U.S. funding N.C. internet expansion

U.S. funding N.C. internet expansion

RALEIGH, N.C. — President Joe Biden Thursday unveiled $82 million for North Carolina to help connect 16,000 new households and businesses to high-speed internet, delivering an election-year pitch about policies he says are “just getting started” at improving the United States.

Biden said the work his administration is doing in North Carolina, on high-speed internet, infrastructure and more, is happening in communities across the country, regardless of the politics.

“What we’re doing here in North Carolina is one piece of a much bigger story,” he said. Biden said he was keeping his promise “to be a president for all America, whether you voted for me or not.”

Biden talked about all the people who need high-speed internet because they work from home, businesses who need it to reach customers and students who need to do their school work.

“High-speed internet isn’t a luxury anymore. It’s an absolute necessity,” he said in Raleigh, the state capital. “The investment in high-speed internet means something else as well: good-paying jobs.”

Judge keeps Trump on Washington ballot

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A judge in Washington state said Thursday former President Donald Trump’s name could remain on the state’s primary ballot.

A group of voters had filed a legal challenge asking state officials in Washington to leave Trump off the Republican primary ballot. But Judge Mary Sue Wilson said Washington’s secretary of state had acted “consistent with his duties” by including Trump.

As in other states, the voters in Washington argued that Trump’s actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol made him ineligible for office under the 14th Amendment.

Steve Hobbs, the secretary of state and Washington’s top election official, has said he does not believe that he has the power to remove Trump from the primary ballot on his own. Hobbs has said that court rulings could change his decision.

A lawyer representing his office asked Wilson on Thursday for a prompt ruling on the challenge to Trump’s eligibility, because ballots would be going out later this month to voters in the military and overseas.

Washington state law allows a voter to seek the removal of a candidate from the general election ballot if that candidate has been convicted of a felony, and Trump faces 91 felony charges as part of various criminal cases against him.

In her ruling, Wilson declined, for now, to rule on Trump’s eligibility for the general election in November.

Georgia DA says claims are harassment

ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is accusing the estranged wife of a special prosecutor she hired of trying to obstruct her criminal election-interference case against former President Donald Trump and others by seeking to question her in the couple’s divorce proceedings.

A motion filed last week by a defense attorney in the election case alleges that Willis was involved in a romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade. A lawyer for Willis wrote in a filing Thursday that lawyers for Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade, served a subpoena to the district attorney last week.

The filing says that the subpoena is being sought “in an attempt to harass and damage” Willis’ professional reputation and accuses Joycelyn Wade of having “conspired with interested parties in the criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress” the district attorney.

Willis was served with the subpoena the same day that defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, filed a motion alleging an inappropriate relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade. The motion seeks to have the indictment thrown out and to have Willis and Wade removed from the case.

6 people wounded at Kansas City mall

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Gunfire broke out inside a popular shopping mall on the edge of downtown Kansas City, Mo., wounding six people, authorities said.

The shooting around 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at Crown Center left shattered glass inside the mall. Two of the injured were found in a food court area on the lower level. Police later learned four other people went to a hospital in a private vehicle. All six are expected to survive, police spokesperson Sgt. Jake Becchina said.

Most of the injured were in their late teens or early 20s, but police said one victim was at least 50. It wasn’t immediately known if some or all of the injured were involved in the dispute or if they were bystanders.

Witnesses told police that a verbal argument between two groups led to the shooting that damaged some businesses inside the mall. Witness John Gaston told KCTV-TV he heard gunfire, then saw chaos.

“Pretty much everybody was just screaming, running,” Gaston said.

Several people were detained for questioning at the scene, Becchina said, but police have not yet announced any arrests.