Pardoned brothers would pay lawyers $400K under settlement

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a deal allowing lawyers for two wrongfully imprisoned men to claim $400,000 of a $1 million settlement with investigators.

Judge Terrence Boyle issued a written order denying the settlement agreement for half brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, men with low IQs who wrongly spent three decades behind bars for the killing of an 11-year-old girl. The settlement amount was revealed in newly unsealed documents after a coalition of news organizations asked that they be released.

Boyle's order from Wednesday also names a court-appointed advocate for McCollum because of the judge's concerns about his competency. The order notes that a settlement agreement can be filed again once the advocate gets involved. A lawyer previously arranged for Brown to have a similar advocate.

McCollum and Brown, who were released from prison in 2014 because of DNA evidence and later pardoned, had filed a civil lawsuit alleging local and state authorities violated their civil rights. They notified the court in April that they had reached a settlement with the town of Red Springs and two of its former investigators.

Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region_ap/pardoned-brothers-would-pay-lawyers-k-under-settlement/article_66227355-0b6a-5726-95ce-8463b56ba4a6.html

North Carolina NAACP leader of protest movement to step down (Rev. William Barber)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Rev. William Barber, who led the state NAACP in blocking North Carolina's attempts to limit voting rights and fiercely supported gay rights, said he's stepping down as state chapter president and will focus on a poor people's campaign like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was building when he was slain.

Barber gained prominence in launching "Moral Monday" protests in North Carolina this decade and trained others in more than 20 states in such peaceful civil disobedience. But he said Wednesday that after 12 years as an NAACP state leader, he wants to focus on the new campaign and "a national call for a moral revival."

"We need a moral narrative because somewhere along the line we've gotten trapped in this left vs. right conversation," said the 53-year-old NAACP leader in an interview via conference call.

Barber also leads a nonprofit called Repairers of the Breach and said that group, along with the Kairos Center, Union Theological Seminary and others will lead a movement that will concentrate on 25 states and the nation's capital where voter suppression, poverty and other problems are prevalent. The groups plan major actions next summer, which would mark the 50th anniversary of the start of King's campaign in 1968.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article149886232.html

Proposed changes to NCAA basketball rules range from benign to frustrating

The NCAA basketball rules committee left its major idea, breaking the game into quarters, on the table on Friday.

The committee’s proposals to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel range from the benign (expanding the coach’s box on the sideline) to the frustrating (expanding the use of replay in the last 2 minutes of the second half or overtime).

The oversight panel will consider the proposals in June. The idea of splitting the game into four, 10-minute quarters (instead of two, 20-minute halves) did not gain any traction after the NCAA experimented with it during the NIT.

For the 32-team NIT this past March, the actual timing of the game didn’t change but the team fouls were reset at the 10-minute mark of each half. That helped avoid some of the problems from the championship game of the NCAA tournament when the game devolved early in each half into a free-throwing shooting contest.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/nc-state/article150302567.html

The city didn't like her Ferguson post, so they fired her. Now it must pay $1.5M

In an embarrassing verdict for the city of Charlotte, a jury Thursday found the Fire Department retaliated against former fire investigator Crystal Eschert for raising questions about the safety of construction work at a new office building, awarding her $1.5 million.

The jury rejected Charlotte’s claims that Eschert’s firing wasn’t retaliation. It also cast aside the city’s defense that the firing was necessary because Eschert had made what the city said was an offensive and inflammatory Facebook post.

On Aug. 20, 2014, about 10 days after the shooting of Michael Brown set off riots in Ferguson, Mo., Eschert wrote this post on her Facebook page, which was restricted to her Facebook friends:

“White guy shot by police yesterday near Ferguson … Where is Obama? Where is Holder? Where is Al Sharpton? Where are Trayvon Martin’s parents? Where are all the white guys supporters? So is everyone MAKING it a racial issue? So tired it’s a racial thing. If you are a thug and worthless to society, it’s not race – You’re just a waste no matter what religion, race or sex you are.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article150006207.html

Senate budget includes debit card program for school costs

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina pays millions of dollars each year so students from low-income families and children with disabilities can attend private schools, but a provision tucked into the Senate budget would go beyond tuition vouchers to provide debit cards to parents to pay for school costs.

