RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday vetoed a Hurricane Helene relief bill that also included sweeping changes to the power and authority structures for several state leaders and agencies. Senate Bill 382, which lawmakers passed last week, was originally expected to primarily address ongoing disaster relief efforts for the impacts of the devastating storm that hit Western North Carolina in September. But when lawmakers unveiled the bill just hours before the first vote on it, it included far more than relief measures. Among several other changes, the Republican-drafted bill would strip the state’s next governor, Democrat Josh Stein, of the power to appoint members of the State Board of Elections and instead give the authority to the next auditor, Republican Dave Boliek. It would prevent the state’s next attorney general, Democrat Jeff Jackson, from taking positions on behalf of the state that are “contrary to or inconsistent with the position of the General Assembly,” which has Republican majorities in both chambers. The lieutenant governor and state superintendent would also lose some authority. The bill would set aside $227 million for the state’s Helene relief fund, but it does not appear to spend all of that money. It would provide $25 million to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for debris removal, $2 million for technical assistance to soil and water conservation districts in affected areas and $200 million split between two separate loan programs. Cooper, a Democrat, called the bill “a sham” and said “it does not send money to Western North Carolina but merely shuffles money from one fund to another in Raleigh.” Three Republicans in the state House, all representing western parts of the state, voted against the bill. No Senate Republicans followed suit. Cooper’s veto of SB 382 marks his 12th this year, and lawmakers so far have overridden all 11 previous vetoes. Rep. Destin Hall, whom House Republicans elected last week to succeed Tim Moore as speaker of the House in the next legislative session, said last week that he was confident that his chamber would have enough votes to override Cooper’s veto of the bill, which requires a three-fifths majority. Lawmakers are expected to return to Raleigh on Monday. Non-Helene measures in bill The bill would also: •Significantly reduce the amount of time voters are given to fix issues with their provisional ballots and require counties to finish counting all provisional ballots on the third day after Election Day, a process that took nearly two weeks this year. •Make the the State Highway Patrol into a standalone department, rather than a subset of the N.C. Department of Public Safety, and require the governor’s choice for Highway Patrol commander to be approved by lawmakers. •Eliminate the positions of two Superior Court judges after their terms expire, including a Democrat who threw out two amendments to the North Carolina Constitution that voters approved in 2018 — one on voter ID and another to cap the state income tax rate. •Require the governor to fill any vacancies on the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals from a list of people recommended by the leaving judge’s political party. •Allow donations from corporations, business entities and labor unions to be used to fund legal actions for political parties. •Shift control of the state Utilities Commission away from the governor. •Require an extra step before the attorney general’s office can intervene in matters before the Utilities Commission, such as cases over how much Duke Energy’s utilities can charge for electricity. •Prevent incoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green, a Democrat, from appealing decisions made by the N.C. Charter School Review Board. Cooper criticized those measures and others in the bill on Tuesday, saying the legislation “plays politics.” “This legislation was titled disaster relief but instead violates the constitution by taking appointments away from the next Governor for the Board of Elections, Utilities Commission and Commander of the NC Highway Patrol, letting political parties choose appellate judges and interfering with the Attorney General’s ability to advocate for lower electric bills for consumers,” he said in a statement. Cooper also noted that the bill did not provide grants for small businesses in the disaster-affected counties, calling the move a “cruel blow.” Local business owners and officials from Western North Carolina had advocated for state legislators to fund grants over loans, with Buncombe County Democratic Rep. Eric Ager noting in a press conference last week that it could be difficult for businesses to pay back