North Carolina News
Articles 1 - 10 of most recent articles
Jogger Killed By Bus Identified As Exchange Student
Police identified the jogger who was struck and killed by a bus as an exchange student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
WITN 7 – 14 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
Police identified the jogger who was struck and killed by a bus as an exchange student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
WITN 7 – 14 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
Cathy's Weekend Workout
Cathy helps us get in shape with her weekend workout.
DigTriad.com – 28 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
Cathy helps us get in shape with her weekend workout.
DigTriad.com – 28 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
Man Avoids Being Shot in Robbery Attempt
A Greensboro man was walking in a apartment complex parking lot when another man tried to rob him and shot at him.
DigTriad.com – 35 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
A Greensboro man was walking in a apartment complex parking lot when another man tried to rob him and shot at him.
DigTriad.com – 35 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
Bill Black Chevrolet Collecting Items For Armed Forces Day
Today is Armed Forces Day and Bill Black Chevrolet Cadillac is collecting items all day to send to two local troops stationed in Iraq.
DigTriad.com – 1 hour, 6 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
Today is Armed Forces Day and Bill Black Chevrolet Cadillac is collecting items all day to send to two local troops stationed in Iraq.
DigTriad.com – 1 hour, 6 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greensboro
Police Warn Charlotte Neighbors About Police Impersonator
Read full story for latest details.
WSOCTV.com – 1 hour, 24 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Read full story for latest details.
WSOCTV.com – 1 hour, 24 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Official defends illegal immigrant ban
Scott Ralls, the new president of the N.C. Community College System, admits he has a bad habit of walking into messy situations when he starts a new job.Add his current post to the list.When he met his new staff on his first day running a division of the state Department of Commerce in 1995, three of them announced they had no assigned duties.He assumed his next job in 1997, as an executive with the community college system, and found his division had overpromised businesses on the amount of job training the schools could provide.Now Ralls is being bashed in some quarters as timidly handling the controversy over whether the state's 58 community colleges should admit illegal immigrants.Gov. Mike Easley called Ralls' decision to prohibit their admission "odd," and criticized the community colleges for changing policy before getting the legal clarification they have requested. University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles said the state's universities would continue admitting illegal immigrants, referring to "considerable legal disagreement."In an interview Friday, Ralls expressed some frustration in emphasizing that the latest move is a question of following legal advice from the state's attorney general and not a matter of setting policy in stone."People are looking towards me as this is my decision based on what I think about immigration," he said. "I don't necessarily set the policy. I follow the law, and I administer the policy."What is his personal view, though?"I'm an educator at heart," Ralls said. "I believe a broadly available education has much greater benefit than it does cost."The debate over illegal immigrants has hijacked the media attention focused on him at a time when he is trying to spell out long term strategies for the colleges."What can be frustrating is that being the center of the storm, which you're really not in control of," Ralls said during an interview at his Raleigh office Friday. "You hope that doesn't take away from what you really feel like the mission needs to be."Ralls, 44 and a native of Charlotte, has lived in every region of the state, moving around as the son of a Methodist minister. He once had a map, legendary among his friends, marking every barbecue restaurant where he had stopped. He guesses around 75 of them.He's partial to Jimmy Buffett and has been young for most every job he has held. Some time after starting at his last post, president of Craven Community College based in New Bern, he exchanged greetings one day with a local official who wondered aloud whether Ralls were the son of the new community college president.The furor over admission for illegal immigrants erupted in November, before Ralls was named the new president of the system. The colleges' then-top lawyer dispatched a memo saying all of the schools should admit undocumented applicants. In December, the community college system sought further guidance from Attorney General Roy Cooper's office, which this month said the schools should not offer admission, based on federal law.Ralls said this week that the schools would follow that advice until he gets more information.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, however, oversees immigration law and officials there told reporters they have no authority over community college admissions.Ralls said he asked Cooper's office to get clarification from that agency.Friends and colleagues describe him as trying to settle an issue he didn't raise -- an educator trying to navigate the labyrinth of the law.He has taken his lumps. Some critics questioned why it was necessary to close the door to illegal immigrants when the law remains unsettled, noting that the UNC system chose not to bar them."We have become the poster children of why there needs to be federal clarification on these issues," Ralls said at his first state board of community colleges meeting as president this week.Even some board members, while expressing support for Ralls, worried aloud about the controversy."It really does paint a bad brush on our reputation," said Chairwoman Hilda Pinnix-Ragland of Cary.Allen Wellons, a former state senator from Johnston County and board member, said the schools "look like we're stepping back."Ralls said the decision was not about policy but whether to follow Cooper's advice."We want to educate all the residents of this state," he told the board, "and we want to follow the law."Friends and colleagues said Ralls is not avoiding ownership of the issue but approaches his job with a balance: staying above the gnashing of the conflict but also remaining involved just enough to effect change."I have never seen Scott Ralls seem timid or shy away from difficult issues," said Cindy Hess, executive vice president at Craven Community College. "He's evaluating the situation and, as in most leadership positions, there are pieces of it that are inherited and pieces that you can appropriately demand and guide the change."Joe Stewart, a lobbyist for the insurance industry and longtime friend of Ralls, said a politically charged and legally ambiguous battle is raging around someone who is neither a politician nor a lawyer but an educator."What's motivating him more than anything," Stewart said, "is a fierce desire to make education available to every single person who wants it."Scott RallsAGE: 44.CAREER: President of Craven Community College, vice president for economic and workforce development at N.C. Community College System, director of workforce development and training for N.C. Department of Commerce, also positions in the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor.EDUCATION: Ph.D. and master's degrees in industrial and organizational psychology from University of Maryland; bachelor's degree in industrial relations and psychology from UNC Chapel Hill.FAMILY: Wife, Lisa, and sons Benjamin, 9, and Lucas, 6.FAVORITE TV SHOW: "The Office."
