WRAL Newscasts
8AM News on WRAL - Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Kerry, get ready for the exciting new go-carry downtown loop! Enjoy easy access to downtown destinations like downtown Kerry Park, Kerry Regional Library, the Kerry Theatre and more. The loop operates Thursday through Sunday every 25 minutes and it's free to ride. Driving downtown, park at the town hall parking deck and hop on the downtown loop. With the new go-carry app, you can effortlessly plan your trip and track your bus in real-time. The app is free to download and use. Visit go-carry.org to learn more and start your journey today. Now breaking news from WRAL coverage you can count on. A vehicle on fire has multiple lanes of 40 eastbound shut down outside of Chapel Hill. We'll tell you how bad those backups are getting and the best way to get around up. And millions are without power this morning in Texas after WRAL moved through. We have a look at the destruction left behind as people are left to clean up the mess. And starting today, you can donate to the Tools for School Community Supply Drive coming up how your donation can help teachers stop their classroom this year. Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for joining us. I'm Michelle McConaughey. I'm Chris Lovinggood. Yeah, grab your cup of coffee. Stretch a little bit. Join us here as we get your Tuesday started off just right. We're going to go ahead and go to Elizabeth Gardner right now in the WRAL weather patio. I think we're starting with her first. Right? Thanks. We're coming over here because we've got some breaking news. We've got to start you off with of course get to Elizabeth in just a moment at breaking news happening out here on rather i40 over here by NC 751. Within the last 15 minutes we've had a vehicle fire out here in the eastbound lanes based on what we can see the information we're getting in right now. It seems like that vehicle fire has been extinguished but the work crews are doing to try to clear this up. That has multiple lanes closed. That is what is leading to all of these nasty backups you see on the map right here. You can see things very slow from 751 all the way up there to 15501 at this point. This is going to add about 10 maybe even 15 minutes to your drive at this point. Of course, if you're coming in from say Burlington or Graham points out to the west, you might consider diverting along NC 147 to 885. That might save you a minute or two. I want to get you out to a live look here. This is going to be the traffic camera that is just down the road from that 751 interchange. You can see multiple NCDOT crews there on that scene. Those two right lanes currently closed. You'll need to move over from there. Taking another live look. This is i40 at 751 itself. You see that traffic moving nice and slow. So again, something to keep in mind if you're headed in that way this morning. And a heat advisory begins at 11 o'clock. It's going to feel like 104 to 106 for us this afternoon. Heat index looks like this. It's already going to be in the triple digits by the time we get to lunchtime and it's just going to stay hot all afternoon. So it's going to be one of those days that you're better off staying inside through the afternoon. We do have a small chance for thunderstorms later on today. It's a 30% chance so not many of us will end up seeing storms but we'll roll through and take a look at future cast here and you can see some increasing clouds after lunchtime and then just a few isolated showers that may pop up. We saw a few yesterday. We may see even fewer for it today but we do have more rain in our forecast which we'll talk more about and just a little bit. Taking a look at the gardens this morning. It's beautiful out here but it is warm and muggy. 80 degrees right now. 75 is the dew point. So you can feel this air definitely. Well see I have 98 this afternoon but a big cool down by the end of the week with a front that will stall and a low pressure system that could bring us a nice soaker. I'll show you how much rain we can see on Friday coming up. All right thank you Elizabeth. People in Texas and Louisiana are cleaning up this in the aftermath of barrel. More than 2 million homes and businesses in Texas are without power this morning and this is while the heat index is expected to hit triple digits today. What once was hurricane barrel made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas yesterday before weakening into a tropical depression. At least three people have died in the storm. There are more than a dozen reported tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas as a result of this storm. Several communities in Louisiana have reported downed trees, power lines and damaged infrastructure. The same child care providers will get 67 and a half million dollars in funding. Governor Roy Cooper signed the stopgap funding bill into law yesterday. It's designed to fill a gap in funding that happened when federal subsidies for child care ended a week ago. The new funding is expected to be enough to keep child care providers open for several months. Lawmakers are working to find a more permanent solution. To go cocktails allowed during the pandemic are here to stay. A new law lets you take alcoholic drinks to go along with your meal in North Carolina. WOREO's Laura Levine joins us live from the legislative building this morning and Laura I'm sure some people are excited about this but it's like hold on there's still some rules with this. Oh you know it good morning Chris and during the pandemic here in downtown Raleigh it was pretty much a ghost town when bars and restaurants were allowed to do some to go mixed drinks and cocktails. When all we know not only is it coming back but it's going to be a permanent change. You know lawmakers have legalized to go cocktails yesterday to go drinks must be sealed and sold with food and they cannot be more than 24 ounces. Other alcohol changes in this