There’s nothing little about the production behind the Little League Softball World Series. One could even venture to call it a big hit for Greenville, according to local economic, league and city leaders.
Fans waved and cheered at Friday’s sendoff for the Pitt County Girls Softball League’s All-Star team as members boarded a bus to set out on their journey to the Little League Softball World Series, a trip that was expected to take no more than 15 minutes, depending on traffic.
Eleven girls from Pitt County plus one from Beaufort County will carry the home team banner during the Little League Softball World Series, starting its second year in Greenville on Tuesday. The Pitt County Girls Softball League All-Stars, playing under the North Carolina moniker, will be am…
FARMVILLE — A summer camp that served underprivileged children since 2014 ceased operations recently with a final leadership program and hope that someone new will pick up the torch.
The Pitt County Board of Commissioners on Monday will consider an agreement that will allow the City of Greenville to house all of its stray dogs and cats at the animal shelter on County Home Road.
ELIZABETH CITY — Gov. Roy Cooper told the N.C. Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies that projects off the state’s coast will put money in the pockets of North Carolinians.
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added a stunning 528,000 jobs last month despite raging inflation and anxiety about a possible recession, restoring all of the positions lost in the coronavirus recession. Unemployment fell to 3.5%, the lowest level since the pandemic struck in early 2020.
East Carolina University’s College of Allied Health Sciences is set to offer a doctoral degree program in occupational therapy — the first at any public university in the state.
WINTERVILLE — A program created last year to spur North Carolina’s economic recovery from the pandemic has been extended to give the state’s 2022 high school graduates a chance to attend Pitt Community College tuition-free.
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It took a mere two years for the Pitt County Girls Softball League to infiltrate and rise up the Little League ranks and rocket straight into the World Series.
Pitt County Girls Softball League head coach Gentry Coward has had to juggle a handful of responsibilities over the past several weeks as he prepares his team for the Little League World Series.
The Little League Softball World Series gets under way Tuesday, as 12 teams will begin play in the double-elimination bracket.
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The East Carolina football team was riding a wave of excitement and confidence when it opened preseason camp on Wednesday. Optimism can often be found at the start of a season and alarm bells would sound if Wednesday sunk into a glum affair.
The Greenville Babe Ruth 15U baseball team continued its summer-long run with by claiming the title on Sunday at the Southeast Regional played in Williamsburg, Va.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in order to battle inflation, even as the economy has begun to slow. This follows a quarter-point move in March, another half a point in May, and three-quarters of a point in June. The Fed also signaled in its …
As a Greenville resident with 37 years at my current address four streets from downtown, I am very concerned about the potential revocation of the “500-foot rule” for bar locations.
BYH, I didn’t even have Monkey Pox on my apocalypse bingo card. The modern day is an argument for celibacy or monogamy. The days of free love of the 1960s and ‘70s is over. Look for the sex robot industry to boom in the future. Follow me for more stock tips.
You have probably heard about the sideshow put on by Alabama prison officials just before a scheduled execution late last month: A female reporter was hounded and humiliated over her skirt and her shoes. But you may have heard less about the main event, the execution, which was carried out d…
For many people, reaching a certain age causes them to think more about their past life. For me, that age was 70. Since attaining that milestone, I find myself thinking more about my seven decades, particularly the early ones.
Eighty-three is a pretty impressive number. That’s the percentage of Americans who favor empowering the federal government to negotiate prices with drugmakers. Even 7 of 10 Republicans agree, according to polling from KFF, a respected source of health news and statistics.
Against a backdrop of soaring ornate wood and pipes, each member of the recorder group raises an instrument to her lips.
The North Carolina Literary Review, produced at East Carolina University, begins its fourth decade in print featuring “Writers Who Teach, Teachers Who Write.”
What North Carolina cookbook has sold the most copies?
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I could easily imagine myself in this new Brad Pitt movie called “Bullet Train.” I’ve ridden the Shinkansen, the high-speed railway from Kyoto to Tokyo that’s featured in the movie. It was quite a trip, clipping along at close to 200 mph.
State AP Stories
CARRBORO, N.C. (AP) — Nora El-Khouri Spencer sometimes tells people that she started her nonprofit Hope Renovations because she got mad.
KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — A natural hair school will be opening in Kings Mountain and is the first of its kind in Cleveland County.
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.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is pushing back against Republican General Assembly leaders’ allegations that he neglected his duty to defend state law by refusing to seek enforcement of a blocked 20-week abortion ban after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Attorneys for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore filed a brief last week asking U.S. District Judge William Osteen to lift an injunction on a 1973 state law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Stein, an abortion rights supporter, says he will continue to recuse himself from the case, drawing criticisms from Republicans who say he is refusing to do his job.
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.
