RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Republican legislative leaders completed their remapping of the state’s U.S. House districts on Wednesday, intent on picking up one more seat to help President Trump’s efforts to retain GOP control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.
The new boundaries approved by the state House could thwart the reelection of Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, who currently represents more than 20 northeastern counties. The state Senate already approved the plan in a party-line vote on Tuesday.
Republicans hold majorities in both General Assembly chambers, and Democratic Gov. Josh Stein is unable under state law to use his veto stamp on redistricting maps. So the GOP’s proposal can now be implemented unless likely litigation by Democrats or voting rights advocates stops it. Candidate filing for 2026 is scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
Republican lawmakers made the intent of their proposed changes crystal clear — it’s an attempt to satisfy Trump’s call for GOP-led states to secure more seats for the party nationwide, so that Congress can continue advancing his agenda. Democrats have responded with rival moves in blue states. A president’s party historically loses seats in midterm elections, and Democrats currently need just three more seats to flip House control.
“The new congressional map improves Republican political strength in eastern North Carolina and will bring in an additional Republican seat to North Carolina’s congressional delegation,” GOP Rep. Brenden Jones said during a debate that Republicans cut off after an hour.
Democratic state Rep. Gloristine Brown, an African American who represents an eastern North Carolina county, made an impassioned floor speech in opposition, saying “You are silencing Black voices and are going against the will of your constituents.”
“North Carolina is a testing ground for the new era of Jim Crow laws,” Brown said.
Republican-led Texas and Missouri already have revised their U.S. House districts to try to help Republicans win additional seats. Democratic-led California reciprocated by asking the state’s voters to approve a map revised to elect more Democrats, and Jones accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of ramping up the redistricting fight.
“We will not let outsiders tell us how to govern, and we will never apologize for doing exactly what the people of this state has elected us to do,” Jones said.
North Carolina’s replacement map would exchange several counties in Davis’ current 1st District with another coastal district. Statewide election data suggests this would favor Republicans winning 11 of 14 House seats, up from the 10 they now hold, in a state where Trump got 51% of the popular vote in 2024.
Davis is one of North Carolina’s three Black representatives. Map critics suggested this latest GOP map could be challenged as an illegal racial gerrymander in a district that has included several majority Black counties, electing African Americans to the U.S. House continuously since 1992.
Davis is already vulnerable — he won his second term by less than 2 percentage points, and the 1st District was one of 13 nationwide where both Trump and a Democratic House member was elected last year, according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Davis on Tuesday called the proposed map “beyond the pale.”
Hundreds of Democratic and liberal activists swarmed the legislative complex this week, blasting GOP legislators for doing Trump’s bidding with what they called a power grab through a speedy and unfair redistricting process.
“If you pass this, your legacy will be shredding the Constitution, destroying democracy,” Karen Ziegler with the grassroots group Democracy Out Loud, told senators this week. She accused the state GOP of “letting Donald Trump decide who represents the people of North Carolina.”
Democrats said this map is a racial gerrymander that will dismantle decades of voting rights progress in North Carolina’s “Black Belt” region. Republicans counter that no racial data was used in forming the districts, and the redrawing was based on political parties, not race.
Based on last week’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Louisiana redistricting case, the Democrats may lose this line of attack. A majority of justices appears willing to neuter a key tool of the Voting Rights Act that has protected political boundaries created to help Black and Latino residents elect favored candidates, who have tended to be Democrats.
State GOP leaders say Trump won North Carolina all three times that he’s run for president — albeit narrowly last year — and thus merits more GOP support in Congress. Senate leader Phil Berger called it appropriate “under the law and in conjunction with basically listening to the will of the people.”
RALEIGH, N.C. — Democrats rallying Tuesday against a new U.S. House map proposed by North Carolina Republicans seeking another GOP seat at President Trump’s behest acknowledged they’ll probably be unable to halt the redraw for now. But they vowed to defeat the plan in the long run.
The new map offered by Republican legislative leaders seeks to stop the reelection of Democratic Rep. Don Davis, one of North Carolina’s three Black representatives, by redrawing two of the state’s 14 congressional districts. Statewide election data suggest the proposal would result in Republicans winning 11 of those seats, up from the current 10.
The proposal attempts to satisfy Trump’s call for states led by Republicans to conduct mid-decade redistricting to gain more seats and retain his party’s grip on Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats need to gain just three more seats to seize control of the House, and the president’s party historically has lost seats in midterm elections.
With Republicans in the majority in both General Assembly chambers and state law preventing Democratic Gov. Josh Stein from using his veto stamp against a redistricting plan, the GOP-drawn map appeared headed to enactment after final House votes as soon as Wednesday. The state Senate gave its final approval early Tuesday on a party-line vote. A House redistricting committee debated the plan later Tuesday.
Still, about 300 protesters, Democratic Party officials and lawmakers gathering outside the old state Capitol pledged repeatedly Tuesday that redrawing the congressional map would have negative consequences for the GOP at the ballot box in 2026 and beyond. Litigation to challenge the enactment on the map also is likely on allegations of unlawful racial gerrymandering.
“We know we may not have the ability to stop the Republicans in Raleigh right now … but we are here to show that people across this state and across this nation are watching them,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said to cheers.
The gathering served Democrats to censure state Republicans they accuse of agreeing to kneel to Trump through a corrupt redrawing of district lines to target Davis.
State GOP leaders defended their action, saying Trump has won the state’s electoral votes all three times that he’s run for president — albeit narrowly — and thus merits more potential support in Congress.
The national redistricting battle began over the summer when Trump urged Republican-led Texas to reshape its U.S. House districts. After Texas lawmakers acted, California Democrats reciprocated by passing their own plan, which still needs voter approval in November.
Republicans argue that other Democratic-leaning states had already given themselves a disproportionate number of seats well before this national redistricting fight started.
“It is incumbent upon us to react to this environment, to respond to this environment, and not let these tactics that have happened in blue states dominate the control of Congress,” state Sen. Ralph Hise, the map’s chief author, said during Tuesday’s Senate debate.
Seminera and Robertson write for the Associated Press.