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 2 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Scott Ralls, the new president of the N.C. Community College System, admits he has a bad habit of walking into messy situations when he starts a new job.Add his current post to the list.When he met his new staff on his first day running a division of the state Department of Commerce in 1995, three of them announced they had no assigned duties.He assumed his next job in 1997, as an executive with the community college system, and found his division had overpromised businesses on the amount of job training the schools could provide.Now Ralls is being bashed in some quarters as timidly handling the controversy over whether the state's 58 community colleges should admit illegal immigrants.Gov. Mike Easley called Ralls' decision to prohibit their admission "odd," and criticized the community colleges for changing policy before getting the legal clarification they have requested. University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles said the state's universities would continue admitting illegal immigrants, referring to "considerable legal disagreement."In an interview Friday, Ralls expressed some frustration in emphasizing that the latest move is a question of following legal advice from the state's attorney general and not a matter of setting policy in stone."People are looking towards me as this is my decision based on what I think about immigration," he said. "I don't necessarily set the policy. I follow the law, and I administer the policy."What is his personal view, though?"I'm an educator at heart," Ralls said. "I believe a broadly available education has much greater benefit than it does cost."The debate over illegal immigrants has hijacked the media attention focused on him at a time when he is trying to spell out long term strategies for the colleges."What can be frustrating is that being the center of the storm, which you're really not in control of," Ralls said during an interview at his Raleigh office Friday. "You hope that doesn't take away from what you really feel like the mission needs to be."Ralls, 44 and a native of Charlotte, has lived in every region of the state, moving around as the son of a Methodist minister. He once had a map, legendary among his friends, marking every barbecue restaurant where he had stopped. He guesses around 75 of them.He's partial to Jimmy Buffett and has been young for most every job he has held. Some time after starting at his last post, president of Craven Community College based in New Bern, he exchanged greetings one day with a local official who wondered aloud whether Ralls were the son of the new community college president.The furor over admission for illegal immigrants erupted in November, before Ralls was named the new president of the system. The colleges' then-top lawyer dispatched a memo saying all of the schools should admit undocumented applicants. In December, the community college system sought further guidance from Attorney General Roy Cooper's office, which this month said the schools should not offer admission, based on federal law.Ralls said this week that the schools would follow that advice until he gets more information.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, however, oversees immigration law and officials there told reporters they have no authority over community college admissions.Ralls said he asked Cooper's office to get clarification from that agency.Friends and colleagues describe him as trying to settle an issue he didn't raise -- an educator trying to navigate the labyrinth of the law.He has taken his lumps. Some critics questioned why it was necessary to close the door to illegal immigrants when the law remains unsettled, noting that the UNC system chose not to bar them."We have become the poster children of why there needs to be federal clarification on these issues," Ralls said at his first state board of community colleges meeting as president this week.Even some board members, while expressing support for Ralls, worried aloud about the controversy."It really does paint a bad brush on our reputation," said Chairwoman Hilda Pinnix-Ragland of Cary.Allen Wellons, a former state senator from Johnston County and board member, said the schools "look like we're stepping back."Ralls said the decision was not about policy but whether to follow Cooper's advice."We want to educate all the residents of this state," he told the board, "and we want to follow the law."Friends and colleagues said Ralls is not avoiding ownership of the issue but approaches his job with a balance: staying above the gnashing of the conflict but also remaining involved just enough to effect change."I have never seen Scott Ralls seem timid or shy away from difficult issues," said Cindy Hess, executive vice president at Craven Community College. "He's evaluating the situation and, as in most leadership positions, there are pieces of it that are inherited and pieces that you can appropriately demand and guide the change."Joe Stewart, a lobbyist for the insurance industry and longtime friend of Ralls, said a politically charged and legally ambiguous battle is raging around someone who is neither a politician nor a lawyer but an educator."What's motivating him more than anything," Stewart said, "is a fierce desire to make education available to every single person who wants it."Scott RallsAGE: 44.CAREER: President of Craven Community College, vice president for economic and workforce development at N.C. Community College System, director of workforce development and training for N.C. Department of Commerce, also positions in the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor.EDUCATION: Ph.D. and master's degrees in industrial and organizational psychology from University of Maryland; bachelor's degree in industrial relations and psychology from UNC Chapel Hill.FAMILY: Wife, Lisa, and sons Benjamin, 9, and Lucas, 6.FAVORITE TV SHOW: "The Office."
