North Carolina News – December 16

North Carolina News – December 16

ELECTION 2022-SENATE-NORTH CAROLINA

Jackson ends Senate bid in North Carolina, endorses Beasley

RALEIGH. N.C. (AP) — A leading U.S. Senate candidate in North Carolina has abruptly withdrawn from next year’s race for the Democratic nomination. State Sen. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte said in a video released Thursday that he’s endorsed former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley. He got in the race nearly a year ago and had held town hall meetings in all 100 counties. Jackson says Beasley was leading him in the polls and that party unity was needed to win the seat held by the retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. The March primary was delayed to mid-May last week due to pending redistricting litigation.  

THE AP INTERVIEW-NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES

The AP Interview: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ warning on democracy

NEW YORK (AP) — In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Pulitzer Prize-winning Black journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones said she is clear-eyed about her mission to force a reckoning around the nation’s self-image. But she said intense backlash to her work shows the nation is in “a very frightening time.” Hannah-Jones is creator of the much-scrutinized 1619 Project, a groundbreaking collection of essays on race that first appeared in a special issue of The New York Times Magazine in 2019. Now in book form, “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” and “Born on the Water,” a picture storybook collaboration, each have spent consecutive weeks atop the Times bestseller list since their Nov. 16 release.

CELL PHONES-PRINCIPALS

School board votes to allow principals to search cell phones

WILSON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina school board has adopted a policy which will allow principals to search a student’s cellphone. The Wilson Times reports that the policy adopted this week by the Wilson County Board of Education allows phone searches “whenever a school official has reason to believe the search will provide evidence that a student has violated or is violating the law, board policy, the code of student conduct or a school rule.” Superintendent Lane Mills said principals who cited safety concerns and also said they don’t search cellphones often. Mills also said authorizing the searches is necessary due to a national increase in school violence. 

AP-US-AWOL-WEAPONS-BROTHERS’-BETRAYAL

How brothers in arms plotted theft, sale of US Army weaponry

An Associated Press investigation has shown how U.S. troops have stolen guns and explosives from the military — and the weapons of war ended up on America’s streets. One insider theft case involves two men who’d forged a deep bond on the battlefields of Afghanistan. Several years later, they were arrested in a scheme to plunder an armory at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After stealing the weapons, they tried to sell them at the Texas-Mexico border. Their story reveals another kind of threat: How determined insiders can take advantage of security weaknesses within the military to make fast money.

AP-US-PHILANTHROPY-MRBEAST

YouTube star MrBeast rethinks old notions of philanthropy

NEW YORK (AP) — The line of cars started forming at dawn. It was early November in Greenville, North Carolina, and drivers waited in a line that stretched for miles to pick up Thanksgiving turkeys — 10,000 free frozen birds to anyone who asked. Who was behind this act of holiday kindness? Would you believe a young man who once spent 50 hours buried alive and who helped construct the largest Lego tower? Jimmy Donaldson — the widely popular YouTube video maker who goes by MrBeast — has built alongside his fun viral stunts an unusual charity playbook that leverages his fame and skills with the goal to end hunger — philanthropy as entertainment.

BOY SCOUTS-NORTH CAROLINA-LAWSUIT

Lawsuit: North Carolina Boy Scouts chapter ignored abuse

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A lawsuit filed in a North Carolina county says officials with a local Boy Scouts of America chapter in North Carolina did nothing to prevent Scout leaders from sexually abusing 21 children over a half-century. The Winston-Salem Journal reports that the lawsuit was filed in Forsyth County Superior Court against Old Hickory Council of Boy Scouts of America Inc. The lawsuit will be added to a list of similar cases that have been filed in various states recently but which have been put on hold during the national organization’s ongoing bankruptcy case. The Old Hickory Council’s executive director says the chapter has instituted numerous protections to prevent future abuse.

AP-US-CAPITOL-BREACH-MEADOWS

House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt in Jan. 6 probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after he ceased to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. It is the first time the House has voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s. The House vote sends the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, where it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether to present the case against the former Republican congressman to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.

STATE TROOPER SHOT

Trooper wounded, suspect who led chase fatally shot

BURNSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Authorities say a man shot and wounded a North Carolina trooper during a chase before later being killed in a shootout with authorities. It was not immediately clear what prompted Tuesday’s chase. A Mitchell County sheriff’s deputy alerted Yancey County authorities while it was ongoing, saying that the suspect was entering the county and had been firing his gun at the pursuing officer. Trooper Kevin Glenn was shot while trying to deploy a tire deflation device in Yancey County. Officials say 40-year-old suspect Bobby Lee Byrd Jr. later crashed his vehicle and was killed after firing upon responding officers. The trooper’s injuries are serious but not life-threatening. 

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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