CHARLOTTE (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — Mayor Vi Lyles pledged millions of taxpayer dollars for her Racial Equity Initiative, but Charlotte City Council members are saying they didn’t even know the initiative was happening until her announcement on Monday.

The two council members, who in general are on opposite sides of the aisle, came together in calling out Lyles. Councilman Braxton Winston and Councilman Tariq Bokhari said they found out about the $100 million dollar public pledge when the mayor announced it on stage at Johnson C. Smith University .

Winston thinks there’s a lot of great ideas in the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, but he also wants to make sure the plan lines up with her promises.

“First and foremost, my responsibility is to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. And since we weren’t necessarily at the table, during those negotiations, and forming this public private partnership, I’m going to be definitely focusing on: how do we get the people’s voice at this table that has been set?” Winston said.

FOX 46 asked why wasn’t the Council aware of the millions of dollars being pledged by the Mayor?  Councilman Bokhari said they were told by the City Manager, Marcus Jones, and Lyles, that they needed to approve last minute funding requests.

“But it was at a super high level where we asked for details, and no one had come back and shown us anything, even though we had asked. So it was really surprising that they would come back and say, well, we need you to approve this right now, at a retreat,” Bokhari explained.

Bokhari questioned why these requests were so urgent, or why they couldn’t vote to approve an actual plan to see where the money is going.

“The city manager said, ‘No, that won’t work if we do it that way.’ And everyone was confused. I was the only ‘no vote’, everyone else decided to go along with it. And lo and behold, now it all makes sense. The Mayor wouldn’t have been able to stand on that stage and call it a public private partnership, had they not pulled that fast one on us last week, there would have been no commitment,” Bokhari said.

Now Councilmembers are demanding answers after not getting a seat at the table.

Mayor Lyles released a statement in response to the allegations made by councilmembers:

The City share of the ‘public commitment’ is $72 million and not $100 million. The $100 million figure announced yesterday was the public sector fundraising goal. Yesterday, it was announced that of the $100 million goal, $80 million had been secured — $8 million from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library and $72 million from the City of Charlotte.

The city funds committed to the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative were all included in the FY21 budget or the FY22 budget or were separately approved by Council as part of CARES allocation, ARPA allocation or SAFE Charlotte.

Funding Breakdown

Corridors of Opportunity – $62.25M

• $14.5M 2020 CIP Bond
• $10M FY21 PAYGO
• $1.25M FY21 General Fund Contribution (Violence Interruption Program and SAFE Charlotte grants)
• $1.5M CARES Allocation in FY21 (public Wi-Fi in Corridors)
• $14M FY22 PAYGO
• $1M FY22 General Fund and CDBG (SAFE Charlotte grants)
• $10M 2022 Planned CIP Bond 
• $10M 2024 Planned CIP Bond
  • CIP Bonds on pages 250 and 350 of the FY22 Adopted Budget book

Digital Divide – $10M

• $10M ARPA Allocation

But Winston and Bokhari maintain that it was never clear the funding approved would go towards the Mayor’s initiative. The deadline for the Mayor and Council to announce whether or not they are running for reelection is in a little over a month.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — The day started out with the finish of Samantha Froelich’s deposition which ongoing its stream of horrifying remarks she largely characteristics to defendants Eli Mosley and Richard Spencer.

Froelich testified in depth regarding the vile phrases her alt-correct colleagues utilized to describe Black individuals (“sub-human”) and Jewish people today (“soiled and disgusting” “scum” “gross”).

Froelich, prone to her then boyfriend’s coercing, agreed to turn out to be a fascist in December 2016. She became a member of the group “Identification Europa” by filling out an application. She then took on the purpose of women’s coordinator and conducted interviews with other applicants.

Substantially of her testimony, among yesterday and currently, revolved all-around detailing RaHoWa or Race Holy War which she claimed was “physical violent confrontation between white persons and every other race.” Introducing that it would be “a further civil war” and the objective to “battle till all the races are dead.”

