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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A well-known WRAL reporter is leaving the station. What we know
A WRAL reporter and North Carolina native is leaving the station after six years. Aaron Thomas' last day at WRAL is Monday, June 16, according to social media posts announcing the news. 'This wasn't an easy decision,' Thomas wrote in a Facebook post. 'Reporting for my hometown TV station has been a blessing and a dream fulfilled. YEARS of prayer and self-reflection led to the conclusion that it's time for a new challenge.' Thomas, who did not immediately respond to a request for more information from The News & Observer, said in the Facebook post that he would take a month to 'recharge + reset.' 'As for what's next? Stay tuned,' Thomas wrote. Thomas, who joined WRAL in 2019, graduated from N.C. State University in 2014 with a degree in communication media, according to his WRAL bio. He was born in Fayetteville and raised in Fuquay-Varina, the bio says. During his six years at WRAL, Thomas won two Nashville/MidSouth Emmy Awards in breaking/spot news - multiple reports and team coverage categories. Before coming to WRAL, Thomas worked for two years as a reporter/multimedia journalism at ABC affiliate WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia. From 2015-17, he was a reporter/multimedia journalist at CBS affiliate WTAJ-TV in State College, Pennsylvania. WRAL legend Charlie Gaddy — 'the Walter Cronkite of North Carolina' — has died Thomas is the latest broadcast journalist to leave WRAL in recent months. Gilbert Baez, a longtime Fayetteville reporter for the station, left WRAL in January, after the station did not renew his contract. Baez is hosting a new TV show, 'Air Angels: Flight Helene.' He is also hosting a three-hour weekday news program at WFNC, The N&O previously reported. Debra Morgan joined WRAL as an anchor in 1993. Until 2023, she co-anchored newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., alongside Gerald Owens. But in May of that year, she began co-anchoring only at the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. hours, a change she said would offer better work-life balance. Morgan's last day on the anchor desk at WRAL was May 21. Have a question about your community you'd like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you'd like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you. If you have a question about the Charlotte area, send The Charlotte Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. If you have a question about Raleigh or a Triangle area community, send The News & Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. Local TV station announces new host for public affairs program. Here's when she'll start Former WRAL reporter begins 2 new TV & radio projects this year. Here's what to know
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ousted NC elections director led through chaos. Her replacement promises change
Karen Brinson Bell's departure from her post as North Carolina's top election official was hardly unexpected. For nearly a decade, lawmakers had sought to restructure the state's election apparatus to strip appointment power away from the governor — an office which Democrats have won in the last three elections despite Republicans maintaining strong majorities in the General Assembly. After five attempts were foiled by courts or voters, the sixth proved successful. The state's appellate courts allowed a new law to take effect transferring appointment power over the State Board of Elections away from the governor and toward the newly elected Republican auditor. So when the board's new Republican majority voted last month to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, a lawyer who had worked for the state's top lawmakers, it didn't come as a surprise to her. 'You know when you're in an appointed position that it can always come to an end,' Brinson Bell told The News & Observer in an interview. 'So I tried to treat each day of the job just like you're supposed to treat your life: you never know if you'll get another day, so just do with it what you can while you can.' With Brinson Bell gone and the board's partisan majority flipped for the first time in nearly a decade, major changes are likely coming to the way the state runs its elections. Procedures surrounding voter registration and military and overseas voting are in question. So is the agency's independence. And all of this comes on the heels of a dramatic six-month legal battle over the results of the 2024 state Supreme Court election. Hayes has promised change for the oft-embattled agency, but says it will not come at the expense of voters. 'We will focus not only on access to voting for eligible voters, but also on election integrity and making sure that voters trust the system. These two goals are not mutually exclusive,' he said in an email to The N&O. 'We can have secure elections that are also accessible to any eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot.' Brinson Bell's unceremonious ousting last month — in which the board refused to allow her to give a farewell speech — was not the cap she had envisioned to her 19-year career in elections. 'I wanted to give recognition to an incredible group of people at the state agency and across the state who really pulled off some very remarkable, unprecedented things and give that recognition as it was due,' she said about that moment. 