DURHAM-DA REMOVAL

NC Bar sets aside week for Cline hearings

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The North Carolina State Bar has set aside a week for the disciplinary case of former Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports Monday that the bar assigned Oct. 1-5 for Cline's disciplinary hearing.

Cline was removed from office in March after a judge determined that the challenges she filed against Durham's senior judge were false and malicious.

Cline alleged Durham Senior Resident Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy of defense lawyers, court personnel and a news reporter to make her appear incompetent. The bar complaint says Cline's statements were inflammatory and made people have less confidence in the state's legal system.

Cline has appealed her removal and is trying to get access to some of Hudson's emails.

CHURCH VOTING

Group says NC violated separation of church, state

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A humanist group is claiming that the state of North Carolina violated the first amendment by allowing voting in churches that advocated anti-gay political stances.

The Appignani Humanist Legal Center says it has “serious legal concerns” with the use of churches as polling places and says the state violated the first Amendment's Establishment Clause that outlines the separation between church and state.

The group stops short of threating legal action, but a spokesman says he hopes for a change in state policy.

A spokesman for the State Board of Elections said Monday it would be up to legislators to make any changes to polling locations, but that the use of churches is completely legal. Previous appellate court rulings have backed the practice of using places of worship.

SENATE BUDGET

NC Senate spends less than House in budget changes

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina state Senate leaders are taking a more cautious approach to proposed budget adjustments than the House by spending less and setting aside more money in reserve in case Medicaid costs get out of hand.

Senate Republicans spoke Monday about their $20.1 billion plan next year for state government, about $127 million less than what the House offered.

The Senate would cancel fewer required spending reductions for the public schools than the House. Senate leader Phil Berger of Eden told reporters the GOP didn't feel comfortable using 1-time tax windfalls to trim those school reductions.

Most workers in state departments would get a 1.2% pay raise, but raises would be optional in the public schools and higher education. The House plan offered $500 bonuses to everyone.

POLYGAMIST SECT-MISSING MEMBERS

Polygamist sect leader pleads guilty to murders

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – The leader of a Durham polygamist group has admitted murdering of his ex-girlfriend and a young boy.

Peter Lucas Moses pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 4-year-old Jadon Higganbothan and 28-year-old Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy.

The plea will allow the 27-year-old Moses to avoid the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against others charged, including his mother, brother and sister. Higganbothan's mother is also charged.

Prosecutors say Moses shot the boy because he thought he was gay and then killed McKoy because he feared she would tell police. Their bodies were buried in plastic bags behind a Durham house.

Moses was a member of a religious sect known as the Black Hebrews, which believes it descends directly from the ancient tribes of Israel.

DEADLY HIKING ACCIDENT

21-year-old NC student killed in hiking accident

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – A 21-year-old University of Chapel Hill-Charlotte student has died in a hiking accident at Stone Mountain State Park.

Authorities say park rangers found Jordan Slusher at the base of Stone Mountain on Saturday.

N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation spokesman Charlie Peek says the student from Gaston County had been hiking with two friends. He went missing around noon and was found about four hours later.

University officials said funeral arrangements had not been finalized. Slusher had just celebrated his 21st birthday on may 17.

GOLDSBORO SHOOTINGS

4 injured in unrelated Goldsboro shootings

GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) – four people have been injured at two separate shootings in Goldsboro over the weekend.

Police say someone opened fired at a graduation party early Sunday, striking 17-year-old Christah Tanjere Battle and 20-year-old Michael Deshaun Sawyer.

Sawyer underwent emergency surgery, and officials said his condition was stable Monday. Battle was treated and released from the hospital.

A few hours before that shooting. 26-year-old Vanradius Vonyell Fields and 27-year-old Shawn Naurice Holmes were shot at a Goldsboro barbershop. Officials said both were in stable condition Monday.

No one has been arrested in either shooting, but police say the incidents weren't related.

TORNADO CLEANUP

Cleanup from tornado continues in Peletier

PELETIER, N.C. (AP) – The clean-up after a tornado that touched down near Peletier continues with the state Department Transportation Department clearing tree limbs and other vegetative debris.

The Daily News of Jacksonville reported that the DOT will work Monday in the little Kinston Road area.

The EF1 tornado with winds of 110 mph destroyed three homes and damaged others may 30. No one was injured. it formed as Tropical Storm Beryl passed through the area.

A formal assessment by the state determined 14 homes had minor damage, three homes had major damage and three homes were considered a total loss. A number of the homes were second homes rather than primary residences.

EX-NC GOVERNOR PROBE

Former Easley aide completes sentence

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A man who served as a top aide to former Gov. Mike Easley has finished a federal sentence for tax evasion.

WRAL-TV reports that Ruffin Poole was released Friday from a halfway house in the Raleigh area.

Authorities said in April that Poole had returned to North Carolina after serving several months at a minimum-security prison in Pensacola, Fla. He is also slated to serve two years of supervised release.

Poole received a 1-year and 1-day sentence for pleading guilty before his trial was to begin on public corruption-related charges.

The charge stemmed from a $30,000 coastal investment Poole made and failed to report in 2005. it was disclosed during a 2-year federal investigation into former Easley's dealings with friends and campaign contributors while in office.

NC HISTORY-MOVIE

Film about NC history to be shown in Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A documentary about North Carolina's early history is being shown for free at the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources in Raleigh.

“Birth of a Colony” will be shown Monday afternoon at the department building in downtown Raleigh. The movie covers North Carolina's early history from the arrival of Europeans to the end of the Tuscarora War.

The movie includes original footage shot in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, along with archival footage and interviews with key historians. Cultural Resources Deputy Secretary Jeffrey Crow will make remarks before the movie. Crow and research historian Michael Hill will answer questions after the movie.

WRONG WAY WRECK

Woman facing charges in fatal Raleigh wreck

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A 23-year-old woman is charged in a Raleigh wreck that killed a man, injured a woman and shut down the freeway in both directions.

Authorities say Sarah Aimee Carden was driving the wrong way on Interstate 440 early Sunday when another car swerved to miss her, then overturned and crashed over a guardrail.

Raleigh police say 30-year-old Tshimpangila Junior Bajani was killed, and 25-year-old Adrina Angelica Moore suffered serious injuries.

Troopers say Carden kept driving until she was eventually pulled over by troopers. her blood-alcohol level was .16, twice the legal limit.

Carden is facing multiple charges, including felony death by vehicle, felony hit and run and driving while impaired. it wasn't known if she had an attorney.

Both sides of I-440 were closed for about four hours Sunday.

CIVIL WAR-MYSTERY GIRLS

Civil War photos: Help sought to solve old mystery

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Museum of the Confederacy in Virginia is hoping to identify two little girls whose photographic images were found amid crumpled bodies on Civil War battlefields.

Each is posed primly on chairs, ringlets cascading past the rouged cheeks of 1, the other dressed in a frilly hoop dress. One photograph was found between two dead soldiers, the other in a soldier's haversack.

No one knows their identities.

The Richmond museum is releasing the images of the two girls and six other photographs that were found on Civil War battlefields or passed on before battle. all of the subjects remain unknown. The museum is releasing the photos in a long-shot bid that someone might recognize a familial resemblance or make a connection to the battlefield where they were found.

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