Free Republic

(CNN)—A 46-year-old man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of three Muslim students in an apartment near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. Police haven't said what may have compelled the accused, Craig Stephen Hicks, to allegedly carry out the attack Tuesday evening. He turned himself into police later in the night. But given the victims' religion and comments the alleged shooter apparently left on a Facebook page, many social media users wondered what role, if any, the victims' faith played. The victims were Muslims: Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; Yusor Mohammad, 21; and Razan...

There are understandable differences of opinion between the American and Israel leaders on the issue of Islamist terrorism. It is wholly appropriate and desirable that they should be heard in the U.S. Congress. It is therefore painful that some honorable Democratic members of Congress should be so misguided as to declare that they will not attend the Israeli leader’s address. John Lewis (Georgia), a hero of the civil rights movement, G.K. Butterfield (North Carolina), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Eric Blumenauer (Oregon) are among those who are engaging in what is tantamount to a boycott of Israel. According...

Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball's Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83. The retired coach died "peacefully" at his North Carolina home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was with his wife and five children. Smith had health issues in recent years, with the family saying in 2010 he had a condition that was causing him to lose memory. He had kept a lower profile...

Dean Smith, who coached North Carolina to two men's basketball national titles, died Saturday night at the age of 83. North Carolina announced Smith's death Sunday morning. "Coach Dean Smith passed away peacefully the evening of February 7 at his home in Chapel Hill, and surrounded by his wife and five children," Smith's family said in a statement. "We are grateful for all the thoughts and prayers, and appreciate the continued respect for our privacy as arrangements are made available to the public. Thank you."

Insider says Obama administration 'sent a message' to black Democratic lawmakers that they should skip Netanyahu speech to Congress, as Biden says he'll be a no-show **SNIP** That disapproval apparently was orchestrated, or at least strongly encouraged, by the White House through comamunications with lawmakers connected to the Congressional Black Caucus. 'I'm not saying the president called anyone personally,' a current White House staffer told Daily Mail Online. 'But yeah, the White House sent a message to some at the CBC that they should suddenly be very upset about the speech.' The source said it was a 'back-channel' arrangement that...

Leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are lining up to skip a coming speech by the prime minister of Israel. Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC, said they won't attend Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech before Congress to protest Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) decision to invite the prime minister without first consulting President Obama and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill. Butterfield said that move marked an "unprecedented overreach of the Speaker’s authority" that "goes beyond the traditions of his office." "It is baffling that Speaker Boehner, who...

Legislators in North Carolina did the right thing in July 2013 when they voted to raise the quality standards for abortion clinics in the state. The hand-wringing response from the abortion industry was entirely predictable, with Planned Parenthood’s vice president for public affairs, Melissa Reed, calling it “the most restrictive access to safe and legal abortions this state has ever seen.” That was then. Inviting the Fox to Guard the Henhouse But now, more than a year an a half later, the North Carolina abortion industry is perfectly fine with the proposed regulations, which were submitted by the state’s Department...

Legislators in North Carolina did the right thing in July 2013 when they voted to raise the quality standards for abortion clinics in the state. The hand-wringing response from the abortion industry was entirely predictable, with Planned Parenthood’s vice president for public affairs, Melissa Reed, calling it “the most restrictive access to safe and legal abortions this state has ever seen.” That was then. Inviting the Fox to Guard the Henhouse But now, more than a year an a half later, the North Carolina abortion industry is perfectly fine with the proposed regulations, which were submitted by the state’s Department...

Raleigh, N.C. — Republican legislative leaders say they plan to file further legislation to regulate abortion this year, even as abortion-rights groups called on them to keep their hands off rules proposed by state regulators for North Carolina abortion clinics. "I'm sure there will be a pro-life bill this year," said House Speaker Pro Tem Paul Stam, R-Wake. The state Department of Health and Human Services last month released rules for clinics drafted under a 2013 law that proposed major changes to the state's abortion laws. Several Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that they fear social conservatives dissatisfied with the result...

How is it possible that a president can win re-election by a relatively comfortable margin while receiving fewer raw votes than his first election? Enter Mitt Romney. A simple data comparison is very telling. That comparison is the Romney raw vote vs. all votes for congressional Republicans in a given state. Crunching the numbers, Romney significantly underperformed the Republican congressional vote totals in multiple states. In North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin -- all presidential swing states -- Mitt Romney underperformed the total raw votes cast for all Republican congressional candidates by an average of 3 percent. That means that...

