Free Republic

A suspected homicide near a Charlotte light-rail station rekindled crime fears that have plagued officials since the August gruesome caught-on-video murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Zephaniah Adewale Little Rivers, 23, was found at about 6:30 p.m. Monday near the Norfolk Southern train tracks with a gunshot wound. He was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Preliminary reports indicated the shooting followed an altercation at a nearby business and that the victim did not know the suspect. Authorities have not named a suspect. The crime scene is near the Archdale light-rail station...

New congressional district boundaries in eastern North Carolina counties received final legislative approval Wednesday, a week after the public first saw the new map. State Republicans drew the plan at the behest of President Donald Trump. It seeks to make what is now the state’s only toss-up district unwinnable for a Democrat, bringing the state’s 14-member congressional delegation from 10 Republicans and four Democrats to 11 Republicans and three Democrats. The remaining Democratic districts are in the Triangle and in Charlotte. Trump has asked states under Republican control to change district boundaries to help elect more members of their party...

As Republicans across the country pursue new congressional maps to boost their party ahead of next year's midterm elections, Democrats are ramping up pressure on states where they can respond. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has held discussions with members of the Maryland delegation and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in recent weeks about possible mid-decade redistricting efforts, according to a source with knowledge of the conversations. The source also said Jeffries spoke with members of the Illinois delegation about drawing new district lines, as Politico first reported. Maryland has just one Republican, Rep. Andy Harris, in its eight-member House...

A Charlotte, North Carolina, teenager with 111 arrests in just two years has once again been released, as the blue city wrestles with repeat offenders. During a Wednesday news conference, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) discussed the city’s latest crime stats. The city, according to the CMPD, experienced a 20% reduction in violent crime, which includes homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, which encompass shootings. But amid the positivity, there is reason for alarm, with more than half of those arrested for violent crimes having prior arrests — including teens. One example is an unnamed 15-year-old with an astounding 111...

North Carolina Republican lawmakers announced plans Monday to redraw their state's congressional map, part of a nationwide redistricting effort aimed at shoring up the party's narrow majority in the U.S. House ahead of next year's midterm elections. “President Trump earned a clear mandate from the voters of North Carolina and the rest of the country, and we intend to defend it by drawing an additional Republican Congressional seat,” North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall said in a statement. Under North Carolina's current map, Republicans control 10 House seats to Democrats' four. To give Republicans another seat, the GOP-controlled Legislature could...

When one thinks of the Democratic Party in 2025, most don’t think of compassion or relatability. Instead, anger is the first word that usually comes to mind. Here are ten examples of anger on display during Trump’s second term: “This dude [Ted Cruz] has to be knocked over the head, like, hard, right? Like, there is no niceties with him, like, at all!” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX). “[Trump senior advisor] Stephen Miller needs to be THUMPED! That guy’s a freaking worm. I would be willing to go to jail for – I mean, how much [time] would I get...

A Democrat North Carolina state representative was arrested and charged on Wednesday in the statutory rape of a teen. Rep. Cecil Brockman who represents Guilford County is charged with two counts of indecent liberties with a child and two counts of statutory rape of a person 13 to 15 years of age, Fox 8 reported Thursday. The outlet said: Warrants allege that in August of this year, Brockman “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did commit and attempt to commit lewd and lascivious act” with a 15-year-old victim. … He was issued no bond upon arrest, and the magistrates order alleges that...

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A North Carolina State House of Representatives member who represents Guilford County has been arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes. According to court records, Cecil Antonio Brockman, 41, a Democrat who serves District 60 in Guilford County, was arrested on Wednesday for two counts of indecent liberties with a child and two counts of statutory rape of someone 13-15. Brockman’s legislative assistant has been reached for comment. Warrants allege that in August of this year, Brockman “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did commit and attempt to commit lewd and lascivious act” with a 15-year-old victim....

Republican senators are increasingly uneasy about President Trump’s standoff with Democratic governors over deploying National Guard troops from other states to Portland, Ore., and Chicago. The conflict between federal and state authorities escalated dramatically over the weekend when Trump moved to send National Guard soldiers to Oregon and Illinois despite opposition from their respective governors, Tina Kotek and JB Pritzker. Trump’s use of military forces was all the more controversial because a Trump-appointed federal judge for the District of Oregon ruled Saturday that the administration could not federalize Oregon’s National Guard to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in...

A middle school gym teacher who described himself as a “pig” before being jailed for repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl was killed by another inmate in his North Carolina cell Sunday. Ernest Nichols, 60, was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to 15 years behind bars for statutory rape. He was originally arrested on a staggering 27 charges, including a laundry list of sex offenses, WRAL reported. Nichols was found dead in his cell at the Greene Correctional Institution in Maury, NC around 6:50 a.m., sending the prison into a lockdown.