The Personal Educational Savings Account, or PESA, is geared toward students with disabilities. Their parents would get a prepaid debit card with up to $9,000 a year on it, and they could use the tax-free money to pay for everything from tuition and books to tutoring and school transportation costs.

Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association, complained that there's been no public examination of the plan because the Senate rolled out its budget bill late Tuesday and is expected to give it final approval early Friday.

Winner described the plan as a "voucher program on steroids" and said that other states with similar programs have had problems with debit card accountability.

"In Arizona, we have seen parents buy big-screen TVs. There was one who was investigated for using the money to pay for an abortion," she said.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/senate-budget-includes-debit-card-program-for-school-costs/16696751/

Duke Energy spars with Civil Rights museum over power bills

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The nation's largest utility already turned off the lights during Black History Month at a museum honoring the lunch-counter sit-in that sparked the 1960s civil rights movement.

Now it's threatening to cut off the power altogether if the museum doesn't pay thousands more each month to cover the possibility of delinquent payments.

"Disconnecting a customer's service is the very last step in our collections process and it's an action we never want to take," Duke Energy said in a statement Thursday.

The museum honors the beginning of the sit-in movement, when four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T refused to leave the whites-only lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth's store in downtown Greensboro on Feb. 1, 1960. Their courage to endure abuse and arrest sparked the rights crusade that spread across the South.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/duke-energy-spars-with-civil-rights-museum-over-power-bills/16696319/

Senate budget targets jobs of numerous agency managers

Raleigh, N.C. — The proposed $22.9 billion state budget moving through the Senate spells out numerous managerial jobs at state agencies that would be eliminated if the spending plan is approved.

When they rolled out their budget proposal Tuesday, Senate leaders touted teacher raises and other increases to education spending, tax cuts and deposits to the state reserve fund, but they didn't provide details on how they would accomplish those priorities and still balance the budget.

The 358-page budget bill that was filed shortly before midnight Wednesday filled in those details.

While education spending goes up by $600 million in the Senate budget, the state Department of Public Instruction would see its operating budget slashed by 25 percent. Several positions at the State Board of Education, which is engaged in a tug-of-war with Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson for control over DPI, would be cut, while Johnson would receive $433,000 to hire up to five people who would report to him – the hires wouldn't need state board approval.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/senate-budget-targets-jobs-of-numerous-agency-managers/16693778/

Topless cleaning service owner arrested for underwear theft

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — In a misstep that would seem to run counter to her business model, a woman who offers a semi-nude cleaning service was arrested for stealing underwear.

Police in Bangor, Maine, say the woman is the owner-operator of a business called Topless Cleaning. She was caught shoplifting undergarments from a local business.

Bangor Police Sgt. Tim Cotton left a lengthy, humorous post (see below) about the arrest on the police department's Facebook page. He says the woman "had stolen garments that would fully cover, support, and contain much of what her business title promised her customers."

Cotton also says potential patrons should "keep their hands to themselves, leave other people's things alone, and be kind to one another."

Read more: http://www.dailyprogress.com/topless-cleaning-service-owner-arrested-for-underwear-theft/article_f47fb508-0bff-551f-89ab-f101ac28a90d.html

Roanoke officer frees young bear stuck in car, honking horn

Police: Officer shot after man opens fire in nursing home

KIRKERSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a police officer was wounded amid reports of a shooting at an Ohio nursing home.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Robert Sellers says Friday that the situation has ended and there is no threat to the public.

Reports of the shooting at the Pine Kirk Care Center in Kirkersville came around 7:30 a.m.

A local elementary school was put on lockdown, and parents later were told they could pick up their children at a nearby middle school.

Read more: http://www.newsadvance.com/news/national/wire/police-officer-shot-after-man-opens-fire-in-nursing-home/article_63955955-39d0-5190-8aaa-1ba587062934.html