The Charlotte Observer

Delta overserved dad accused of fatally running over wife at Utah airport, lawsuit says

A man was extremely intoxicated when he ran over his wife in an airport parking garage, killing her after their Delta Air Lines flight landed in Utah, according to a new wrongful death lawsuit.

The couple’s child was inside the car and witnessed their mother’s death at the Salt Lake City International Airport in April 2022, a complaint filed Feb. 8 says.

Delta Air Lines is accused of overserving alcohol to Shawn Sturgeon, the child’s father, on the flight after he drank several alcoholic beverages before boarding the plane in San Antonio, Texas, according to the complaint.

SC’s Nikki Haley betting big on her home state in primary fight vs. Trump. Will it work?

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley emphasized her ability to compete with President Joe Biden in a general election as she hit hard at both the incumbent Democrat and former Republican President Donald Trump during a rally in Lancaster County, South Carolina.

Speaking at Indian Land High School on Friday night as part of a campaign swing through the Palmetto State ahead of its primary on Feb. 24, Haley said she’s the only Republican left standing with a chance to win in the general election: “We can go with the same old thing or we can move forward."

Man posed as mortician then improperly handled bodies: officials

Authorities in Texas are investigating after they say more than 50 people have come forward in what they are calling a funeral scam. “This is a case that absolutely turns my stomach. It turns my stomach because you’re dealing with people at the most vulnerable times of their lives,” Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said at a Jan. 26 news conference streamed by KPRC. Javian Major and Sandy Broussard have been charged with forgery, according a Facebook post from the constable’s office. “Allegedly, the duo conspired to forge beneficiaries’ signatures, illicitly obtaining life insuran...

Mark Robinson ‘doesn’t recall’ past statements on abortion. Here’s a reminder.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has said he’d like abortion to be banned in all circumstances, including rape and incest.

He has frequently likened abortion to murder and said that once a woman is pregnant, her body is no longer her own.

Now, as a candidate for governor, Robinson wants you to forget he ever said that. And he doesn’t seem to have much memory of it himself.

New reporting from CNN — which recently joined the growing list of national news stories about Robinson’s extremism — details how Robinson’s past statements on abortion contradict what he is saying now.

How a 28-year-old went from working security at Coca-Cola 600 to NASCAR team owner

Spencer Boyd’s younger self wouldn’t believe it.

The NASCAR driver strapped in his car and headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday morning. It’s a destination to which he’s headed countless times since moving from St. Louis to North Carolina at age 14 to “chase the racing dream.”

But until Monday, he wasn’t the one holding press conferences inside the Concord track’s infield media center, nor was he even able to attend them.

Ten years ago Boyd worked as a security guard at the Coca-Cola 600.

Nine years ago, he had a gig selling cars at Hendrick Chrysler Dodge.

With 2024 primaries looming, here’s how Biden, Trump and challengers are performing

With less than two weeks to go before the 2024 primary season kicks off, presidential candidates are scrambling to consolidate their support in key states.

Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump maintain strong leads in their respective races, while their challengers trail behind by double digits, indicating a 2020 rematch is likely, polls show.

Here’s a look at how candidates are polling in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — four states that hold primaries or caucuses in January or February.

NAACP criticizes Florida day care for Rosa Parks ‘role-play’ exercise with students

A Black 2-year-old attending a Florida day care was handcuffed and fingerprinted by another student during a “racist” reenactment of Rosa Parks’ arrest, the NAACP said. But the school says handcuffs were not used in the role-play activity, and a photo provided by the school shows a student “detaining” another student, but no handcuffs are visible. McClatchy News has reached out to the NAACP for clarification and is awaiting a response. In letters written on Dec. 12 to the Florida Department of Children and Families and Building Brains Academy in St. Cloud, Florida, the NAACP says a toddler was...

‘A generational undertaking.’ Buttigieg marks $1 billion rail project

Three days after the Biden administration announced $8.2 billion in grants for passenger rail projects across the country, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Raleigh on Monday to highlight one of the biggest. The N.C. Department of Transportation will get nearly $1.1 billion to build the first leg of a high-speed rail line that will eventually connect Raleigh with Richmond, Virginia. The grant will allow the state to build new tracks, bridges and stations in Wake County and extend Amtrak’s Piedmont service to Wake Forest. Speaking to a gathering of more than 250 people in Ral...

