GREENVILLE
ECU Health on Friday announced that it will no longer require healthy patients, visitors and team members to wear masks at its facilities, including ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville
Evidence results from the state crime lab have implicated a man in a rape almost two years after the initial incident occurred, Pitt County authorities report.
The weekly Uptown Greenville Umbrella Market is canceled this year, but a Dickinson Avenue business plans to partially fill the gap starting April 20.
Good grief! It’s been seven years since the last theatrical production at Pitt Community College, but students will take another crack at it this weekend as members of the Peanuts Gang in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
High school robotics teams from across the state will converge on East Carolina University this weekend for the North Carolina FIRST Robotics Competition State Championship.
The Leroy James Farmers Market is continuing its Double Bucks program thanks to a $2,000 donation from WellCare of North Carolina.
NEW YORK — The indictment of Donald Trump by a Manhattan grand jury brought swift reaction by defenders from North Carolina in the U.S. Congress.
‘Singin’ in the Rain’: Christ Covenant School will present “Singn’ in the Rain Jr.” at 6:30 p.m. today and 1:30 and 4 p.m. Saturday at Ignite Church, 4150 Bayswater Road, Winterville. Tickets are $11.50 for adults, $6.50 for ages 5 to 18 and free to ages 4 and younger. Visit christcs.com.
North Carolina General Assembly chamber leaders are divided on the whether to ban abortion at fetal heartbeat detection or after the first trimester with limited exceptions,
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The J.H. Rose boys’ tennis team kept its spring rolling earlier this week with a doubleheader sweep of Northside-Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon.
Winterville’s Will Guidry captured first place in the Archdale-Trinity Chamber of Commerce Junior Open held at the Holly Ridge Golf Links in Archdale on March 4- 5.
Daylinh Nguyen-Brown is a senior on the South Central High School baseball team, and he leads the Falcons at the plate and on the mound.
East Carolina’s director of track & field Curt Kraft likens his sport to football in the sense that the teams only have one chance per week to perform. So you better make it count.
Rahjai Harris has been running again.
East Carolina has been living for the weekend.
Right after a 28-year-old shot six people to death at a small Christian school, Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, emoted on camera. “Three precious little kids lost their lives,” he said with sad resignation, “and I believe three adults.”
China’s Xi Jinping traveled to Moscow this week to commune with Vladimir Putin, cementing the new axis against the U.S. Compare that scene to President Biden’s proposed fiscal 2024 defense budget, which isn’t serious about matching American military power to growing threats.
Liberals have been outraged, and rightly so, over the war on free speech and thought launched by right-wing activists. As I wrote recently, “a nationwide movement is gathering steam to ban books” featuring characters that are not straight white male Christians.
Former President Donald Trump does not usually play the national anthem when he appears at rallies around the country. Trump enters the arena to the strains of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” He walks around the stage, soaking up his fans’ enthusiasm and support, and begins his remarks …
To hear her tell it, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is among the world’s biggest Christians, although her definition might differ from yours or mine. Also, a world-class “mom,” to use the word she employs almost as frequently to describe herself.
If you look at photos along North Carolina’s 330 miles of coasts, you’ll see that rising tides, coupled with beach erosion are destroying once beautiful waterfront properties, causing them to crumble or be uninhabitable.
I won’t lie: This chili takes three hours to make. Now, before you roll your eyes, just hear me out. When you make this rich and meaty black bean stew, you will be rewarded with a comforting, deeply flavored chili, tinged with smoke and fragrant with spice.
Q How long does COVID-19 last? I got sick with it, and it was like a bad flu, but I didn’t need to see a doctor. It’s been more than a month since I tested negative, but I still don’t feel well. I tire easily, and I just don’t feel right. Do you think this is long COVID? Should I go see my d…
Starting my column with a COVID tip may end soon as COVID emergency orders expire. If you have taken positive steps to eat healthy, keep it up. Your immune system will thank you.
Four young women will compete for the title of Miss Grifton next week ahead of the annual Grifton Shad Festival.
Don’t worry about kids falling out of this tree. It’s terrible for a tree house, or just for climbing, and for pretty obvious reasons.
My husband, Peter, and I are staying in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which is, according to a lot of folks, a tourist town. Sometimes the person saying this means it is not a place they would want to spend time.
State AP Stories
STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — As Len Strozier of Omega Mapping Services makes his way through the Green Street Cemetery to map it out in a ground-penetrating radar survey, the orange flags he places where there aren’t just signs of where someone is buried. He says it’s much more than that.
The military says the service members who died in a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crash ranged in age from 23 to 36 and were from seven states. A military news release Friday says the service members came from Florida, Texas, Missouri, California, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. Two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed near Fort Campbell on Wednesday night during a medical evacuation training exercise, killing all nine soldiers aboard the two aircrafts. The crash occurred in Trigg County, Kentucky, about 30 miles northwest of the Army post that is home to the 101st Airborne Division.
Donald Trump is the first former president ever to be indicted, but he’s not the first politician who will have a mug shot taken. Lawmakers arrested on past criminal charges have taken different approaches to their mug shots. While some are somber, others see them as an opportunity to rally supporters who believe the cases against them are politically motivated. New York law discourages the release of mug shots in most cases, though they have leaked in the past. Less clear is whether Trump would seek to have the picture released himself, for political or other reasons.