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 2 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Drug traffickers' latest trick has wrinkle
Ruth Davis banked on looking like just another granny in the slow lane.But the 65-year-old Floridian was on business. A high-dollar delivery -- 33 pounds of premium pot -- was locked up in the trunk of her rented Chevy Impala. She set her cruise on 74 as she headed north on Interstate 95 through Johnston County, bound for New York.An N.C. trooper got in her way that morning last December and, by chance, stumbled across a new type of drug mule."I'm not someone you'd think would be doing this," Davis said this week during an interview at the Johnston County jail. "I guess that's why it was such a brilliant plan."She's the newest face of the drug mule: frosted hair and crows feet. From 2006 to 2007, the number of people older than 60 charged with trafficking drugs in N.C. state courts nearly doubled. In 2007, at least 44 elderly people were arrested for trafficking everything from marijuana to powder cocaine.The aged are just the latest of disguises dealers use to move drugs up and down the East Coast. Drug agents have seen all sorts of trickery: drugs stashed in wrecked cars hitched to tow trucks or stowed in minivans filled with families bound for vacation.Grandma is a stealth strategy; she's slow, sweet and unsuspecting. A spokesman from the Drug Enforcement Administration said they've seen some cases of retirees being recruited by drug lords, their loots stashed in Cadillacs or motor homes."It's a good disguise," said DEA special agent Chuvalo Truesdell. "This is not a place you'd think to look."The state Highway Patrol has been on the lookout for elderly traffickers, but had not encountered one until Davis."Elderly traffickers have kind of been like the unicorn," said Sgt. B.K. Henline, who's in charge of the patrol's interdiction team based along Johnston County's Interstate 95 corridor. "We'd heard about it but never seen it."An unlikely traffickerDavis, too, would have slipped through the county had Trooper G. Taylor not pulled her for speeding on Dec. 12.She is an unlikely trafficker. A native of Scotland, she practically sings her words. She's a mother of two from Miami and is expecting her first grandchild this year. She works as a consultant to a diet company, owns her own home and a slew of pets. Davis says she's not a drug user. She has never been a smoker of any kind and doesn't even care much for the taste of alcohol."I have a good life, really I do, but I was in a rough patch," Davis said. She said she knew she was breaking the law but decided she wasn't hurting anyone.Seven years ago, doctors discovered Davis had a blood disease. It was a long, painful ordeal, and she didn't have health insurance. Bills mounted and still linger. She owes more than $20,000. Then, her daughter was in a bad car crash and needed plastic surgery to reconstruct her face. The cost: at least $3,000.So when a friend asked Davis if she wanted to make some quick cash, she nodded. The friend linked her with a drug trader who quickly hired her to drive some of his supply from Miami to Manhattan. She was making her sixth run in December, the last she needed to settle her debt and pay for her daughter's plastic surgery."It sounded so easy," Davis said. "Let me tell you. It's not. It's nerve-racking knowing what you have in your car. Looking for cops everywhere."Cruise controlDavis said she would set her cruise control at 74 mph to keep with traffic. She only drove during daylight hours. When she saw blue lights behind her early that December morning, she figured she'd charm her way out of a speeding ticket.A strong odor he couldn't quite peg rushed over Taylor, the trooper, as Davis rolled down her window. He drilled her about her travel plans. She pointed to a small bag in her backseat and told him she'd be visiting a friend in New York. He raised an eyebrow when she said she didn't know when she'd return.On a hunch, he asked to search her car. Davis nodded her OK, figuring there was still a chance he wouldn't notice the locked suitcases in the trunk. Then the trooper called for the drug dog. Davis knew her game was over. The dog went nuts when the Davis opened the trunk, Henline said."We got the biggest kick out of her," Henline said. "I mean, she's the same age as my mother."Facing the lawDavis' arrest has brought her more trouble than she ever dreamed. While her lawyer bargained for a plea deal that kept her locked up six months in the Johnston County jail, immigration officials intend to send her back to Scotland. Her sentence ended Friday, but immigration officials will pick her up and take her to another detention facility where she'll await a hearing.Davis has been in the United States for 40 years, since she married an American in her 20s. She's a legal resident but never became a U.S. citizen. A felony drug conviction will likely end America's hospitality, forcing Davis out of the country with an order to never return.She's trying to wrap her head around a life in Scotland. It's been decades since she visited. Her family's gone. She doesn't know a soul there."I guess I'll have to have to cancel my burial plot in Miami," Davis said. "You think they'll refund a thing like that?"
