Free Republic

4 at Duke get drug-resistant H1N1 By KEITH UPCHURCH DURHAM -- Four patients at Duke University Medical Center, all from North Carolina, have tested positive for a type of swine flu that's resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, and three have died, health officials announced Friday at a news conference in Raleigh. The fourth patient, a woman, is still a patient at Duke and ''is doing much better,'' they said. Although the four had the H1N1 virus, they all had other medical problems, so it's uncertain if the swine flu caused their deaths, they said. All four were in an...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The U.S. Army has reversed its position and now says it will open Sarah Palin's appearance on Fort Bragg to media despite fears the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama. Fort Bragg officials said Friday in a news advisory that any interested media will be able to attend. A day earlier, a spokesman said media would be prevented from attending so the Palin book signing would not become a political platform to express opinions "directed against the commander in chief."

Cops: Girl Raped, Killed On Day She Was Taken 29-year-old man faces sexual assault, murder charges in 5-year-old’s death Police say Shaniya Davis was raped and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mom reported her missing from the trailer park. FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a...

RALEIGH -- Dr. Earl Sunderhaus, an Asheville eye doctor, has what might charitably be described as a brusque bedside manner. That much is not in dispute. But the N.C. Medical Board may decide Sunderhaus overstepped the bounds of decency when he recently told a patient she was irresponsible for being unemployed, on Medicaid, and relying on taxpayers to cover another pregnancy after giving birth less than a year earlier. What really galled her, the patient complained, is that Sunderhaus poked her thigh and told her she is fat. Quantcast "When I got home I was very upset about the way...

RALEIGH — The Army now says it will allow media limited access to Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg. Army officials had said they would prohibit coverage of Palin's on-post event, saying it would turn into political grandstanding against President Obama. The Associated Press and The Fayetteville Observer objected, and the military changed its position slightly Thursday night. It will grant a pool of reporters restricted access to Monday's appearance. Fort Bragg spokesman Col. Billy Buckner said members of the media will not be allowed to interview the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and will be barred from talking to...

Breaking news! The Shaniya Davis cause of death is asphyxiation and the autopsy revealed that the little five year old girl was raped. Mario Andrette McNeill has been charged with rape and first degree murder in addition to first degree kidnapping charges. A live press conference was held tonight at 8:00 p.m. and the additional charges were made public. (click here to view a slideshow from the Shaniya Davis case) Reports state that Mario McNeill has remained in isolation since he surrendered to authorities on November 13, 2009, after being seen carrying Shaniya Davis in his arms in a hotel....

The U.S. Army now says it will allow media limited access to Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg. The Associated Press and The Fayetteville Observer objected and the military changed its position slightly on Thursday night. It will grant a pool of reporters restricted access to Monday's appearance. Buckner said the setup will allow reporters their right to access .

| The formal introduction: Mike Adams is a professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and a syndicated columnist. The informal: He is probably the most outspoken Christian conservative professor in the United States now teaching at a state university. He's gone from passive writing to fiery prose, and from an incendiary lifestyle to one centered on true ideas. Q: Tell us about your 1.8 GPA in high school. I can't believe you brought that up! That was off limits! Q: How hard did you have to work to get a 1.8? My goal was to graduate with a 1.0,...

Nearly two weeks after U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell bucked his party and voted against health care legislation, June Mabry's phone line is still burning up with calls from angry Democrats. [...] Kissell, of Montgomery County, was one of 39 Democrats who voted against the health care bill that passed the House by five votes this month. He was one of just eight from a district that President Barack Obama carried last year. It didn't take long for the backlash to begin. The liberal group MoveOn.org has been running a TV ad in his district that applauds congressmen who "stood tall"...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

Body of Shaniya Davis found along the side of a road in rural N.C. Mother sold the child last week into underground slavery. Last seen on a hotel video camera.

AIP Reagan List member Bill Randall, who is running for Congress in North Carolina's 13th District: Watch video HERE

Fayetteville, N.C. — The mother of a 5-year-old girl, who has been missing since Tuesday, was charged late Saturday in connection with her disappearance, Fayetteville police said. Antoinette Nicole Davis was charged with human trafficking; felony child abuse – prostitution; filing a false police report; and resist, delay, or obstruct an officer, police said. Shaniya Nicole Davis was reported missing from her home, at 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive in Fayetteville, on Tuesday morning.

On opposite sides of town, two local groups with opposing viewpoints on health care reform set out to have their opinions heard. The Onslow County Democratic Party held a march in support of President Barack Obama’s health care initiative along Western Boulevard Saturday morning, where about 50 supporters walked Several hours later, the Onslow County Republican Party held a rally at the Marina Café on U.S. 17 in opposition of the president’s health care reform with nearly 200 people in attendance

The North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission revoked an Eden night club's permit to sell alcohol after three people were shot leaving the club last week, according to the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Authorities have charged two people in connection with the shootings, which included one fatality. Timothy Ronnel Seay, of Martinsville, was killed and two other Virginia men were injured during the shooting near the Icehouse Club and Lounge during the early morning of Oct. 7. Detectives arrested Shavon Lamont Reid, 21, of Martinsville, at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday after he turned himself in at the...

