The CFPUA board unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday that authorizes Executive Director Jim Flechtner to complete design and permitting for the project as well as obtain bond funding and construction bids.
“It is Mr. Campbell’s position that, due to the N.C. State Board of Elections position that Mr. Green’s [sic] election was never certified, Mr. Green was without legal or actual authority to either demote or terminate Mr. Campbell.”
The Uniform Crime Reporting Act of 1988 requires federal law enforcement agencies to submit information about their cases to a federal database maintained by the FBI; however, those agencies are currently not submitting data, including information about hate crimes.
In the midst of unprecedented confusion in Columbus County over who should be serving as sheriff, some deputies have been terminated from their job. While North Carolina law generally gives sheriffs broad latitude to fire at will, pending legal challenges bring the recent firings under scrutiny.
The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority wanted the money to pay for new granular activated carbon (GAC) filters meant to filter GenX and other PFAS compounds out of drinking water.
Exactly six months after the White Oak Dike breached and sent floodwaters spilling into the community of Kelly, the small community’s residents took their local elected officials to task.
Capt. J. Dixon with the Holden Beach Police Department said in an email Tuesday afternoon that the investigation into Judy Brock’s disappearance is ongoing.
New Hanover County is filtering out per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) at its landfill, according to sampling results from the NC Department of Environmental Quality.
After election fraud put the national spotlight on Southeastern North Carolina, WECT Investigates took a look at how other Cape Fear area counties fared in 2018.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides information about financial institutions, including complaints. But NerdWallet and InvestigateTV have found examples of complaints that don't show up in the database.
The permit incorporates the requirements of a consent order signed Feb. 25 to install the oxidizer by Dec. 31 and reduce all PFAS emissions by 99 percent beyond the 2017 baseline.
WECT has uncovered millions of dollars in additional payouts by New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington to settle lawsuits and claims, raising the grand total spent by local governments to at least $16.6 million.
Results released this week show 1,4-dioxane of 1.8 parts per billion (ppb) in raw water on Feb. 13 and 0.54 ppb in the finished water treated at the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant on Feb. 14.
The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas for a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.
While some agencies went to great lengths to comply, an attorney for New Hanover County strategized with her colleagues about minimizing what they’d provide in response to our request. Some claimants were also ordered not to talk to the media about the terms of the settlement funded by taxpayers.
WECT has learned that most NC school districts, even some of the largest ones, opt to contract with outside attorneys on an as-needed basis rather than hire an attorney to serve on staff. While some feel the in-house attorney is an asset, others said they think it's an obstacle.
A Hibachi restaurant in Wilmington was closed indefinitely last week and its permit revoked after county health inspectors found nearly 30 violations at the business.
The former two top officers of the union representing thousands of workers at Smithfield Foods siphoned off hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds for personal use.
Documents unearthed through a subpoena appear to show contradictory information about when Columbus County Sheriff candidate Jody Greene lived in that county. Greene's residency is the subject of an ongoing challenge to his legal eligibility to serve as sheriff.
This four-degree difference applies to restaurants, cafés, school cafeterias, grocery stores, gas stations, caterers, hotels, and any other type of food service facility requiring health department inspection.
The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is reconsidering its motion against Chemours after the chemical company filed a revised legal agreement with the state Department of Environmental Quality on Wednesday.
The updated agreement will now require Chemours to report monthly GenX air emissions, analyze PFAS buildup in river sediment, and provide filtration systems in certain public buildings for drinking water fountains and maintain them for 20 years.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality will hold a public meeting and hearing Monday on a draft air permit for Chemours to install and operate a thermal oxidizer/scrubber system for emission control at their Fayetteville Works Facility.
Hate crimes across the country have increased by 17 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to the FBI. Locally, though, the Cape Fear area hasn’t seen the same trend. Numbers have consistently fluctuated between seven to nine incidents each year.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections will take up the query into alleged fraud in the state’s 9th district and beyond on Monday, Feb. 18, but the road to the Raleigh hearing has been long and winding.
According to government reports, there is evidence that the main oversight agency for seafood, the Food and Drug Administration, has failed to meet new mandates to increase inspections at foreign food facilities.
On Tuesday, Feb. 12, parties on both sides of the aisle submitted their final argument briefs for consideration, as well as a list of witnesses attorneys intend to call.
WECT investigates the history of the White Oak Dike, and how decades of miscommunication put hundreds of people at risk during and after Hurricane Florence.
Email from State Board of Elections attorney Joshua Lawson to Columbus County attorney Amanda Prince raises questions about the Columbus County Board of Elections' handling of a protest filed in the sheriff’s race.
Jody Greene was stationed in Columbus County and claimed to live there on property in Cerro Gordo. Oddly, he routinely filled up in neighboring Robeson County, well across the county line and nearly 30 minutes from his alleged residence.