Froelich was living with defendant Elliot Kline aka Mosley in the course of 2017 and testified that he saw the Unite The Correct rally as a fight in preparing for RaHoWa. At some issue, Froelich turned romantically concerned with defendant Spencer as effectively. Although Spencer, in his opening explained he had almost nothing to do with his co-defendants, Froelich frequently and unequivocally related Mosley and Spencer.

Froelich is no more time linked to the alt-right movement and in fact, aids some others to get better from this kind of associations.

The following witness known as by the plaintiffs was a defendant and neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach. At the time of the Unite the Proper rally, Heimbach was the chairman of the defendant Traditionalist Worker Celebration. The plaintiffs’ attorney was capable to establish Heimbach had past communications with co-defendants Cantwell, Kessler, and Fields.

Heimbach carries on cross-examination by Cantwell on Wednesday.

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(FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Our quiet stretch is coming to an conclusion! It stays great and peaceful Tuesday night with lower temperatures falling into the 40s.

Clouds return Wednesday and temperatures cool into the 50s. It will be substantially chillier tomorrow!

Cold air seeping in will established the stage for a chilly, raw working day on Thursday. Moisture increases Thursday as a storm swipes us to the south. Anticipate some rain showers in the Piedmont late Wednesday into Thursday. It might be chilly more than enough for a snowflake or two in the maximum elevations.

Temperatures on Thursday struggle in the 40s! Anticipate highs in the 30s in the mountains.

Our storm exits on Friday, but chilly air rushes in. Be expecting daytime highs in the 50s and cold right away lows in the 30s. Frost is anticipated this weekend with early morning lows in the 30s! Choose in or deal with up any chilly-delicate vegetation.

It stays awesome, tranquil, and sunny all weekend with highs in the middle and upper 50s.

Tonight: Partly cloudy. Reduced: 44.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy. Higher: 57.

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GASTON COUNTY, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — A Gaston County person is in jail and charged next a report and investigation into intercourse crimes he is accused of committing that involved kids.

Investigators charged 35-yr-outdated James Rolland Starr Jr. with two felony counts of indecent liberties with a youngster. The mother of the victims described the incident to the law enforcement.

US Marshals assisted Gaston County Law enforcement with Starr’s arrest. He is getting held in Gaston County Jail without the need of bond pending a 1st physical appearance in courtroom.

The investigation into the crime is ongoing.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – A motion was submitted on Tuesday for the court docket to contemplate dismissing expenses filed versus Mark Carver in link to the 2008 murder of a UNC Charlotte college student.

On Tuesday, a movement was submitted to dismiss the costs and for a modification of a pre-trial release.

The Gaston County man was convicted in 2011 for the 2008 murder of Ira Yarmolenko. He was serving a life sentence for the killing following the 20-year-aged was found strangled to death on the financial institutions of the Catawba River, authorities explained.

Carver was produced from prison in 2019, eight a long time soon after currently being convicted. In 2019, a choose set apart Carver’s conviction granting him a new trial.

At that time, the decide mentioned his defense lawyer did not effectively examine touch DNA, Carver’s only connection to the crime scene.

Carver was issued an digital checking product although out of prison awaiting his re-demo. He was not place below house arrest.

Reporter Derek Dellinger will have the most current updates on this case Tuesday commencing at 4 p.m. on FOX 46

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MUNCIE, Ind. (WXIN) — A young woman is alive after three Indiana police officers rescued her from a sinking car in the White River.

On Sunday morning, just before 1:30 a.m., Delaware County Dispatch received a call from a woman who said she was trapped inside of her car in the river.

The 18-year-old frantically said to a dispatcher, “Hello, I – I’m in the White River and my car — the doors won’t open. I – I don’t know what happened.”