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 2 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Ruth Davis banked on looking like just another granny in the slow lane.But the 65-year-old Floridian was on business. A high-dollar delivery -- 33 pounds of premium pot -- was locked up in the trunk of her rented Chevy Impala. She set her cruise on 74 as she headed north on Interstate 95 through Johnston County, bound for New York.An N.C. trooper got in her way that morning last December and, by chance, stumbled across a new type of drug mule."I'm not someone you'd think would be doing this," Davis said this week during an interview at the Johnston County jail. "I guess that's why it was such a brilliant plan."She's the newest face of the drug mule: frosted hair and crows feet. From 2006 to 2007, the number of people older than 60 charged with trafficking drugs in N.C. state courts nearly doubled. In 2007, at least 44 elderly people were arrested for trafficking everything from marijuana to powder cocaine.The aged are just the latest of disguises dealers use to move drugs up and down the East Coast. Drug agents have seen all sorts of trickery: drugs stashed in wrecked cars hitched to tow trucks or stowed in minivans filled with families bound for vacation.Grandma is a stealth strategy; she's slow, sweet and unsuspecting. A spokesman from the Drug Enforcement Administration said they've seen some cases of retirees being recruited by drug lords, their loots stashed in Cadillacs or motor homes."It's a good disguise," said DEA special agent Chuvalo Truesdell. "This is not a place you'd think to look."The state Highway Patrol has been on the lookout for elderly traffickers, but had not encountered one until Davis."Elderly traffickers have kind of been like the unicorn," said Sgt. B.K. Henline, who's in charge of the patrol's interdiction team based along Johnston County's Interstate 95 corridor. "We'd heard about it but never seen it."An unlikely traffickerDavis, too, would have slipped through the county had Trooper G. Taylor not pulled her for speeding on Dec. 12.She is an unlikely trafficker. A native of Scotland, she practically sings her words. She's a mother of two from Miami and is expecting her first grandchild this year. She works as a consultant to a diet company, owns her own home and a slew of pets. Davis says she's not a drug user. She has never been a smoker of any kind and doesn't even care much for the taste of alcohol."I have a good life, really I do, but I was in a rough patch," Davis said. She said she knew she was breaking the law but decided she wasn't hurting anyone.Seven years ago, doctors discovered Davis had a blood disease. It was a long, painful ordeal, and she didn't have health insurance. Bills mounted and still linger. She owes more than $20,000. Then, her daughter was in a bad car crash and needed plastic surgery to reconstruct her face. The cost: at least $3,000.So when a friend asked Davis if she wanted to make some quick cash, she nodded. The friend linked her with a drug trader who quickly hired her to drive some of his supply from Miami to Manhattan. She was making her sixth run in December, the last she needed to settle her debt and pay for her daughter's plastic surgery."It sounded so easy," Davis said. "Let me tell you. It's not. It's nerve-racking knowing what you have in your car. Looking for cops everywhere."Cruise controlDavis said she would set her cruise control at 74 mph to keep with traffic. She only drove during daylight hours. When she saw blue lights behind her early that December morning, she figured she'd charm her way out of a speeding ticket.A strong odor he couldn't quite peg rushed over Taylor, the trooper, as Davis rolled down her window. He drilled her about her travel plans. She pointed to a small bag in her backseat and told him she'd be visiting a friend in New York. He raised an eyebrow when she said she didn't know when she'd return.On a hunch, he asked to search her car. Davis nodded her OK, figuring there was still a chance he wouldn't notice the locked suitcases in the trunk. Then the trooper called for the drug dog. Davis knew her game was over. The dog went nuts when the Davis opened the trunk, Henline said."We got the biggest kick out of her," Henline said. "I mean, she's the same age as my mother."Facing the lawDavis' arrest has brought her more trouble than she ever dreamed. While her lawyer bargained for a plea deal that kept her locked up six months in the Johnston County jail, immigration officials intend to send her back to Scotland. Her sentence ended Friday, but immigration officials will pick her up and take her to another detention facility where she'll await a hearing.Davis has been in the United States for 40 years, since she married an American in her 20s. She's a legal resident but never became a U.S. citizen. A felony drug conviction will likely end America's hospitality, forcing Davis out of the country with an order to never return.She's trying to wrap her head around a life in Scotland. It's been decades since she visited. Her family's gone. She doesn't know a soul there."I guess I'll have to have to cancel my burial plot in Miami," Davis said. "You think they'll refund a thing like that?"