The New Hanover County School Board has declined a request for an independent investigation into its handling of serious issues, including concerns their inaction helped sexual predators prey on students.
The driving records of tens-of-thousands of North Carolinians are incorrect in the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles’ computer system, internal documents obtained by WBTV show.
WECT has learned the interim president of the college also works for the firm hired to conduct the college’s presidential search, a fact that isn’t sitting well with some college employees.
Under Facebook's policies, convicted sex offenders are not allowed on the site; however, InvestigateTV identified multiple offenders who appeared to have recently active profiles.
Acting Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene has posted a $25,000 bond to keep his seat as sheriff, for now. Wake County Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley ordered Greene to pay that bond as part of an ongoing legal dispute over who is the rightful sheriff of Columbus County.
WECT first uncovered the unusually high rental rate during a series of investigative reports. The VA was paying nearly $300,000 a month to rent the clinic from a private landlord. Recently released correspondence indicates the VA will work to recover any improper payments if fraud is confirmed.
Just a few hundred yards from where the Pier 33 apartment complex is preparing to break ground, a long-running dispute between the City of Wilmington and a waterfront developer continues.
A former New Hanover County high school science teacher is facing new charges in an ongoing criminal investigation into inappropriate relationships he had with his students and other minors. Mike Kelly was recently charged for sex crimes that happened a decade ago against a newly discovered victim.
Topping wrote an elaborate post on his own website, attempting to discredit his accusers, and telling readers that “WECT Can Not Be Trusted,” after our report detailing the growing number of customer complaints about his company, DTopp.
The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office is investigating a downtown Wilmington business accused of taking customers’ money and not providing promised services. WECT has received complaint after complaint about this business.
Race could have been a factor in the sexual assault and murder of a 5-year-old girl in a rural Pender County community, according to court documents unsealed this week.
A legal battle over whether the city of Boiling Spring Lakes should have to compensate a couple whose property flooded because of a city project is nearing an end, more than four and half years after the couple sued the Brunswick County community.
These candidates, whose constituencies cover Bladen County, Columbus County, Pender County, Brunswick County and New Hanover County, all listed Dowless, Red Dome, Politico Management Services or Patriots for Progress on their official campaign finance reports.
Columbus County Commissioner Edwin Russ confirms the newly elected sheriff of the county is living in a motorhome sometimes on a property he is claiming as his primary residence.
The investigation into potential election fraud in Bladen and Robeson counties has grabbed national headlines. Chuck Todd, the moderator of NBC's “Meet the Press”, said Friday many pundits in Washington, DC are expecting a new election in North Carolina's Ninth District as a result.
As evidence mounts of election fraud in Bladen County, WECT has learned this may not be an isolated problem. WECT has just uncovered that things in Columbus County may be even worse.
William Kohler Jr. is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jeff Lowe, a repo man who was towing Kohler’s truck away from his house when he was shot and killed. Kohler said it was pitch black outside, and he thought he was being robbed.
Casey Roman has tackled heavy issues like opioid abuse, prostitution and homelessness in her documentaries and special reports for WECT News. Her latest effort centers around lawsuits filed against hog farms, with multi-million dollar judgments that have put some local farmers out of business.
Bladen County Democratic Party Chairman Ben Snyder says said in an interview with WECT that reliable sources have told him McCrae Dowless, who is at the center of an elections fraud investigation so serious voters may have to go back to the polls for an elections do over, upped the ante this electio
Amidst the Bladen County elections fiasco which has delayed the certification of a US Congressional race, another top elections official has just resigned.
The State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement confirmed several pieces of information surrounding the investigation into potential elections fraud in the Ninth Congressional District race, including the fact that the political committee of Bladen County Sheriff James McVicker received a subpoena
Three Republican Senators from North Carolina are calling on Governor Roy Cooper to create a bipartisan task force to investigate voting irregularities spanning multiple election cycles, including the 2016 gubernatorial election.
A WECT investigation of court records and transcripts reveal court-appointed attorneys, assistant district attorneys and a judge went out of their way in Chauncy Askew and Raheem Davis' prior criminal cases to help them succeed.
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Torre Jessup took action on at least four occasions that reversed the recommendation or decision of staff, hearing officers and, in one case, a Superior Court judge, to the benefit of specific individuals.
The two people who provided the notes to WBTV asked they not be identified to provide documents that could later become evidence in the ongoing investigation by the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
WECT uncovered documents at the Bladen County Board of Elections office that show McCrae Dowless, a convicted felon who has done prison time after convictions for fraud and perjury, personally turned in hundreds and hundreds of absentee ballot requests leading up to the November election.
A Wilmington insurance agent sat down with WECT to share advice and answer some of the most common questions people with insurance claims for storm damage are asking.