Seth Jarvis scored his 100th and 101st NHL goals and added an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes remained the NHL’s only unbeaten team with a 4-1 victory over the Ducks on Thursday night.
Alexander Nikishin scored his first NHL goal and Shayne Gostisbehere matched his career high with three assists for the Hurricanes, who improved to 4-0-0 with their second win to start a six-game trip.
Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves against his former team for Carolina. Jarvis scored the Canes’ first two goals, giving him five in four games during his sizzling start.
The Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference finals last summer, and they appear loaded for another memorable season after outscoring their opponents 19-8 so far. Jarvis, Nikishin, Gostisbehere, Aho and Jackson Blake have all scored in each of Carolina’s first four games.
Leo Carlsson scored and Lukas Dostal stopped 27 shots for the Ducks in their first home defeat under new coach Joel Quenneville.
Carolina went ahead late in the first when Jarvis scored on a rebound after Gostisbehere intercepted Mikael Granlund’s poor pass. Jarvis added a power-play goal in the second, but Carlsson scored for the Ducks 70 seconds later.
Nikishin scored in the slot early in the third period. The promising 24-year-old Russian defenseman joined Carolina for four playoff games last summer, and he spent the summer learning English with a tutor before making the Canes’ opening-night lineup and racking up three assists in his first three regular-season games.
Aho scored his first goal of the season with 4:12 to play.
Oct. 16 (UPI) — The Columbia, S.C., field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has established a digital tip website seeking information about a bar shooting in St. Helena Island on Sunday that killed four people.
The release said the incident remains under investigation, and that the FBI field office is offering assistance, including video analysis.
The shooting occurred at Willies Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island at about 1 a.m. Sunday during an after-party attended by between 500 and 700 people, many of whom sought shelter in nearby businesses and buildings, a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
Local police said in an update Wednesday that investigators “have lots of information” about the people involved, but will not name suspects until forensic work is completed.
The sheriff’s office is conducting DNA analysis and the State Law Enforcement Division is reviewing firearms and ballistics evidence.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner could not confirm whether the incident was gang related, but did say all of the victims knew each other, and that all 20 had been identified.
On October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC disclosed a buy of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) shares, an estimated $6.01 million trade based on the average price for Q3 2025.
What happened
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC increased its stake in Novo Nordisk, adding 102,629 shares during the third quarter. The estimated trade size was $6.01 million, calculated using the average closing price for the period from July 1 through September 30, 2025. The updated holding stands at 116,973 shares.
What else to know
This transaction was a buy, raising Novo Nordisk A/S to 2.8% of the fund’s 13F reportable AUM as of Q3 2025.
Top holdings after the filing:
NYSEMKT:SCHQ: $18.93 million (8.2% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
NYSEMKT:BKAG: $13.22 million (5.7% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
NYSEMKT:SCHP: $13.10 million (5.6589% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
NYSE:DELL: $10.14 million (4.3781% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
NYSEMKT:SPHY: $10.09 million (4.3568% of AUM) as of Q3 2025.
As of October 6, 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S shares were priced at $59.65. This price reflects an underperformance of 65.4 percentage points relative to the S&P 500 over the past year.
Company Overview
Metric
Value
Price (as of market close 2025-10-06)
$59.65
Market Capitalization
$260.30 billion
Revenue (TTM)
$49.25 billion
Net Income (TTM)
$17.54 billion
Company Snapshot
Novo Nordisk:
Offers pharmaceutical products focused on diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, rare blood disorders, and hormone replacement therapies, as well as medical devices such as insulin pens and smart diabetes solutions.
Generates revenue primarily through the development, manufacturing, and global distribution of branded prescription medicines and medical devices, with a strong focus on chronic disease management.
Serves healthcare providers, hospitals, and patients in Europe, North America, Asia, and other international markets, targeting individuals with diabetes, obesity, and rare diseases.
Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare leader specializing in diabetes and obesity care, with a robust presence in rare disease therapeutics. The company leverages extensive research and development capabilities to deliver innovative pharmaceutical products and smart medical devices. Its scale, diversified product portfolio, and global reach provide a strong competitive position in chronic disease management.
Foolish take
Carolina Wealth Advisors’ $6 million addition to its Novo Nordisk holdings is noteworthy as it grows the holding from a 0.5% position to a 2.8% stake in the firm’s overall portfolio.
This purchase makes the Ozempic and Wegovy maker the 11th-largest holding overall in the firm’s portfolio, and its sixth-largest stock holding.
With five bond and treasury ETFs making up 28% of Carolina Wealth’s holdings, this ballooning Novo Nordisk stake stands out.
Novo Nordisk’s shares have dropped nearly 60% from their highs in the last two years, so this could be a well-timed acquisition.
After receiving immense fanfare for its obesity and diabetic drug breakthroughs, the company’s price-earnings (P/E) ratio soared to 50 as the stock hit new all-time highs in 2024.
However, with revolutionary breakthroughs like these — paired with the subsequent fanfare — comes competition. Now the market has Novo Nordisk trading at a much more reasonable 19 times earnings as it tries to gauge just how much of its leading market share the company will be able to hold on to.
Ultimately, if investors believe in Novo Nordisk’s ability to maintain its leadership advantage and build upon its pipeline of promising treatments, today’s valuation could be a bargain — and Carolina Wealth is piling in.
Glossary
13F AUM: Assets under management reported in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings, covering U.S. equity holdings by institutional investors. Reportable AUM: The portion of a fund’s assets under management that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as Form 13F. Quarter (Q3 2025): The third three-month period of the 2025 calendar year, covering July 1 to September 30. Stake: The ownership interest or position held in a company, typically measured by the number of shares owned. Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, usually ranked by market value or percentage of total assets. Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, such as the SEC, disclosing financial or investment information. Underperformance: When an investment’s returns are lower than a benchmark or comparable index over a specific period. Chronic disease management: Ongoing medical care and treatment strategies for long-term health conditions, such as diabetes or obesity. Pharmaceutical products: Medications developed and manufactured for diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of diseases. Medical devices: Instruments or apparatuses used in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of medical conditions. Smart diabetes solutions: Technology-enabled tools, such as connected insulin pens, designed to help manage diabetes more effectively. TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Josh Kohn-Lindquist has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Schwab Strategic Trust – Schwab U.s. Tips ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Jarvis McKenzie locked eyes with the man in the car, he couldn’t understand the hate he saw. When the man picked up a rifle, fired over his head and yelled “you better get running, boy!” as he scrambled behind a brick wall, McKenzie knew it was because he is Black.