'I think not only did it disrespect me, it disrespected the state staff and all 100 counties.' The vote came shortly after the state's Republican-dominated Court of Appeals allowed Senate Bill 382 — a wide-ranging power shift bill — to take effect. The bill stripped the governor of his power to appoint a majority of members to the State Board of Elections — a practice which has been in place for over a century. Instead, that power was given to the state auditor, Dave Boliek, the first Republican to win the office in 16 years. A trial court had ruled that the law was unconstitutional, but the appeals court reversed that ruling in an unsigned order that did not include the reasoning for the judges' decision. Within a week of that order, the new board had taken office and voted to remove Brinson Bell as one of its first actions. It was a dramatic end to a tenure that had already been far from ordinary. During her six years as director of the State Board of Elections, Brinson Bell contended with COVID, Hurricane Helene and an unprecedented effort to overturn the results of a Supreme Court election. Each disruption to the normal election process brought increased scrutiny to the board and to Brinson Bell herself, who Republican lawmakers frequently lambasted on social media or in hearings at the legislature. While state lawmakers had voiced concerns with the board before, hostilities reached a tipping point in 2020, Brinson Bell said. As President Donald Trump spread false claims of voter fraud nationwide, North Carolina dealt with its own challenges to voting. Prior to the election, an advocacy group had sued the elections board over its mail-in voting rules, arguing that voters needed more opportunities to get their ballots in given the COVID-19 pandemic. The board (which at the time had three Democrats and two Republicans) unanimously agreed to a settlement with the group that allowed the state to accept mail-in ballots up to nine days after the election and gave voters more opportunities to fix issues with their ballots. To this day, state lawmakers refer to this as a 'collusive settlement' and list it as one of the primary reasons the board needed to be changed. 'It's unfortunate, because it's sowing distrust in the system that obviously, fairly and securely got them elected — and they didn't question their results,' Brinson Bell said. 'So why are we questioning the results of other contests that were carried out the exact same way?' Only four years after organizing voting in a pandemic, Brinson Bell had to organize voting in the wake of a deadly hurricane that ravaged Western North Carolina. The storm was personal for Brinson Bell, who lived in the area for 20 years. 'I knew the creeks and the hollers and the ridge lines that were being affected, and I knew a lot of the people being affected,' she said. Shortly after the storm hit, the board approved a variety of rule changes to make voting easier for mountain residents — all of which were later adopted by the legislature. Despite Helene, voters in Western North Carolina actually outpaced the rest of the state in turnout during early voting. The board's response to Helene won the agency a national Clearinghouse Award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — its fourth such award during Brinson Bell's tenure. But shortly after a national election in the wake of a massive hurricane, Brinson Bell had one more unexpected complication to deal with, one that would not be resolved until the very day the board voted to oust her. After all outstanding mail-in and provisional ballots from the 2024 election were counted, Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin came in 734 votes behind Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. The state proceeded to two recounts, which are standard procedure for a close election such as this one. But both affirmed the result. Rather than ending there, a novel and chaotic legal battle erupted. Griffin, alongside the NC GOP, challenged the validity of over 65,000 ballots cast in the election. Targeting a variety of longstanding voting and registration practices, Griffin sought to toss out tens of thousands of votes — potentially flipping the race in his favor. After six months of courtroom fights, Griffin conceded the race after a federal judge appointed by Trump decisively ruled against him. His concession came just as the election board's new Republican majority prepared to vote on replacing Brinson Bell. She alluded to the challenge in her farewell message, telling the attendees who stuck around after the board adjourned that she hoped election workers could be 'rewarded for their work, rather than vilified by those who don't like the outcome.' 'I hope we return to a time when those who lost elections concede defeat rather than trying to tear down the entire election system and erode voter confidence,' she continued. 'And I hope we recognize that the conduct of elections is the very core of our democracy.' Since taking over as director last month, Hayes has mostly worked behind the scenes. The new board has yet to meet since it voted to select him as director, and Hayes has not issued any press releases — other than the one announcing his hire. But changes are sure to come to the state's election processes under his leadership. While Griffin's effort to overturn his election loss is dead, the board is working to implement changes to the state's election policies based on the arguments he made. Griffin's main challenge argued that over 60,000 voters who didn't have a driver's license or Social Security number in the state's registration database should have their votes thrown out. Those identification numbers are required by a federal law called the Help America Vote Act, which includes exceptions for voters who do not possess either form of identification. The Trump administration sued over the issue late last month, asking a judge to order the state to fix the discrepancy within 30 days and cancel the registrations of any voter who does not provide the missing identifications. Hayes said he plans to work with the administration to address the problem. 