WRAL Newscasts
6AM News on WRAL - Thursday, July 11, 2024
Popeyes has the wings you crave as a meal, a snack, or at your next party for just $5.99 for a six-piece. Crunchy spicy bone-in wings or tender, white meat boneless wings are seasoned to perfection in Louisiana herbs and spices, and then tossed in so many different amazing flavors that you can tell if one is better than the last. Pick your wing, choose your sauce, and savor all the flavor possibilities. It's the best of both wings and they're just $5.99 for a six-piece. Participate in your best restaurant. Breaking news this morning, at least two people are badly heard after a crash on New Hope Church Road in Raleigh. What we've learned about the crash from the WRO breaking news tracker. And breaking news, we've gone from tropical to tolerable with our dew point. I'll show you how much more comfortable it'll feel when you step out the door. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in North Carolina again today paying another visit. The latest push from the Biden campaign in our state and what we're expecting to hear from the president later tonight. In ugly end to a huge international soccer match in Charlotte, why players say they went into the stands at Bank of America Stadium to brawl with fans. Ooh, this flying there. A lot of drama off the field. We'll have more on that in just a moment, but first, no brawling here. We've got a beautiful sunrise for you at six o'clock unless there's something you need to tell me here, Jeff. Okay. All right. I've read it to you. We're good. I'm Jeff Hogan. There were kids in the stands. That was just a nasty scene there. I feel like everybody's just hot under the collar lately with all of weather and the heat that we're dealing with. Elizabeth Carter, a little bit of a break after that rain came through. Yeah, it feels a little bit better as you step outside this morning. Yesterday, our dew point was way up in the mid to upper 70s and it's dropped now to 63 and technically on our little dew point monitor here, that puts us at nice. Now it is still warm. It is 74. So if we could drop the temperature to 63, you'd walk outside and be like, oh, but at least it doesn't feel as heavy when you step outside. So this is a look at our hour by our heat index. Yes, it is still going to feel like mid to upper 90s for this afternoon because we're going to have a little bit of moisture in the atmosphere. Yesterday, it was 105 to 110. So that is a little bit of a break. We also have a small chance for some thunderstorms mainly this evening and overnight along in east of I-95. The bulk of us aren't going to see any of that rain today, but that same front will back up over us and bring us a good chance for rain tomorrow. Some of that's likely to be heavy at times, some significant amounts, and I'll show you how much and we'll go over the timeline. In the meantime, it will be another fairly hot afternoon 94 again. All right, Elizabeth, at 601. We're seeing a lot of green showing up on a map this morning. Interestingly enough, Raleigh police have been really busy this morning. Just working crashes on local roads like Newherp Church Road, Pools Road, but nothing that's going to affect your morning commute at all. If you're getting out this morning, all the major routes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, all delayed free this morning. 540 E-sponlane, there's some type of roads that hasn't near the Glenwood Avenue interchange, but it's not affecting traffic at all. As you can see here, nothing but green showing up there on I-540. Let's give you a look outside in I-40 and Lake Wheeler Road. Those of you heading out this morning, and this is part of your morning commute, delay free in both directions at this house. Good morning. I'm Chris Lovenga in the WRL Live Center. For our friends and Holly Springs, the banner you're seeing at the bottom of your screen right now looked very different seconds ago. There was a power outage, but if you look here on the Duke Energy Map, it appears cleared up. This is right around, again, Holly Springs on Sunset Lake Road where we were not too, too long ago. We saw some Duke Energy crews there restoring the power. Several hundred people were at one point. You'll see at that right there, that officer had to block the road just because they were trying to restore the power here. It's not quite clear what led up to that outage, but again, judging from this map from Duke Energy, it appears that outage has actually cleared up there, so hopefully people are starting their day a little calmer now that the power is back on. Good news for those folks. We have breaking news out of Raleigh this morning. At least two people badly heard after a crash on New Hope Church Road. This happened just after 2.30 this morning. Video from the WRL Breaking News Tracker shows two cars were involved. Raleigh Police say a person was pinned inside one of them, had