How is the Great Wall of China still standing? A ‘living skin’ is helping: study

Snaking hundreds of miles across mountains and plains, the Great Wall of China is an iconic and unparalleled historic site. Construction on the vast network of walls, fortresses and other fortifications began in the seventh century B.C. and continued until the 17th century A.D. The monumental structure has stood the test of time — in part because of a “living skin,” scientists recently found. Researchers wanted to figure out the best way to help protect the Great Wall of China from wind and erosion, according to a study published Dec. 8 in the journal Science Advances. They noticed that the st...

Charlotte to Atlanta at up to 220 mph? High-speed rail is among NC transit proposals.

A federal program is on track to potentially provide high-speed train travel connecting Charlotte to Atlanta, as well as other cities. A $500,000 study has just been approved to examine the feasibility of such a plan. It’s part of $3.5 million in federal grant money that the North Carolina Department of Transportation secured last week to identify and develop seven corridors for potential rail lines across the state, which includes the Charlotte to Atlanta plan. Each corridor will receive up to $500,000 to create a service development plan from the U.S. Department of Transportation to identify...

UNLV shooting suspect’s ties to NC colleges go back 30 years. What we know about Polito

The man police say killed three staff members at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Wednesday was a graduate of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and had been an associate business professor at East Carolina University for more than 16 years, teaching thousands of students how to make businesses run more efficiently. Officials in Nevada have said Anthony James Polito, 67, killed three staff members at UNLV before dying in a shootout with police. Online phone records indicate Polito had been living in Las Vegas. Investigators have said he had tried unsuccessfully to get a job at UNLV. According t...

Woman wins millions on Massachusetts scratch-off, hides ticket and goes on vacation

A Massachusetts woman won big for a second time on a lottery ticket. But this time, her prize was even bigger. Desiree Fortini-Craft of Hyde Park won a scratch-off game’s third grand prize of $25 million, according to a Massachusetts State Lottery news release. Fortini-Craft won on the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “Billion Dollar Extravaganza,” a $50 instant game. When she saw she won the grand prize, she hid her ticket and went on vacation, according to the lottery. “She said that she had scratched her winning ticket a few weeks ago and stored it in a secure place before going on a trip to Ar...

14-year-old driver loses control, sending SUV full of teens sliding off cliff: cops

Four teenagers were injured when a 14-year-old driver lost control of an SUV, causing it to slide off a cliff in North Dakota, according to officials. The Ford Escape was traveling at a high rate of speed just north of Mandan at 8:22 p.m. on Dec. 1, according to a news release from the North Dakota Highway Patrol. Officials said the driver went over railroad tracks and lost control of the SUV. The vehicle then went through a barbed wire fence and slid about 50 feet down a cliff, toward the Missouri River, highway patrol said. The SUV overturned on the way down, before coming to a rest on the s...

40% of Americans are afraid to walk alone at night — most in decades, poll says

Concerns about certain crimes are at their highest levels in decades, causing Americans to isolate themselves from their communities, according to new polling. The spike in fear comes as violent crime has decreased nationwide, while property crime has ticked up, according to the FBI. A recent Gallup poll found that 28% of Americans worry frequently or occasionally that they will be murdered, according to a Nov. 16 news release. That’s a near-record high. The Gallup poll surveyed 1,009 adults between Oct. 2 and Oct. 23, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Meanwhile, ...

‘Miniature’ mountain creature — with ‘squeaker’-like call — discovered as new species

A “squeaker”-like sound pierced the air of a mountain forest in Rwanda.

The call came from a “miniature” creature sitting on the forest floor. Scientists found the source of the sound — and discovered a new species. J. Maximilian Dehling ventured into the Nyungwe Forest on several trips between 2010 and 2018, he wrote in a study published Oct. 23 in the journal Diversity.

During these surveys, a “very small” frog caught his attention. He found six of these “miniature” frogs and, taking a closer look, discovered a new species: Arthroleptis nyungwensis, or the Nyungwe squeaker frog.