HEAT WAVE
Days of triple-digit heat heading to parts of NC
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Triple-digit heat is heading to North Carolina, and parts of the state may experience 100-degree temperatures for five days.
The National Weather Service says the high temperatures will move in Friday and could stay through Tuesday. The heat is the result of high pressure moving in from the Central Plains.
Most people can retreat to the air-conditioned indoors, but not everyone has that option. The Durham Rescue Mission is opening its doors not only to the homeless but also to people who don't have air-conditioning.
The N.C. Medical Society is watching the heat because part of its air-conditioning system is being replaced this weekend. Their workers will go home, but the contractor could still pull the plug on the project if it's unsafe for employees to be outside.
HEALTH CARE RULING-NC
NC lawmakers won't act on part of US health reform
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina lawmakers have no plans to meet a deadline to create a new one-stop shop to help individuals and small businesses find affordable health insurance despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
State Senate leader Phil Berger said Thursday that senators do not intend to take up legislation this year to create a health benefit exchange. The 2010 federal health care overhaul requires all states to have an exchange. Legislation passed the state House last year.
State plans for the markets are due to the federal government by this fall. The federal government will create exchanges for states that don't have them by 2014. Only 14 states and Washington D.C. have adopted a plan for carrying out the law creating exchanges that steer middle-class households to private plans.
PERDUE-BUDGET
NC gov tries to get lawmakers moving on budget
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue is trying again to persuade Republican legislative leaders to negotiate with her so that changes for next year's North Carolina state budget will take effect on time.
Perdue said Thursday in a statement there is an additional $117 million in revenue this year available to use for public schools, to hire probation and parole officers and meet other needs.
The General Assembly sent last week sent Perdue budget adjustments for the year starting July 1. She has until Sunday to veto the bill or let it become law. She said the bill falls short in education spending.
Budget-writer and GOP Sen. Pete Brunstetter downplayed Perdue's statement as misleading. He says the extra revenue is largely a timing issue and North Carolina's financial picture is no better.
BUS HIJACKED-SENTENCE
Virginia man sentenced for NC bus hijacking
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A Virginia man who pleaded guilty to hijacking a bus that was later stopped in North Carolina has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
Thirty-3-year-old Jose Darwin Flores of Arlington, Va., pleaded guilty earlier this year to violence against a mass transportation provider.
Flores was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh to 235 months in prison.
Prosecutors say Flores was arrested near Henderson in April 2011 after he allowed the bus Greyhound driver to stop at a gas station. Prosecutors say Flores had taken over the bus with a pellet gun shortly after it crossed into North Carolina on a Washington, D.C.-to-Miami route.
Flores tried to drive away from the gas station but was unable to disengage the emergency brake and was stopped by police.
JUVENILE SENTENCES-NC
NC legislators seek to comply with federal ruling
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina House members are trying to use the last days of the legislative session to comply with The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down automatic life sentences without parole for youths convicted of murder.
A bill in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday seeks to get North Carolina into compliance with the federal ruling. It would require minors convicted of murder to serve a 25-year minimum sentence before parole. North Carolina is 1 of the nearly 30 states that make life without parole the mandatory sentence for youths who commit certain types of murder.
Legislators say they want to tweak the law because of the 88 people in state prisons that the federal law would retroactively affect.
House members created a subcommittee to work on the idea this weekend.
SENATE-TOLL PROJECTS
NC DOT letters inquiry heading to ethics panel
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The flap over letters sent to legislators that appeared to reverse a high-ranking North Carolina Department of Transportation official's previous statements on two toll projects is heading to the State Ethics Commission.
The Senate Rules Committee voted along party lines Thursday to send the case to the ethics panel for further review.
Aides of Gov. Beverly Perdue edited letters sent under a transportation department executive's electronic signature to legislators before a key budget vote. The executive was out of pocket at the time of the edits and later disavowed the letters.
Rules Chairman Sen. Tom Apodaca of Hendersonville said it's time for the commission to evaluate whether the changes were designed to mislead the Senate.
Democrats on the committee said there's nothing to show anyone tried to deceive legislators.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14880113
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