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 2 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Can Dole be beat in November?
Here's one man's opinion: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is in jeopardy this year.Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza, who regularly ranks the competitiveness of U.S. Senate races around the country, ranked Dole's race ninth on his blog Friday. It was the first time Cillizza put the Salisbury Republican in his Top 10. He cited the strength of the newly chosen Democratic nominee, Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro.How national analysts handicap the race could affect other factors in the election, such as fundraising and visits from high-profile supporters.Another view: The Cook Political Report's most recent rating describes the seat as "solid Republican." But that rating is two months old. What will the next rating show? -- David IngramBush to visit troops at Fort BraggPresident Bush will visit Fort Bragg on Thursday to speak to troops. Expect to hear accolades for the troops rather than political talk about the war supplemental funding bill being wrangled through Congress right now.Fort Bragg received the news Friday, when its commander said the 82nd Airborne division's 1st brigade would return from Iraq three months early. The unit of 3,500 paratroopers will leave Iraq in July."The president looks forward to visiting Fort Bragg and thanking our soldiers and their families for their service and sacrifice in the war on terror," White House spokeswoman Jeannie Mamo said. -- Barbara Barrett, (Raleigh) News & ObserverBailey and Mackey: Rivals no moreSix months ago their rivalry split Mecklenburg County Democrats and awoke racial divisions in the community. But Chipp Bailey and Nick Mackey have moved on.This week, the two shook hands and professed mutual support when they met at the Uptown Democratic Forum. It was the first time they'd met since Mackey beat Bailey in a party election for sheriff, only to have it overturned. County commissioners then appointed Bailey."Chipp and I were battling for the position," Mackey said after the encounter. "We never had anything personal against each other." -- jim morrill First Obama, then not ObamaRepublican Dan Bishop is one of Mecklenburg County's most conservative commissioners. So why was he thinking about voting for Barack Obama?"My first impression of him was that he was a figure who would transcend race divisions," says Bishop. He changed his mind when he read Obama's two books."I found them to be extravagantly race-conscious," he says.Because he "can't stand" fellow Republican John McCain, Bishop says he'll have a hard time deciding how to vote."I might write in a choice," he says. -- jim morrillCampaign guru moves into spotlightAs the longtime manager of Pat McCrory's mayoral campaigns, Victoria Smith always managed to stay out of the spotlight. But not tonight.Smith will be honored in Wilmington by the N.C. Federation of Republican Women at the group's "Tribute to Women" banquet.A California native, Smith managed McCrory's seven mayoral campaigns starting in 1995, the year he was first elected. She has run other campaigns since, including Republican Bob Rucho's successful state Senate primary this year."When she's focused on the issue of winning a campaign," Rucho says, "she's relentless." -- jim morrillSeeking whereabouts of Dulin's dataThe N.C. Senate campaign of Andy Dulin has still not filed a campaign finance report showing its activity for the first part of this year.Under state law, the report was required to be postmarked April 28, almost three weeks ago. It would disclose where the campaign raised money from -- and how it spent the money -- from Jan. 1 through mid-April.Bob Rucho defeated Dulin in the May 6 Republican primary for a Senate seat that covers southern Mecklenburg. Rucho has filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections over Dulin's delay and other issues, and the board is investigating.Dulin is a member of the Charlotte City Council. Neither he nor his treasurer, Mike Ellison, returned messages Friday.Also filing late: Mary Fant Donnan, a Democratic candidate for N.C. labor commissioner. Her report wasn't received until Tuesday. Her campaign cited a computer glitch. -- David Ingram