'We don't need a lawsuit to tell us what's right,' he said. Voters with missing identification numbers will receive a mailing from the board informing them of how to fix it, Hayes said. If they don't respond, they will be contacted by phone and email. Instead of outright canceling the registrations of voters who don't answer at that point, Hayes said the voters would be flagged in the system to provide the missing information the next time they show up to vote. While Brinson Bell agreed that earlier registration practices were unclear pertaining to the HAVA numbers, she said Griffin's challenge of the election results was unnecessary and damaged trust in elections. 'It conveys such inaccurate information (and) a lack of understanding,' she said about the challenges. 'Just by filing it, you're sowing those seeds of distrust.' But Hayes shifted blame to the former board. 'I think failing to collect the information required by HAVA undermined trust in the 2024 election results,' he said. Collecting that information won't be the only change under Hayes. Despite being exempt from the state's voter ID law in the past, military and overseas voters will have to provide identification in future elections to have their votes counted in state and local races. This was another issue Griffin had sued over, though he only challenged voters registered in Democratic-leaning counties for this part of his complaint. While his effort to have those ballots canceled was unsuccessful, courts agreed with him that these voters should be subject to the ID requirement going forward. Changes could also come from the state legislature through the budget process. The House's budget proposal would add seven new employees to the State Board of Elections who would be exempt from the State Human Resources Act — essentially making them political appointees. Brinson Bell said this move could chip away at the agency's independence. 'You're losing the established public servant who works for the state, who works for the voters,' she said. ' And now inserting someone or individuals who — that's not who they answer to — they answer to that person who appoints them.' Hayes confirmed that he requested this change be added to the House budget, saying it would give him staffing flexibility. It isn't the only staffing change he's made. Shortly after taking office, Hayes hired Brian LiVecchi as his chief of staff — a position that had not previously existed in the agency. LiVecchi previously served as chief of staff to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. He resigned in the midst of Robinson's gubernatorial campaign after bombshell reporting from CNN tied Robinson to a series of sexually explicit and disturbing online comments. Hayes said that most other agencies have a chief of staff and that he chose LiVecchi because he has a 'wealth of experience in election law and administration that will be of great benefit to the agency.' Amid this change, an audit is likely coming. Hayes said he asked Boliek — who appointed the board's members — to conduct a performance audit of the agency. 'It will help us determine where we need to spend energy and resources in the future to ensure we are efficiently fulfilling the many duties and responsibilities of this agency and providing the best possible service to voters, candidates, and the 100 county boards of elections,' Hayes said. As for Brinson Bell, she plans to continue working on elections — though she isn't sure exactly how, yet. Her husband calls her 'the busiest unemployed person he's ever met,' she said, as she continues to connect with election directors across the country and share advice on best practices. To her successor, Brinson Bell also has one piece of advice as he assumes the role of elections director for one of the country's most consequential swing states. 'He should never forget that he is now the caretaker of democracy,' she said. 'And that's a pretty big charge.'
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
High school student airlifted to safety after rattlesnake bite on remote fishing trip
A high school student was airlifted to the hospital after being bitten by a rattlesnake while on a remote fishing trip in North Carolina. Zain Shah, 17, was hiking in the Pisgah National Forest when he was bitten by the snake about two miles from the nearest road. A North Carolina National Guard Blackhawk was dispatched to the area along with a rescue team. The rattlesnake bit him around 5 p.m. on June 5 while he was walking along Lost Cove Creek. He was later airlifted to Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, according to The News & Observer. The teenager was hiking with his friend Kevin Foley, 18. The two had planned to fish until it got dark and then camp for the evening. 'At the point where we were about to turn back, I stepped over a log and as my foot landed, I felt a prick,' he told the newspaper. 'It was painless. I looked down and see a rattlesnake sitting there. I think: 'No way that just happened.' But I rolled down my sock and see two red dots and blood coming out. I knew it was potentially deadly.' Zain Shah did not have cell service but used his friend's phone to dial 911. A dispatcher told him it would be too dangerous for him to try to walk back to his vehicle. It's believed the teen, who took a photo of the reptile, was bitten by a timber rattlesnake. The reptile can reach up to seven feet and has venom that is 'potent enough to kill a human,' according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. After the reptile bit him, Zain Shah said his body began to tingle and he developed pins and needles. At one point, he thought he was going into shock. It took two hours for rescuers to reach him. He told the outlet he did not have a strong reaction to the bite, leading medical professionals to believe it may have been a dry bite, which means either little or no venom was released. Still, bloodwork later confirmed he was still at risk of uncontrolled bleeding. Medical professionals administered 12 vials of antivenom over three days in the hospital, he told the outlet. Zain Shah, who is due to graduate from high school later this month, is grateful to the first responders and his friend for coming to his aid. 