RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s elections board is expected to set a date for voters to decide who will fill a congressional seat still vacant after November’s result was tainted by ballot fraud concerns.
The state elections board is expected to decide Monday when to hold new party primaries and the general election for the 9th congressional district.
The board decided Feb. 21 that the new election was needed after hearing four days of evidence that a political operative working for Republican candidate Mark Harris hired people to collect mail-in ballots. The board agreed that left votes vulnerable to being changed or discarded.
It’s illegal under North Carolina law for anyone other than a voter or immediate family member to handle ballots.
Democrat Dan McCready is running again in the new election. Harris won’t.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – After four years, no trial date has been set for the man accused of gunning down his Muslim neighbors in North Carolina.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) – Officials at Fort Bragg say a soldier’s family is safe after a domestic disturbance resulted in him barricading himself inside the house.
Fort Bragg public affairs officer Tom McCollum tells The Fayetteville Observer the soldier’s family had left the home shortly after the disturbance started Saturday evening. McCollum says authorities negotiated with the soldier for around six hours before he agreed to leave the house.
McCollum says the soldier was a member of the Special Operations Command. Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer couldn’t identify the soldier or what charges he might face. Bymer says Fort Bragg Military Police are investigating.
Eight to 10 homes were evacuated during the barricade. McCollum says the soldier had a privately owned AR-15 rifle and possibly a pistol.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – State regulators say a well-known entrepreneur in western North Carolina has had his real estate license stripped for keeping at least tens of thousands of dollars owed to Airbnb owners whose properties he managed.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – A North Carolina city has backed off its crackdown on a needle exchange run out of a bookstore.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports Asheville officials announced Friday they rescinded notices of violation against Firestorm Books & Coffee and The Steady Collective.
The city cited the program run by the groups for violating zoning rules in August. The said the bookstore was similar to a “shelter,” but the groups argued the program is an accessory use of the space, which is 96.5 percent of the time a community space. They appealed in September, calling the scrutiny unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Asheville spokeswoman Ashley Traynum-Carson says the operators have agreed to formalize their commitment to have an on-site medical professional. The needle exchange is now zoned as a medical clinic, instead of a shelter.