McKenzie told his story a month after the shooting because South Carolina is one of two states along with Wyoming that don’t have their own hate crime laws.
About two dozen local governments in South Carolina have passed their own hate crime ordinances as the latest attempt to put pressure on the South Carolina Senate to take a vote on a bill proposing stiffer penalties for crimes driven by hatred of the victims because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity.
A decade of pressure from businesses, the survivors of a racist Charleston church massacre that left nine dead, and a few of their own Republicans hasn’t been enough to sway senators.
Local governments pass hate crime laws but with very light penalties
Richland County, where McKenzie lives, has a hate crime ordinance and the white man seen on security camera footage grabbing the rifle and firing through his open car window before driving into his neighborhood on July 24 is the first to face the charge.
But local laws are restricted to misdemeanors with sentences capped at a month in jail. The state hate crimes proposal backed by business leaders could add years on to convictions for assault and other violent crimes.
McKenzie sat in the same spot at the edge of his neighborhood for a year at 5:30 a.m. waiting for his supervisor to pick him up for work. For him and his family, every trip outside now is met with uneasiness if not fear.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that I get up every morning. I stand there not knowing if he had seen me before,” McKenzie said.
Hate crime law efforts have stalled since 2015 racist Charleston church massacre
The lack of a statewide hate crime law rapidly became a sore spot in South Carolina after the 2015 shooting deaths of nine Black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. After a summer of racial strife in 2020, business leaders made it a priority and the South Carolina House passed its version in 2021.
But in 2021 and again in the next session in 2023, the proposal stalled in the South Carolina Senate without a vote. Supporters say Republican Senate leadership knows it will pass as more moderate members of their own party support it but they keep it buried on the calendar with procedural moves.
The opposition is done mostly in silence and the bill gets only mentioned in passing as the Senate takes up other items, like in May 2023 when a debate on guidelines for history curriculum on subjects like slavery and segregation briefly had a longtime Democratic lawmaker ask Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey why hate crimes couldn’t get a vote.
“The problem right now is there is a number of people who think that not only is it feel good legislation, but it is bad legislation. It is bad policy not because people support hate but because it furthers division,” Massey responded on the Senate floor.
Supporters say federal hate crime laws aren’t enough
Opponents of a state hate crimes law point out there is a federal hate crimes law and the Charleston church shooter is on federal death row because of it.
But federal officials can’t prosecute cases involving juveniles, they have limited time and resources compared to the state and those decisions get made in Washington, D.C., instead of locally, said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott who pushed for the hate crime ordinance in his county.
“It’s common sense. We’re making something very simple complicated, and it’s not complicated. If you commit a crime against somebody just because of the hate for them, because of who they are, the religion, etcetera, we know what that is,” Lott said.
Democrats in the Senate were especially frustrated in this year’s session because while senators debated harsher sentences for attacking health care workers or police dogs, hate crimes again got nowhere.
Supporters of a state hate-crime law say South Carolina’s resistance to enact one emboldens white supremacists.
“The subliminal message that says if you’re racist and you want to commit a crime and target somebody for their race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or whatever it is you can do it here,” said McKenzie’s attorney, Tyler Bailey.
Governor says South Carolina laws provide punishment without new hate crime bill
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster understands why local governments are passing their own hate crime laws, but he said South Carolina’s laws against assaults and other violent crimes have harsh enough sentences that judges can give maximum punishments if they think the main motivation of a crime is hate.
“There’s no such thing as a love crime. There is always an element of hatred or disrespect or something like that,” said the former prosecutor who added he fears the danger that happens when investigators try to enter someone’s mind or police their speech.
But some crimes scream to give people more support in our society, Lott said.
“I think it’s very important that we protect everybody. My race, your race, everybody’s race, your religion, there needs to be some protection for that. That’s what our Constitution gives us,” the sheriff said.
And while the man charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for shooting at McKenzie faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the man who was just waiting to go to work feels like the state where he lives doesn’t care about the terror he felt just because of his race.
“I feel like somebody is watching me. I feel like I’m being followed,” McKenzie said. “It spooked me.”
Hurricane Erin was expected to bring tropical storm conditions to North Carolina on Wednesday evening and Virginia on Thursday. Photo courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Aug. 20 (UPI) — Tropical storm conditions were descending upon the North Carolina coast late Wednesday, according to forecasters who are warning beachgoers against swimming at most U.S. East Coast beaches due to “life-threatening” surf and rip currents.
The Category 2 storm, described as “large” by the NHC, had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, just shy of a Category 3 hurricane. The eye of the storm was located about 485 miles west of Bermuda and 215 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and was moving north at a rapid 16 mph, according to the NHC’s 11 p.m. EDT update.
A storm surge warning was in effect for from Cape Lookout to Duck, N.C., while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Beaufort Inlet, N.C., to Chincoteague, Va., including Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds.
Bermuda was under a tropical storm watch.
“Erin is expected to produce life-threatening surf and rip currents along the beaches of the Bahamas, much of the east coast of the U.S., Bermuda and Atlantic Canada during the next several days,” the NHC said. “Beachgoers in those areas should follow advice from lifeguards, local authorities and beach warning flags.”
Forecasters warned weather conditions were expected to deteriorate along the Outer Banks late Wednesday into Thursday. Storm surge and large waves could cause beach erosion and make some roads impassible.
Tropical storm conditions were expected to reach the Virginia coast Thursday and farther north through early Friday.
The season’s first Atlantic hurricane reached Category 5 status Saturday morning, the highest classification, after rapidly intensifying overnight Friday, when it became a Category 1 hurricane, the year’s fifth named storm.