For nearly six minutes, that dispatcher remained on the line with the woman, trying to keep her calm and learn more information as officers responded to the scene, worked to locate her car and help get her out.

The driver, whose family said is a first-year Ball State University student, told dispatch she wasn’t sure what happened and believed she briefly closed her eyes and the next thing she knew she was in the river.

Officer Casey Bell, who’s been with the Muncie Police Department just under three years, arrived and said he saw the hatchback with the front-end almost completely underwater and the back almost submerged as well.

“I went completely to the bottom of the hill just to see what was going on. Once I got down there, I took all my gear off, jumped in the river and saw that there was a female trapped in the driver’s seat,” said Bell. “I tried to open the door and it wouldn’t open from the outside.”

Sgt. James Lenox, an 18-year veteran of the department, arrived and said he spotted Bell already in the water and ran down to help.

“As I’m coming down the hill, he’s asking for a baton,” said Lenox. “I was going to start taking all my gear off until I was like, we ain’t got time.”

Lenox gave Bell the baton and went around to the passenger side of the vehicle to try and find another way in.

“As soon as I came around the corner, the current hit me, and I grabbed ahold of the door handle and it swept my legs backward, so I was kind of like Superman-ing it,” Lenox described.

Sergeant Greg Skaggs, who has been with the department for 10 years, was the next to arrive.

“I pulled up and see that they’re already getting in the water and I hear them trying to break the window,” said Skaggs. “I immediately stripped my gear off as I’m going towards the river and jumped right in with them.”

When the officers reached the woman, the water was already up to her neck. On a 911 call, the woman frantically told the dispatcher, “It’s so cold and it’s coming up to my neck. It’s not stopping.”

“Please help me,” she begged.

Skaggs, Lenox and Bell knew every second mattered.

“I started hitting the window until I could get a hole big enough just to stick my hand through,” said Bell.

He was able to reach through the hole but was still having difficulty opening the door, so he cleared the glass out of the way until he could pull the woman through the window and out of the car.

“Once I removed her, the car was completely underwater. I mean it was a second after I removed her that it was completely underwater,” said Bell.

The officers helped the woman to shore and said they were initially worried there may be another person in the car.

“After that point, Sgt. Lenox had mentioned he thought he saw somebody else’s head inside the vehicle,” said Skaggs.

“I thought somebody was in there. My heart sank, I was fearful that somebody was going to die in there,” Lenox said.

Skaggs volunteered to check the car and went head-first into the hatch, which had popped open from the current, to make sure there was nobody else trapped inside.

“I told Officer Bell, I was like, ‘Hey grab my feet, I’m gonna go in this way and feel around and see if I can find anybody,'” said Skaggs.

Because the current was so strong, Bell held on to his legs and feet as he went in and helped pull him out when he confirmed there was nobody inside.

“It’s impossible to see because the water was so dark,” said Bell. “It was six feet at least, probably in the water, and currents were strong.”

The three officers said they were relieved to find out there was nobody else inside the car.

“That was a huge relief. Huge,” said Lenox.

“It was a wide range of emotions,” said Skaggs, who added, “More just the happiness after walking away knowing that there was nobody else in the car and we saved this young woman’s life.”

MPD Deputy Chief Melissa Pease said, “When I watched the bodycam videos, I was just very impressed. I mean, it was just great teamwork by all of them.”

“I don’t think any of the officers involved took a moment to think about what possibly could’ve happened to them. It was they had a job to do when they went in there and completed it,” she added.

Albeit cold and wet, the officers were uninjured, and the woman was transported to the hospital with injuries believed to be non-life-threatening. She has since been released from the hospital, her family confirmed.

Police do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.

“She’s calling for help and hoping someone can come and rescue her, and I’m so thankful that our officers were able to do that,” said Pease.

“Every call that we go on is an unknown, you know, you may have information that tells you what it is, but it’s never going to turn out exactly how the call is put out,” said Pease.