It seemed like a good idea -- take an elementary school class on a field trip to a historical plantation. But things turned awkward when the tour guide decided to choose black students to demonstrate how slaves were forced to pick cotton. The incident happened last Wednesday in Charlotte, North Carolina on a visit to the historic Latta Plantation. When the subject turned to slavery, tour guide Ian Campbell, who is black, picked three black students out of the mostly white class to illustrate slaves picking cotton. "I am very enthusiastic about getting kids to think about how people did...

Congressman Bob Etheridge said Friday that he would not challenge Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year, despite a concerted effort by the national Democratic Party to coax him into the race. The decision is another setback for the Democrats, who earlier this year failed to entice Attorney General Roy Cooper into the race, Rob Christensen reports. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has turned its attention to former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, an Iraq War veteran from Lexington, who had spent several months exploring a Senate bid, before announcing Monday that he would not be a candidate. Etheridge, a veteran Congressman,...

As America debates whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in the ninth year of a war for ends we cannot discern, a riveting new history recalls times when Americans fought for vital national interests. "A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent" is Robert Merry's brilliant biography and history of that time. Merry goes far toward righting the injustice done by historians who have denied this great man his place in the pantheon of presidents, because they believe "Jimmy Polk's War" to have been a war...

Kimberly Munley shown in a photo from her Twitter page. The civilian police officer credited with stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort Hood is a Carolina Beach native and graduate of Hoggard High Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday morning. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself. “She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was...

Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school is selling grades. A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School will get a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D. Susie Shepherd, the principal, said a parent advisory council came up with the idea, and she endorsed it. She said the council was looking for a new way to raise money.

November 11 is Veteran's Day, a day when veterans of the armed forces are honored and remembered for their service and sacrifice. An aging group of veterans from the U.S. state of North Carolina, came to Washington D.C., on a pilgrimage to honor their fallen comrades. The airplane carrying more than 100 World War II Veterans arrived in Washington right on schedule. There was a celebration to honor these men known as the "greatest generation" for their service and sacrifice during World War II. It was an outpouring of admiration and appreciation for these veterans from North Carolina. They came...

The GOP's women problem By MEREDITH SHINER & GLENN THRUSH | 11/9/09 4:11 AM EST A widening schism between the GOP's right wing and moderates has clear gender undertones. Photo: AP photo composite by POLITICO Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York’s 23rd District a week ago because of her left-of-Republican social views — and not because she is a woman. But the growing schism between the Republican Party’s ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones — and Scozzafava’s departure raises fresh questions about the GOP’s ability to...

>Nouri Obeyd Kathem (left), an archaeologist with the Iraqi Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, explains the Sobbar Abu Habba site to Maj. Charles Morrison (center) and Capt. Ross Boyce with the 120th Combined Arms Battalion, Nov. 4. Photo by Sgt. Jon Soles, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. BAGHDAD — What may look like large, weathered mounds of dirt on rural farmland near Mahmudiyah are actually artifact-filled ruins of an ancient civilization. Soldiers of the North Carolina National Guard's 120th Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team here surveyed the sites recently with officials from the Government of Iraq's Ministry of...

When Wrightsville Beach police detective Shaun Appler pulled over a suspected drunk driver in 2000, he couldn’t have foreseen the dangerous situation that was about to ensue. Thankfully Appler’s partner, Kimberly Munley, was there to save his life.

When Wrightsville Beach police detective Shaun Appler pulled over a suspected drunk driver in 2000, he couldn’t have foreseen the dangerous situation that was about to ensue. Thankfully Appler’s partner, Kimberly Munley, was there to save his life. While Appler was talking to the driver of the vehicle, a third man approached the detective and interjected himself into the discussion. Appler said he asked the third man to leave, when he didn’t, the detective tried to arrest him. A struggle ensued, and the two men eventually rolled down a hill. When they came to a stop, the man was straddling...

Due to the amazing energy of the 9-12 March on Washington, we are BRINGING IT HOME TO NORTH CAROLINA! North Carolina FreedomWorks is sponsoring a “Taxpayer March On Raleigh” The 11-14 event will begin at 11AM and include a march and rally. The event will begin on Halifax Mall, the large grassy area located between the Legislative Building and the Legislative Office Building. As FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe is fond of saying, “Government goes to those who show up.” We showed up to march on our nation’s capitol. It’s time to bring it home to our state capitol! From...