Erin dropped to a Category 4 and then a 3 overnight into Sunday, but regained Category 4 strength late Sunday before again losing strength.
There have been four named storms so far this season in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Chantal caused major flooding in North Carolina but has been the only one of the four to make landfall in the United States this year.
The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. The peak hurricane season runs from mid-August through September and into mid-October.
Ninety-three percent of hurricane landfalls along the U.S. Gulf Coast and the East Coast have occurred from August through October, the Weather Channel reported, citing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Last year at this time, there had also been five named storms.
Aug. 20 (UPI) — A North Carolina man on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a federal charge for racially harassing a group of people in a Charlotte pizza shop and threatening to kill them with a loaded military-style rifle.
The U.S. Justice Department announced that Maurice Hopkins, 32, had pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations over a June 2024 incident in which he targeted a group of eight Indians over their race, color, religion and national origin. The incident occurred during the height of the 2024 election when federal authorities warned of increased threats of violence against minority communities.
Officers arrived at the pizza shop after receiving a call about Hopkins, who was making racial remarks to the group and said he “had something for them” and was going to “get his AR” after being asked to leave, according to a police affidavit.
A witness told police that Hopkins left and returned with a white four-door vehicle. The witness saw the red tip sight on the gun and tried unsuccessfully to distract Hopkins from going into the store. Hopkins then entered the store and pointed the rifle at customers, according to the document.
During the incident, Hopkins asked the victims if they were Americans, and then proceeded to call them terrorists, demand they speak English and told them to go back to their country, according to the Justice Department release. The victims fled through the pizza shop’s back door.
Hopkins’ sentencing date has not been set. He could face a maximum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to one charge of interference with federally protected activities.
Around the same time of the incident, federal prosecutors indicted the leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group that planned to kill minorities in New York City on New Year’s Eve. The group allegedly plotted to have a recruit dressed as Santa Clause hand out poisoned candy.
Earlier that year, a group of Massachusetts eight-graders were charged criminally for their participation in a “mock slave auction” and making racist comments at Black students on Snapchat.
Aug. 11 (UPI) — Authorities in South Carolina are investigating the “suspicious” deaths of two women as homicides after their bodies were found in rural woods about 116 miles from Charleston, where they lived.
On Friday afternoon, the remains were found in Rembert, which is 41 miles east of Columbia, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Rembert has a population of only 242 with 42,330 residents in the county.
“We have begun our investigation, and we will have to wait until we have the results of the autopsies to know more,” Sheriff Anthony Dennis said at the scene Friday. “In the meantime, we cannot speculate. At this time, we can only say we are investigating these deaths as suspicious.”
Dennis said a person discovered the bodies and met the deputies when they arrived.
The coroner’s office said that the deaths would be investigated as homicides, according to information obtained by ABC News and The State newspaper. They were identified as Christine Marie McAbee, 35, and Kristen Grissom, 38, and they were from Charleston.
Autopsies will be performed on Tuesday in Charleston, the coroner said.
Coroner Robert Baker didn’t disclose how long the women had been dead or whether they were killed in the woods.
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is running for governor, entering a GOP primary in which competition for President Trump’s endorsement — and the backing of his base of supporters — is expected to be fierce.
Mace, who last year won her third term representing South Carolina’s 1st District, made her run official during a launch event Monday at The Citadel military college in Charleston. She plans to start a statewide series of town halls later this week with an event in Myrtle Beach.
“I’m running for governor because South Carolina doesn’t need another empty suit and needs a governor who will fight for you and your values,” Mace said. “South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what it takes.”
Mace told the Associated Press on Sunday she plans a multi-pronged platform aimed in part at shoring up the state’s criminal justice system, ending South Carolina’s income tax, protecting women and children, expanding school choice and vocational education and improving the state’s energy options.
Official filing for South Carolina’s 2026 elections doesn’t open until March, but several other Republicans have already entered the state’s first truly open governor’s race in 16 years, including Atty. General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Rep. Ralph Norman.
Both Wilson and Evette have touted their own connections to the Republican president, but Mace — calling herself “Trump in high heels” — said she is best positioned to carry out his agenda in South Carolina, where he has remained popular since his 2016 state primary win helped cement his status as the GOP presidential nominee.
Saying she plans to seek his support, Mace pointed to her defense of Trump in an interview that resulted in ABC News agreeing to pay $15 million toward his presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit. She also noted that she called Trump early this year as part of an effort to persuade GOP holdouts to support Rep. Mike Johnson to become House speaker.
“No one will work harder to get his attention and his endorsement,” she said. “No one else in this race can say they’ve been there for the president like I have, as much as I have, and worked as hard as I have to get the president his agenda delivered to him in the White House.”
Mace has largely supported Trump, working for his 2016 campaign but levying criticism against him following the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the U.S. Capitol, which spurred Trump to back a GOP challenger in her 2022 race. Mace defeated that opponent, won reelection and was endorsed by Trump in her 2024 campaign.
A month after she told the AP in January that she was “seriously considering” a run, Mace went what she called “scorched earth,” using a nearly hourlong speech on the U.S. House floor in February to accuse her ex-fiancé of physically abusing her, recording sex acts with her and others without their consent, and conspiring with business associates in acts of rape and sexual misconduct.
Mace’s ex-fiancé said he “categorically” denied the accusations, and another man Mace mentioned has sued her for defamation, arguing the accusations were a “dangerous mix of falsehoods and baseless accusations.”
“I want every South Carolinian to watch me as I fight for my rights as a victim,” Mace said, when asked if she worried about litigation related to the speech. “I want them to know I will fight just as hard for them as I am fighting for myself.”
Mace, 47, was the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the state’s military college, where her father then served as commandant of cadets. After briefly serving in the state House, in 2020 she became the first Republican woman elected to represent South Carolina in Congress, flipping the 1st District after one term with a Democratic representative.
“I’m going to draw the line, and I’m going to hold it for South Carolina, and I’m going to put her people first,” Mace said.
WASHINGTON — A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Trump and his MAGA movement in next year’s midterm election.
