Magnolia branches out with Shakespeare comedy ‘The Taming of the Shrew'

North Carolina’s Supreme Court opened the door Friday to nullifying a voter ID mandate approved by citizens in 2018. The court's 4-3 majority said lawmakers who put it on the ballot were elected from districts tainted by illegal racial bias. But since nullifying a voter approved amendment is a serious move, it wants a trial judge to gather more evidence first. It's a victory for the state NAACP, which said it shows that “rigging elections by trampling on the rights of Black voters has consequences.” Republican state House Speaker Tim Moore calls it “blatant judicial activism.”

Bank of America says the revenue it gets from overdrafts has dropped 90% from a year ago, after the bank reduced overdraft fees to $10 from $35 and eliminated fees for bounced checks. The nation’s largest banks are moving away from the practice of charging exorbitant fees on what are mostly small-dollar purchases after years of public pressure. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told The Associated Press that he expects whatever residual income the bank earns from overdraft fees will come from small businesses using overdraft fees as a convenience.  .

Texas has executed a man who fatally stabbed a suburban Dallas real estate agent more than 16 years ago. Kosoul Chanthakoummane was given a lethal injection Wednesday at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for fatally stabbing 40-year-old Sarah Walker in July 2006. She was found stabbed more than 30 times in a model home in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas. Prosecutors say the 41-year-old beat and stabbed Walker before stealing her Rolex watch and a silver ring. The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to delay Chanthakoummane’s execution over claims by his attorneys that challenged the DNA evidence in his case. Chanthakoummane was the second inmate executed in Texas in 2022.

A federal judge has ruled that abortions are no longer legal after 20 weeks of pregnancy in North Carolina. U.S. District Judge William Osteen reinstated the abortion ban Wednesday after he said the June U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade erased the legal foundation for his 2019 ruling that placed an injunction on the 1973 state law. The ruling erodes protections in one of the South’s few remaining safe havens for reproductive freedom. His decision defies the recommendations of all named parties in the 2019 case, including doctors, district attorneys and the attorney general’s office, who earlier this week filed briefs requesting he let the injunction stand.

A woman who says she was sexually abused hundreds of times by R. Kelly before she turned 18 has testified that she agonized several years ago about whether to cooperate with federal investigators who were looking into child abuse allegations involving the singer. The woman, who is now 37 and going by the pseudonym “Jane” at Kelly's Chicago trial, told the court Friday that she ultimately did cooperate with the investigation because she didn't want to “carry his lies.” During cross-examination, she conceded that she lied at one point when she told federal agents that she wasn’t sure if Kelly had abused minors other than her. She said she lied because she didn’t want to get others in trouble.

Kobe Bryant's widow Vanessa testified she was only beginning to grieve the loss of her husband and their 13-year-old daughter in a helicopter crash when she was faced with the fresh horror of learning that deputies and firefighters had shared photos of their remains. Bryant cried frequently during the three hours she spent on the witness stand in Los Angeles federal court Friday. She's suing LA County for invasion-of-privacy over the photos. She testified that they have left her living in fear that they may surface publicly and her daughters may see them on social media.

Technology stocks led Wall Street lower, leaving major indexes in the red for the week. The benchmark S&P 500 index gave back 1.3% Friday, breaking a four-week winning streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell even more. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell. Meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond plunged after the high-profile activist investor Ryan Cohen confirmed that he’s sold his stake in the struggling retailer. General Motors rose after reinstating its dividend, and Foot Locker soared after replacing its CEO and reporting better-than-expected earnings. Treasury yields rose.

Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion. In a memo sent to employees on Friday, the company said its health care plans will now cover abortion for employees “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability.” In Arkansas, where Walmart is based, abortion is banned under all circumstances unless the procedure is needed to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Several boats, buildings and vessels were destroyed by a large fire at a Massachusetts boatyard. Aerial video taken by WCVB-TV on Friday showed several boats and vehicles at the boatyard in Mattapoisett either burned out shells or being consumed by flames. People who picked up the phones at the Mattapoisett fire and police departments said no one was available to comment. It was unclear if anyone was hurt. The area of the fire was part of a National Weather Service warning Friday of elevated fire risk due to drought and high winds. It sent a plume of dense black smoke over southeastern Massachusetts.