law includes ABC stores can now sell gift cards. They can be open on New Year's Day, July 4th and Labor Day. Airport vendors can now sell drinks that can be carried around the terminal and beer and wine can be sold at community college sporting events. Now the state still does not allow ABC stores to be opened on Sundays and they also happy our discounts that's not happening anytime soon either. Laura Levine, WRL news live in Raleigh. And Democratic lawmakers will gather for a closed-door meeting today to talk about their concerns about President Joe Biden's campaign. Ahead of that meeting the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus says he remains fully in support of Biden. Congressman Stephen Horsford was spoke with CNN last night and he says that Biden held a virtual meeting with caucus members on Monday and he feels Biden is fit to serve as president. No member of the Congressional Black Caucus has broken against Biden yet. Former President Donald Trump says he does not think Biden will step out of the race. Trump spoke with phone, spoke over the phone with Sean Hannity from Fox News last night and he said if Biden were to step down he believes the Democratic Party would back Kamala Harris for president. It would seem to me that from a political standpoint that's who they're going with they're not even talking about alternatives and it seems that if if he gets out for whatever reason and I don't think he wants to get out but if he gets out it will be hurt. Trump's interview happened after Biden spoke with MSNBC's Morning Joe earlier in the day. In that interview Biden firmly declared that he is quote "not letting up." And in a letter sent to Congressional Democrats Biden said he believes he is the best person to be Trump. Police in Rocky Mount brought say that thieves broke into a jewelry store at the Golden East Mall. Police say the break had happened on June 23rd at Gold Rush outlet. Investigators say they're following up on leads about who the thieves may be. The FBI is also helping Rocky Mount Police with the investigation. Police have not confirmed how much was stolen from that business. Covering Wake County this morning you can help teachers who have to spend their own money on supplies for class. WRL and tools for schools are kicking off a donation drive today. WRL's Kelsey Coffey joins us live from Wake Forest is Boardy and Kelsey donations from parents and others from the community can make such a difference. Chris it really can make a big difference and it's hard to believe that it's already time to talk about going back to school but you can see that back to school sales have already started here at the Staples on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. This location is actually one of several drop-off locations for the supply drive and teachers could use your help right now. This year's supply drive comes after Wake County teachers protested in April demanding higher pay. Teachers say they're out of pocket spending for school averages more than 900 dollars a year. Let's take you to video now from last year's Community Supply Drive. Now through August 26th you can team up with WRL and tools for schools by donating. Teachers need pencils, post-it notes, notebooks and more. To find a drop-off location near you or more info on how to donate just go to our website WRL.com and search school supplies. Kelsey Coffey WRL News live in Raleigh. A controversial church in western North Carolina is hosting a campaign fundraiser for a goober editorial Mark Robinson today. Leaders of Word of Faith Fellowship has been accused of engaging in criminal behavior. This includes slave labor, financial fraud and the sexual and physical abuse of children. Robinson has made speaking at churches a key part of his campaign for governor. His speeches have focused on his opposition to gay rights, abortion and his support for traditional gender roles. More intense moments on board at Boeing Jet we are going to bring you the moments that a wheel fell from a plane carrying nearly 200 people. Plus a new ICU is opening in Wake County today. The relief it's bringing to people with loved ones who meet intensive care. And it's going to be a hot one today. 98 degrees, of course, we do have a heat advisory that's in effect for this afternoon. It's going to feel more like 104 to 106 later on. A good soaker coming in for Friday, 84 degrees. So cooler temperatures. I'll show you how much rain we can see coming up in just a few minutes. At WakeMed MyCare 365 we deliver convenience others only talk about every day of the year. Primary care and urgent care under one roof. Multiple locations, virtual visits, walk in or schedule an appointment online. From annual physicals and routine care to sinus infection strep or the flu we couldn't be more convenient. What if you could have a career where the opportunities are as vast as our nation where it's not about mission statements but a shared mission. At U.S. Customs and Border Protection we go beyond to protect more than borders from ship to shore, air to ground, cities to local communities, CBP agents and officers are keeping people safe. Join U.S. Customs and Border Protection and go beyond for something far greater than yourself. Learn more at CBP.gov/careers. Welcome back on your Tuesday morning. How about this for a nice calm look over Lake Gaston. A beautiful day. It's going to be hot out there. You're watching WRL news available on spectrum and the WRL app on your TV or streaming device. Elizabeth Gardner is on the WRL weather patio outside. It is warming up. We're going to get into some dangerous heat today Elizabeth. We have a heat advisory that goes into effect at 11 o'clock this morning. We do have a small chance for thunderstorms. We saw a few of those yesterday but it wasn't much. It's quiet out there this morning on Dual Doppler 5000 radar but this is a look at what we saw yesterday. You can see first of all just all the clear spots