Pease said all officers train in the academy for water rescue, but the city has a dive team and fire department that typically responds to these types of calls. Skaggs, Lenox and Bell knew there was no time to wait in this situation.

“We were able to save a life, and that’s what our jobs are,” said Skaggs. “We’re here to serve the community, and at the end of the day, that’s what we did.”

“It’s not my first water rescue, but it definitely is the most emotional one,” said Lenox, who participated in around eight water rescues over the years.

“We’re here to do a job. We did our job and we don’t think of ourselves as heroes. We get in here to make a difference,” Lenox added.

“I’m glad that we had the outcome that we did because it could’ve went south very quickly,” said Bell.

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) — Leaders across South Carolina hosted a ceremony Monday morning to rejoice a major phase to get the names of South Carolina veterans on a memorial.

Condition and community leaders hosted a ceremony in Greenville to rejoice more than $220,000 and counting elevated by former South Carolina senator Lewis Vaughn and Greenville’s Foothills chapter of the Korean War Veterans Affiliation

The cash will support with a $22 million national challenge committed to developing a wall of remembrance in Washington, D.C. to honor the life of individuals who died or went missing in the Korean War.

“We have a passion to get it accomplished for our veterans who desired this done for these a lengthy time. We have to make it a reality and we are likely to make it a truth,” John H. Tilelli Jr., retired basic at the Korean Memorial Wall Fund, mentioned.

The Wall of Remembrance arrives approximately 70 several years soon after the Korean War finished. The war only lasted for three a long time but virtually 40,000 Us citizens misplaced their lives.

The names of an estimated 576 persons in South Carolina are envisioned to be included to the wall.

“That’s the least we can do. When you leave your property, go to some overseas area and you never come again, you are entitled to to have your identify on a monument,” S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham reported.

The Foothills #301 chapter lifted the funds as a result of fundraising and non-public donations starting off in 2017.

Regional leaders in Greenville claimed this will help honor these who gave their life for our nation.

“For those people veterans who served in the war from the United States, that exclusive circumstance of coming household, remaining in this kind of a celebratory problem and your life resumed— until it didn’t. It would make their sacrifice all the much more wonderful and some thing we have to regard,” Knox White, mayor of Greenville, mentioned.

Officials mentioned the complete Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. is at this time undergoing renovations for The Wall of Remembrance and is expected to be entirely finished by July 2022.

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HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C. (WSPA) – A bus driver has died soon after a crash involving a school bus in Henderson County on Tuesday early morning.

The incident transpired off Environmentally friendly River Rd. at about 6:50 a.m. when an East Henderson Substantial and Flat Rock Middle school bus turned in excess of on its aspect in a ditch, according to Henderson County College and sheriff’s workplace officials.

The bus driver was pronounced deceased at the scene. That individual has been determined as 53-12 months-aged Tina Gordon, according to Henderson County Universities. The lead to of death is unknown at this time.

We are exceedingly sad to ensure that immediately after a bus accident early this early morning, Henderson County Public Educational institutions missing just one of our beloved bus drivers from East Henderson Large. Tina Gordon, 53, has been portion of the HCPS Household for 10 several years, and our hearts are hefty as we mourn her decline. 

Our district’s Crisis Response Groups are utilized at the educational institutions impacted by this tragic incident, and will be available to help college students and staff members in our school communities.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms. Gordon’s family and our better school communities.

Henderson County College District

4 little ones ended up on the faculty bus when the crash happened and are alright, in accordance to Henderson County Sheriff’s Office environment. College officers say they are being transported to the medical center for evaluation.

The NC Freeway Patrol, EMS, and HCPS staff members responded to the scene. Be expecting doable delays in the place as crews get the job done to distinct the scene.

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(The Hill) — Immunity from COVID-19 vaccines and infections the two very last at least 6 months, in accordance to a science short introduced by the Facilities for Sickness Command and Avoidance (CDC).