to be extricated from one of those cars. The road reopened about 4.30. There's no word on whether any charges will be filed. We'll keep it in Raleigh where there's more breaking news. Crews responded to a house fire in Raleigh's historic Oakwood neighborhood. The fire call came in around midnight. You're looking at video from the WRL Breaking News Tracker on Elm Street. We're working to learn the extent of the damage and whether anyone was home at the time. Today, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in North Carolina once again. She's visiting Greensboro as President Biden is facing a crucial point in his reelection bid. Dobero's Kelsey Coffey is live in the legislative building this morning in Raleigh and Kelsey. The Biden administration, the campaign, is churning up the pressure in North Carolina as it tries to rebuild momentum. Jeff, they are and we'll see Kamala Harris in Greensboro in a few hours and just this image here outside of the legislative building is quite symbolic looking at the American flag flying next to the state flag as North Carolina voters will play a key role in who's elected to lead our nation in November. Harris made a stop in Charlotte last month. Today's visit to Greensboro marks her sixth visit to our state this year. This comes as President Biden faces pressure to abandon his reelection bid. Biden trails behind President Trump by several points in recent polls. The Biden campaign is focusing on narrowing that gap here in North Carolina. Trump won the state by fewer than 75,000 votes back in 2020. Laura Leslie from our WRL NC Capital team weighs in. For the Biden campaign to hold three separate campaign events in North Carolina in the last week and a half is a pretty clear sign that they are counting on North Carolina as part of their path to the White House. And we will have a crew in Greensboro this morning to keep you posted on Harris's visit. Kelsey Coffey, WRL News, live in Raleigh. Security preps are underway for next week's Republican National Convention as Donald Trump prepares to announce a running mate. About 50,000 people are expected to attend the convention in downtown Milwaukee. During the convention, former President Trump will be formally selected as the Republican presidential nominee. New polling shows how close the race is between Trump and President Biden here in North Carolina. A Bloomberg poll conducted last weekend shows in a two-way race buying his three points behind Trump. We're working to learn more this morning about a three-car crash in Fayetteville. This is video from the WRL Breaking News Tracker. It shows the aftermath of the crash on Merckison Road at Pammelly Drive. It's the same intersection where there was a deadly hit and run crash that happened Tuesday night. This crash happened about 11-15 last night. We're trying to find out if anyone was hurt. Covering Wake County, a lightning strike is being blamed for a house fire in Kerry. Fire crews arrived at the three-story home on Carpenter Upchurch Road around 9-15 last night. Our crews were kept back away. Firefighters say the fire started in a chimney before spreading to an upper-story room. Crews were able to put the fire out in about 20 minutes. No one was hurt. Today, Raleigh and Wake County leaders will talk about the region's triumphs, challenges, and priorities for the future. They'll be speaking at the annual State of the City Council in Schools' event. The Raleigh Chamber is hosting the sold-out luncheon. Guests will hear from Raleigh's Mayor, the Chair of Wake County Commissioners, the Wake Schools Superintendent, and other leaders. It runs from 11-30 to 1-30 at the Raleigh Convention Center. I'm looking forward to emceeing the event. WRL is the media sponsor. You can watch the event live on WRL.com. We'll also have coverage on our later newscasts. OSHA is investigating the possible heat-related death of a postal worker. Wendy Johnson worked as a postal supervisor in Fayetteville. Family members tell WRL she died June 6 after working out of the back of a postal truck without air conditioning for hours. We've reached out to the Postmaster in Charlotte to get information about the circumstances surrounding Johnson's death, but we have not heard back yet. Today, a new effort to protect children from online sexual exploitation kicks off in North Carolina. It's called "No to Protect," Homeland Security Investigations Charlotte Office is partnering with Governor Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein on the campaign. They'll speak more about it during an event in Raleigh this afternoon at 1. WRL will be there and we'll have a report on our later newscasts. For the second time in just days, a dog owner is facing charges for leaving a dog in a hot car in Wake County. Paul Fisher made his first appearance in court yesterday. He's accused of leaving a dog in his car in the parking lot of a motel in Kerry. First responders say