Dans told the Associated Press the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025. But he said there’s “more work to do,” particularly in the Senate.
“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans said in an AP interview. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”
Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Graham’s campaign who co-managed Trump’s 2024 bid, predicted in a statement to the AP that Dans’ campaign would “end prematurely.”
“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” LaCivita said.
Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot in what is fast becoming a crowded field ahead of the November 2026 midterm election that will determine control of Congress.
Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state’s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, to chair his 2026 run. He has amassed millions of dollars in his campaign account.
Other candidates, including Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer, a wealthy developer, and Democratic challenger Dr. Annie Andrews, have announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season, more than a year away.
Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did not discuss his reelection campaign but fielded questions on topics including his push to release “as much as you can” from the case files on Jeffrey Epstein, something many of Trump’s supporters want the government to do.
Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump’s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.
After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.
“To be clear, I believe that there is a ‘deep state’ out there, and I’m the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,” Dans said, noting he compiled much of the book from his kitchen table in Charleston.
Among the goals, he said, was to “deconstruct the administrative state,” which he said is what the Trump administration has been doing, pointing in particular to former Trump adviser Elon Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency shuttering federal offices.
Dans and Heritage parted ways in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025. It catapulted into political culture that summer during the presidential campaign season, as Democrats and their allies showcased the hard-right policy proposals — from mass firings to budget cuts — as a dire warning of what could come in a second Trump term.
Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, and his campaign insisted it had nothing to do with his own “Agenda 47.”
Dans is launching his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by a kick-off event at a historic venue in Charleston.
Mascaro and Kinnard write for the Associated Press. Kinnard reported from Chapin, S.C.
FLORENCE, S.C. — After nearly six months of President Trump in the White House, California Gov. Gavin Newsom descended on a coffee shop in this small South Carolina city to preach his gospel of resistance.
Suddenly, Democrats here felt they were witnessing a spiritual and political revival: After all the pain and trauma of the 2024 election, they seemed in the presence of an uplifting leader with the savvy to awaken the Democratic grass roots.
“I’ve been so depressed,” Marion Wagner, a retired postal worker, said as she waited for Newsom at his first stop in LilJazZi’s cafe Tuesday. “This is a ray of hope.”
“Thank you for suing Trump!” Suzanne La Rochelle, the executive director of the Florence County Democratic Party, told the tall, svelte 57-year-old West Coast politician after he delivered his political sermon.
“This is just the jolt that South Carolina needs,” said Joyce Black, a 63-year-old grant writer, pumping her fist.
Newsom promoted his more than 2,000-mile jaunt from California to South Carolina as a bid to help the party win back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 and connect directly with rural Deep South communities that had been overlooked by Republicans.
But most people believed the governor, who is mulling over a White House bid in 2028, was in the Palmetto State to forge connections in a crucial election state that traditionally hosts the South’s first presidential primary. There are a dozen competitive House districts right now in California, but not a single one in South Carolina.
The state’s Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and renowned Democratic kingmaker who rescued former President Biden’s 2020 campaign, addressed the elephant in the room when he joined Newsom in Camden, S.C.
“As we go around welcoming these candidates who are running for president, let’s not forget about school boards,” Clyburn said.
Newsom grinned awkwardly and the crowd roared with laughter. Jokingly, Newsom turned around as if looking for another, unidentified, politician behind him.
Clyburn stopped short of endorsing Newsom, but he told The Times “he’d be a hell of a candidate.”
“He’s demonstrated that over and over again,” Clyburn said. “I feel good about his chances.”
Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor who was first elected governor in 2018, would face steep hurdles if he threw his hat into the race for president.
Just being a Californian, some argue, is a liability.
The Golden State boasts the world’s fourth-largest economy and is a high-tech powerhouse. But as income inequality soars along with the cost of living, Republicans paint the state as the poster child of elite “woke” activism and rail against its high taxes, rampant homelessness and crime.
The signs Republican activists waved outside Newsom’s meet and greet in Pickens, a staunchly red county that voted 76% for Trump, distilled the GOP narrative:
“Newsom, your state is a MESS & you want to run this country. NO WAY!”
“Keep your socialist junk in CA!”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to visitors at Awaken Coffee in Mullins, S.C.
(Sam Wolfe / For The Times)
Tamra Misseijer, a Pickens County middle school teacher, said she and her husband moved from Woodland Hills to South Carolina in 2021 because they could no longer afford to raise their eight children there. Compounding their frustration, she said, homeless people threw needles and sex toys over her fence into their yard. She also lashed out at the restrictions Newsom imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We traded … unconstitutional lockdowns and masks for freedom and fresh air,” the registered Republican’s placard said. “High crime, looting & destruction for peace and order.”
Even some Democrats worry that Newsom is too progressive, too rich and too slick to win over working-class and swing voters in Republican and closely divided states.
Richard Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney, former state senator and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, predicted Newsom would find it hard to find a foothold in many places in South Carolina.
“He’s a very, very handsome man,” Harpootlian conceded. “But the party is searching for a left-of-moderate candidate who can articulate blue-collar hopes and desires. I’m not sure that’s him.”
Dismissing Newsom as “just another rich guy” who became wealthy because of his connections with heirs to the Getty oil fortune, Harpootlian said he did not think Newsom was attuned to winning back blue-collar voters.
“If he had a track record of solving huge problems like homelessness, or the social safety net, he’d be a more palatable candidate,” he said. “I just think he’s going to have a tough time explaining why there’s so many failures in California.”
Newsom’s tour was organized last week by the South Carolina Democratic Party to energize the grass roots and raise money.
Party Chair Christale Spain said that she invited a bunch of prominent national Democratic leaders to tour the state, but that Newsom was the only one to immediately agree to jump on a plane.
After an email and a few text messages, a Newsom advisor said, Newsom raised $160,000 for South Carolina’s Democratic Party — nearly two-thirds of what the Democratic National Committee gives the party for its annual budget.
Newsom — who traveled to Georgia in 2023 for a much-hyped debate with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina in 2024 to stump for Biden — said national Democratic leaders have abandoned people in the rural South.
