Free Republic

SALISBURY — A man is dead after authorities say he attempted to rob a Lee Street homeowner late Saturday night. The suspect broke into a home at 813 N. Lee St. and “pistol-whipped” the occupant. But the homeowner was able to get the gun and shoot the suspect. Salisbury Police confirmed the struggle and that the would-be robber tried to run away around the corner from the house. Police didn’t identify the dead man pending notification of relatives. He died on the front porch of a nearby home at 125 E. Steele St. of a gunshot wound, said Salisbury Police...

Criticisms Convince State To Back Off Projections of Dramatic Sea Level RiseState officials still pushing coastal counties to prepare for a one-meter rise By Sara Burrows Feb. 20th, 2012 RALEIGH — State officials are pressuring local governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if not impossible. Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends regulations based on the one-meter projection, local government officials worry that state regulators will try to implement those rules. Such a policy, they say, would have a devastating impact on...

GASTONIA, N.C. — Administrators at a Gaston County elementary school say they suspended a 9-year-old boy because he sexually harassed a teacher. WSOC-TV reported that a letter shared by the boy's mother says he has a history of using inappropriate language about other students. The woman says it's the first time she'd heard that about her son. The boy said he called a teacher "cute," but the school says he used the word "fine." Brookside Elementary School says the child's comment amounts to sexual harassment. The school's letter said the boy had been warned for using racial slurs and other...

Jeremy Petersen nearly got his head taken off by a mortar rocket and saw a lot of bad things during three tours in Iraq. After the third tour, Petersen decided to leave the Army and returned home with severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. He's easily agitated and doesn't like crowds. He suffers bouts of depression and three or four migraine headaches a week - all hidden wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas, where Petersen transitioned into civilian life, doctors approved him for a service dog, a 45-pound mixed-breed of Shar...

North Carolina officials have said there was a misunderstanding when a preschooler’s homemade lunch was sent home for not meeting certain nutritional requirements, but now a second mother from the same school has come forward exclusively to The Blaze to say the same thing happened to her daughter. Diane Zambrano says her 4-year-old daughter, Jazlyn, is in the same West Hoke Elementary School class as the little girl whose lunch gained national attention earlier this week. When Zambrano picked Jazlyn up from school late last month, she was told by Jazlyn’s teacher that the lunch she had packed that day...

Who Is the Mystery Food Monitor?No agency has said it employed the person checking preschoolers' lunch bags By Rick Henderson Feb. 16th, 2012 RALEIGH — Three days after a Carolina Journal report on the plight of a 4-year-old preschooler and her lunch made national headlines, the identity of the person who determined that the youngster's homemade lunch was not nutritious remains unknown. Of the several government agencies who have been named in the controversy — the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Hoke County schools,...

A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home. NC Pre-K (before this year known as More at Four) is a state-funded education program designed to “enhance school readiness” for four year-olds. The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter...

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Union County residents who contend that a doctor has no legal right to fire machine guns on a homemade firing range near their properties. Superior Court Judge Mark Klass has dismissed the case against Dr. Michael Land, according to Union County trial court coordinator Nevele Love. The judge made his decision Friday, the clerk's office said. Kathy Patterson, one of the neighbors who filed the suit, said that while she's disappointed by the judge's decision, "without question, we'll appeal it." Reached by phone Tuesday, Land said he expects the court order to be...

RAEFORD, N.C. — A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal. The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports. ... The student’s mother told the Journal she received...

RUSH: This is from Rayford, North Carolina. Carolina Journal. I'm gonna read it to you exactly as it printed out here: "A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice did not meet US Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day." Again, let me read this to you again: "The...

A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.

North Carolina --(Ammoland.com)- Forsyth Commissioners will decide whether or not to enact gun bans at their next meeting, Monday, February 13th. The scheduled vote will either promote the Second Amendment or trample upon it. This is your opportunity to be heard. Commissioner Bill Whiteheart has spoken out against this ban, but needs help. It appears that most of the Republican Commissioners support lawful carry, we need to establish a presence at this meeting to ensure they don’t develop cold feet. Under HB 650 that went into effect Dec. 1, only very narrowly defined “recreation areas” may be posted. Like some...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

RALEIGH, N.C. — Three years ago, 98 Democrats arrived at the North Carolina General Assembly to begin yet another session in the majority. Longtime Sen. Marc Basnight and Rep. Joe Hackney again led their respective chambers to continue the party's almost uninterrupted period of control since 1898. But governing through a rough economy, followed by an election that gave Republicans the gavels of power and pencils to redraw district boundaries for the next decade, mean fewer than half those Democratic lawmakers will be around the Legislative Building in 2013. A review of election defeats, resignations and retirements shows that of...

RALEIGH — When Rep. Dale Folwell worked on controversial topics such as workers’ compensation reform and immigration policy last year, he aggravated more than a few constituents. “It was a very volatile year for me as an elected official,” Folwell said. “My family and myself were threatened by name.” That prompted him to obtain a concealed weapon permit, which allows him to carry a handgun in most places throughout the state under a sport coat or in a pocket. And the Winston-Salem Republican is far from alone among state lawmakers, who are much more likely than the average person to...

While participating in highway clean ups, the Student for Concealed Carry on Campus chapter seems like the average club doing community service at first glance. These students take safety precautions to a different level though. Along with the reflective vests and garden gloves, these students carry pistols in holsters while serving their community. "We get a pretty good amount of horn beeps and ‘woo-hoos' and stuff while we're out there," Clark Lynn said. Lynn is a senior in psychology and president of the N.C. State chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. A club's mission As part of a...

Redistricting fuels high N.C. political turnoverU.S. Rep. Watt said he's also considering whether to retire By Jim Morrill Modified: Thursday, Feb. 09, 2012 One governor. Three members of Congress. Thirty state lawmakers. And counting. That's how many North Carolina elected officials have announced they're not running for re-election. Before candidate filing ends Feb. 29, there are certain to be more in what's shaping up to be a year of historic change. Democratic Rep. Mel Watt said Wednesday that he's considering retiring after 20 years in the 12th District - a day after Republican U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick said she won't...

Twenty-One Republican Candidates Take Steps Toward ‘Young Gun' Status Washington- The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) today announced its newest round of ‘On the Radar' candidates. By reaching the second step of the four-step ‘Young Guns' program, these Republican candidates have reached the fundamental benchmarks to place them on the road to victory. Now, these 21 candidates are ready to take on the Democrat establishment and return fiscal sanity to Washington. "These candidates have worked hard to meet the benchmarks that have been laid out before them and are determined to hold Washington Democrats accountable this November," said NRCC Chairman...

WILMINGTON, N.C. — As a Muslim woman waits in jail for word on a possible indictment in her alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire beheading plot, her friends and family are using social media to rally support for her cause. Shortly after the arrests in late January of Nevine Aly Elshiekh and alleged accomplice Shkumbin Sherifi, their family and friends organized the website “Our Ummah, One Body” to fight for their release. The two residents of Raleigh, N.C., are being held as suspects in an alleged behind-bars plot to kill a witness in a terrorism trial that landed Sherifi’s older brother...

A statewide gun-rights nonprofit has commitments from 12 Winston-Salem residents who are willing to sue the city of Winston-Salem over a city ordinance prohibiting guns in parts of the city's parks, the nonprofit's president said Monday. Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina, said he believes the Winston-Salem ordinance passed in November violates the spirit of a state law passed in July. The state law the General Assembly passed last summer allows people with concealed-carry permits to have guns in parks, but the law allows municipalities to ban guns from parks that have athletic facilities or playgrounds. Before the...