the inside of that car was well over 100 degrees. The assistant DA said in court that at the time, Fisher gave this excuse. He said that he knew the dog was in the car and put the dog in there and he played with the dog was asking out. Yeah, well, in court, Fisher asked for a public defender. He is currently being held on a $5,000 bond and is barred from having any animals and is due back in court July 31st. State education leaders are focusing on soft skills to train North Carolina students for future jobs. State Superintendent Catherine Truitt is working with schools to make sure they teach soft skills and even grade students on them. What do we mean by soft skills? Communication, adaptability, empathy, and new research identified jobs that require those skills. This is a focus of Truitt's portrait of a graduate initiative. She'll be talking about it later this morning at the State Board of Education meeting. 609 now, a well-known coffee shop, announces it is closing a second location in the triangle. Why BU Cafe since the pandemic continues to affect its operations. And scary moments at Bank of America Stadium yesterday after a huge brawl, why some soccer players say they had no choice but to get involved. And it's not going to feel quite as hot today as it did yesterday. We had a nice little drop in our dew point but it'll feel even cooler tomorrow as we have some significant rain in our forecast. I'll show you the timeline and how much you can see. As you get into your cartoon to WRL news plus on your radio in Raleigh on 99.3 FM in Durham 96.5 FM and everywhere on 101.5 HD 3. Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get juicy Washington red cherries for $2.99 a pound then get 10 for 10 on items like Lay's Stacks, Rice Oroni, and Sparkling Ice Sparkling Water for $1 each all with your card. Shop these deals at your local Kroger today or tap the screen now to download the King Supers app to save big today. King Supers, fresh for everyone, prices and product availability subject to change, restrictions apply. See site for details. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90 compared to our older designs. Working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable, and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's Energy in Progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. 6-12 is a nice start out there this morning. We take a live look at Goldsboro. There's a mixture of sun and clouds. We're going to stay mostly dry today. There's a small chance that some of our eastern counties could see a few thunderstorms. We take a look at temperatures as you're heading out. It looks warm out there. 79 in Tarboro, 78 in Fayetteville, 80 in Goldsboro, 77 in Rocky Mountain. But we've seen a big drop in our humidity at least across parts of the viewing area because of some thunderstorms that we saw yesterday in a cold front moving through. So it doesn't feel as oppressive as you step outside. A little more comfortable when you're walking the dog this morning. Our dew point is down into the tolerable zone instead of being way up at tropical. Now it's still going to be a hot afternoon. We'll see high temperatures in the mid 90s. It'll feel like upper 90s. A big rain storm headed our way for tomorrow. I'll show you the timeline, Ken. Well, that's what's happening now in the W.R. Traffic Center. Really good news this morning, especially if you're getting ready to head out. Nothing but green showing up on the map, particularly in the capital city. The belt line, I-40, not a problem to report this morning. I'd take a closer look at Durham Chapel Hill, Hillsboro. Similarly, all the major routes, 85, 40, 70, all delay-free at this hour. Today, a funeral is happening in Milwaukee for a man who died after being pinned by security guards outside a hotel. Devante Mitchell died last month. His family says body camera video and security footage shows guards attacking and beating him before pinning him down on the ground. That video has not been made public. Protesters gathered in Milwaukee yesterday to show their support from Mitchell and his family. Then they marched to the hotel where he died. Prosecutors say Mitchell's death is being investigated as a homicide. The family has hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent them. The U.S. military peer off the coast of Gaza will soon be permanently removed. At least four U.S. officials confirm that the peer will be taken down as early as next week. It was built to deliver aid to people suffering as the Israel Hamas war continues. The 230 million-dollar temporary operation has been plagued with problems. The peer is expected to be used at least one more time this week to deliver any remaining humanitarian aid in to Gaza. Less than a month after a downtown Durham coffee staple closed its doors. The business announced it is also winding down operations at another location. In a social media