RALEIGH, N.C. – Luke Martin Jr., whose father was an ex-slave and Civil War Union soldier, has died — 179 years after his father was born. Martin was 97 when he died Sunday at his home in New Bern, North Carolina.. ..lived in the house where he was born — a house his father built in the 1890s. Martin had little memory of his father, Luke Martin Sr., who died at age 84 in 1920 when the son was just a few years old, according to Martin-Williams. The elder Martin, who was born in 1836, was married twice, the second...

Google Inc. is preparing to offer its high-speed fiber-optic Internet service in four new metro areas, the latest step in a careful expansion of the service. Google will announce launches of Google Fiber in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Raleigh-Durham, N.C. and Nashville, Tenn. in coming days, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Fayetteville, NC – The red light flashed with urgency on my office telephone, but I hardly gave the routine voicemail indicator a second thought – that is, until I pressed the replay button. What I heard next was a day-changer, and I knew I couldn’t rest until I did something about it. “I’m calling because I recently got an abortion at the Hallmark Clinic in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and it was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in my life.” Her emotion-laden voice proceeded to detail her experience that seemed straight from a horror novel. I called her...

Four men have been charged, after police say they tried to rob a pizza delivery driver this past weekend. Greenville Police say around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the Papa Johns driver was trying to make a delivery at the Province Apartment Complex on Boxelder Way. The driver told police that two men approached him in the parking lot and demanded money and the pizza. The driver used pepper spray to stop the robbery. A Province employee saw what happened and tried to help, but police say they were assaulted by one of the suspects while attempting to get the vehicle's license...

On a usually happy and even triumphant day, pro-life leaders found themselves angry at a vote in the U.S. House that never happened. Much of the talk today at the annual March for Life, that likely brought close to 500,000 mostly young people to Washington DC, was about how House leaders canned a bill that would have banned abortion after the 20th week of gestation, the point at which an unborn child is said to feel pain. Much of the anger was directed at Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, who, as reported by Breitbart News, organized a group...

A fraternity at Duke University has been suspended while police investigate charges that a woman was sexually assaulted at an off-campus party, the school announced Wednesday. Alpha Delta Phi has been suspended while Durham, N.C., police investigate what happened at an off-campus house leased by fraternity members. “Duke University is cooperating with the Durham Police Department in the investigation of an alleged sexual assault of a Duke student at an off-campus private residence that is leased to members of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity,” the school said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Pursuant to Duke’s policy, the fraternity has...

A handful of “pro-life” lawmakers have sabotaged a vote House Republican leaders planned for today to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on scientific evidence showing unborn babies feel pain in abortions. As LifeNews reported yesterday, Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina along with Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Jackie Walorski of Indiana — each of whom have pro-life voting records — objected to a vote on the bill on the grounds that the language in the bill did not do enough to allow women who have been victimized by rape to have abortions. Together, they reportedly...

RALEIGH — When the Love My Life rally began five years ago, 300 teens and their parents attended, a group small enough for the Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Raleigh to handle. On Saturday, the anti-abortion event, sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, drew roughly five times that number as middle and high school students packed into a huge heated tent on the Halifax Mall in the heart of the state government complex. Those numbers augmented the annual anti-abortion march later that afternoon that ran the length of a city block. The rally featured contemporary Christian music with a...

Clayton, N.C. — Hospira, a manufacturer of injectable and other drug products as well as medical devices, is closing its plant in Clayton which employs some 250 people. Hospira says the facility will close in the second half of this year. “After a thorough evaluation of the site and the various products produced at this facility, we had to make this difficult decision,” said Matt Stober, senior vice president for operations, in a statement. The firm operates a major plant in Rocky Mount as well. In 2012, it decided to add 200 works at that operation. Hospira (NYSE: HSP) disclosed...

Pro-life leaders are expressing their fury toward Rep. Renée Ellmers (R-NC) for seeking to delay what has been expected to be a relatively easy passage next week of a House bill that would restrict abortions to 20 weeks of pregnancy based on scientific evidence that unborn babies experience pain at 20 weeks of gestation. According to the National Journal, Ellmers is leading a group of moderate Republican congresswomen who appear to have concerns about the political ramifications of the bill – which is to be voted on next week on the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision – because it...