loans. Ager and other Democratic legislators from the western part of the state criticized the bill for its relative lack of Helene-related funding combined with the additional measures it included. Democratic Rep. Julie Mayfield, also of Buncombe County, questioned why the Helene measures weren’t included in their own bill, separate from the other provisions. Hall told reporters the measures were combined into a single bill because the state had already provided “about a billion dollars in Helene relief.” Lawmakers previously appropriated about $877 million for Helene recovery in two separate relief bills. Republican Sen. Ralph Hise, who represents several counties in Western North Carolina, said during floor debate over SB 382 last week that considering additional funding measures in December would depend on congressional actions. ---------- Reporters Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi, Adam Wagner, Kyle Ingram, Avi Bajpai and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan contributed. -------- ©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Dunn with 28 and Carnegie with 24 highlight No. 13 Georgia Tech women's 100-61 rout of Pittsburgh
The Washington Capitals will be without their captain and goal-scoring machine Alex Ovechkin for four to six weeks after he was diagnosed Thursday with a fractured left fibula. Ovechkin, 39, exited Monday's 6-2 win over the Utah Hockey Club with 14:30 remaining following a collision with Utah forward Jack McBain. A teammate had to help him off the ice. The Capitals announced Tuesday that Ovechkin was considered week-to-week as he underwent further evaluation on his leg. On Wednesday, the team placed him on injured reserve and recalled forward prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko from AHL affiliate Hershey. The injury interrupted Ovechkin while he was on a hot streak. He scored two goals in the Utah game before going down and has 13 goals in his past 11. Before Thursday's games, he owned the NHL lead with 15 goals on the season. Ovechkin's pursuit of history will now be postponed as well. With 868 goals in his career, the Russian needs 27 to break Wayne Gretzky's all-time mark of 894. --Field Level Media
Boopie Miller scored 24 points and Yohan Traore added 20 points and 11 rebounds as SMU was at its best after halftime in a 98-82 win over Longwood on Sunday afternoon in Dallas. The Mustangs (11-2) have won seven straight games but this one was not without a serious scare from Longwood. SMU led by just a bucket after a seesaw first half but took charge with a 15-3 run to open the second. The Lancers pulled to within 69-62 on a tip in by Elijah Tucker with 11:37 to play before SMU put away the game with a 14-1 run capped by Chuck Harris' 3-pointer with 6:57 remaining. Matt Cross added 19 points while Harris hit for 12 for the Mustangs, who shot 62 percent from the floor. Tucker led Longwood (11-4) with 20 points, with Colby Garland adding 19 and Emanuel Richards scoring 12 points in the loss. The Lancers allowed their most points of the season and surrendered 32 points more than their season average. The teams went back and forth in a contentious first eight minutes that featured 11 lead changes and three ties with neither team up by more than three points. Harris' jumper with 11:55 left in the first half pushed the Mustangs to a 21-19 lead but that was quickly answered by a 3-pointer from Jefferson to put Longwood back on top at 22-21. SMU then reeled off 17-4 run, with Kario Oquendo contributing two free throws, a 3-pointer and a bucket to that surge and two free throws from Traore put the Mustangs up 38-26 with 5:34 to play in the half. Just when it seemed like SMU had found the formula to dispatch the feisty Lancers, Longwood rallied to tie the game at 43 on pull-up jumper by Garland with 8.9 seconds left before halftime. That gave Harris enough time to get down the floor and into the paint for a short jumper that gave the Mustangs a 45-43 lead at the break. Traore led all scorers with 15 points and seven rebounds before halftime while Miller added 11 for SMU. Garland and Tucker had 10 points apiece to pace the Lancers. --Field Level MediaEye On Growth: Neil E. de Crescenzo Adds $1.22M Of CCC Intelligent Solutions Stock To Portfolio