“I’ve got a little gripe with my party,” Newsom said at a packed gathering in Fisher Hill Community Baptist Church in Chesterfield. “We let you down for decades and decades.”
Newsom sidestepped the question of whether he would run for president, arguing that Democrats couldn’t afford to wait three and a half years for a savior.
“I think one of the big mistakes for any party, but particularly the Democratic Party, is looking for the guy or gal on the white horse to come save the day,” he said.
But Newsom offered a glimpse of what a potential presidential campaign might look like: He touted his record of filing 122 lawsuits against Trump during his first time in office, he celebrated California as the “most un-Trump state in America,” and he railed against Trump’s recent immigration raids in MacArthur Park as a display of “cruelty and vulgarity.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with Mullins, S.C., Mayor Miko Pickett, right, as they walk downtown on Tuesday.
(Sam Wolfe / For The Times)
Even though Newsom sought to focus on the damage wrought by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” — or as he called it, the “Big Beautiful Betrayal” — Newsom did not go into detail on how this would hurt Americans in their healthcare or pocketbooks. Instead, he talked about “restoring the soul of this country” and dwelt largely on culture war issues.
“What we’re experiencing is America in reverse,” Newsom told supporters in Camden. “They’re trying to bring us back to a pre-1960s world on voting rights. You know it well: civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and not just access to abortion, but also access to simple reproductive contraception. It’s a moment that few of us could have imagined.“
But even as Newsom warned about book bans and immigration raids as fundamental assaults on democracy, he resisted the idea that America is a nation neatly divided by east and west, rural and urban, Democrat and Republican.
“Don’t forget California is a large red state,” he said, noting he represented 6 million Trump voters, more than the entire population of South Carolina.
After the 2024 election, Newsom said he, like many other Democrats, turned off the cable news.
“I just, I tapped out,” he told the crowd at the church. “I never thought that would happen. All those years of self-medicating, watching Rachel Maddow with a glass of white wine or a beer. I thought I would never give it up. … The election, you know, it’s a body blow.”
He said Democrats across the country, from California to South Carolina, bore a responsibility to take action.
“We’re not bystanders in this world,” he said. “We can shape the future, we have agency. … You could have dialed it in to stay home. You could have given in, given up. You could have fallen right on the cynicism, the negativity, all the anxiety that I’m sure you’re all feeling about this moment.”
Many in the crowd were clearly awed by Newsom. Some swooned over his “beautiful hair” and “charisma.” Others marveled at his ability to stand up to Trump with clarity and compassion.
One woman informed Newsom her friend was “in love with you, by the way.” Another told friends she blanked out when she met him, so starstruck that she could not come up with words.
“He’s a cool dude,” Carol Abraham, wife of the mayor of Bennettsville, said after Newsom spoke at a meet and greet on Main Street. “He has swag.”
After Newsom wrapped up his talk at Fisher Hill Community Baptist Church, Bryanna Velazquez, a 31-year-old business owner wearing a “Jesús era un immigrante” T-shirt, waited in a long line to thank Newsom for speaking out against the immigration raids.
“I’m married to a Mexican, so it means a lot,” she told him.
Her husband was a citizen, Valazquez said, but still, she was afraid.
“The fact that he is brown makes him a target.”
Since Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, Newsom has taken on the role of the president’s most outspoken Democratic critic while taking steps to defy left-wing orthodoxies and broaden his national appeal in a country that, politically, is far different from California.
In March, he infuriated the progressive wing of his party by hosting conservatives such as MAGA loyalists Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast and breaking away from many Democrats on the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“My position is I don’t think it’s fair,” he told reporters Tuesday. “But I also think it’s demeaning to talk down to people and to belittle the trans community. … These people just want to survive and so I hold both things in my hand.”
It is too early to say how many Americans will get on board with Newsom as he experiments with how to balance competing ideas of common sense and sensitivity in the hyperpartisan culture wars.
As the California leader of the Trump resistance stressed the importance of standing tall and firm and pushing back, he also called for more grace and humility, invoking the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We’re all, as Dr. King said, bound together by a web of mutuality,” he said in Florence, playing to his Deep South audience. “We’re many parts, as the Bible said, but one body. One part suffers, we all suffer.”
“Let’s not talk down to people,” he told the crowd in Chesterfield. “Let’s not talk past people, good people who disagree with us.”
“Amen,” a man said. “That’s right,” a woman murmured.
Gov. Gavin Newsom will spend two days next week in rural South Carolina, fueling speculation that the California Democrat is laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run.
During the visit Tuesday and Wednesday, Newsom will make stops in eight rural counties that are among the state’s “most economically challenged and environmentally vulnerable,” the South Carolina Democratic Party said Thursday.
The chair of the state Democratic Party, Christale Spain, said in a statement that Newsom’s tour through the Pee Dee, Midlands and Upstate regions was aimed at showing rural voters in areas that had been “hollowed out by decades of Republican control” that “they aren’t forgotten.”
Newsom’s visit is also aimed at a state that will be among the first to have a Democratic Party primary in 2028. But Lindsey Cobia, a Newsom senior political advisor, denied that the governor is laying the groundwork for a presidential run.
Cobia said Newsom is “squarely focused” on helping Democrats win back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 and on “sounding the alarm about how rural families and communities requesting disaster relief are being left behind by the Trump administration.”
Newsom’s tour with the South Carolina Democrats, dubbed “On the Road With Governor Newsom,” will include stops in Marion, Chesterfield, Marlboro, Laurens, Pickens, Oconee, Kershaw and Florence counties. The Post and Courier reported that Newsom’s schedule would include stops in small settings such as cafes, coffee shops, community centers and churches.
The tour will take Newsom to some of the state’s reddest counties. Seven of the eight counties Newsom is scheduled to visit went for President Trump in November, including two where he garnered 75% of the vote.
The South Carolina trip is one of several overtures that Newsom has made to Southern voters in recent years. He stumped for then-President Biden in South Carolina in 2024. In 2023, he faced off in a highly publicized debate with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And in 2022, he bought ads in Texas and Florida excoriating their governors for their stances on gun violence and abortion.
