Category: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Local News

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Remember “eggflation” and those much higher gas prices? While those costs have come down, people are still feeling the effect of higher prices.

North Carolinians were asked by the latest High Point University poll whether inflation affected major spending decisions they’ve made this year. The largest group, 85% said some or a lot.

But that number improves a bit with 38% saying it’s a bad time to buy major household items and 34% saying it’s neither a good or bad time.

“It looks like consumer sentiment may be headed up. A little bit, but not fast. And so that’s the thing to watch over the next few months, you know, we’re still in the 60s, which is relatively low. You know, with the way that we measure the index, but it does look like it went up four or five points since the last time we did this in November,” said Martin Kifer, HPU poll director and associate professor of political science.

Kifer added, “The public really does hear the news about the improving economy and take that into account when they evaluate what’s going on. But they also have pocketbook concerns. You don’t have to hear news about how you’re feeling, right? You know how you’re orienting yourself to the economy and whether you feel positive or not. And so that’s one of the things that’s kind of lagging right now—is people aren’t feeling particularly good about where they are with their personal budgets, their personal finances.”

Of those polled, 47% said they’re worse off financially than a year ago while 51% said they are better or the same.

Looking ahead to five years down the road, 23% expect widespread unemployment or a depression, 16% expect good times and 45% believe it will be a mix of both.

“They may be a little bit more positive than they have been, but they’re not over the moon about the prospects for the future,” Kifer said.

Kifer said the importance of the economy doesn’t break among political party lines.

“We look deeper in the data. You know, Republicans, Democrats and Unaffiliated voters all have that really high in the 60s and 70s, in terms of being a very important issue, so there’s consensus on that being important,” said Kifer. “And so as inflation changes, whether it goes up or down, that’s one of the things that campaigns on any side are going to have to think about. It’s like: are we criticizing the current office holders because of inflation or are we going to have to move on to a different issue because that doesn’t seem to be what’s moving voters?”

You can view the full results of the HPU poll here.

North Carolina State University on Thursday released the first report of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) test results from Poe Hall.

The university contracted Geosyntec Consultants to do an environmental assessment in the building, home to the College of Education and Psychology Department, after preliminary testing in November revealed high levels of PCBs, toxic chemicals linked to cancer.

The report released Thursday is the first after more extensive testing, but it is not yet a complete picture.

Geosyntec Consultants took 14 air samples and 67 surface samples, searching for PCBs inside Poe Hall. The report says only one sample showed PCB levels above EPA limits.

A toxicologist pointed out to 5 On Your Side that the sampling was done with the HVAC system off and is not reflective of the scenario in which people were exposed to possible contaminants in Poe Hall.

“I have major problems with the method of analysis,” said Dr. David Carpenter, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany whose work focuses on the study of environmental causes of human disease.

Carpenter analyzed the report and said that the fact that Poe Hall’s HVAC system has been off since November distorts the view of whats going on. 

“The fact that the HVAC system was off and the sampling was done and they still found elevations in samples in air and in swipe samples suggests to me that that sampling analysis underestimates significantly the real exposure people had,” Carpenter said. 

He also noted that the testing only looked for nine types of Aroclors – a common trade name of certain PCB mixtures – instead of the full spectrum of more than 200 PCBs.

“That analysis is not accurate to adequately measure PCBs in the air,” Carpenter said.

The report theorizes PCBs are distributed through Poe Hall through the HVAC system, and Carpenter says once the system is turned back on and tested that should provide a better insight into what the people who spent time inside Poe Hall were exposed to.

In the months since the building was closed, more than 100 people who worked or were students at Poe Hall, have told 5 On Your Side they were diagnosed with some form of cancer.

Here are some of the highlights from the report on the first round of testing:

• 14 indoor air samples did detect the PCB known as Aroclor-1262, but the university said all levels were below EPA exposure levels for PCBs in schools. It is important to remember that the HVAC system has been off since November 2023 and remained off throughout the testing. This means no dust particles of any kind were circulating through the air handler system.
• 67 surface, or swipe, samples were taken throughout all seven of Poe Hall’s floors. Samples were taken from desktops, books, bathroom counters, air supply vents and several other locations. 25 wipe samples detected Aroclor-1262, but the report says only one was above EPA threshold.

According to NC State’s overview of the report, both air and surface samples were low overall. However, the highest readings from preliminary testing in October and November came from “bulk” tests. Bulk test results are not included in Geosyntec’s first report.

According to the EPA, bulk solid sampling typically includes removing a small portion of the potentially contaminated material for analytical testing. For example, a caulk sample would be the quantity of caulk needed by the laboratory for analytical testing, removed directly from the suspect area.

Testing in October showed bulk samples taken in the fifth floor women’s bathroom were 38 times EPA limits, and other bulk samples tested high for PCBs. Recommendations in the new report from Geosyntec indicate bulk samples of potential sources will be collected and analyzed, notably focused on the HVAC system.

Geosyntec recommends turning on the HVAC system to do more air and surface wipe sampling after bulk samples are analyzed.

The final recommendation in the report is to review studies on PCBs to understand the potential human health effects associated with exposure.

ST. PAULS, N.C. (WBTW) — Two people remained hospitalized Friday morning after a pair of unrelated shootings in St. Pauls that also injured another person, police said.

All three victims were flown to a hospital; two were in stable condition Friday morning, while the other person was released, Police Chief Michael Owens confirmed to News13. Two of the victims were shot in the head and one was shot in the back and leg.

