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China Grove, North Carolina school buses take illegals to shop at Walmart using EBT cards

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law a bill ending the Tarheel State’s moratorium on energy production via hydraulic fracturing. Fracking to Begin in 2015 The governor’s action ends a 2012 moratorium on hydraulic fracturing—also known as fracking—that was imposed to provide time for fracking-specific regulations to be drafted. It also terminates a decade-old fracking ban. The North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission continues to work on fracking regulations, which are scheduled to be finalized by January 1, 2015. They would go into effect in March 2015, with the first drilling permits becoming available on July 1, 2015....

WINSTON-SALEM --- The legal fight over some of the more controversial provisions of North Carolina's elections overhaul bill brought an array of arguments and a crowd of lawyers to a federal courtroom Monday. The U.S. Justice Department, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and lawyers representing seven college students testing a novel legal argument all hope to persuade a U.S. district judge to block provisions of the 2013 law until their lawsuits have been heard. The lawyers said the new provisions could have a discriminatory effect on their clients in the statewide election in...

The Senate overwhelmingly advanced a bipartisan hunting and fishing bill on Monday – but not before facing objections from liberals who criticized the chamber for failing to act on gun-control measures. Senators voted 82-12 Monday evening to move forward on the sportsmen’s legislation, which would boost hunters and anglers through an array of provisions such as helping to build shooting ranges and loosening federal regulations on lead fishing tackle and bullets. The package is a political boon to the host of red-state Democrats up for reelection this year including the bill’s chief Democratic sponsor, North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan. Sen....

A girl is seen trying to touch the man's ice cream cart as another girl stands behind her. The first girl then appears to try to hit the man repeatedly as he attempts to defend himself. The second girl then lunges toward the ice cream man - not long before an unidentified male also tries to take a swing at him. As the teens back away from the man, yelling is heard. The first girl then moves back toward the ice cream man and seems to repeatedly hit him as he tries to dodge her blows. At different parts of...

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season has hit the North Carolina coast, a wet and windy spoiler of the July Fourth holiday for thousands of Americans as authorities ordered them to evacuate exposed areas. Hurricane Arthur crossed the coast near Cape Lookout at the southern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks at 11:15 p.m. EDT (0315 GMT) on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (160 kph). This earned it Category 2 status on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Moving northeast at 22 mph (35.6 kph), Arthur is...

Arthur becomes the first hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic season. Independence Day travelers and revelers up and down the U.S. Atlantic coast are eying the path of the storm. Forecast models are in good agreement that Hurricane Arthur will dampen July 4th festivities along the N.C. Outer Banks. Mandatory evacuation of the Outer Banks has begun. Warm waters from the Gulf Stream are adding fuel to the storm development. Sea Surface TempsPublic Advisories

The Dare County Control Group has issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents and visitors on Hatteras Island beginning at 5:00 a.m., Thursday, July 3, 2014. After 5:00 a.m. Thursday, no access will be allowed to Hatteras Island. All Hatteras Island residents and visitors are advised to evacuate as quickly as possible during daylight hours on Thursday before the effects of Tropical Storm Arthur begin to bring high winds, rough seas, dangerous rip currents, and the potential for water and sand overwash on NC Highway 12. A State of Emergency has been issued for all of Dare County with the...

H.R. 1308 (103rd): Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (On Passage of the Bill) Number: Senate Vote #331 [primary source: senate.gov] Date: Oct 27, 1993 (103rd Congress) Result: Bill Passed TRACK VOTES This was a vote to pass a bill. Bill: H.R. 1308 (103rd): Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 Introduced by Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer [D-NY] on March 11, 1993 TOTALS DEMOCRAT REPUBLICAN YEA 97 97% 52 45 NAY 3 3% 2 1 REQUIRED: Simple Majority

UNC law professor’s holdings include $1.5M in real estate, and meanwhile he chastises Republicans for their ‘unforgivable war on poor people’A controversial, outspoken law professor who frequently bashes Republicans and specializes in poverty issues as a self-proclaimed champion of the poor earns $205,400 per year – for teaching one class per semester.The University of North Carolina School of Law pays Professor Gene Nichol $205,400 annually for his one class per semester workload. On top of his teaching salary, he receives a $7,500 stipend as director of the law school’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.The News & Observer maintains a...