California and three other states are joining a federal lawsuit against JetBlue over its proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit Airlines. New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina also joined the case on Friday. The Biden administration argues that the deal will reduce competition and drive up prices by eliminating Spirit, which is known for low fares. The original lawsuit against JetBlue was filed in early March by the U.S. Justice Department, Massachusetts, New York and the District of Columbia. A federal judge has scheduled a trial to begin Oct. 16 in Boston.
North Carolina state government budgets usually include policy or spending directives that give any sitting governor heartburn, and this year will be no exception. But those provisions will take on new importance given a budget must be passed for the coming year before Medicaid expansion in a law signed this week by Gov. Roy Cooper can be carried out. A House budget proposal debated Thursday contains provisions restricting the Democratic governor or his administration on environmmental policy, oversight of the State Bureau of Investigation and election administration. The competing Senate budget likely will have additional provisions that will give Cooper pause.
Carl Lentz, the ousted pastor of Hillsong New York City, has landed on staff at Transformation Church. It is a predominantly Black, nondenominational megachurch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that is led by pastor, author and popular YouTuber Michael Todd. Transformation is a juggernaut in a town replete with megachurches. The church has confirmed that Lentz, who was fired from Hillsong in 2020 when an extramarital affair came to light, has joined its staff. Lentz, 44, was once labeled a “hypepriest” by GQ Magazine for his fashionable attire and ministry to NBA players and celebrities such as Justin Bieber. He has been mostly silent since his firing.
A funeral will be held this weekend for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Galifianakis, who represented central North Carolina for several years before two unsuccessful Senate bids. An obituary from a funeral home said Galifianakis died on Monday at age 94. A family spokesman told a newspaper that Galifianakis died at a Raleigh retirement community. He served in the General Assembly and in Congress for over a decade. He unseated the Democratic incumbent in the 1972 Democratic primary but lost to archconservative Jesse Helms in the general election. Galifianakis also lost in the 1974 U.S. Senate primary to then-Attorney General Robert Morgan.
Mississippi's Republican-led Senate has voted against confirming longtime educator Robert P. Taylor as state superintendent of education, angering some lawmakers. Some Black Democrats say they believe the rejection Wednesday was at least partly because Taylor is Black and because he wrote years ago about Mississippi's racist history. Taylor graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1990. His comments about race came in a 2020 article on the university's Center for Black Studies website. The state education board had announced Taylor as their unanimous choice for superintendent. Taylor told The Associated Press he's disappointed but respects the process. He said senators in the past have confirmed all previous nominees for state superintendent.
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National & World AP Stories
A monster storm system has torn through the South and Midwest, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas and collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois. At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area during Friday’s storm. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris. Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28.
Caitlin Clark had another sensational game with 41 points to help Iowa spoil South Carolina’s perfect season with a 77-73 victory in the Final Four. The spectacular junior guard set a record for the highest-scoring semifinal game and became the first women’s player to post back-to-back 40-point games in the NCAA Tournament. She now has the Hawkeyes in a spot they’ve never been in before — one victory away from a national championship. They’ll have to beat another SEC team to do that as Iowa will face LSU in the title game on Sunday afternoon after the Tigers beat Virginia Tech in the other national semifinal. The loss ended a tremendous season for the defending champion Gamecocks. They finished 36-1.
LSU is going to the women's national championship game for the first time. Alexis Morris scored 27 points, Angel Reese had 24 and the Tigers beat top-seeded Virginia Tech 79-72 in a national semifinal game. The Tigers are in their second season since coach Kim Mulkey returned to her home state to take over an LSU program that once lost five consecutive national semifinal games. LSU will play Sunday against the winner of the South Carolina-Iowa semifinal. Elizabeth Kitley had 18 points for Virginia Tech, the ACC champion that was in the Final Four for the first time.
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — More than 60 self-exiled members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained in Thailand paid fines for overstaying their visas but remained in police custody Saturday uncertain about their legal status amid fears they would be deported against their will to thei…
As Taiwan’s diplomatic partners dwindle and turn instead to rival China, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is aiming to shore up ties with the self-governing island’s remaining allies during a trip this week to Central America. China has meanwhile been funneling money into Latin America as it pressures countries in the region to break off relations with Taiwan. In Guatemala and Belize, Tsai is expected to bring an open checkbook. But in a region under growing Chinese influence, analysts say Taiwan may already have lost the game. June Teufel Dreyer is a political scientist at University of Miami. She says Taiwan won't likely be able to compete with China's checkbook diplomacy over the long term.
The head of the U.N. World Food Program is warning that without billions of dollars more to feed millions of hungry people, the world will see mass migration, destabilized countries, and starving children and adults in the next 12 to 18 months. David Beasley praised increased funding from the United States and Germany last year, and urged China, Gulf nations, billionaires and other countries “to step up big time.” He said in an interview before handing the reins of the world’s largest humanitarian organization to U.S. ambassador Cindy McCain next week that he’s “extremely worried” that WFP won’t raise about $23 billion it needs this year to help an estimated 350 million people in 49 countries who desperately need food,
Thousands of people rallied across the country as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility in support of the rights of transgender people and their resilience amid what many denounced as an increasingly hostile environment. Supporters of converged Friday on statehouses nationwide, in Washington, D.C., and were planned at venues as far away as Mexico City and the Portuguese capital of Lisbon to mark a day of international unity first proclaimed more than a decade ago. The rallies come as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued hundreds of proposals this year to push back on rights, including banning transgender girls from girls’ sports and restricting gender-affirming care for minors.
Horse racing’s new anti-doping program was dealt a blow Friday when a judge in Texas ordered the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to stop enforcing its rules involving medications and illegal drugs until May 1.
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