<p>Below is a list of selected Democrats and their positions on the House healthcare reform bill based on media accounts, press releases and spokesmen for the lawmakers.</p>

RALEIGH — Rep. Pricey Harrison has asked the state’s attorney general and Department of Insurance to investigate Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina’s use of campaign-style tactics aimed at defeating controversial federal health insurance legislation. The Greensboro Democrat wants to know whether the insurer violated the state’s do-not-call registry law with an automated message in late October. And she questions whether it is proper for the insurer to use its premiums to pay for the calls and two recent pieces of direct mail. “I have heard from a number of constituents who were really upset about the postcard campaign,”...

The civilian police officer credited with stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort Hood is a Carolina Beach native and graduate of Hoggard High School. Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday morning. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself. “She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer.” Munley,...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

TAMPA - Charlotte, N.C.'s mayor politely suggested Monday that the Tampa Bay area was behind its competition when it comes to the transportation networks necessary for job recruitment. Then Mayor Patrick McCrory shared with 300 community leaders the experiences that led to Charlotte's recent transit-oriented success. The strong turnout for the regional transportation session provided a further example the local transit movement is gaining momentum. Hillsborough County leaders are trying to get a 1-cent sales tax referendum for transit on the November 2010 ballot. "You are taking a very courageous political step," McCrory told elected officials advocating improved transit. "You...

GREENSBORO — The City Council just got a lot more conservative — starting with the guy at the top. First-time mayoral candidate Bill Knight ousted incumbent Yvonne Johnson in Tuesday’s City Council election. The victory is the first by a challenger over an incumbent mayor since voters began electing the mayor at-large in 1973. Knight ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cleaning up the city’s police department. He will lead a council that, in the course of one election, now has a supermajority of registered Republicans. “The voters spoke to change,” Knight said. About 18 percent of the...

Voters ended more than two decades of Republican leadership in Charlotte Tuesday by electing Democrat Anthony Foxx the city's second African-American mayor and the youngest in memory. Foxx won Charlotte's closest mayoral race in years, taking just over 51 percent of the vote over Republican John Lassiter in unofficial totals. At a victory celebration, Foxx shared a long hug with a jubilant Harvey Gantt, the last Democratic and first African-American mayor. "It's been 22 years since we've had this moment," a hoarse Foxx told a cheering crowd at the Westin hotel. "The work of rebuilding our community starts very soon....

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Greensboro’s first African-American mayor was ousted Tuesday by Republican challenger Bill Knight. Knight won 51.36 percent of the votes to Johnson’s 48.54 percent in unofficial election results. Knight, during an interview this week, said that while businesses in the Gate City have had to cut back on expenses, the city budget needs to be more heavily scrutinized. Knight said he is also willing to consider reopening the White Street landfill as a way to save money. Knight lost his first political campaign for City Council two years ago. A former certified public accountant, he earned a bachelor’s...

New York beef manufacturer Fairbanks Farms has issued a voluntary recall of a little more than half a million pounds of ground beef. The recall, which affects states from Maine to North Carolina -- Maryland included -- comes after one person died in New Hampshire and people were sickened in other states after eating beef thought to be contaminated by the bacteria E.coli. The products, which include ground beef, meatloaf and meatball mix, carry sell-by dates from Sept. 19-28 and were sold under such brands as Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats, Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix and BJ's...

A month ago, Almeta Whitsett was on the waiting list for Mobile Meals. With two hip replacements and a husband with Alzheimer’s, the 84-year-old Greensboro woman was finding it harder to cook. She already had someone who came in to clean her house every two weeks. Now, she has help in the kitchen, too. Senior Resources of Guilford learned over the summer that it would receive $80,000 in stimulus money from the state Department of Health and Human Services. The money officially arrives today for Senior Resources. But since the agency knew that the funds were coming, Whitsett started receiving...

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C.-- Police have made an arrest after a team of robbers invaded a home in Rowan County twice in the same week. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne have been charged with multiple counts of robbery and Starks is also being charged with attempted murder. Investigators say a home on Corriher Grange Road near Highway 152, was first held up Monday night. NewsChannel 36 spoke exclusively with the Deadmon family after the first home invasion. They told us how the robbers forced them to open the safe at gunpoint. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne They reported the robbery to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zayow4PaQr4 This is an account of over 5 years of research and collection of evidence that many of North Carolina's elected county officials have assumed office illegally, and are acting in a CRIMINAL capacity, according to statute, but the Attorney General, having acknowledged the problem, refuses to do anything about it. See for your self. Absent assumption of liability, absent assurance of value, absent offer of recourse. The viewer must decide. FOR A PDF VERSION: www.amossigngraphics.com/movie/abovelaw.pdf

North Carolina elections officials penalized former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign $100,000 Friday for not reporting flights provided by a political ally and asked prosecutors to investigate whether he or others broke laws by trying to hide them or other expenses.