where you can see the brown map. That's where we didn't see any rain at all. But up near the Virginia line in Halifax, Northampton County we saw as much as two and a half inches in a very tiny pocket and same thing there in the northern part of Franklin County up to two inches. So a couple of cells there dropped some rain but for the most part we were pretty dry yesterday up to around a third of an inch or so in the sand hills yesterday and down toward Fayetteville but again nothing widespread. Same thing again today. We're not likely to see any widespread rain. We take a look at where the remnants of barrel are is that continues to move up through Arkansas. You see the red flash that shows up there at the beginning of the loop. That's where we had a tornado watch overnight. We also had tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings and those have all died down but that low will continue to lift northward and bring a lot of heavy rain along its path as it moves up towards Chicago and the Great Lakes. So here's what we know about barrel right now. It's tropical depression and it is heading north to taking the rain away from us. So that rain all stays to our west. We're not going to see any of the remnant moisture here but we will have our chance to see some Gulf moisture coming up by the time we get to the end of the week. This is a look at this afternoon. Just a small chance for some scattered storms. Not much out there for us today. Maybe even less than we saw yesterday but we'll have a better chance for tomorrow. We'll see a cold front that moves in. That front will stall over us. This is lunchtime. Here comes that front in the afternoon. Again a little bit more widespread with that chance for some rain tomorrow. Then that front will stall here and bring us an increased chance for some rain on Thursday. This is a look at what's going to be happening with the rainfall from barrel. It moves up through St. Louis and Chicago and up to the Great Lakes and then we'll have a separate system that brings us rain. You can see those red shaded colors. That's going to be as much as two to three inches of rain. There's barrel moving on up toward the Great Lakes and then that second load that develops in the Gulf and comes swinging through and that will arrive here on Friday with at least two plus inches of rain. Maybe even three inches in some places. 80 percent chance of rain on Friday. 50 percent chance on Thursday and this is a look at some of those rainfall totals. Look especially there along the I-95 quarter as much as three plus inches. The rest of the viewing area probably two to two and a half in some places. So a much much needed rain and it brings us a drop on our temperature too with the high of just 84 on Friday. It doesn't last though. We're back to 98 again on Sunday. We're continuing to follow a headache for you on the roads. This popping up outside of Chapel Hill on I-40 eastbound. As we take a closer look you can see this popped up near the NC-751 intersection. A vehicle fire within the last half hour has led to these significant backups delays stretching all the way from 751 to 15501. This is likely to add potentially 10 minutes to your drive if you're coming that way. You can see in the last few minutes we have seen some improvement. It looks like maybe one lane might still be closed there on 40 eastbound as you're coming in. You can see this is causing backups, is causing delays. If you're coming in from well to the west, places like Graham or Burlington, even Hillsborough, the better way to go might be to take 85 to 147 to 885. That might save you a couple of minutes as you're coming in this morning. Of course, a developing situation out here on the highway will stay on top of it. Let you know as things change. Jeff Hogan in the WRL Live Center. We have brand new information. It was just about this time yesterday that we were getting those alerts about that public safety alert with the sirens going off out of the Duke Energy Harris nuclear plant yesterday. Well, by way of explanation they were conducting routine silent testing of the sirens that are around Harris nuclear plant, just to make sure they're working properly. A small number of those sirens in that 10-mile emergency planning zone were inadvertently made audible. The sirens performed as designed all the Harris emergency plant. Siren system is fully functional and is operating as required. Quarterly siren testing around the nuclear plant will continue tomorrow as scheduled. That one was already on the calendars when you hear them tomorrow. That is just a test. Thanks, Jeff. Patients in Northern Wake County now have a new ICU closer to home. WakeMed North is opening its new ICU today. The unit contains nine beds and the addition is expected to reduce treatment time and cut down on transportation barriers with fewer patients being transferred to other area hospitals. They don't have to follow their loved one to the ED and then pack up and go to Raleigh campus. They can stay here and we can give them the care they need 24/7 and support the other services. It'll help our surgeons out who may have a sicker patient who needs the ICU overnight after a complicated surgery. WakeMed officials say the new ICU is fully staffed with new hires. Another mechanical failure on a Boeing jet, a wheel came off as 757 as it was taking off from Los Angeles. This is it here. The video shows the wheel bouncing down the runway at LAX Monday morning. 