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The Greenville Evening Rotary recently installed Bob Shaw as it new president with a ceremonial passing of the gavel on March 6.

Local Events

Democrats, you gave the nation in 2020 the most inept and incompetent administration in history. I can’t think of a policy worth its salt you have initiated in the past two years with the exception of spend, spend and more spend as the nation teeters toward being unable to handle its debt pa…

Let’s be grateful that Ron DeSantis devotes so much of his time raging over drag queens and bragging how he punished Disney for disagreeing with him. An obsessive pursuit of “woke” has kept the Florida governor and apparent presidential candidate from mucking around serious matters. But, sad…

North Carolina elected leaders have enacted several ineffective and misleading laws over the years, but when it comes to undermining public confidence in government and taking advantage of vulnerable people, the badly misnamed “education lottery” has to be near the bottom of any “worst of” list.

State AP Stories

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Wyoming has pushed to the front of efforts to prohibit the most common type of abortion with the nation's first explicit ban on abortion pills. In many states women can now get abortion pills prescribed online and delivered to be taken at home. Increased availability has helped pill abortions now account for more than half of abortions in the U.S. Yet while many states effectively ban abortion pills by prohibiting abortion, none had taken direct aim at abortion laws before Wyoming. The bill passed alongside a new, sweeping abortion ban and observers say both measures are likely to be challenged in court.

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Four people associated with the Oath Keepers were convicted on Monday of conspiracy and obstruction charges stemming from the attack on the U.S. Capitol in the latest trial involving members of the far-right antigovernment extremist group. A Washington D.C. jury found Sandra Parker, of Morrow, Ohio, Laura Steele, of Thomasville, North Carolina, William Isaacs, of Kissimmee, Florida, and Connie Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida, guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and other felony charges. In a rare loss for prosecutors, Sandra Parker’s husband, Bennie Parker, was acquitted of obstruction as well as one conspiracy charge. A sixth defendant — Michael Greene, of Indianapolis — was also acquitted of two conspiracy charges.

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Federal prosecutors have rested their seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election. Jurors will still hear testimony by defense witnesses before they begin deliberating. Before prosecutors rested Monday, the jury heard over 30 days of testimony by more than 20 prosecution witnesses. A defense attorney told jurors Monday the Proud Boys did not travel to Washington to “cause a riot.” The case against the far-right extremist group’s leaders is among the most serious generated by the Justice Department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

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Increased punishments for rioting in North Carolina will become law as Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper says he won't veto a measure containing them. Cooper on Friday announced he would let the bill become law without his signature. The governor successfully vetoed a similar bill in 2021. But now Republicans have padded their House and Senate majorities and a half-dozen House Democrats voted for this year's measure. That raised prospects of a successful override. Republicans have advanced the bills following the 2020 demonstrations about racial injustice that at times turned violent. Cooper says changes had been made to this year's bill but he still had First Amendment concerns.

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A retired Air Force officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol dressed in combat gear and carried zip-tie handcuffs into the Senate gallery has been sentenced to two years in prison. U.S. District Judge John Bates also sentenced Larry Brock on Friday to two years of supervised release after prison and 100 hours of community service. Brock declined to speak in court before the judge imposed his sentence. Brock joined other rioters on the Senate floor only minutes after then-Vice President Mike Pence, senators and their staff evacuated the chamber to escape the mob attacking the building on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Texas and Florida are being led by tough-talking Republican governors weighing presidential runs as their state lawmakers debate especially strict legislation on border security. Republican proposals in the Texas Legislature build on Gov. Greg Abbott’s $4 billion border project Operation Lone Star that includes increased patrols near the border. His aides have confirmed he's considering a presidential run. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is considered the strongest possible GOP competitor so far to Donald Trump in his new presidential bid. DeSantis has proposed increasing penalties for human smuggling. Hospitals would be required to collect data on patients’ immigration status and people in the U.S. illegally would be denied state ID cards

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Eleven of the biggest banks in the country have announced a $30 billion rescue package for First Republic Bank. It's an effort to stop the California-based bank from becoming the third to fail in less than a week. Shares of First Republic had fallen sharply this week, dropping 60% on Monday alone. For the package, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo would each put $5 billion in uninsured deposits into First Republic. Meanwhile Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs would deposit $2.5 billion each. The remaining $5 billion would come from five other banks.

National & World AP Stories

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida began a surprise visit to Ukraine early Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia for a three-day visit. The dueling summits come as the longtime rivals are on diplomatic offensives. Kishida will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital. He will “show respect to the courage and patience of the Ukrainian people who are standing up to defend their homeland under President Zelenskyy’s leadership, and show solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine as head of Japan and chairman of G-7,” during his visit to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in announcing his trip to Kyiv.

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Health experts proposed detailed plans for a gradual end to anti-virus controls, but the Chinese government rebuffed them and dropped restrictions in December with no preparations to cope with the chaotic aftermath, The Associated Press has found. Over a year ago, scientists called on authorities to begin preparations for reopening. But Beijing took none of the steps experts said were needed before dropping controls. Millions of older people weren’t vaccinated, and hospitals weren’t reinforced for a possible surge in cases. Experts and scientific models estimate China’s lack of preparation led to hundreds of thousands of deaths that could have been avoided.

Asian stock markets are higher ahead of a Federal Reserve decision on another possible interest rate hike amid worries about global banks. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul advanced. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. Oil prices declined. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose after U.S., European and Japanese central banks announced measures to ease strains on the financial system. The collapse of two U.S. banks and the takeover of troubled Credit Suisse raised fears other lenders might crack under the strain of repeated rate hikes to cool economic activity and inflation that is near multi-decade highs.

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A firebrand Israeli minister claimed there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian people as Israel's new coalition government, its most hard-line ever, plowed ahead on Monday with a part of its plan to overhaul the judiciary.

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A Florida jury has convicted three men of first-degree murder in the 2018 killing of star rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot during a robbery that netted $50,000. The jury deliberated a little more than seven days before finding 28-year-old Michael Boatwright, 26-year-old Dedrick Williams and 24-year-old Trayvon Newsome guilty on Monday. The jury also convicted them of armed robbery. They will receive mandatory life sentences on April 6. Prosecutors tied them to the slaying through extensive surveillance video from a motorcycle shop and cellphone videos the men took of them flashing fistfuls of $100 bills hours after the killing.

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Garbage. Heaps, mounds and piles of it are growing daily and in some places standing as high as a human being. A two-week strike by Paris garbage collectors is taking a toll on the renowned aesthetics of the French capital, a veritable blight on the City of Light. One strike-hardened resident says he prefers “Chanel to the stink.” There's broad opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's decision to raise the retirement by from 62 to 64.  And in the neighborhoods of the City of Light, garbage looms everywhere and in some cases has choked off narrow streets. Protesters say there's more to come.

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Actress Gwyneth Paltrow goes on trial starting Tuesday in the Utah ski town of Park City where she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation, leaving him with brain damage and four broken ribs. The retired optometrist suing the actress-turned-lifestyle influencer has accused her of skiing out of control at Deer Valley Resort. Paltrow has countered that he was actually the culprit in the collision, is overstating his injuries, and trying to exploit her celebrity and wealth. The trial is slated to last longer than a week.