North Carolina voters are not very happy with their representation and tend to think the country is on the wrong track, a poll released Friday by Elon University shows. Elon polled more than 700 randomly selected adults between Monday and Thursday, asking if they approved of the job being done by President Barack Obama, Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr and Gov. Bev Perdue. Almost 60 percent of those polled said they think things in the country are on the wrong track; 38.9 percent felt strongly that the county is headed in the wrong direction. Their reasons seemed to be...

RALEIGH -- After having spent much of his life as the hunter, former Gov. Mike Easley is the prey. Easley rose in politics as corruption-busting district attorney and a consumer-oriented attorney general, then as an outsider governor who didn't like good ol' boy politics. That image is a distant memory. On Monday, Easley's reputation suffered deep damage as the State Board of Elections opened several days of hearings into allegations of election-law violations that occurred during his eight years as governor. Gone were the stories of Easley as the young drug-busting prosecutor who kept a shotgun next to his bed...

State board of election members today decided that a closely watched runoff in a Wake County school board race should proceed. On a 4-1 vote, board members ruled that candidate Cathy Truitt's name should remain on the ballot even though she sought to withdraw her request for a runoff. If her name gains the most votes, the school board would fill her seat. John Tedesco, a critic of current school board policies, including forced busing for diversity and mandatory year-round schools, placed first in the Oct. 6 primary. Because he failed to gain a majority of votes, second-place finisher Truitt...

The Young Republicans of Union County are hosting a “Tea Party” rally at Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte on Saturday October 31, 2009 from 10 AM until noon. Press Release ………………………………. We're all invited to the TEA Party in Charlotte on Halloween Day (10/31/09). Hope to see you there! We come from diverse backgrounds, but we believe in these basic principals: 1. The Constitution was written to limit the powers of the government, not the freedoms of the people. 2. Personal responsibility, Free Markets, and a Laissez-faire (hands off) government is what creates jobs, wealth, and greatness in America 3....

RALEIGH Internal documents from former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign committee suggest a concerted effort to run donations illegally through the N.C. Democratic Party to circumvent contribution limits. The evidence, released Tuesday by the State Board of Elections, included internal campaign memos that outlined ways to extract more money from donors than they could get with straightforward contributions to Easley's two campaigns for governor. The board's questions about the memos were greeted with denials and fuzzy memories from two Easley campaign officials and a top donor. And attorneys for the state Democratic Party contended that Easley's campaign gave to the party...

Says he was 13 when Soles lured him to his homeRALEIGH — A 47-year-old North Carolina man says that when he was 13 years old State Sen. R. C. Soles Jr. of Tabor City lured him to his secluded lakeside home, plied him with alcohol, and sexually assaulted him. The man said Soles, 74, a 40-year veteran of the North Carolina General Assembly and chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, threatened him and his family to gain his silence. “He told me if I ever told anyone he would make life hell for me and my parents,” he told Carolina...

Last spring, some of our staff members noticed that large stacks of our April 2009 issue had gone missing overnight from newsstands in the Undergraduate Library and Hamilton Hall. Considering that this was during exams week, we at the Review doubted that they had all been taken legitimately. We had a long list of possible suspects with a motive to make our April 2009 issue disappear, as the issue had been highly critical of a number of individuals and campus groups. However, we had no evidence of anything. Until now. One of the groups criticized in the issue was Students...

AP article, no text. A huge rock slide has closed I-40 in both directions at the NC/TN line. The clean up is going to take months. Traffic is being re-routed via I-81 to I-26, Johnson City, TN to Asheville,NC.

Hearing on Easley and Democratic Party under way Raleigh | A hearing to investigate the campaign of former Gov. Mike Easley and the state Democratic Party is under way. The State Board of Elections immediately went into closed session Monday to discuss how it will investigate whether Easley’s campaign committee or the state Democratic Party broke campaign finance laws.

Breazeale pledges to stay in Congress three terms or pay $250,000 to private charityRALEIGH – Iraq war veteran and congressional hopeful Will Breazeale on Thursday became the first candidate in the nation to take a bonded term limits pledge, agreeing to donate $250,000 of his own assets to a private charity if, after being elected, he doesn’t limit himself to three terms in office. Breazeale, a Republican hoping to unseat 7th District Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre next year, made the announcement at a noon press conference outside the New Hanover County Government Center in Wilmington. “I see [bonded term limits]...

Some 26 years after a bombing in Beirut killed 241 American Marines, sailors and soldiers, one community here in the east is still picked up the pieces. Many of the men killed when a suicide bomber attacked the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines headquarters building in Lebanon on October 23, 1983, were stationed at Camp Lejeune and lived in Jacksonville. And as Philip Jones reports, the wound is still fresh there almost three decades later: Prayers of praise echoed through Jacksonville’s Beirut Memorial Friday morning before giving way to salutes to our country and the men who laid down their lives...