In the News

Sgt. 1st Class Richard Stayskal was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004 when he was shot by a sniper. The round, which he kept as a souvenir, pierced his left lung and nearly killed him.

The round is "a reminder of how fragile life is,” he told Charlotte’s Fox 46. “Something could change everything in an instant.”

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (NC-08) announced this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its Rural Development mission area, has awarded Stanly County Schools a distance learning grant of $447,280.

“Regardless of where you live, all Americans deserve access to 21st Century opportunities and technology,” said Hudson. “This grant will help bridge the gap between students in Stanly County and critical STEM education and job-training programs.”

Handsewn piece by piece, handbag by handbag, R. Riveter has grown from an attic-based business to the national stage in only a few short years.

Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, met with co-founders Cameron Cruse and Lisa Bradley at their “Fab Shop,” the company’s warehouse in West End, on Friday.

The mother of an active duty Marine, Pence said she was inspired by R. Riveter’s business model to assist military spouses, not by offering charity but through the opportunity of a portable career.

Less than a week before Election Day, President Donald Trump has thrust the 14th Amendment — and its promise of citizenship to anyone born in the United States — into a mid-term election issue. But congressional members, including some North Carolina Republicans, have signed onto legislation to limit birthright citizenship long before Trump’s tweets.

Five North Carolina Republicans were co-sponsors on bills in 2015 and 2017 to more narrowly define who the 14th Amendment would apply to. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, introduced the legislation.

On Wednesday, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-8, joined President Donald Trump at the White House for the signing of a comprehensive package of bipartisan legislation to combat the opioids crisis.

Included in the legislation are three bipartisan bills sponsored by Hudson that focus on the safe and responsible packaging and disposal of unused opioids. Hudson sponsored the Securing Opioids and Unused Narcotics with Deliberate (SOUND) Disposal and Packaging Act, and he co-sponsored the Safe Disposal of Unused Medication Act and the Education for Disposal of Unused Opioids Act.

For the fourth straight month Stanly County ranks first in the state in opioid overdoses, according to the latest figures released by N.C. Department Health and Human Services.

Nowhere is the state’s opioid epidemic more dire than in Stanly, which leads the state in the highest rate of opioid overdoses showing up in hospital emergency rooms. Cumberland, Robeson and Cabarrus counties trail Stanly. Nearby Gaston, Mecklenburg, Guilford and Forsyth counties also made the top 10.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Freed North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson fell to one knee in the Oval Office and placed his hand on President Donald Trump’s shoulder in prayer before asking God to provide Trump “supernatural wisdom to accomplish all the plans you have for this country and for him.”

Trump welcomed Brunson to the White House on Saturday to celebrate Brunson’s release from nearly two years of confinement in Turkey, which had sparked a diplomatic crisis between the countries, now under the watchful eye of the world for its human rights policies.