A top official says the Justice Department has charged five people for making threats of violence against election workers amid a rising wave of harassment and intimidation tied to the 2020 presidential election. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite tells a Senate committee that one charge has led to a conviction so far through a task force launched last year as reports of threats to election officials, workers and volunteers raised concerns about safety and the security of future elections. threatening messages directed at election workers since launching a task force a year ago. Overall, the department has investigated more than 1,000 harassing and threatening messages directed at election workers.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that Gov. Roy Cooper’s secretary of health and human services is not immune from a lawsuit over the administration’s restrictions on large gatherings in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services temporarily shut down Ace Speedway in June 2020 after it repeatedly defied Cooper’s executive order limiting outdoor crowds to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The racetrack filed counterclaims that August, alleging the department unlawfully singled out the business and violated its employees’ constitutional right to earn a living. The court unanimously voted Tuesday to uphold a January 2021 trial court ruling denying a DHHS motion to dismiss Ace Speedway’s claims.
Officials say a single-engine plane made an emergency landing on a North Carolina highway, but no injuries were reported. News outlets report that the Washington County Sheriff’s Office says the plane had a problem and landed on Highway 64 west of Creswell on Monday. Lt. Charles Arnold says the pilot heading from Dare County to Plymouth experienced a loss of power and when he set the Piper Turbo Arrow down without landing gear, it skidded across the highway. Arnold says the pilot was, “The calmest I’ve ever seen,” after such an emergency. The Federal Aviation Administration was called in to investigate.
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National & World AP Stories
Cuban firefighters have been joined by special teams sent by Mexico and Venezuela as they battle for a second day to control a fire blazing at a big oil tank farm. Authorities say one firefighter is dead and others are missing since lightning struck a storage tank Friday night, setting off a fire that spread to a second tank early Saturday and triggered a series of explosions. A total of 122 people have been treated for injuries, including five in critical condition. The Matanzas province governor said Sunday that 4,946 people have been evacuated, mostly from the Dubrocq neighborhood, which is next to the oil storage facility.
Democratic hopefuls in Wisconsin see abortion as the issue that will carry them to election wins in November, but efforts to reach Black voters on the topic are sparse. Several organizing groups said it's a complicated issue in the Black community, with a legacy of views long handed down from the more prominent and conservative denominations in the Black church. Polling data shows that abortion is a slightly more potent issue for white voters in the Democratic coalition than for Black voters. Most of the groups organizing in the Milwaukee area, a critical area for Democrats to win statewide races, are steering away from messaging solely on the issue.
While millions across Europe sweat through a summer of record-breaking heat, other people are skiing in Africa. This isn’t another sign of climate change but rather the fascinating anomaly of Lesotho. Lesotho is a tiny mountain kingdom completely surrounded by South Africa. It's the only country on Earth where every inch of its territory sits more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level. That gives Lesotho snow and led to the creation of Afriski in the Maluti Mountains, which is Africa’s only operating ski resort south of the equator. It draws people from neighboring South Africa and further afield by offering the unique experience of skiing in southern Africa.
Colombia’s first leftist President will be sworn into office on Sunday, in a colorful ceremony that marks a turning point in the South American nation’s history. Sen. Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the nation’s market friendly economy, but were unable to connect with voters frustrated with growing rates of poverty and increasing violence against activists. Petro now joins a cadre of left wing politicians and political outsiders who have been winning elections in Latin America since the pandemic broke out and hurt incumbents who struggled with its economic aftershocks.
Israel says it killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in an airstrike on an apartment building in a crowded Gaza refugee camp. It was the second such targeted attack since Israel launched its high-stakes military offensive against the militant group just before the weekend. The Iran-backed militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, and the risk of the cross-border fighting turning into a full-fledged war remained high. Gaza’s ruling Hamas group, which fought an 11-day war with Israel in May 2021, seemed to stay on the sidelines for now. It appears Hamas fears Israeli reprisals and the undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control.
U.S. demand for grocery delivery is cooling as food prices rise. Some shoppers are shifting to less expensive grocery pickup, while others are returning to the store. Experts say grocery delivery saw five years of growth in the first three months of the pandemic. In June 2020, grocery delivery was a $3.4 billion business. But by June 2022, that had fallen 26%. Consulting firm Chase Design says it's hard to get the delivery premium below $10 because of fuel and labor costs. That premium is tough for some consumers to swallow when food cost inflation is at a four-decade high.
Four more ships carrying agricultural cargo held up by the war in Ukraine have received authorization to leave the country’s Black Sea ports. The body that oversees an international deal intended to get 20 million tons of grain out of Ukraine to feed people around the world said the loaded vessels were cleared to depart on Sunday. Meanwhile analysts warn that Russia is moving troops and equipment in the direction of the ports to stave off a Ukrainian counteroffensive. A large nuclear power plant in Ukraine's southeast came under fire on Saturday night. Both sides accused each other of the attack.
The prosecutor seeking to sentence Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz to death let the facts speak for themselves as he presented his case over the last three weeks. Former Broward County state attorney Mike Satz told the story of the 2018 massacre of 17 people by using terrifying accounts from witnesses. There were heartrending statements from families. There were chilling surveillance videos and gruesome photos. As a capstone, there was Thursday’s jury walk-through of the building where it happened. Bloodstains and Valentine’s Day cards still clinging to the floors. He then rested his case. The trial will determine if Cruz is sentenced to death or life in prison. The defense case starts in Aug. 22.
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