Happening now: students at Hawthorne Academy HS are out of class in a “town hall” to voice concerns after a student was suspended for reporting a sexual assault. (Story bit.ly/3BE12Ym)

School announced the “town hall” after students planned to walk out this morning A female student reported being sexually assaulted. CMPD investigated & pressed charges. But the school suspended the girl, accusing her of filing a false report.

CMS has been silent & the girl’s suspension remains.

Board members won’t answer questions wbtv.com/2021/11/02/cms…

Good morning. I'm sitting in on the first of two #publicrecords hearings this morning. The first is in my lawsuit seeking records related to Josh Malcolm from UNC-P, where the NCSBE is asking to join the suit to continue blocking my access... #ncpol The second hearing this morning is a lawsuit in which WBTV and a coalition of more than two dozen media outlets sued for access to COVID records. In that case, the state continues withholding a number of documents related to how it's handled the pandemic #ncpol

Breaking: NC House Rules Chairman David Lewis has resigned office after being charged with federal crimes #ncpol wbtv.com/2020/08/20/nc-… Lewis is charged w/ 1 count of making a false statement to a bank and 1 count of failure to file a tax return. Charges allege he withdrew money from his campaign account to a second account he controlled that was disguised as an account in the name of the NCGOP #ncpol

A bill was passed (nearly unanimously) in the dead of night that will greatly restrict access to death investigation records, including in-custody deaths. I teamed up w/ @_lucysherman & @KateReports to dig into why here's what we found #ncpol wbtv.com/2020/06/27/whi… 2/ @ncdhhs requested lawmakers make more death investigation records secret b/c, they said, some police agencies were reluctant to share records. But the Chief Medical Examiner couldn't provide a single actual example of when that has happened #ncpol

Last week, hundreds of students whose parents fought, were injured or died in war were told NC Dept of Military & Veterans Affairs would cut room & board allowance in half. It still hasn't paid any scholarship $, despite promises to do so #ncpol #ncgov wbtv.com/2019/12/05/chi… As a result of the cut--which wasn't announced until last week--schools are now demanding students re-pay money that had already been credited towards their account. Students/parents are dealing with this uncertainty during finals and as the holidays approach #ncpol #ncgov

Bailiff just announced that we CAN tweet and take pictures from the #nc09 hearing. This is a very big deal in NC, where many courthouses still don’t allow phones at all. Many props to Judge Ridgeway and @kzmyers for facilitating as much media access as possible! “Certification is a process with a mandatory timeline” Dale says. Then makes clear @MarkHarrisNC9 wants NCSBE investigation to continue after he’s certified. “We can’t be in a process that has no end.” #nc09 #ncpol