SENATE-TAX CUTS
NC Senate tax cut plan includes virus aid for businesses
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Senate Republicans have amended their original tax cut proposal to include $1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money so that businesses trying to emerge from the pandemic get more aid. GOP finance leaders unveiled the expanded plan on Tuesday. It already contained an individual income tax rate reduction and more generous standard deductions. The new version also attempts to assist business owners that received Paycheck Protection Program loans and other government assistance. They could receive grants capped at nearly $19,000. The new version also envisions doing away with the corporate income tax by 2028.
MOTORCYCLISTS-FATAL SHOOTINGS
Two motorcycle riders shot, killed on North Carolina highway
WENTWORTH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff’s office says two motorcyclists were shot and killed and a third was wounded as they rode on a highway. News outlets report investigators with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office says the shootings occurred on the U.S. Highway 29 bypass near N.C. Highway 14 on Monday afternoon. Lt. Kevin Suthard says in a news release that the investigators believe the shots were fired from a red Dodge pickup truck. Suthard says it’s not clear if the shootings were a random act or if the victims were targeted.
CAROLINA TIGER RESCUE-TIGER KING
Carolina Tiger Rescue takes in big cats from Tiger King Park
PITTSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina big cat sanctuary will temporarily care for four animals seized from the private zoo in Oklahoma featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King.” Carolina Tiger Rescue says it worked with the U.S. Department of Justice and other accredited animal sanctuaries to rescue 68 big cats from Tiger King Park. The tigers will stay at the Pittsboro sanctuary until the department finds them permanent homes. The department announced on May 20 that protected lions, tigers, lion-tiger hybrids and a jaguar would be removed from the park owned by Jeff and Lauren Lowe. A civil complaint filed in November accused the couple of recurring inhumane treatment and improper handling of animals.
BC-NC-OFFICERS HURT-TRAFFIC STOP
North Carolina police officers hurt in traffic stop crash
DENTON, N.C. (AP) — Two North Carolina police officers were hurt when the cruiser they were sitting in was hit by another vehicle as they were completing a traffic stop. News sources report two officers with the Denton Police Department stopped a motorist for speeding on Interstate 85 Business between Thomasville and Lexington on Monday. Authorities say the officers had gotten into their vehicle to do paperwork when the driver of a van hit the police vehicle, causing it to hit the back of the car the officers had stopped. Authorities charged James Thurmond Miller of South Carolina with a violation of North Carolina’s move over law.
EXPERIMENTAL PLANE CRASH-FATAL
Funeral Thursday for Louisiana oilman killed in plane crash
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A funeral service will be held Thursday for a Louisiana oilman and philanthropist who died when his small stunt jet crashed into a lake. The family’s obituary says the service for Fred L. Phillips will be at B’nai Zion Congregation in Shreveport. It says that although he had dedicated his life to the oil business, his passion was aviation, and he had been a pilot since he was 19. He was 73. The accident is among at least five fatal small plane crashes in eight days being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. Others were in Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and Kentucky.
DEPUTY SHOOTING-PROTESTERS HIT
Police: 2 protesters hit, driver charged in North Carolina
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — Police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, say two women were hit by a car while peacefully protesting a police killing. Police say Michelle Morris and Valerie Lindsey were treated at a hospital Monday night after being hit by the car of Lisa O’Quinn of Greenville. The protesters are Black and O’Quinn is white. O’Quinn was jailed on charges including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill by the use of a motor vehicle. Police are also reviewing the case as a potential hate crime. Her first appearance is Thursday. The women were protesting the shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
NC jobless rate now 5%; 7th consecutive monthly decline
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s unemployment rate has reached another COVID-19 post-lockdown low, even as overall job growth is somewhat uneven. April’s seasonally adjusted state jobless rate of 5% marks a decline for a seventh consecutive month. That compares to the top pandemic rate of 13.5% last year. Overall non-farm employment actually dropped by 5,800 between March and April. The jobless figures came on Friday, the same day Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order reinstating the requirement that next month all unemployment benefit recipients meet work-search rules to receive payments. Cooper had already reinstated work-search requirements for new benefit filers in March.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT
Courts denies motion to halt Confederate monument demolition
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — An appeals court in North Carolina has denied an emergency motion to halt the ongoing demolition of a 75-foot-tall Confederate monument in downtown Asheville. The Citizen-Times reports that Friday’s decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals is a blow to last ditch efforts by a historic preservation group. The monument is to Confederate colonel and governor Zebulon Vance. The emergency motion was filed by the Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26th North Carolina Troops. A quarter of the memorial had been removed by a city contractor as of Friday. The court’s denial may not be the last word in the legal fight. The court invited further written arguments by the parties involved.
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