'All of them saved my life,' he said. 'I wouldn't be here without the help of so many people. I have ventured alone into the mountains before, but I'll never do that again. The buddy system only from now on, but this will not keep me from going back out there.' His father took to social media to also thank the medical team. 'What started as a fun end-of-high-school fishing trip for my son and his buddy in the western North Carolina mountains turned deadly when he was bitten by a timber rattlesnake deep in the woods,' Imran Shah wrote on Facebook. 'I'm beyond grateful for the incredible NCHART and Linville-Central Rescue teams, who got to them in the middle of nowhere and saved his life! He was air-lifted to and treated at Johnson City Medical Center, Tennessee, and is now recovering at home. We are forever in your debt.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Postal service van runs over and kills 84-year-old man who went outside to check his mail
A postal service van ran over and killed an elderly man when he went outside to check his mail, police say. James Hofler, an 84-year-old Navy veteran from North Carolina, was crossing the street to check his mailbox when he was struck by a USPS mail delivery truck, The News & Observer reported, citing a police press release. The Kill Devil Hills Police Department said Amy Hudler, 53, who was operating the 'Mercedes-Benz mail carrier vehicle owned by the United States Postal Service,' backed into Hofler. Hudler called emergency services and stayed at the scene, police said. It happened on a Monday afternoon, May 19, in Kill Devil Hills, a town on the Outer Banks. Holfer was taken to two hospitals before he died from his injuries three days later on May 22. Hudler has been charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. The Independent has reached out to the Postal Service for comment.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This NC grocery store just announced 2 new locations in the Triangle
A North Carolina-based grocer will open two new locations in the Triangle. Lowes Foods, which is headquartered in Winston-Salem, is expanding to Wendell and Fuquay-Varina. This follows the closures of multiple Lowes Foods stores as part of the grocer's parent company's 'broader growth strategy to invest in new stores and remodel existing stores.' While the grocer has not announced anticipated opening dates for the new stores, it provided their locations. Wendell: The new store will be in the Wendell Commons development at the intersection of Wendell Falls Parkway and Eagle Rock Road. Barnett Properties is the developer behind the project, which will include 90,000 square feet when complete, Alan Maness, a vice president of development, told The News & Observer in an email. The Lowes Foods is expected to open in 2026, though the schedule has not been finalized, Maness said. Fuquay-Varina: The store will be in the mixed-use Academy Village development at Old Honeycutt Road and Purfoy Road. Shelly Johnson, the director of marketing for Academy Village developer MPV Properties, told The News & Observer in an email that the Lowes Foods building is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2027, pointing to a late 2027 store opening. Academy Village will feature 85,000 square feet of commercial space, 300 apartment units and 54 townhomes, with Proffitt Dixon overseeing the residential component. Nearby grocers include Harris Teeter and Aldi. Lowes Foods has more than a dozen stores in the Triangle, across Raleigh, Garner, Cary, Knightdale, Holly Springs, Apex, Clayton, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill and Pittsboro. The Holly Springs store at 112 Bass Lake Road is being remodeled and will reopen Thursday, June 26. 'Our remodeling efforts are focused on enriching the everyday shopping experience,' Tim Lowe, the president of Lowes Foods, said in a news release. 'We want guests to feel at home in our stores and to discover something new each time they visit. Whether it's through new store openings or reimagined spaces, we are committed to offering an engaging grocery destination that reflects the spirit of each community.' The grocer also announced that the Kj's Market in John's Island, South Carolina, will be converted into a Lowes Foods. The grocer has closed multiple North Carolina locations over the past year. Its store at 8201 Rowlock Way in northwest Raleigh shut down last year, along with a Lowes Foods location in Wilmington and a Kj's Market in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Earlier this year, Lowes Foods closed its Cary store at 930 High House Road. The location at 6430 Tryon Road in Cary remains open. Have a question about your community you'd like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you'd like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you. If you have a question about the Charlotte area, send The Charlotte Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. If you have a question about Raleigh or a Triangle area community, send The News & Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. Grocery chain with big NC presence overcharged, report finds. What we know Walmart says it will raise prices due to tariffs. What NC shoppers should know
