Free Republic

RALEIGH – Amazon is still considering the Triangle for its huge HQ2 project, and downtown Raleigh is where the ecommerce giant is most likely to build what would be a massive complex if North Carolina’s capital is the winner, according to sources. Several of the same sources also note that an announcement of Apple’s selection for a new campus is “imminent.” North Carolina has been aggressively pursuing both economic development projects which promise billions of dollars in investments and as many as 60,000 jobs. Winning the Apple project does not preclude the Triangle from being selected by Amazon, sources say....

The National Weather Service said a flash flood emergency was in place for McDowell County including the city of Marion, which is home to around 7,800 people, and Old Fort, which has a population of 900. Authorities urged residents to seek higher ground immediately.

GOP Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.) on Thursday introduced legislation that would instruct the House to call on the White House to formally apologize for a staffer’s “insensitive comments” that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was “dying anyway.” Jones, a vocal critic of President Trump, rolled out the resolution after becoming outraged by comments made about McCain by White House aide Kelly Sadler and her refusal to publicly apologize, The Hill has learned. Last year, McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, and the longtime senator is now receiving treatment at his home near Sedona, Ariz. House Resolution 901 was...

While NFL owners seemed paralyzed by fear last year over what Donald Trump might tweet about them next, the man buying the Carolina Panthers might enjoy that fight. Hedge fund manager David Tepper will buy the Panthers on Tuesday, according to reports, for $2.2 billion. While most new NFL owners aren’t all that notable, Tepper is because of his opposition to the president. Trump and the NFL waged a bit of a silly war last season, with Trump grandstanding on the national anthem issue and the owners strangely worried about avoiding any more of his criticism. In November of 2016,...

US Army Chaplain Tim Brown of Sanford is fighting for his husband facing deportation back to Honduras. "I will not stop. I am determined. I am persistent. and I am an advocate for humanity," said Brown. On Thursday, Brown's Husband, Sergio Avila Rodriguez was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Charlotte. Sergio is now being held at a facility in Georgia. "I get a phone call and that's when Sergio says to me, 'I've been detained and they are deporting me,'" Brown said. Sergio escaped Honduras with his family when he was just 6 years old. Brown says...

.Pastor Mark Harris has upset Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) in his Tuesday primary, toppling the incumbent congressman after nearly him in a primary two years ago. Pittenger conceded the race late Tuesday night, telling his supporters he had called Harris. The victory sets Harris up for a tough general election fight that could draw outsized attention. Harris mounted one of the toughest primary challenges to any incumbent congressman against Pittenger in 2016, where he fell just short of beating him. But this time, Harris was able to clear the bar after blasting Pittenger for departing from conservative orthodoxy on issues...

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) -- A Raleigh family was terrorized by three masked and gloved gunmen who forced their way into an East Raleigh home, tied the family up, and robbed them. The victims are owners of three Chinese restaurants in Wake County. The home invasion robbery is the latest in a rash of robberies targeting Asian business owners in the Triangle. Jun Wang, 22, arrived at his home in Edgewater at Rogers Farm just before 11 p.m. Monday night to the surprise of his lifetime. He told ABC11, "My key was still in the door as I opened and they...

Raleigh When closing time nears, local Chinese restaurant owners say they must quickly decide whether to greet people approaching the entrance doors with a welcoming smile or a drawn gun. Their fears continue after they lock up for the night, checking their rear-view mirrors for headlights as they drive home. They want to make sure robbers aren't following them. Dozens of Chinese business owners in the Triangle say they have felt targeted by thieves for so long that they have turned to firearms, including AR-15 assault-style rifles, to defend their livelihoods and their families. About 100 small-business owners have banned...

MORE than 270 earthquakes have been recorded in just ten days near Spain’s Canary Islands raising fears of a volcanic eruption. The quakes have struck near Tenerife and Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands where there is a huge submarine fault between the two islands. Spain’s National Geographic Institute said the biggest recent quake reached a magnitude of 3.2 on the Richter scale at only about 35km from Puerto La Luz in Gran Canaria. A report said the fault line has not been active in recent times, but it added, “What if it started spewing magma again? And what if...

Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., went nuclear on liberals on Tuesday and introduced an explosive bill that would fully defund sanctuary cities and use the funds toward building President Donald Trump‘s wall along the southern border, according to The Daily Caller

CHARLOTTE — Congressman Robert Pittenger said Friday that he wants U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to look into reports that schools are indoctrinating students with an anti-gun political agenda. His prime example: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ reaction to a principal’s videotaped remarks about gun culture, delivered during a student “walkout” at Collinswood Language Academy to demand safer schools. Student organizers and several parents said the comments, which interrupted a guest speaker, were inappropriate. In response to a Charlotte Observer query, CMS said that “appropriate actions have and will be taken to address concerns regarding this incident.” “Incident? An educator shared a different...

Durham The Durham Police Department arrested a 28-year-old man Friday in the fatal shooting of Durham restaurant owner Hong Zheng. Police charged Maurice Owen Wiley Jr. in the 600 block of East Ellerbee Street on Friday morning. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, attempted first-degree-burglary, and six counts of discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle/residence. In addition, Wiley was charged with five offenses from a domestic-violence case in Durham last year and assault by strangulation in connection with a domestic-violence case in Wake County. He was also charged with two...

The fatal shooting of Chinese restaurant owner Hong Zheng in Durham last weekend resonated with Lawrence Yoo, the son of first-generation Korean immigrants, whose parents were robbed numerous times in Philadelphia. “This hits home for me,” he said. Yoo, pastor of Durham County's Waypoint Church, says many Asian immigrants keep a low profile in America and don't want to be seen as stirring up or getting mixed up in trouble. But trouble seeks them out, Yoo said. “I can walk into any largely Asian church … and easily find businessmen and women who have robbed before, in minutes.” After Zheng,...

The shooting, the family said, was an attempted robbery that unfolded as Shirley Chan and Hong Zheng returned home from work. It was the fifth time that someone had tried to rob or break into their home since 2015. The family believes they are among a group of Asians who are being targeted because they own restaurants and people think they have money, they said. ... It was pouring rain on Sunday night when Chan and Zheng pulled into their driveway. There two children, Jade and Eastern, 16, were watching in the house for them to return, a routine they...

Jerry Taylor believes he can change the minds of conservative climate skeptics. After all, he helped plant the doubts for many in the first place. He’s president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian-leaning Washington, DC, think tank he founded in 2014. He and his colleagues there are trying to build support for the passage of an aggressive federal carbon tax, through discussions with Washington insiders, with a particular focus on Republican legislators and their staff. Lesson one: Pick the right targets Political scientists consistently find that mass opinion doesn’t drive the policy debate, so much as the other way around....

Could the Democrats' search for a candidate to take on Donald Trump lead them to North Carolina? Gov. Roy Cooper made it sound as though he thinks he'd be a sought-after candidate — at some point, anyway — during a Politico event at Duke University on Thursday. Cooper also offered a take or two distancing himself from the Trump administration. When the event moderator asked Cooper which Democratic candidates should run for the presidency, Cooper replied, "Being the governor of a swing state, I’m sure I'll get some calls."

Conservatives around the country are attacking the Wake County school system, a Raleigh elementary school and the school's PTA over a handout about white privilege that was sent home with students. There's been national attention since a minority parent at Hunter Elementary School complained this week that her 8-year-old son brought home a handout on understanding the concept of white privilege — the idea that white people get certain benefits due to their skin color. School officials say the handout from Hunter's PTA was only intended for parents. But conservatives, including radio show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Todd Starnes, are...

LUMBERTON — A quarter century after tobacco was the money crop in Robeson County, bringing in hundreds of millions a year to farmers and those who provide support services, the amount of tobacco grown here is a fraction of what it was then. But the number of Robeson County residents who smoke remains strong, the highest percentage in the state, causing a financial drain in a poor county and hurting its collective health. North Carolina produced and sold more than $647 million worth of tobacco in 2016, putting it among the country’s leaders in flue-cured tobacco production, but Robeson’s once-booming...

The Senate voted 50-48 Wednesday to confirm business lawyer John Ring to fill the open seat on the National Labor Relations Board, the federal government's main labor law enforcement agency, "giving the five-member board a majority consisting of President Trump's appointees through at least 2020"..... The board achieved a reputation for pro-union activism during the Obama administration, which the Trump White House and congressional Republicans have been eager to reverse. "Mr. Ring will be a principled and objective voice on the NLRB, and not a rubber stamp to special interests that were in favor during the Obama administration. We commend...

A white North Carolina Democratic candidate brushed aside questions earlier this week about ensuring diversity in his state by saying he is a member of the black community. House of Representatives candidate Gary Shipman said he doesn’t need to worry about diversity because he has already experienced it as a member of the African-American community, reported The News & Observer Wednesday.