The temporary seems at peer-reviewed and preprint data, as properly as knowledge that is unpublished by the CDC to review infection-induced immunity to vaccine-induced immunity.

The agency mentioned that out there evidence exhibits that individuals who are absolutely vaccinated and those who have earlier experienced COVID-19 just about every have “a low risk of subsequent infection for at least six months.”

Although there is a “wide array of antibody titers” in response to former an infection, “completion of a primary vaccine sequence, in particular with mRNA vaccines, ordinarily potential customers to a additional constant and bigger-titer initial antibody response,” the company reported in Friday’s temporary.

The CDC has urged every person, no matter of no matter whether they have been contaminated, to be vaccinated because it was unclear how extensive natural immunity lasts. But some have argued that persons who recovered from COVID-19 have significantly less need to have to get vaccinated.

A different review released from the CDC on Friday, which was based mostly on above 7,000 persons throughout 9 states and 187 hospitals, uncovered that vaccination far better shields from hospitalization than a earlier an infection. 

In its quick, the CDC noted that there was insufficient facts to extend the findings related to an infection-induced immunity to people who had very mild or symptomatic infection, or to children who were being infected.

The two kinds of immunity offered large levels of protection, but not entire.

“Substantial immunologic proof and a developing system of epidemiologic proof indicate that vaccination just after infection appreciably improves protection and more minimizes risk of reinfection, which lays the basis for CDC suggestions,” the agency claimed. 

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY, SC (WSPA) — Seven small earthquakes have been reported near the Monticello Reservoir in Fairfield County since last week.

This is near Jenkinsville, South Carolina.

The South Carolina Seismic Network said this type of seismic activity in this area isn’t unusual. Director Tom Owens said, “At this point, this is considered to be a swarm. They’re not fore-shocks of anything just a little cluster of earthquakes that could end tomorrow or continue for a couple of months even.”

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the strongest of the seven earthquakes was a 2.3 magnitude reported on Halloween morning.

Owens said people outside of the immediate area probably didn’t notice these earthquakes. He said, “They’re right at the threshold. If you were close to them you’d feel them a little bit.”

No damage has been reported in connection to the earthquakes in Fairfield County.

Dominion Energy says the VC Summer Nuclear Station has not seen any impacts from these earthquakes either. Unit 1 is offline at the moment for a scheduled refueling outage. The Monticello Reservoir serves as the cooling pond to the nuclear station.

Dr. Steven C. Jaume’ with the College of Charleston’s Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences Department said, “Earthquake swarms are not an uncommon occurrence in the vicinity of the Monticello Reservoir – a much larger swarm of microearthquakes occurred as the reservoir was first filled starting in December 1977.”

According to a release sent out by emergency management officials he went on to say “Thousands of earthquakes, none larger than magnitude 2.9, occurred in the years that followed. Earthquake activity declined in the late 1980’s through the mid-1990’s, but then picked up again in late 1996. Between December 1996 and mid-1999 several more earthquake swarms occurred, with nearly 1,000 earthquakes occurring at that time, with the largest being a magnitude 2.5.”

After this ‘swarm’ near the Monticello Reservoir, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division encourages all residents to stay informed about earthquake activity in the state, and to have a family emergency plan in the event of a major earthquake.

“We know our state was at the center of major earthquakes in the past. We all need to be prepared for the possibility of a large-scale earthquake, however unlikely the possibility may be,” SCEMD Director Kim Stenson said.

State emergency management officials say the epicenter of the largest earthquake ever recorded along the eastern United States seaboard was just outside of Charleston on August 31, 1886. The 7.3 magnitude quake devastated the region and was felt from Chicago to Cuba. According to a study commissioned by SCEMD, an earthquake of similar magnitude occurring today would result in tremendous loss of life, severe property damage and extreme economic loss. Results of the study are detailed in the South Carolina Earthquake Guide.

To download the SC Emergency Manager app click or tap here.

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