A North Carolina school bus driver who calls himself “Ms. Sharon” has been charged with sexually assaulting several boys whom he lured to his house, cops say. Leetwain Darrell Tate — a 48-year-old a male also known as just “Sharon” — was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of statutory rape and six counts of indecent liberties with a minor, according to Charlotte-Mecklenberg police. He is accused of assaulting at least four boys age 14 and 15 years old, but officials said there could be more victims. The children were found to be staying at his house, and one...

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Friday signed “Iryna’s Law,” which increases checks on criminals getting out on bail and prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and most repeat offenders following the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light-rail train in August. Stein, a Democrat, has said he doesn’t like every part of the bill that was passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, which also looks to restart executions in North Carolina, but he signed it because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before...

Two voters lacked standing and, additionally, failed to show how Blacks were weakened by maps for the North Carolina Senate, a federal judge has ruled. “Plaintiffs ignore the progress that North Carolina has made over the past 60 years and seek to use Section 2 to sort voters by race in order to squeeze one more Democratic Senate district into the map,” wrote Judge James Dever of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The ruling in Rodney D. Pierce and Moses Matthews v. The North Carolina State Board of Elections, et al. says racial gerrymandering...

President Trump on Monday night announced tariffs of 10% on softwood timber and lumber alongside a 25% tariff on "certain upholstered wooden products" due to take effect on Oct. 14, according to the White House. This was the latest set of tariffs to be announced impacting the furniture industry, after Trump posted last week about a flurry of tariffs on kitchen cabinets, vanities, and other upholstered products on that will take effect Oct. 1. Trump said the lumber tariffs will help "strengthen supply chains" and "bolster industrial resilience." Yet home builders have warned this could deter investments in new homes...

An active shooter situation has been reported in Southport, North Carolina, according to social media posts. Local residents are being advised to steer clear of the area as law enforcement investigates. Claims on Facebook suggest that multiple individuals have been injured, with one post reporting the sighting of six ambulances and a significant police presence. The city of Southport disclosed on Facebook that there were reports of an active shooter at the Southport Yacht Basin. "There is an unknown number of injuries. Avoid the area and remain in your homes. Please report any suspicious activity immediately to 911," the post...

Republicans in North Carolina and beyond are making a concerted effort to turn the stabbing death of a Ukrainian woman on a Charlotte commuter train into a political liability for Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper in his bid to win a key U.S. Senate race that is still more than a year away. GOP candidate Michael Whatley has said Cooper bears "direct responsibility" for the deadly Aug. 22 attack on Iryna Zarutska because of a commission he created in June 2020 to address racial inequity in the criminal justice system. The panel's unveiling occurred weeks following the death of George...

N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger said Thursday that the legislature might redraw the state's Congressional districts in response to partisan gerrymandering efforts in other states. Berger, posting on the social media site X, pointed to efforts by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw districts there and said "we have drawn four Congressional maps in the last six years in redistricting fights with Democrats because of their sue-until-blue strategy. If we have to draw one more map this year, we will." But Berger denied a rumor posted by a left-leaning group — and a subsequent report from CBS 17, which cited...

44-year-old suspect with lengthy criminal history captured on surveillance video fleeing scene Seattle police have charged a 44-year-old ex-con with the stabbing of another man in the stomach from behind in a "seemingly unprovoked attack" in the city's Chinatown-International District, authorities said, the latest in a string of violent crimes across the U.S. linked to repeat-offender suspects. Surveillance video appears to show a man on a bicycle approach another man and stab him without warning before running off. The victim, who was pulling a cart along the sidewalk at the time, falls to the ground but eventually gets up and...

North Carolina Senate Republicans approved a measure Monday in honor of Iryana Zarutska, the Ukranian refugee stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail last month, that would revive the death penalty. House Bill 307 is called Iryana’s Law. Republicans say it makes several changes to remove roadblocks that have prevented the death penalty from being carried out in North Carolina. Under the proposal, instead of letting death penalty appeals sit indefinitely, they must now be heard within two years of filing, and continuances will not be granted unless the judge finds extenuating circumstances. The bill would establish lethal injection...

Last September, Ryan Wesley Routh waited hours to take a shot at Donald Trump. The man, who reportedly conned his way through Ukraine, stayed with a GoPro and a scoped AK-style rifle for 12 hours at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. This attempt on Trump’s life came weeks after the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the president dodged a fatal headshot by millimeters. Routh waited in the shrubbery for Trump, and the president got within 300 yards until he was discovered by a Secret Service agent who opened fire, causing Routh to flee....