Newsom isn’t the only California Democrat visiting South Carolina this month.
U.S. Rep Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) of Silicon Valley will be holding town halls in the Palmetto State on July 19 and 20 in partnership with the advocacy organization Protect Our Care, which has been mobilizing voters in swing House districts against the planned Republican cuts to Medicaid.
WASHINGTON — Two-term Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Sunday that he will not seek reelection next year, an abrupt announcement that came one day after he staked out his opposition to President Trump’s tax and spending package because of its reductions to healthcare programs.
His decision creates a political opportunity for Democrats seeking to bolster their numbers in the 2026 midterm elections, creating a wide-open Senate race in a state that has long been a contested battleground. It could also make Tillis a wild card in a party where few lawmakers are willing to risk Trump’s retribution by opposing his agenda or actions. Trump had already been threatening him with a primary challenge.
“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said in a lengthy statement Sunday.
Tillis, who would have been up for a third term in 2026, said he was proud of his career in public service but acknowledged the difficult political environment for those who buck their party and go it alone.
“I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability,” Tillis said in a statement.
Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate.
Trump, in social media posts, had berated Tillis for being one of two Republican senators who voted Saturday night against advancing the massive bill.
The Republican president accused Tillis of seeking publicity with his “no” vote and threatened to campaign against him next year. Trump also accused Tillis of doing nothing to help his constituents after last year’s devastating floods.
“Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER,” Trump wrote.
The North Carolina Republican Party chairman, Jason Simmons, said the party wishes Tillis well and “will hold this seat for Republicans in 2026.”
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, did not mention Tillis in a statement but said the party’s winning streak in North Carolina will continue. Scott noted that Trump won the state three times.
Democrats expressed confidence about their prospects.
Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, who announced his candidacy for the Senate seat in April, said he was ready for any Republican challenger.
“I’ve flipped a tough seat before and we’re going to do it again,” Nickel said in a statement.
Some said Tillis’ decision is another sign of the dramatic transformation of the Republican Party under Trump, with few lawmakers critical of the president or his agenda remaining in office.
It “proves there is no space within the Republican Party to dissent over taking healthcare away from 11.8 million people,” said Lauren French, spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber’s Democratic members.
Tillis rose to prominence in North Carolina when, as a second-term state House member, he quit his IBM consultant job and led the GOP’s recruitment and fundraising efforts in the chamber for the 2010 elections. Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 140 years.
Tillis was later elected as state House speaker and helped enact conservative policies on taxes, gun rights, regulations and abortion while serving in the role for four years. He also helped push a state constitutional referendum to ban same-sex marriage, which was approved by voters in 2012 but was ultimately struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.
In 2014, Tillis helped flip control of the U.S. Senate to the GOP after narrowly defeating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. During his more than a decade in office, he championed issues such as mental health and substance abuse recovery, Medicaid expansion and support for veterans.
As a more moderate Republican, Tillis became known for his willingness to work across the aisle on some issues. That got him into trouble with his party at times, notably in 2023 when North Carolina Republicans voted to censure him over several matters, including his challenges to certain immigration policies and his gun policy record.
“Sometimes those bipartisan initiatives got me into trouble with my own party,” Tillis said in his statement Sunday, “but I wouldn’t have changed a single one.”
Swenson writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.
June 26 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the nonprofit’s arm that covers South Carolina, can’t sue the state over its closing off of the nonprofit’s Medicaid funding because it provides abortions.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed our right to exclude abortion providers from receiving taxpayer dollars,” wrote Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., in an X post Thursday.
“Seven years ago, we took a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolina’s authority and values,” he added, “and today, we are finally victorious.”
The court’s syllabus noted 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, which allows private parties to file suit against state officials who violate their Constitutional rights. However, in the opinion of the Court, which was delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch, he wrote that “federal statutes do not automatically confer [Section 1983]-enforceable ‘rights.'”
“This is especially true of spending-power statutes like Medicaid, where ‘the typical remedy’ for violations is federal funding termination, not private suits,” he continued.
“No court has addressed whether that Medicare provision creates [Section 1983] rights,” he later wrote.
“South Carolina asks us to hollow out that provision so that the State can evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors,” Jackson stated. “The Court abides South Carolina’s request. I would not.”
South Carolina had announced in July of 2018 that Planned Parenthood could no longer participate in the state’s Medicaid program, under a state law that prohibits the use of its own public funding for abortions.
The order further affected patients in that it had the effect of also blocking Planned Parenthood patients from receiving services such as breast exams, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic announced on its social media platform Thursday that, “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that people using Medicaid in South Carolina no longer have the freedom to choose Planned Parenthood South Atlantic as their sexual and reproductive health care provider.”
“If you are a patient using Medicaid, keep your appointment,” the post continued. “We’re still here to provide you with the low or no cost care you deserve.”
The post concluded with “We’re in this with you, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
Republican-led states have sought to deprive abortion providers of public funds by restricting access to Medicaid.
The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for South Carolina to strip the nonprofit healthcare provider Planned Parenthood of funding under Medicaid, a government insurance programme.
Thursday’s ruling was split along ideological lines, with the three liberal justices on the nine-member court dissenting.
The ruling overturned a lower court’s decision barring Republican-governed South Carolina from preventing Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a regional branch, from participating in the state’s Medicaid programme.
Republican leaders in South Carolina have objected to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions.
The Supreme Court’s decision bolsters efforts by Republican-led states to deprive the reproductive healthcare provider of public money.
The case centred on whether recipients of Medicaid may sue to enforce a requirement under US law that they may obtain medical assistance from any qualified and willing provider. Medicaid is administered jointly by the federal and state governments, and it is designed to provide healthcare coverage for low-income people.
Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its landmark Roe v Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide, a number of Republican-led states have implemented near-total bans on the procedure. Some, like South Carolina, prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves hundreds of Medicaid patients each year, providing physical examinations, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy testing, contraception and other services.