181 people were on the United Airlines flight traveling from LA to Denver. The pilot was able to land the plane without incident in Denver. This is the second time in recent months. A wheel has fallen off a Boeing jet operated by United. Back in March, this video here, a wheel fell off as triple seven as it took off from San Francisco on a flight to Japan. Going also except in that plea deal from the DOJ. And since heat is stretching across the United States, affecting millions of people. As Ted Lindner reports, not everyone is affected equally. Extreme heat continues tightening its grip on large swats of the country, especially across the Western U.S. Where various heat warnings are in effect from millions in California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and more. It's help. But while tourists are flocking to places like Death Valley National Park to take on triple digit temps, when you step out of your vehicle, it's like stepping your entire body out into an oven. It's just speaking. Health experts say the ongoing intense warmth is cause for alarm. On Monday, Oregon officials said at least three people in the Portland area are believed to have died from heat related illnesses over the weekend. These are probably preventable deaths, you know, based on the fact that we assume that they probably would not have expired if they had had a better cooling option. But while many large cities are no strangers to searing summers, environmental justice advocates say discriminatory housing policies dating back to the 1930s deprived many poor and minority neighborhoods of parks and other green spaces that can help absorb the sun's heat. You don't even get really get much of a breeze in some areas. In the Big Apple, more than 90% of residents in the South Bronx are black or Latino. The data shows this neighborhood can get eight degrees hotter than the more white and affluent zip codes of New York City's Upper West and East Sides. New York City health experts say black New Yorkers die from heat stress at twice the rate of white residents. That was had Linda reporting. Because of this boat fire in the San Francisco Bay is under investigation, the 40-foot boat caught fire shortly after leaving a dock area. The Coast Guard says two people abandoned the ship and were rescued by another boat. One was taken to the hospital, but at last check they're doing okay. Closing arguments will continue today in the federal bribery trial of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Prosecutors allege that bribes in the form of gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash were uncovered during a search of Menendez's home back in 2022. Menendez has pleaded not guilty. His wife Nadine and two other businessmen have also pleaded not guilty in the case. She'll be tried separately in August. Happening today, state leaders will highlight the work Fayetteville is doing to address forever chemicals and drinking water. The state's Secretary of Environmental Quality and Local Leaders will tour the Hoffer Water Treatment Plant. Last month, a report from the Environmental Working Group found Fayetteville Public Works Commission had PFAS levels above federal limits. The tour happening is happening at one o'clock this afternoon. The future of an FTC ban on non-compete agreements for workers is a bit unclear. A federal court ruling led to the plan being partially blocked. It bans non-competes that was scheduled to take effect this fall, but a judge ruled the FTC lacks the power to adopt a broad rule banning practices it determines our unfair to competition. The FTC estimates nearly 30 million people are subject to non-compete agreements. Walmart is facing a class action lawsuit over its pricing practices. The suit from an Ohio shopper claims the retailer used inaccurate price labels. It focused on multiple items bought at an Illinois Walmart in 2022, and the items were found to have markups of as much as 15 percent above the listed price. The suit says similar price discrepancies were found in other Walmart locations. A district court dismissed the case, but a federal appeals court reversed that ruling, allowing the suit to proceed. Edna will begin managing the state's health plan starting next year. It will take over third-party management from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Blue Cross had managed the plan for decades, and Blue Cross argued the state unfairly tilted the scales in Edna's favor during the bidding process. Now, a judge said that Blue Cross could not prove that claim. About 750,000 people receive health insurance through the state health plan. Coming up, the people who watch your children are able to stay open for now thanks to a new law, the funding going to child care providers, and why some say it's not enough. Plus millions of people are without power this morning in Texas as they deal with extreme heat. We're going to show you some of the extreme flooding too that's happening in that area. Carey, get ready for the exciting new GoCarry Downtown Loop. Enjoy easy access to downtown destinations like downtown Carey Park, Carey Regional Library, the Carey Theater, and more. The loop operates Thursday through Sunday every 25 minutes, and it's free to ride. Driving downtown, park at the town hall parking deck, and hop on the downtown loop. With the new GoCarry app, you can effortlessly plan your trip and track your bus in real time. The app is free to download and use. Visit gocarry.org to learn more and start your journey today. At WakeMed MyCare 365, we deliver convenience others only talk about every day of the year. Primary care and urgent care under one roof. Multiple locations, virtual visits, walk in or schedule an appointment online. From annual physicals and routine care, to sinus infection strep or the flu, we couldn't be more convenient. Learn more about our kind of care and our kind of convenience at wakemed.org. As you get into your car, tune 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. Good morning, happy Tuesday time I was 826. I'm Michelle McConnicky. