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Gov. Cooper: Judges Got It Wrong On Elections Board Ruling
Gov. Roy Cooper says a three-judge panel got it wrong by deciding a North Carolina Supreme Court decision meant only a small portion of a law combining elections and ethics duties into one agency should be struck down.
Cooper's attorneys asked Tuesday for the justices to intervene quickly and void the entire law approved last April by GOP lawmakers.
The governor's legal motions come a day after the three trial court judges decided the Supreme Court's ruling in January only meant sections of the law related to the combined board's membership were thrown out. Combining the board remained intact.
Cooper wants a stand-alone elections board again in which Democrats hold a majority of seats.
Regulator: Pipeline Permits Have No Link To Cooper Agreement
A North Carolina environmental regulator says a separate monetary agreement reached by Gov. Roy Cooper's office with developers of a multistate natural gas pipeline had nothing to do with her department's decisions on key project permits.
Assistant Secretary for the Environment Sheila Holman answered questions Tuesday from the General Assembly's energy policy committee about where things stand on approving the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through eastern North Carolina.
GOP legislators have criticized Cooper's deal in which Dominion Resources, Duke Energy and other utilities would pay $58 million for environmental mitigation, renewable energy and economic development projects along the pipeline route. The legislature passed a law to send that money to area school districts instead.
Hog Industry Lawyers: Jury Needn't Hear Other Waste Methods
Hog industry attorneys defending federal lawsuits claiming that spraying liquefied animal waste over farm fields harms North Carolina neighbors don't want jurors to hear about alternative methods used elsewhere.
U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt and attorneys on Tuesday discussed trial details ahead of the first of what could be dozens of nuisance cases that could alter profits and processes in the country's No. 2 pork-producing state.
Lawyers defending a subsidiary of Virginia-based pork giant Smithfield Foods say jurors shouldn't be told that hog waste applied to Midwest fields is injected or turned directly into soil rather than sprayed into the air over it.
Neighbors say winds leave their homes covered in filthy droplets.
Winston-Salem Reports 6 Homicides In 2018, Ahead Of 2017
Winston-Salem is reporting six homicides over 42 days during 2018, ahead of the pace set in 2017.
Police tell The Winston-Salem Journal that the six homicides compare to just one at the same time last year. There have been arrests in four of the cases, but police say suspects are still being sought in two of those cases.
The most notable case is the death of 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University football player Najee Ali Baker, who was fatally shot while at a party on Jan. 20 on the campus of Wake Forest University. A 16-year-old was charged in the case, but police are still looking for 21-year-old Jakier Shanique Austin, who is believed to have shot Baker.
North Carolina Revenues Surged With New Year, But Will It Last?
Tax money stuffed North Carolina's coffers as the calendar turned to 2018, but that alone doesn't mean the state will have a significant surplus when the fiscal year ends in June.
State Budget Director Charlie Perusse says individuals paid $165 million more in estimated tax payments during December and January than previously projected.
Perusse's office believes the increase occurred largely because people overpaid estimated state taxes around the new year to deduct more on 2017 federal income tax returns, before the federal tax overhaul law begins with 2018 returns. Perusse says stock market performance also contributed to the uptick.
Perusse expects the payment surge to mean lower payments and higher refunds in April. That could eat away revenue growth.