The Planned Parenthood affiliate and a Medicaid patient named Julie Edwards sued the state in 2018. A year earlier, in 2017, Republican Governor Henry McMaster had ordered officials to end Planned Parenthood’s participation in the state Medicaid programme by deeming any abortion provider unqualified to provide family planning services.
The plaintiffs sued South Carolina under an 1871 law that helps people challenge illegal acts by state officials. They said the Medicaid law protects what they called a “deeply personal right” to choose one’s doctor.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative legal group and backed by President Donald Trump’s administration, said the disputed Medicaid provision in this case does not meet the “high bar for recognising private rights”.
A federal judge previously ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favour, finding that Medicaid recipients may sue under the 1871 law and that the state’s move to defund the organisation violated Edwards’s right to freely choose a qualified medical provider.
In 2024, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, also sided with the plaintiffs.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on April 2.
The dispute has reached the Supreme Court three times. The court in 2020 rejected South Carolina’s appeal at an earlier stage of the case. In 2023, it ordered a lower court to reconsider South Carolina’s arguments in light of a ruling the justices issued involving the rights of nursing home residents.
That decision explained that laws like Medicaid must unambiguously give individuals the right to sue.
Brianna Pinto scored just seven minutes after entering off the bench for the North Carolina Courage in a 2-1 win against Angel City on Saturday.
The Courage (4-5-3) had lost all three of their previous visits to BMO Stadium.
Cortnee Vine had made it 1-0 in the first minute of the game when she slid the ball into the net from a cross by Manaka Matsukubo.
Riley Tiernan scored her seventh goal of the season to bring Angel City (4-5-3) level at 1-1 in the 11th minute, heading in a cross from Gisele Thompson.
The winner came from a scramble in the box in the fifth minute of stoppage time. After Angel City defender Miyabi Moriya blocked a shot on the line, Pinto scooped up the ball and fired it in from five yards out.
June 2 (UPI) — One person is dead and 11 others are wounded following a shooting that occurred at a house party in Catawba County, according to authorities, who said they are looking for suspects.
The shooting occurred at around 12:45 a.m. local time Sunday at a residence in Mountain View, Catawba County, located about 57 miles northwest of Charlotte.
Law enforcement arrived at the scene following multiple reports of shots fired to find 11 people suffering from gunshot wounds and one person dead at the scene, Maj. Aaron Turk of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office told reporters during a press conference.
The severity of the injuries was not disclosed, but Turk said one of the victims was critically injured and was taken to a hospital in Charlotte. Of the other 10 victims transported to local hospitals, some had been treated and released, Turk said.
He said more than 80 shots were fired in the shooting.
Dozens appeared to have been present at the party, and their ages ranged, including some teenagers.
No arrests have been made, and authorities said they believe more than one shooter, and multiple guns, were involved.
“We are still working to determine when they arrived, how they arrived and what the reasons was for their presence, also the motive,” he said.
The shooting occurred less than two hours after police were called to the residence over a noise compliant.
Turk said officers responded to the residence concerning the noise complaint, spoken with individuals at the home regarding the complain and left shortly afterward.
“We don’t believe that this was random in a circumstance that might danger the community,” Turk said. “All that we can see right now from the crime scene and the leads that we’re follow, it seems to be that those that initiated the shooting were focused on the folks at the party.”
The FBI said it is aiding in the investigation.
Catawba County Sheriff Donald Brown added in the press conference that this is not a common crime in the region.
“It is frustrating,” he said. “This is not a common act or incident that happens here in Catawba County. We live in a great community, and this is something that is extremely rare. Again, I said I talked to some neighbors here — they are visibly upset. And to our staff that works these types of cases, it’s very difficult. It’s taxing on them. They’ve been out here all night.”
According to The Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 127 mass shootings involving four or more people shot so far in the United States this year.
**** Hickory Mass Shooting ****
(CATAWBA COUNTY, NC) – One person is dead and 11 others wounded at a Sunday-morning shooting in Hickory, NC. Catawba County Sheriff’s Deputies and officers with the Hickory Police Department responded to a home on Walnut Acres Drive in the… pic.twitter.com/hyRWs29CCJ— NC SBI (@SBI1937) June 1, 2025
May 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration is suing North Carolina and the state’s Board of Elections on accusations of maintaining voter registration records that include voters who did not provide required identifying information, in violation of federal law.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit Tuesday, alleging the defendants violated the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by using a state voter registration form that did not “explicitly require” a voter to provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.
Those who filled out the form, without providing the identifying information, were then added to the voter registration record.
HAVA was sweeping voter reform legislation that included updated voter identification procedures. Under the law, a voter registration application must include either the applicant’s driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The lawsuit alleges that a “significant number” of North Carolina voters who did not provide the required identifying information were registered to vote by election officials.
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately and without fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”
The lawsuit comes after Jefferson Griffin, a Republican Court of Appeals judge, finally conceded defeat to his Democratic opponent for North Carolina’s state Supreme Court seat earlier this month, following six months of litigation over the legality of tens of thousands of votes cast in the election.
Griffin lost to Associate Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes and sought to have some 60,000 ballots in six Democratic-leaning counties rejected on the same grounds that the Justice Department cited in its lawsuit on Wednesday — the ballots were cast by voters, mostly in the military or overseas, who did not provide photo ID or an ID exception form.
Democrats accused him of attempting to steal the election, and the state’s high court ruled to uphold the validity of the votes cast.
With Riggs’ victory, the state’s Supreme Court maintains a 5-2 Republican majority.
May 26 (UPI) — At least 11 people were hospitalized Sunday night following a shooting that erupted in a South Carolina beach town.
Little information about the late Sunday shooting has been made available to the public.
According to the Horry County Police Department, officers responded to the shooting on Watson Avenue in Little River, a town of about 11,700 people northeast of Myrtle Beach.
Authorities said 11 people were transported by Horry County Fire Rescue to area hospitals but they have received reports of others arriving via personal vehicles.
The North Myrtle Beach Police Department said in a statement that an officer responding to the shooting accidentally discharged his service weapon, injuring his leg.
“This is believed to be an isolated incident,” the Horry County Police Department said. “There is no risk to the community at this time.”