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner is on the WRL weather patio. We have a heat advisory today. It's going to be hot. It's going to feel like 104 to 106 or even hotter than that in some places this afternoon, especially in some of our southern counties. Of course, the heat index will be hot. We have the heat advisory in effect starting at 11 AM, lasting all the way until 8 PM. It's going to feel like 106 in the triangle all the way up until around 5 o'clock or so, but still at 8 o'clock around 97. A little bit of fog there and pine hear starting to lift now. We're going to see those clouds breaking up there. We're seeing a mix of sun and clouds elsewhere, temperature 80 now in Rocky Mountain and in Goldsboro 79 in Torbro and Fayetteville. If you're headed out to see the sunflowers at Dixpar, go early because we'll already hit 90 by lunchtime high of 98 this afternoon. An update to a headache. We've been following for the better part of the last hour. This vehicle fire up here on 40 eastbound outside of Chapel Hill, right at that state highway 751 interchange. But in the last few minutes, we've got an update from the DOT that managed to get that vehicle out of there and all lanes of 40 eastbound have now reopened. You can see we still have some residual backups in place, but in the next couple of minutes, those should move out of the way and you should be able to continue your drive in as normal. Eric, Governor Roy Cooper signed a bill that would give child care provider 67 million dollars in funding. It's designed to fill a gap created when federal subsidies for child care came to an end July 1st. The new funding should be enough to keep child care providers open for several months. Coming up on Fox 50, how teachers in Wake County can get the supplies they need this year without spending their own money. And next on today, a look at Netflix's new series, Receiver. Gary, get ready for the exciting new go-carry downtown loop. Enjoy easy access to downtown destinations like downtown Kerry Park, Kerry Regional Library, the Kerry Theater, and more. The loop operates Thursday through Sunday every 25 minutes and it's free to ride. Driving downtown, park at the town hall parking deck, and hop on the downtown loop. With the new go-carry app, you can effortlessly plan your trip and track your bus in real time. The app is free to download and use. Visit go-carry.org to learn more and start your journey today. At WakeMed MyCare 365, we deliver convenience others only talk about every day of the year. Primary care and urgent care under one roof. Multiple locations, virtual visits, walk-in, or schedule an appointment online. From annual physicals and routine care to sinus infection strep or the flu, we couldn't be more convenient. Learn more about our kind of care and our kind of convenience at wakemed.org. We have a heat advisory that kicks in at 11 o'clock. We're going to see heat feeling like 104 to 106 this afternoon. I'll show you how many more days this week it could feel like this. Stay lawmakers have approved nearly 68 million dollars in emergency funding for childcare facilities across North Carolina, just ahead why advocates believe it isn't enough and the push for a more permanent solution. Plus, a school supply drive for teachers kicks off today. How you can help local educators get ready for their classrooms. Yes, we're talking about class. You already have year-round school in some places that have already started. Schools right around the corner. Thanks for joining us this morning here on WRON News and Fox 50. I'm Chris loving good. And I'm Michelle McConnickio. We've got to talk about the weather because we're in for some dangerous heat. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner on the WRON weather patio for us. Heat advisory is all around. Yeah, another one. This is going to be the fifth one of our summer season. It'll feel like 104 to 106 this afternoon across the viewing area. This is a look at it to hour by hour. It'll already feel like 103 by noon and then 106 into much of the afternoon and the triangle. And then finally by 8 o'clock we're back down to feeling like 97. So it's not a day that you can mess around out there. There's a small chance for showers and thunderstorms. It's only a 30% chance and so most of us won't end up seeing enough rain to help cool things down. But here's a look at futurecast. Some more cloud cover starts to fill in later this afternoon with a few isolated showers. Now tomorrow a cold front comes through and that's going to bring a slightly better chance for storms and then that front will stall and increase our chances later in the week. And so we do have a good chance of rain late this week with some significant rainfall totals. More about that coming up in the gardens this morning. It looks absolutely beautiful but boy it is sticky out here. 75 is our dew point on our temperature 80 degrees. It's fine standing here in the shade right now but standing in that full sun this afternoon we're going to get into the danger zone. We'll see you high this afternoon of 98. I'll show you a big drop in our temperature Friday with that chance of rain coming up. Some good news to a story we've been following for the better part of the last hour that vehicle fire appear on 40 each bound right outside of Chapel Hill near that NC 751 intersection. Within the last couple of minutes we got an update from NC DOT. They've gotten that vehicle out of the way. That means this traffic can start flowing as normal because all lanes of 40 each bound are now reopened. You can see we still have some traffic that needs to clear so it might still add a couple of minutes to your drive if you're on the road right now headed this way headed eastbound from Chapel Hill. But again don't anticipate that being a major issue going forward through our morning. Otherwise looking at those drive times in the Durham area you can see those delays still popping up there six minute delay from Chapel Hill. Otherwise looking pretty good just a couple of minutes across the board there. 