post, BU Cafe says the last day at the boxyard RTP location will be next Tuesday. The company says the decision was necessary as they continued restructure after the pandemic. BU closed its longtime brick and mortar location on main streets June 19th. It was a chaotic scene following Columbia's Copa America's semi-final win over Uruguay in Charlotte yesterday. W-R-L's Michelle McConaughey is here now with the shocking video from Bank of America Stadium and what we know about what happened. Michelle. Yeah, this was scary. After a contentious match, Uruguayan players brawled with fans in the stands following that game. I want to show you the video here. Cameras captured several players walking into the stands at Bank of America Stadium and exchanging punches with Columbia fans. You can see some throwing drinks. Security staff tried to hold them back. But Uruguayan players say Colombian fans began harassing their families and they were trying to protect them. Uruguayan player Jose Jimenez says it was a disaster. Some had newborn babies in the stands. He said their families were in danger. The announcer at the stadium did ask fans to leave, but several supporters remained there in a statement. South American soccer's governing body said it strongly condemns any act of violence that affects football, but just such a scary ordeal for everybody involved here. Yeah, not unusual to see brawls on the field, but unfortunate that it went into the stands and involved those families too. And little kids are there and watching all this. All right. Thanks, Michelle. This morning on today, Craig Melvin's one-on-one interview with LeBron James ahead of the Paris Olympics. Craig asked LeBron what compelled him to suit up for Team USA one more time. Team USA has given a lot to me. So I feel like, you know, it's an opportunity for me to give back. And I'm happy to be a part of, you know, the main senior national team once again, you know, being in Paris and being alongside, you know, you know, some of the greats that we've ever seen as Steph Curry covering the rent. Just to name a few. And they think the same. He's the king. You can catch more of that interview about LeBron's legacy this morning on today. It starts right after this newscast here on WRL 7 a.m. Mother Nature put on a show last night over Raleigh. This video from our WRA live cam network shows the lightning flashing over North Hills as a thunder storm passed to over the triangle. I heard the thunder and it was good to finally get some rain and we'll have more of it coming tomorrow. But first, Elizabeth, we were hoping that we kind of clear the air for us today and it's still going to be hot. It is. Boy, it definitely cleared the air. It feels so much nicer when you step outside this morning. So thanks to those thunderstorms. And tomorrow it will really cool us off as well when we have that next round. Take a live look at Goldsboro, partly cloudy, same story and apex trouble. He'll courtesy at the top of the hill restaurant. And of course, our newsroom there in Fayetteville on Hays Street all looking a bit more comfortable this morning. Here's a look at the front that brought us those thunderstorms over night. Not everybody saw them. We saw them. We have a right over the triangle area. High pressure building in with clockwise flow has actually shifted our flow to northerly. It's not delivering a colder air mass or a cooler air mass, but it is delivering a drier air mass. And you'll notice the difference when you step outside. It just doesn't feel as oppressively muggy as it did yesterday. Let's talk about some of the rain from yesterday. We had a streak here in the purple and red from just west of Roanoke Rapids all the way down toward Wake Forest, where we had as much as an inch and a half to two inches of rain. That was some much needed rain. But all the green shaded area is going to be about a quarter of an inch to a trace. So it was just a narrow band where we saw some of that heavier rain. We'll head a little farther to the south. The western part of Wake County saw anywhere from an inch to about an inch and a half and then way down here in the western portion of Harnett County. We slept at three inches of rain there. So again, some some big winners there with rainfall, but most of us didn't see a significant amount. Now that's going to change. This front will slide closer to the coast and the bulk of the rain today will be to our east. But that starts to slide backwards during the day tomorrow. We'll pause at 8 p.m. tonight and then we'll pause it again in the morning on Friday. We'll stop it right there at 6 a.m. Notice how we may see some rain. First thing tomorrow morning, it could start to affect the morning commute. Some of that rain will be heavy at times, especially from the triangle area eastern. There may end up being some minor flooding. It's going to be an all day event for us. We need the rain desperately so