Free Republic

An entire North Carolina police force has quit in protest at the town’s newly hired “progressively responsible” town manager - who the police chief said created a “hostile work environment.” Kenly Police Chief Josh Gibson made the shocking announcement in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying the assistant town manager and a key clerk had joined him and his five officers in quitting in protest. “I have put in my 2 weeks notice along with the whole police dept.,” he wrote of the force he has served with for 21 years. “The new manager has created an environment I do...

On Tuesday, the NC Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson held a press conference where he took offense with a recent cartoon by a local media outlet. WRAL in Raleigh released the cartoon which depicted members of the NC GOP as KKK members with their recent attacks on the NC school curriculum. Robinson did not like it one bit. Robinson, the state’s first Black Lieutenant Governor, said that the cartoon was hypocrisy against GOP members of the NC Council of State who were minorities themselves. He said that running such a cartoon during Black History Month was an absolute disgrace.

WRAL News anchors Jeff Hogan and Brad Johansen, both new to North Carolina in the past year, were enjoying Wrightsville Beach with their families Saturday when a freak accident left Hogan hospitalized. On Monday, Johansen described what happened to his friend. The surf was rough, and red flags were flying, although dozens of people remained in the water, and lifeguards had not whistled them out. Hogan, a seasoned triathlete, was body surfing with his daughters when a wave slammed him face down into a sand bar. Johansen was about a half-mile away when his son ran to tell him his...

Fort Bragg, N.C. — Several soldiers were injured Thursday morning after an explosion at Fort Bragg. Authorities said at least 15 soldiers were transported via medical helicopter to Womack Army Medical Center after an explosion on one of the training fields. The soldiers were all members of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, known as USASOC.

Over the course of the last few weeks, I have received several requests for an update on the Frank Lombard case. Lombard is the (now former) Duke administrator who was accused last summer of attempting to allow, and even arrange for, strangers he met on the internet to rape his adopted child. A few days ago, WRAL, a Raleigh-based news station, released an update on the case. That update is worth re-printing here, along with my commentary, both for what the update says and what it does not say: “A former Duke University employee has agreed to plead guilty to...

Jihadi word search puzzles... coming to a school near you? By Michelle Malkin   ·   November 17, 2006 09:19 PM Parents, you better check your children's homework and make sure they aren't doing assignments like this (via WRAL with a hat tip to reader Paul): WRAL reports: A Spanish teacher at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School resigned this week after handing out an assignment that some students and parents said teaches hate. Khalid Chahhou, who was in his first year of teaching in Johnston County, gave students a worksheet in which they were to translate words and find them within a word-search...

RALEIGH - WRAL-TV is taking the next step in the delivery of its signal to viewers by offering live local programming over the Internet but only within its coverage area. Ultimately, the CBS affiliate hopes to offer the entire CBS lineup and commercials live on the Net and also to sell programs as part of a video-on-demand service. At a news conference Wednesday, Capitol Broadcasting President and CEO Jim Goodmon and Jack Perry, chief executive officer of Decisionmark Corp., unveiled a product called TitanCast that delivers virtually instantaneous TV programming through the web. Much more at http://www.wral.com/news/6652148/detail.html

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Progress Energy officials say more customers and a higher demand for power are pushing the need for a new nuclear reactor that could be built at its existing Shearon Harris nuclear plant about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh. The energy company, which serves 1.4 million customers in the Carolinas, said it chose Shearon Harris after evaluating 13 potential locations in North Carolina and South Carolina, based on its available transmission lines and proximity to cooling water. The Harris Plant site was originally planned for four nuclear reactors, but due to changing economic conditions in the 1970s and...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. -- A Raleigh logger must pay $95,000 after his business cut down a tree where bald eagles nested, a federal judge ruled.</p> <p>David Norwood, 46, could have faced up to a year in prison, a $100,000 fine and a year of supervised release for violating the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.</p>