885 looking a little sticky but otherwise no major problems. As we take a look over in Raleigh things looking a little busy over here. No major issues no major backups coming in at about eight minutes from Wake Forest so about what we would normally see. Otherwise just a couple of minute delays across the board. Again you see some delays there on the belt line on 440 and a couple of crashes we're keeping our eyes on up north. We'll bring you details on those in just a few minutes. Thank you Eric. More than two million homes and businesses in Texas remain without power this morning. Look at this video. The Houston area dealing with widespread flooding and other damage after barrels slammed the region and now the area will be under a heat advisory today with those millions of people without power. Barrel brought torrential rain an 80 mile an hour winds to the area causing flooding and storm surges at least three people in the Houston area died. The storm is expected to weaken into a remnant load today. Child care centers across North Carolina are getting help to keep their doors open. Governor Roy Cooper signed off for more than 67 million dollars to help because of COVID era subsidies ending last week. WRL's Laura Levine explains that child care providers still need more to make up for the funding loss. It was about two weeks ago when we saw child care advocates here at the General Assembly really rallying for that state funding some even pushing for more funding for raises and bonuses for child care staff. Now Governor Cooper has signed a bill providing emergency stoppage funding aimed at helping child care centers keep their doors open. The measure would authorize 67.5 million dollars in state spending on child care subsidies. The emergency funds looked to help us federal funding came to a stop at the end of June but it's still far less than the 300 million many child care advocates wanted from the state. Some argue as it stands now this will create another funding cliff in December. This should at least buy lawmakers several months to work on a more permanent solution after failing to reach an agreement on how to spend a $1 billion budget surplus. In a statement, Governor Roy Cooper said lawmakers need to do much more by extending that grant funding through 2025. He also says our children's future and economy depends on it. Laura Levine, WRL news in Raleigh. New this morning, the State Board of Elections will meet today to discuss which third party candidates will be on the November election ballot. Today's meeting will discuss a petition from the Constitution Party. This is because their request to add candidates to the ballot was denied. They claim that the decision was politically motivated. The requests to add Robert F. Kennedy and Cornell West were also denied last month. Today, world leaders will meet in Washington, D.C. for the NATO summit. This is a live look at the Capitol this morning. The summit marks the 75th anniversary of the military alliance that began after World War II. Some analysts say that President Biden's candidacy could be the main focus instead of foreign policy. Biden will also try to convince allied countries to continue their support for Ukraine. This comes after Russia yesterday launched its first major attack in months. A person was injured during a shooting in a neighborhood in Wayne County. Deputies were called to a home on Sleepy Creek Drive that was near Dudley before nine o'clock last night. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office says this was a domestic situation. We've seen some first responder traffic on audio waves indicating that more people may have been involved during this. We are actually going to have three patients with this call, the shooting victim and then two other patients as well. Real did reach out to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office to learn more about what happened here and about the condition of the person who was shot. [Music] Covering Wayne County this morning, Deputy Ned Bird will be honored with a bridge in his name. County Commissioners approved the move yesterday in remembrance of the deputy shot and killed on the job almost two years ago. The Auburn Nightdale Road Bridge over the Neuse River will be renamed the Ed the Ned P. Bird Bridge. It is near the place where Bird was killed in August of 2022. Wayne County Sheriff Willie Rowe says this is just one more way Bird's legacy will live on. You could just say a way that we can rally together and know that Ned knows that we haven't forgotten him and that he's forever in our hearts. Two brothers, Arturo and Alder Marine Sotelo are charged with Bird's murder. They face life in prison if convicted. There's no timeline yet for when the DOT will approve the name change for the bridge. A Raleigh woman who says an Uber driver dropped her off in the wrong place on purpose is calling for improved safety measures. Camille Richardson, who is blind, will be joined by a group called Disability Law United. They're having a news conference today. She says that a driver left her more than a mile away from her destination after an Uber ride in May. Disability Law United says this highlights safety concerns and discrimination faced by disabled rideshare passengers. Their news conference starts at 11 this morning that is at the offices of Disability Rights, North Carolina. Today you can help teachers in Wayne County get the supplies they need for the school year. Now through August 26th, you can team up with WREL and tools for schools to support local teachers by donating to the classroom supply drive. Teachers say they're out of pocket spending exceeds on average more than $900 a year. They need supplies like pencils, post-it notes, notebooks, and more. And to find a drop-off location near you and more information on how to donate, you can go to WREL.com and search school supplies. This morning there are questions about who a Parkinson's expert was seen during at least eight visits to the White House. This happened within the last eight months. The New York Times reports the expert also visited during the Obama administration at least 10 times. President Biden's Dr. Kevin O'Connor released a letter last night. He says the president has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical. The news conference, the news rather, comes as President Biden again reaffirmed that his decision to stay in the race despite some calls for him to step aside. First Lady Joe Biden was in North Carolina yesterday for a campaign event. She did not directly address recent calls for her husband to bow out of the race. She did say though Joe has made it clear that he is all in. She also stressed that they're ties to the military including her son and Biden's commitment to veterans and their families. That's the decision that he's made and just as he has always supported my career I am all in too. The first lady's visit is not the only campaign stop the Biden team is making to North Carolina this week. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit Greensboro this Thursday. A medical center in Raleigh is closed after a car slammed right into it yesterday. The car hit into the wake-med urgent care on Fayetteville Road. Sky-Fi flew over that scene around lunchtime. You can see that sedan crashed right through the window. We're told the car drove off the road and then hit the building. The driver suffered minor injuries. They are now charged with failure to reduce speed. The urgent care is closed until further notice. And the owner of these puppies is facing animal abuse charges after she was accused of leaving them in a hot car. This morning here why she says that's not the case. Plus another early 2000s movie is getting a sequel. What we know about a second Devil Wears Prada movie. And you are taking a live look at Fenton and Carrie this morning. Another heat advisory is in effect for most of the area Elizabeth Gardner walks us through when we'll see rain this week. At Wake Med MyCare 365 we deliver convenience others only talk about every day of the year. Primary care and urgent care under one roof. Multiple locations, virtual visits, walk in or schedule an appointment online. From annual physicals and routine care to sinus infection strep or the flu we couldn't be more convenient. Learn more about our kind of care at our kind of convenience at wakemed.org. Here's Megan with Parkway Sleep Centers. Our sleepless nights affect in your life. Parkway sleep health centers can help. We've treated sleep disorders in the triangle and beyond for over 20 years. We offer sleep studies, office visits, CPAP machines, supplies and more. And our streamlined process allows us to see you sooner and usually saves hundreds of dollars. And sleep problems. Live your best life. Experience the Parkway Sleep Difference. Visit parkwaysleep.com and start your journey to better sleep today. Parkway Sleep Health Centers. Sound sleep. Sound health. Nice quiet way to wake up this morning looking at White Lake. Beautiful blue skies there today. Temperature-wise it's going to be a warm one today. Elizabeth Gardner down the WREO weather patio getting you started for your weather forecast today. Beautiful out here on the patio in the gardens. But the sun just kind of came out from behind the clouds. I got a little bit of a shade right here. You turn around and of course you can see how much sunshine there is in the garden right now. And it's early on. Once we get closer to lunchtime it's really going to feel hot out here. 80 degrees right now. It's just a light southwest wind at five miles per hour. But we're going to hit 90 by lunchtime and it'll feel more like triple digits already. We do have that heat advisory that goes into effect at 11 o'clock this morning. Heat index 104 to 106 or maybe even hotter than that in some places this afternoon. So how many heat advisories are normal for a year? About eight to nine and in terms of our excessive heat warnings it's one to two. We already hit our two for the year. Hopefully it's all we'll see. You remember last weekend Friday and Saturday we were under an excessive heat warning and we've already had counting today five heat advisories. So we're halfway to the normal in terms of our heat advisories and we still have the rest of July and all of August to go. It's possible that we get into August and our pattern changes up a little bit. You know we'll we'll see how that goes. 98 in Raleigh today 97 Durham 98 in Fayetteville and we're looking at 105 this afternoon in the triangle as well for today and tomorrow. And so it's possible that we would be under a heat advisory again tomorrow. That's going to put us at six for the year with an average of eight or nine. Well look at that two point. Oh it just keeps climbing. It's 75 right now 73 when I came in this morning. So it just feels worse and worse. The higher that number the harder it is for your body to cool itself. Our body's cool by producing sweat. That sweat evaporates into the air and that's a cooling factor for us as you know humans or anything else that happens to sweat. And the more moisture there is in the atmosphere the less that sweat can evaporate and so it really decreases the cooling power that we have. So it just feels hotter. Monkey Meter stays way up at tropical all the way through the weekend. Some thunderstorms would be helpful to help cool things down as long as we don't have anything severe. We don't have any severe weather in our forecast right now. Tori Dupree sent us this leading edge of a thunderstorm coming across McCoy and that's a pretty traumatic photo. Love it. WRL.com search weather watchers sends us a few photos. We would love to see them. It is nice and quiet out there right now and we're looking at just a small chance for some scattered thunderstorms that later on today. Not likely to see much coverage. It'll be maybe even less than what we saw yesterday but those chances will go up over the next couple of days. It creeps up a little bit tomorrow with a cold front and then that front will stall bringing us an even better chance on Thursday and Friday at low comes in. Really cools us down into the mid 80s