it will be good to see. There's a very small chance that this could develop into a tropical depression, just a 10% chance. So it doesn't look like we have much of a threat there. But definitely looking at a good bit of rain over the next five days, mostly Friday. We could see anywhere from an inch of rain to two and a half inches in some of our eastern counties. So good luck in rainforest. That does mean that we have a small risk for flooding. It's a level two out of four risk. So some minor flooding, maybe some street flooding, that sort of thing. Our drought status, we have this pocket of severe drought in parts of some of our eastern counties there. And that's where we could get some of the heaviest rain tomorrow. So that's definitely some good news. Plus, it'll cool us off down to 82. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long. We get into Sunday and next week and we're right up into the upper 90s. We'll talk about which days we could see a heat advisory again. Coming up, Ken. All right, Elizabeth, we're taking a look at your morning commute this morning and at this. Oh, look at this. Nothing but green showing up on our maps, which is good news in the capital city Durham Chapel Hill, all the major routes and delay free of this hour. We are getting reports of some type of rose road hazard at I-540 around the Glenwood Avenue area. But as you can see from our sensors, nothing showing up in terms of having any delays whatsoever. If you have to take I-540 this morning, how about going outside? Let's give you a live look at I-40 and South Saunders Street. You see the sunrise coming up over the horizon there. Nothing but free and clear sailing for you in this morning commute on I-40 and South Saunders Street at this hour. A community is supporting a local business badly damaged during a police chase. And still to come, the intense crash caught on camera after this car plowed into a building in Selma and scandal at the world's most famous hot dog eating contest. How a top competitor is being accused of cheating to raise his final score. Hmm, nothing sacred. Here are your winning lottery numbers from the NC education lottery system on your screen right now. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next-gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90 percent compared to our older designs. Working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's Energy in Progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Matthew McConaughey is all right, all right, all right after showing off a selfie that really looks pretty painful. Or is he, can Smith hear now with what's trending? Can you say how? Take a look at your screen. McConaughey posted this picture on Instagram with a simple caption Bswell. Well, fans are of course buzzing about the comments with maybe pointing out how cheerful he looks even through all that swelling. My goodness. Yeah, he's smiling. Bswell. B-E-E-swell. So leave it to McConaughey to, you know, be able to find some humor in a challenging moment, but oh, it just hurts to look at it. People on Instagram, we're telling them, okay, put an ice pack, hydrocorrosome, something, and hope you feel better. Yeah, wasn't for any role in particular at all. Everybody had a remedy, right? And what scandal are the Nathan's hotdog eating contest? Fourth place vision inquiry is accused of stealing an opponent's empty plate. The plates are how judges score, how many dogs each competitor, E8. Well, very score has been adjusted from 51 and 3/4 down to 46 and 3/4 hot dogs eaten. This is just a dog-gone desperation act right here because 16-time winner Joey Chestnut wasn't in the competition. So guys got, they got desperate, I think, and they just, they were going to go to any lengths. Hotdog bun lengths, whatever it took to get it done. Even competitive eating. Yeah. New York Post had a good line and the brought thickens. Mmm, what a scandal. Mmm. Scandal. Can some of his favorite word? Thanks, Ken. What is believed to be the most expensive home in North Carolina history has just sold for nearly $14 million. Look at this beauty. The closure happened last week and the home is on Figurade Island, just north of Ritesville Beach. Last year, the island saw another sale of $13 million to learn more about this historic sale. You can go visit our website, WRL.com. Nice President Kamala Harris will be in North Carolina today. What to expect from the latest visit from a member of the Biden campaign to the state as his campaign looks to regain momentum. And hour by hour, we're going to keep it out of the triple digits today. The heat index will be in the mid to upper 90s, but I'll show you why we're seeing the change and why it'll be even bigger tomorrow. And breaking news this morning in Raleigh, what we are learning about this crash on New Hope Church Road that left at least two people badly hurt. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