Friday, December 6, 2024

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2024

Good morning! On this day in 1941, more than 13,000 people watched the launch of the SS Zebulon B. Vance into the Cape Fear River. Wilmington’s first liberty ship for the Allied war effort was named after North Carolina politician Zebulon Baird Vance.

Exactly what is a Liberty ship? Test your knowledge in Trivia, and don’t miss Et Cetera, where you can see a fox playfully prancing in the snow.

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Today, we’re sponsored by New Sapience, offering an opportunity to invest in AI technology.

Trump Taps 2 NC Picks

President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Daniel P. Driscoll of Boone, a retired U.S. Army Major General and Ranger School graduate, as the next Army Secretary.

Driscoll previously served as deputy commander of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, and as the commanding general of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 108th Training Command in Charlotte.

A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and Yale Law School, Driscoll most recently served as a senior advisor to Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Trump also asked former NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley to continue leading the RNC, commending him on an “unprecedented” operation that helped secure Trump’s victory in every battleground state.

Belichick Interviewed for UNC Football Coach

Six-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick has interviewed for UNC’s head coach vacancy, according to a report from Inside Carolina.

Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall and Georgia Defensive Coordinator Glenn Schumann, among others, are also being considered for the job, which opened up after Mack Brown was fired Nov. 26.

The News and Observer’s Andrew Carter reported that Belichick’s interest in the position is “high and genuine,” and that “he blew them away in the interview.”

Carter posted on X, however, that the hire is “extremely unlikely to happen due to his age (72) and lack of college experience.”

Belichick coached the New England Patriots for 24 seasons before the two sides agreed to part ways last January.

FEMA Apologizes for Failed Home Deliveries

A FEMA spokesperson apologized Wednesday for delivering only 46 of 103 temporary or portable trailer homes it had promised would arrive by the end of Thanksgiving week for families displaced by Hurricane Helene.

More than 500 families impacted by Helene have been approved for a FEMA travel trailer or manufactured home.

At least a thousand people in hard-hit Buncombe County are still living in hotels.

The North Carolina state government is also offering FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to qualifying displaced families, through which applicants allow the state to buy their dwelling at its fair market value the day before Helene hit. Then, the house is demolished and turned into green space on which nothing can be built so it can conform to the existing floodplain.

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➤ Chimney Rock will open for one day only Saturday, Dec. 14, so visitors can support its businesses and see the progress it’s made since Hurricane Helene hit. (More)

➤ Greensboro: North Carolina A&T State University, the state’s only public institution offering an AI bachelor’s degree, joined a $25 million national Google initiative to teach AI basics to K-12 students. (See Details)

➤ Dare County: A Board of Commissioners member called for a ban on products like kratom, phenibut, and tianeptine—which some people refer to as “grocery store heroin.” (More)

➤ Wake County: Heating failures cut classes short for at least eight schools this week due to staffing issues and the district’s reported need for $200 million to repair heating and cooling systems. (More)

➤ Raleigh: The City Club Raleigh, which opened in 1979, will permanently close at the end of the year due to “current circumstances” in the “post-Covid era.” (More)

➤ Garner resident Nathan Jackson was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of Alex Shirly and attempted murder of Shirly’s friend, Sophie Hagy. Shirly was the son of Ronnie Shirley, Jr., star of the TV show Lizard Lick Towing. (More)

➤ Early National Signing Day: Duke put together the best football recruiting class among North Carolina ACC teams, bringing in 27 commitments—good for the 35th-ranked class in the nation. N.C. State wasn’t far behind with 20 commitments and the 39th-ranked class nationally. Wake Forest and UNC both failed to officially sign any recruits rated higher than three stars, ranking toward the bottom of the ACC and Power Conference schools as a whole. (More)

➤ Carolina Panthers wide receiver Adam Theilen was named the Panthers 2024 Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee Thursday. (More)

➤ Three Carolina Hurricanes players will participate in the 4 Nations Face-Off beginning Feb. 12. (More)

➤ Yesterday’s results: NFL | NBA | NHL | NCAAM | NCAAW | PGA

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➤ The Town of Carrboro is suing Duke Energy for orchestrating what it describes as a decades-long campaign of covering up the dangers of fossil fuel emissions and stalling the transition to clean energy. (More)

➤ Avelo Airlines announced the addition of five new routes from Charlotte’s Concord-Padgett Regional Airport and Wilmington International Airport, as well as two international routes at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. (See Details)

➤ FedEx will close a shipping center in Raleigh, resulting in 218 layoffs, and another shipping center in Durham, resulting in 123 employee layoffs. (See Details)

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➤ A Mooresville resident captured a video of a fox playfully prancing in the snow Tuesday morning. (Watch Video)

➤ North Carolina is the No. 6 worst-driving state in America based on “tens of millions” of insurance inquiries between November 2023 and November 2024. (See Rankings)

➤ North Carolina’s only American Girl store, located in Charlotte’s SouthPark Mall, will close Feb. 17. The 12,000-square-foot store opened in 2014 in the mall’s Macy’s wing. (More)

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