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 6 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Here's one man's opinion: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is in jeopardy this year.Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza, who regularly ranks the competitiveness of U.S. Senate races around the country, ranked Dole's race ninth on his blog Friday. It was the first time Cillizza put the Salisbury Republican in his Top 10. He cited the strength of the newly chosen Democratic nominee, Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro.How national analysts handicap the race could affect other factors in the election, such as fundraising and visits from high-profile supporters.Another view: The Cook Political Report's most recent rating describes the seat as "solid Republican." But that rating is two months old. What will the next rating show? -- David IngramBush to visit troops at Fort BraggPresident Bush will visit Fort Bragg on Thursday to speak to troops. Expect to hear accolades for the troops rather than political talk about the war supplemental funding bill being wrangled through Congress right now.Fort Bragg received the news Friday, when its commander said the 82nd Airborne division's 1st brigade would return from Iraq three months early. The unit of 3,500 paratroopers will leave Iraq in July."The president looks forward to visiting Fort Bragg and thanking our soldiers and their families for their service and sacrifice in the war on terror," White House spokeswoman Jeannie Mamo said. -- Barbara Barrett, (Raleigh) News & ObserverBailey and Mackey: Rivals no moreSix months ago their rivalry split Mecklenburg County Democrats and awoke racial divisions in the community. But Chipp Bailey and Nick Mackey have moved on.This week, the two shook hands and professed mutual support when they met at the Uptown Democratic Forum. It was the first time they'd met since Mackey beat Bailey in a party election for sheriff, only to have it overturned. County commissioners then appointed Bailey."Chipp and I were battling for the position," Mackey said after the encounter. "We never had anything personal against each other." -- jim morrill First Obama, then not ObamaRepublican Dan Bishop is one of Mecklenburg County's most conservative commissioners. So why was he thinking about voting for Barack Obama?"My first impression of him was that he was a figure who would transcend race divisions," says Bishop. He changed his mind when he read Obama's two books."I found them to be extravagantly race-conscious," he says.Because he "can't stand" fellow Republican John McCain, Bishop says he'll have a hard time deciding how to vote."I might write in a choice," he says. -- jim morrillCampaign guru moves into spotlightAs the longtime manager of Pat McCrory's mayoral campaigns, Victoria Smith always managed to stay out of the spotlight. But not tonight.Smith will be honored in Wilmington by the N.C. Federation of Republican Women at the group's "Tribute to Women" banquet.A California native, Smith managed McCrory's seven mayoral campaigns starting in 1995, the year he was first elected. She has run other campaigns since, including Republican Bob Rucho's successful state Senate primary this year."When she's focused on the issue of winning a campaign," Rucho says, "she's relentless." -- jim morrillSeeking whereabouts of Dulin's dataThe N.C. Senate campaign of Andy Dulin has still not filed a campaign finance report showing its activity for the first part of this year.Under state law, the report was required to be postmarked April 28, almost three weeks ago. It would disclose where the campaign raised money from -- and how it spent the money -- from Jan. 1 through mid-April.Bob Rucho defeated Dulin in the May 6 Republican primary for a Senate seat that covers southern Mecklenburg. Rucho has filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections over Dulin's delay and other issues, and the board is investigating.Dulin is a member of the Charlotte City Council. Neither he nor his treasurer, Mike Ellison, returned messages Friday.Also filing late: Mary Fant Donnan, a Democratic candidate for N.C. labor commissioner. Her report wasn't received until Tuesday. Her campaign cited a computer glitch. -- David Ingram
Charlotte.com – 2 hours, 6 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Charlotte
Marines Scheduled To Return From Iraq
Marines from Camp Lejeune are coming home from Iraq.
WITN 7 – 2 hours, 13 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
Marines from Camp Lejeune are coming home from Iraq.
WITN 7 – 2 hours, 13 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
Cape Fear Memorial Bridge To Undergo Summertime Repairs
The Department of Transportation is planning to close lanes on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge throughout the summer to complete emergency repairs on what are being called serious problems.
WITN 7 – 2 hours, 13 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
The Department of Transportation is planning to close lanes on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge throughout the summer to complete emergency repairs on what are being called serious problems.
WITN 7 – 2 hours, 13 minutes ago ¦ comment?
found in Greenville-New Bern-Washington