The Washington Capitals will be without their captain and goal-scoring machine Alex Ovechkin for four to six weeks after he was diagnosed Thursday with a fractured left fibula. Ovechkin, 39, exited Monday's 6-2 win over the Utah Hockey Club with 14:30 remaining following a collision with Utah forward Jack McBain. A teammate had to help him off the ice. The Capitals announced Tuesday that Ovechkin was considered week-to-week as he underwent further evaluation on his leg. On Wednesday, the team placed him on injured reserve and recalled forward prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko from AHL affiliate Hershey. The injury interrupted Ovechkin while he was on a hot streak. He scored two goals in the Utah game before going down and has 13 goals in his past 11. Before Thursday's games, he owned the NHL lead with 15 goals on the season. Ovechkin's pursuit of history will now be postponed as well. With 868 goals in his career, the Russian needs 27 to break Wayne Gretzky's all-time mark of 894. --Field Level Media
Customers from one of Australia’s biggest banks are being locked out of internet banking. ING Australia confirmed in a post to X that customers had reported issues with the banking app and website on Wednesday morning. “We are aware that some customers are currently experiencing issues accessing the ING app and website,” the post read. “Our teams are investigating this issue and we will provide further updates shortly. “We are extremely sorry to any customers who have been impacted.” Customers first began reporting issues with DownDetector at 7.30am. Disgruntled customers took to social media to air their grievances with the major bank following the most recent outage on Wednesday. “Looks like I’m not buying anything this morning. Come on guys not good enough,” one person wrote to X. “AGAIN!!! this happened 2-3 weeks ago as well..” another wrote. “No worries guys, just waiting to transfer money so we can get our car back from being serviced this morning, we’ll just walk everywhere instead. Useless,” added another. The outage comes just four weeks after customers were hit with another outage. ING Australia customers reported being unable to access the website or banking app about 9am on Wednesday, October 30. At its peak, more than 2300 people reported issues accessing ING Australia banking services. Originally published as Major outage hits ING Australia customers just weeks after last disaster
Vito Coppola and Sarah Hadland have expressed their affection for ahead of the Strictly Come Dancing final, which they will be performing in together. The grand finale of the 2024 series is set to take place on Saturday (December 14), where the pair will perform their Show Dance to Cabaret by Metropole Orkest, their American Smooth to Proud by Heather Small, and Cha Cha to Like A Prayer by Madonna, all in a bid to win the coveted Glitterball trophy. Sarah, best known for her role as Stevie Sutton in the BBC sitcom Miranda, has shared her surprise at making it to the end of Strictly's 20th-anniversary series. At a press conference, the 53-year-old was asked if it had sunk in yet, to which she responded: "Not really, no." "Because I was convinced we were going to be in that (semi-final) dance-off. I said to you (Vito), where do we go? Because we've never been in a dance-off. And I was like, where do we go? Where will we warm up? I was so convinced." Vito added that when co-host Tess Daly announced they had been saved, they "did not expect it at all". However, one person who has been rooting for Sarah, also known as Hadders, is her Miranda co-star and close friend Miranda Hart. The comedian and actress, who watched Sarah live in the ballroom a few weeks ago, has been sharing videos on social media directed at Vito and Sarah, acting as their unofficial 'choreographer', reports the Manchester Evening News . Fans noticed that Miranda had not posted her usual video this week, and she addressed their concerns on Instagram: "Hello, lots of people asking why I didn't do choreography Tuesday for Hadders and Vito for the final. Well, I'll tell you why. "Guys, I've taught you all you need to know. I'm an empty husk of choreography and I've got you this far. I got you to the final and now it's over to you... Joking apart, laughter aside, thank you for bringing such joy to us all this autumn and just so much love and luck for Saturday. I can't wait." She added: "To bring it back to me again, it happens to be my birthday and it's the best birthday gift that you're in the final. Love you both so much! " In response, Sarah commented: "I mean really could we have got this far without the choreography captain???? I think not caller. Love oooooo." Vito also thanked Miranda: "Mirandaaaaaaa Thank you so so much for all the ideas, notes, choreography tips during the entire season. It's actually a trouple us 3. "You have been with us since day one until the final and we will give our best also for you. We will celebrate your birthday keeping dancing. The biggest massive THANK YOU. We Love you so very much."Annapolis City Council eyes delaying gas-powered leaf blower ban penalties