The first shooting happened at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday when someone shot into an occupied vehicle, Owens said. The second shooting occurred a short time later while officers were conducting interviews at police headquarters.

One of the shootings ended in the 900 block of W. Broad Street, police said it happened at a different location.

No additional information was immediately available.

ROBESON COUNTY, N.C. (WBTW) — One former college student is dead after a shooting Wednesday evening near a college campus in North Carolina.

University of North Carolina Pembroke police said shots were fired at University Courtyard Apartments.

News crews were at the apartment complex and noticed some cars in the parking lot with bullet holes in the windows.

University officials said UNCP police responded to the gunshots fired just before 5 p.m.

Charles Welch, a sophomore business administration student at UNCP, said he heard the gunshots.

“I didn’t see when the shots went off,” Welch said. “But I actually heard the shots go off and when I looked outside, I saw everybody disburse.”

The University Chancellor, Robin Cummings, said a former 19-year-old UNCP student died after the injuries he suffered from the shooting.

Police were called out again later that evening after injuries of one person were reported. The 19-year-old was brought to Southeastern Urgent Care where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room.

Current student, Charles Welch, said he was lying in bed reading when he heard almost ten rounds go off outside.

“I think I maybe saw, four or five people,” Welch said. “I’m not too sure but I did see everybody disburse once the shots went off and I heard a little commotion like you could hear people yelling and stuff.”

Another student at UNCP recorded audio from the shooting and multiple rounds can be heard fired in the audio.

Welch said he and others were disappointed in the university’s delay in notifying the community and students.

University Vice Chancellor for finance and administration, Gabe Eszterhas, said all classes before 11 a.m. Thursday morning was canceled.

“When we received the reports of shots fired,” Eszterhas said. “Officers responded immediately and were there within three minutes and they observed nothing so there was a judgement call and as to whether to issue it or not. So, I would say at this point, the delay was a question of what the judgement is you exercise at that moment and that is something I want to say again we are still investigating what exactly happened every single minute there and what each person’s actions were during the event.”

Eszterhas said there are 20 sworn on campus officers and more security was brought in to help with student security.

ROBESON COUNTY, N.C. (WBTW) — A former University of North Carolina at Pembroke student has died following a shooting near the campus Wednesday afternoon, according to the university.

The university confirmed that 19-year-old Khalil Alford was the former student who died in the shooting.

At about 4:43 p.m., UNCP campus police responded to a shots fired incident at Courtyard Apartments near the university. Upon arrival, campus police did not encounter any shooters but did locate shell casings on the ground, the university said.

Shortly after, Robeson County deputies responded to a second incident off campus where they encountered a person in need of medical care who later died from their injuries.

The Robeson County Sheriff’s office has not released the identity of the individual; however, the university confirmed that the deceased was a former UNCP student.

UNCP police, Robeson County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation are actively investigating the connection between the two incidents, the university said.

Three people were airlifted to the hospital Thursday night after a shooting in Robeson County.

The St. Pauls Police Department said there was a shooting into an occupied vehicle around 10:30 p.m. While conducting interviews at police headquarters, a second shooting happened. Three people were found shot. Police said one victim was shot in the back and leg, and the two other victims were shot in the head. Helicopters were dispatched and all three victims were flown to the hospital.

The two incidents are not connected, according to police.

Police said the shooting happened at another location but ended at 902 W. Broad St. in St. Pauls.

One victim has been released from the hospital, and the other two victims are in stable condition, according to police.

The investigation is ongoing.

Administrators at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke are trying to figure out why its student alert system sent out a blank message when shots were fired Wednesday afternoon at a nearby apartment complex.

A former student reportedly died off-campus after the alert came out around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Courtyard Apartments at 519 University Road in Pembroke.

WRAL News spoke with some students who said they didn’t get the alert for nearly 40 minutes after the shooting happened.

A car had its windshield and fender shot up outside of Building 3 at the Courtyard Apartments. When the shots started, students said they scrambled to safety.

Resident Christopher Tamplen said his reaction to the Brave Alert was “tun if you can, hide if you can’t run, fight if you must.

“Me and my roommate just ended up going and sitting in his bathroom with kitchen knives, just in case,” Tamplen said.

Investigators said a former student was shot in the parking lot, but was later found dead at an off-campus location.

Student Rachel Carapella described the Brave Alert she received.

“It was blank,” Carapella said. “One of the emails came out blank.

“No one really knew what was going on, so we were just all confused.”

At a Thursday news conference, UNC-P Chancellor Robin Cummings and the university’s head of security acknowledged there was a problem with the message that was sent out through the school’s Brave Alert system.

“So, there was a delay in the report, and the first message that went out was blank, but subsequently, we issued a message that was notifying the campus of the shooting and to be alert,” Cummings said.

Authorities are investigating the death of the student.

The university’s administration said it is checking to see what went wrong with the alert system.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — In-person early voting in North Carolina will start on Feb. 15.

On the primary ballot are 14 Republican candidates for the state’s 13th congressional district. The 13th includes part of Wake County as well as Johnston, Lee, Harnett, Franklin, Person, Caswell and Granville counties.

Dr. Josh McConkey, who is an emergency room physician and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, is one the candidates vying for that seat.

He sat down with CBS 17’s Russ Bowen to talk about one of the top issues he believes Americans are facing.