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, has signed legislation that will explicitly allow students in public schools across the state to engage in voluntary student-led prayer. The new law permits students to create religious clubs and coordinate prayer groups, reports North Carolina Fox affiliate WGHP. The three-page law also allows students to pray by themselves or in groups — aloud or silently — in exactly the same way they can discuss or think silently about any other issue. Additionally, students will be able to communicate their religious beliefs in written assignments and artwork under the new law without fear...

Authorities in North Carolina say a registered sex offender ran a home child care as a front for a child porn production operation involving a Special Forces soldier and other adults. Harnett County investigators say Bailey Joe Mills ran the unlicensed child care from his home. Mills has three felony convictions involving sexual activity with children and was charged in January with raping a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say there are at least 10 child victims. Also arrested were Mills' wife, 34-year-old Elizabeth Holland Mills; 29-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Jordan Everett Busse of Fort Bragg; 20-year-old Rashawn Rodriguez Drake Jackson; and...

NAGS HEAD, N.C. — The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be swamped. The state had detailed maps to illustrate this claim and was developing a Web site where people could check by street address to see if their property was doomed. There was no talk of salvation, no plan to hold back the tide. The 39-inch forecast was “a death sentence,” Kelly...

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, has signed legislation that will explicitly allow students in public schools across the state to engage in voluntary student-led prayer. The new law permits students to create religious clubs and coordinate prayer groups, reports North Carolina Fox affiliate WGHP. The three-page law also allows students to pray by themselves or in groups — aloud or silently — in exactly the same way they can discuss or think silently about any other issue.

Gary Miller must really be angry about getting run off as chancellor of UNC-Wilmington. On his way out the door, he's left us with more bad news. Apparently, five diversity offices and a small army of administrators to manage them just isn't enough diversity spending. So we are adding a new Chief Diversity Officer to head the main Office of Diversity and Inclusion - one who will also sit on the white chancellor's cabinet and shield him from accusations of racism in exchange for a six-digit salary that will drive up tuition and consequently reduce black enrollment. The advertisement for...

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

The latest interstate voter cross check tallied 6,951,484 overlapping voter registrations, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. The cross-check program involves only 28 states and does not include the three largest: California, Texas and Florida. “Duplicate registration is an open invitation to voting fraud,” said Clara Belle Wheeler, a member of the Election Board in Albemarle County, Va. “This ability to vote more than once dilutes the legal votes and changes the results of elections.”

As North Carolina lawmakers debated a proposal to prevent charter schools from discriminating against applicants based on sexual orientation, one representative suggested Tuesday that adult sexual attraction to children is a sexual orientation like homosexuality. The amendment was tabled by Republicans, preventing a vote on it. But during the debate, Republican Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, said pedophilia, masochism and other illegal sexual practices are sexual orientations like homosexuality and he questioned the role adults who are sexually attracted to children might have in schools. Several lawmakers called those comments offensive. After the House session, Twitter lit up with criticism of...

Red state Democrats who are fighting to overcome their support of gun control and get re-elected are asking gun control proponents Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly to stay out of their states. This comes after Breibart News' June 4 report that Giffords and Kelly planned to help Senators Mark Udall (D-CO), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Kay Hagan (D-NC) get re-elected this November. Now Udall, Landrieu, and Hagan are pushing Giffords and Kelly to stay away from their races. According to The Washington Times, the three incumbents are trying to keep gun control from erupting as a major issue in their...

Janet Marino says she isn’t asking for much from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Just a chance to visit classes on occasion to see how her two disabled children are doing. Or to be a chaperone on a field trip. Or to volunteer during a classroom activity. It’s what any parent would want, she believes. But undocumented immigrants like Marino, 34, aren’t treated like other parents. They don’t have the Social Security numbers or photo IDs that are required by CMS for criminal background checks. That essentially bans undocumented immigrants – people not in the country legally – from participating in school activities....