Pitt County blanks Puerto Rico at LLSWS

The campaign committee of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein plans to ask a federal court to block enforcement of a state law looming in a probe of a TV ad aired against Stein's election rival in 2020. The state law makes it illegal to knowingly circulate false reports to damage a candidate’s election chances. Stein beat Republican Jim O'Neill that November. A Stein committee attorney filed the notice Wednesday, after a judge refused to stop a district attorney from potentially using the law to prosecute anyone over the disputed 2020 campaign ad. No one's been charged. Stein's committee argues the law is overly broad and chills political speech.

North Carolina Democrats have asked a state court to overturn an elections board vote granting the Green Party official recognition despite allegations of fraud. Democrats have been accused by the Green Party of meddling in its petitioning process to qualify candidates for the November ballot. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court, precedes the first hearing next Monday in a Green Party lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections, when the newly certified party will fight for an extension to a statutory deadline preventing its candidates from appearing on the ballot.

The remains of two children killed in the 1985 bombing of a Philadelphia home used as the headquarters of a Black radical group have been returned to their brother. Lionell Dotson told reporters Wednesday that the remains of 14-year-old Katricia and 12-year-old Zanetta Dotson will be cremated and taken to North Carolina to be buried. Dotson told WCAU-TV it was a “momentous occasion.” He said he could finally give his relatives “a resting place permanently." They were among five children killed when police bombed the MOVE organization’s headquarters and caused a fire that spread to more than 60 row homes.

The Ohio Highway State Patrol says an armed man who tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office was shot and killed by police after he fled the scene, leading to an hourlong standoff. A law enforcement official said federal investigators are examining whether the man, identified as 42-year-old Ricky Shiffer, may have had ties to far-right extremist groups, including the Proud Boys. The official said Shiffer is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and may have been present at the Capitol on the day of the attack. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Police in Las Vegas say former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch was asleep and smelled of alcohol when he was found in his damaged sports car this week and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Lynch’s attorneys responded Thursday with a statement saying Lynch was in a parked car, not driving, and a DUI charge won't stick. The arresting officer says police found markings suggesting Lynch’s black Shelby GT500 hit sidewalks before stopping in an industrial part of downtown Las Vegas. The 7:30 a.m. Tuesday arrest came after the Seattle Seahawks announced Monday that Lynch had been hired as a team broadcast special correspondent. In 12 NFL seasons, Lynch also played for the Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders.

U.S. gas prices have dipped under $4 a gallon for the first time in more than five months. AAA says the national average is $3.99 for a gallon of regular. That's down 15 cents in just the last week, and 68 cents in the last month. Gasoline peaked at around $5.02 a gallon on June 14. Motorists in California and Hawaii are still paying above $5, and other states in the West are paying close to that. The cheapest gas is in Texas and several other states in the South and Midwest. The decline reflects falling prices for crude oil, which have dipped close to $90 a barrel from over $120 a barrel in June.

New Mexico prosecutors are amassing evidence they hope will convince a judge that the Afghan refugee suspected of killing four Muslim men should remain jailed pending his trial. Muhammad Syed is due in court Monday and a state judge will decide if he's enough of a danger to the community to deny him bond. Syed is charged with two killings and authorities say he the primary suspect in the other two. He has denied the allegations. Muslim community leaders say they're working with law enforcement to push for Syed's continued detention. They cite previous accusations of domestic violence against him and a 2020 tire slashing incident outside the local mosque.

The nation’s top public health agency is relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines and dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said Thursday that people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others. The changes come more than 2 1/2 years after the start of the pandemic. They are driven by a recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected.

Authorities are working to determine the cause of a house explosion in a southern Indiana neighborhood that killed three people and left another person hospitalized. The explosion Wednesday afternoon in Evansville damaged 39 homes. Fire Chief Mike Connelly told reporters that crews completed a secondary search Thursday morning of buildings that had been left unstable by the explosion and no more victims were found. He says 11 of the damaged homes were uninhabitable and finding a cause is expected to be a “very tedious" and lengthy process. Connelly says injuries to the fourth victim weren’t considered life-threatening. Evansville is located along Indiana’s border with Kentucky and the blast left debris strewn over a 100-foot radius.