Banks as Maria races east, so schools can reopen, sand can be removed from roads and the ferries that provide access to Ocracoke Island can begin running again.
Critics Complain Judicial Districts Shaped For GOP Gain
Critics of the first extensive realignment in decades of districts where North Carolina trial judges run for election complain it's shaping up to boost rural and suburban communities which favor Republicans.
About a dozen constituents on Wednesday told a state House committee the exercise smacked of a Republican effort to put more GOP lawyers on the bench. Critics warned the process risks tainting courts with doubts that judges were selected through a process that favors Republican partisans.
GOP representatives argue broad changes are needed now to create fairer and more uniform maps. Democrats said the revamp is designed to shape the courts that check Republican legislative power.
The full House could take up the measure next week.
Judges To Hear Whether New NC Legislative Maps Are Legal
A trio of federal judges is gathering in two weeks to decide whether North Carolina lawmakers removed unlawful racial bias from new legislative district maps.
The judges on Wednesday set a hearing for Oct. 12 in Greensboro to decide if the new districts lawmakers drew for themselves still contain illegal and unconstitutional districts.
The three-judge panel last year threw out 19 House districts and nine Senate districts from 2011 after concluding that they were illegally gerrymandered on the basis of race. The judges concluded GOP leaders failed to justify using race as the predominant factor in drawing them. The panel ordered new maps to be drawn this summer.
Triad Unemployment Rate Holds Steady
The Piedmont's unemployment rate remains near a 10-year low at 4.5 percent.
Forsyth County's jobless rate was unchanged from July's at 4.4 percent, and Guilford remained steady at 4.8. That's a one-point drop for both counties from one year ago.
The North Carolina Commerce Department's August report shows a bump in hiring helped stabilize the region's unemployment rate.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that from July to August, Winston-Salem saw a net gain of nearly 2,000 jobs, with major additions to government and trade and transportation pay rolls.
Wild Mushrooms Can Now Be Sold To NC Restaurants
North Carolina has legalized the sale of wild mushrooms to restaurants, with some caveats.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the state this year reversed a 2009 prohibition on selling wild-gathered mushrooms unless they were gathered or inspected by an approved mushroom-identification expert.
The restriction did not define "expert," and no official certification program was designated, thus making serving wild mushrooms illegal by default. The lifting of the restrictions now requires foragers to provide restaurants with forms specifying the species of wild mushroom the forager is qualified to sell.
Foragers must also obtain verification/sale tags from the health department and submit them with each sale.
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