Charlotte Stays Largely Peaceful During 3rd Night Of Protest
A third night of protests over a fatal police shooting in Charlotte gave way to quiet streets early Friday after the city's mayor enacted a curfew and rifle-toting members of the National Guard arrived to guard the city's business district.
The largely peaceful Thursday night demonstrations called on police to release video that could resolve wildly different accounts of the shooting this week of a black man.
Demonstrators chanted "release the tape" and "we want the tape" while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters and later climbing the steps to the door of the city government center. Later, several dozen demonstrators walked onto an interstate highway through the city, but they were pushed back by police in riot gear.
NC Congressman Says Charlotte Protesters 'Hate White People'
A North Carolina congressman says people are protesting in Charlotte because they "hate white people."
U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger, a Republican whose district includes parts of Charlotte, was asked by an interviewer for Britain's BBC TV what grievance the protesters have.
In the video posted online Thursday, Pittenger responded: "The grievance in their mind is — the animus, the anger — they hate white people because white people are successful and they're not."
He later released a statement apologizing and saying that anguish over the situation led him to give a response he regretted.
Blue Cross To Keep Selling Obamacare Policies Across NC
North Carolina's largest health insurance company will continue selling broadly subsidized health insurance policies created by the federal Affordable Care Act despite what the company describes as whopping losses.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said Thursday it will continue offering the "Obamacare" plans in all 100 North Carolina counties in 2017.
A Blue Cross decision to pull out would have hugely disrupted the marketplace for people seeking to buy required health insurance coverage. Cigna is the only other company offering the policies in a handful of Raleigh-area counties.
Blue Cross says it's lost $400 million on its ACA business in 2014 and 2015. About 500,000 people in North Carolina have flocked to buy the coverage, sharply cutting the state's high uninsured rate.
At Least 65 People Rescued From Flooding In 3 NC Counties
Gov. Pat McCrory says at least 65 people have been rescued from flooding in one northeastern North Carolina county as the remnants of Tropical Storm Julia dump rain on the area.
McCrory declared a state of emergency Thursday for Bertie and 10 other counties: Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank and Perquimans. McCrory said in a news release that a Greenville-based medical evacuation bus was headed Thursday to Bertie County to evacuate a nursing home housing 52 residents.
In addition, five swift water rescue teams are helping people who are stranded.
Supplier: No Listeria In Product Before Going To Blue Bell
A supplier of cookie dough that Blue Bell Creameries is blaming for possible listeria contamination of some ice cream says the product tested negative for the pathogen before being sent to the Texas-based company.
In a statement Thursday, Iowa-based Aspen Hills said the "positive listeria results were obtained by Blue Bell only after our product had been in their control for almost two months."
Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell announced Wednesday it's recalling some ice cream flavors after finding chocolate chip cookie dough from Aspen Hills was potentially contaminated with listeria.
Blue Bell says no illnesses have been reported from the ice cream distributed in 10 states.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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