Here are some of the stories we're following today:
Many NC Counties Proposed To Cut Car Emissions Testing
Drivers in more than half of the 48 North Carolina counties requiring vehicle emissions tests may be able to forgo the $30 inspection under new legislation moving through the state legislature.
The House voted this week to allow 29 rural and suburban counties to end their testing requirements, which were implemented as part of the state's plan to reduce air pollution under Environmental Protection Agency rules.
NC Retiree Insurance, Pension Rate Brought To Budget Debate
Lawmakers are looking at changes they say will shore up fiscally important benefits for hundreds of thousands of state employees and teachers when approaching retirement.
Some public employee advocates worry the changes will create more uncertainty and erode incentives that attract and retain state workers.
The Senate budget approved last month contained a provision that would prevent retirees hired after 2015 from getting health insurance for themselves or dependents through the State Health Plan.
Another Senate budget item would automatically decrease a fixed rate of return on state pension fund investments that helps calculate the state's annual contribution to that fund. It would likely cause higher state contributions.
Voting Trial Heads Into Second Week
A federal trial on North Carolina's 2013 voting law is expected to conclude this week. Plaintiffs including the NAACP, say the law will put an undue burden on minority voters. The state is countering that numbers show otherwise.
Attorneys for the state are expected to call fewer witnesses than the plaintiffs and have told Judge Thomas Schroeder they should finish Tuesday.
NAACP Plans Protest Against NC Confederate Memorials Bill
The North Carolina NAACP has scheduled a Moral Monday protest against passage of legislation that provides protection for Confederate memorials.
State NAACP President the Rev. William Barber said in a news release that the rally is set for Monday at 5 p.m. It was not immediately clear if the protest will be at the Legislative Building or the old Capitol building, where Gov. Pat McCrory's offices are located.
The NAACP also plans to continue its repeated pleas that McCrory halt the sale of license plates bearing the Confederate flag symbol.
Wild Red Wolf Count Falls As Fewer Parents Making Fewer Pups
Federal wildlife officials are cutting sharply their estimate of the world's only wild population of endangered red wolves to their lowest level since the late 1990s.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had long estimated that about 100 wolves roamed the wilds of a federal tract in coastal North Carolina since they were re-introduced there in 1987. The red wolf was extinct in the wild by 1980.
The federal agency recently cut its population estimate to between 50 and 75 wild red wolves. Federal wildlife biologist Rebecca Harrison says it's a reflection of fewer breeding adult wolves producing fewer babies to replace those animals that die.
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