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The Sheriff’s Office in Greenville County, South Carolina, has confirmed that immigration services determined a man accused of shooting and killing a local high school girl was in the U.S. illegally. Officials arrested 19-year-old Daniel De Jesus Rangel Sherrer and charged him with the murder of 18-year-old Diana Martinez-Gonzalez, who was found shot to death last week in a patch of woods along the 400 block of Saluda Dam Road in Easley, South Carolina. Deputies said they received a call from a friend of the victim who was “frantic” over the crime, according to Fox Carolina. At a recent press...

Two Political Analysts Say Gov. Perdue's Decision Doesn't Add UpWritten by Philip Jones 7:09 PM, Jan 30, 2012 Greensboro, NC -- We've had a few days to digest Gov. Bev Perdue's decision not to run for reelection, but there's still a bit of mystery surrounding her reasoning. **SNIP** "It's very difficult to see how her ... announcing she's stepping down increases the chances Republicans go back on their campaign promises from 2010 and say, 'OK, we're now open to a tax increase,'" Dinan said. Perdue said she believes she could've beat likely challenger Pat McCrory in this fall's election, but...

Former NC Gov. Mike Easley enters felony plea agreementUpdated: Nov 23, 2010 12:34 PM EST RALEIGH, NC (WBTV/AP) - The former governor of North Carolina has entered a plea agreement over a false campaign finance report. Former Governor Mike Easley entered an Alford plea in Wake County court, which means he acknowledged the state's evidence could result in a conviction without having to admit any guilt. By entering the plea Easley would avoid any prison time. Prosecutors say the plea also ends a federal probe that started in February 2009, a month after he left office. As a part of...

Feds probing Perdue's '08 runBY MICHAEL BIESECKER - staff writer RALEIGH -- The campaign of Gov. Bev Perdue is the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Perdue released a written statement Friday shortly after The News & Observer reported that federal grand jury subpoenas had been issued to people connected to her 2008 run for the state's highest elected office. "I have just learned that there is a federal investigation into my campaign for governor," Perdue said, according to the statement. "As a citizen, a candidate for public office, and an elected official of this state, I have tried my...

Former Gov. Mike Easley sometimes used a secret e-mail account to conduct state business, according to a longtime staffer who testified as part of a public records lawsuit. By law, e-mails about public business are supposed to be public record. Several media outlets sued in 2008 over access to e-mails to and from Easley's office after some state workers claimed that staffers were told to routinely delete sensitive e-mail...

RALEIGH, N.C. — For the past decade, North Carolina Democrats in charge of state government have been successful persuading the public they're unlike fellow party colleagues who've ended up behind bars. Democrats have remained in power in the Legislature and at the Executive Mansion despite the news of illegal activities that sent then-House Speaker Jim Black, Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and Rep. Thomas Wright to prison.

A federal grand jury today charged Ruffin Poole, counsel and close aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, with 51 counts of corruption. The 64-page indictment alleges that Poole, 37, of Raleigh, taking action in exchange for illegal inducements. It is the first indictment issued in a lengthy federal probe surrounding Easley, who was governor from 2001 until last January.

Easley Scandal Budget Woes Top N.C. Story ListBY SCOTT MOONEYHAM: CAPITOL PRESS ASSOCIATION Updated: December 26, 2009 at 15:54 pm Two governors -- one leaving office, the other beginning -- probably couldn't imagine the troubles that they would see as 2009 began. **SNIP** Plenty of Scandal Helping that cause may be a year filled with political scandal. Mike Easley left office already having squandered the political capital built as an outsider and anti-politician. The image began crumbling when his wife, Mary, landed a $170,000 job at N.C. State University. By spring, published reports about Mike Easley flying around on private...

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.

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...

EDITORIAL: Easley Performance Not Very ConvincingUpdated: October 29, 2009 at 18:43 pm Larry Leake, chairman of the State Board of Elections, asked a pretty good question Wednesday. A couple of days earlier, on the first day of this week's explosive hearings on alleged campaign spending abuses, former Easley friend and supporter McQueen Campbell had testified in great and dismaying detail. Among other damning allegations, he said he and Easley were part of a bogus scheme to hide the cost of repairs to Easley's private residence by listing them as being for air travel. When a campaign aide expressed concern that...

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...

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.

Gov. Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, accepted a $137,000 discount on a coastal waterfront lot they bought in 2005, months after Easley's administration granted environmental permits to the developer of the Carteret County subdivision. Easley did not report the 25 percent price break from R.A. North Development, on his state ethics disclosure forms; and his closing attorney, the mayor of Beaufort, did not report the discounted price on the deed registered with the county. It was recorded at the original sales price of $549,880.

Easley, Democratic Party Pay For Improper ContributionsBy NBC17 and AP, NBC17, 2 days, 7 hours ago Updated: Jul. 23 7:35 pm RALEIGH, N.C. - Concerns over former Governor Mike Easley's campaign finances have both his campaign and the state Democratic Party writing checks to cover questionable contributions. The party sent $24,086.22 to the state's Board of Elections, representing seven "in kind" donations -- services that Easley says he did for the party. Easley's campaign added another $2,720 for a series of excessive contributions between 1999 and 2004. It's all tied to an on-going investigation with a lot of focus on...

NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning after days of shifting explanations about a deal he cut for former provost Larry Nielsen when Nielsen stepped down last month. Both men are at the heart over a controversy about how former state first lady Mary Easley gained a job at the university in 2005, then an 88-percent pay hike last year to a $170,000 salary. Last month McQueen Campbell, a friend of the Easleys who Gov. Mike Easley had appointed to the NCSU board of trustees, admitted to UNC system President Erskine Bowles that he had told Oblinger that Easley...

Could Easley investigation expand to Perdue?Updated: May 29, 2009 06:36 PM EDT By Melissa Hankins WBTV (Charlotte) - Sources tell WBTV that the federal probe into former Governor Mike Easley's travel records and expenses may grow to include our current Governor, Beverly Perdue. The FBI is investigating trips taken by Easley during his time in office. The News and Observer in Raleigh reports, while in office, he flew on at least 25 private jets provided by several businessmen. Easley didn't pay for some flights, and the value of other trips appears to exceed campaign donation limits. It's a matter of...

Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Mike Easley on Friday implemented the state's price-gouging law as gas prices jumped amid fears that Hurricane Ike would cripple U.S. refining capacity. Refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast, which handle about one-fourth of the U.S. daily demand, were shutting down operations Thursday and Friday in advance of Ike, which was expected to hit the coast late Friday or early Saturday. Under North Carolina law, the governor must make a disaster or emergency declaration or proclaim an abnormal market disruption for critical goods and services for the state Attorney General's Office to investigate and prosecute allegations...

UNC chief says Mary Easley's raise under review Link only

Easleys took lovely trips abroad; we got the billBy Scott Sexton | Journal Columnist Published: July 3, 2008 It's a rhetorical question with an obvious answer, but one that nonetheless bears asking in light of Gov. Mike "Tax Hike" Easley's lame attempt at explaining the extravagant (and taxpayer-borne) costs of overseas junkets that he and first lady Mary Easley enjoyed. Who is dumber, a European restaurateur who tries to sell a cheeseburger and onion rings combo for $60 or the rube from Brunswick County who pays $60 for it? Hmmm. Yet Easley used that very example in a news conference...