and could bring us as much as a couple of inches of rain. These French bulldog puppies are recovering this morning inside the way county animal shelter. Their owner is now charged with animal cruelty accused of leaving them inside the car with the windows rolled up and no AC on. But she says that's not what happened. Apex police say Whitney Johnson left the puppies in the hot car while she went into a first watch restaurant. Johnson who is a dog breeder claims the car was running and the back windows were lowered. Police say the puppies were taken to emergency services. One had to be euthanized because of its condition. Johnson says that she believes police body camera video shows the pups were not suffering from heat exhaustion. I would lock my own child against one hot car. So why would I do that to my puppies? These are my babies. These are her babies. These are her babies. We would never do that. We love our animal. Johnson is due to appear in court August 1st. We're working to find out the name of the woman who died after her car crashed into a power pole in Goldsboro. This happened just before six o'clock last night at the intersection of ash and center streets. Two people were in the vehicle at the time. The woman who died was the passenger. The driver was taken in for speeding and failing to stay in the correct lane. A memorial ride in Rocky Mount took a surprising turn that seriously injured two motorcycle riders. They were with hundreds of other bikers when a witness says a car pushed them off the road. It happened during the big mic memorial ride on Saturday. The ride was organized to honor a beloved employee of Flying Iron Harley Davidson. A witness says that Linwood and Amy Mercer were knocked off their bikes when a car merged into the line of motorcycles on US 64. They were airlifted to a hospital in Greenville and are expected to recover. Rocky Mount Police say no charges have been filed at this time. A group of young hikers reported missing near the Royal Fire in California are back home safely this morning. Investigators discovered the teen's cars in a parking lot. That was on Sunday night. A helicopter search crew spotted the hikers around seven yesterday morning and they say one of the older teenagers who knew the area led the hikers away from the Royal Fire. After five hours of hiking they made it to a command center. Relief so relieved so happy it's just you know that period of time when you don't know what's going on and it's like I know all these kids are capable but yes it's a pure relief. Clearly a happy father there to know that his child is safe. The Royal Fire has burned more than 200 acres and the cause of that fire that's still being investigated. And from that discovery to an amazing find that will just blow your mind. These two paleontologists one from NC State one from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have not as natural sciences has uncovered a fossil. Okay they started their research back in 2013 and what they found while they're piecing these fossil pieces together they found some distinguishing features that alerted them to the possibility of a burrowing animal. So this is Fotna okay that's the name that lived 99 million years ago in what is now Utah. It's an ancestor of the Thessalosaurus that shows evidence that these animals spend at least part of their time in underground burrows. Now for perspective Fotna is about the size of a large dog and shares several anatomical features with animals that are known for digging or burrowing big biceps you see there also strong legs so we're going to send Eric Miller out to talk to some of these paleontologists and give us a better look he's going to do some digging of his own and get some more information on this unbelievable discovery. Unbelievable so fascinating thanks Jeff. Jury selection gets underway today in Alec Baldwin's criminal trial for the Rust movie set shooting Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter. The shooting on said killed cinematographer Helena Hutchins and injured the film's director Joel Sousa. It is unclear if the actor will take the stand to testify Baldwin left the courthouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico yesterday after a day long hearing to go over pretrial motions. The judge ruled that Baldwin's role as a producer of the Rust film is not relevant to the trial. Baldwin has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and maintains that the gun malfunctioned. The trial is expected to last about 10 days if convicted Baldwin faces up to 18 months in jail. A situation on a lake in New Hampshire ended safely because of a teenager stepping up. A bystander captured this video you're seeing here on your screen. This was from July 3rd. It shows a boat speeding around in circles. See it there in the background? What is to say the driver of that boat fell into the water? You can see a 17 year old boy timing his jump perfectly to land on the boat. Now once he got on he was able to cut the engine and then bring the boat to a stop. The boat didn't hurt or hurt anyone hit anything and that's just amazing that he had the timing to do that. Wow. Yeah absolutely. Well another popular movie from years ago has a sequel in the works. I'm excited about this one. Disney reportedly working with a screenwriter of the 2006 movie on a second film. Meryl Streep and Emily Bluntar in talks to reprise their roles. This is the devil's worst product. There is no word if Anne Hathaway will return and this also comes as Elton John's musical adaptation of the film began previews this weekend in England before it opens in October. We need a second movie. We need it. Yeah maybe. An upcoming TV show is getting some major star power. E-News reports, Halle Berry, Glenn Close and Kim Kardashian will star in the new Hulu drama series All's Fair. An original production, not a continuation of a popular 2000 series. Now we know that they will also serve as executive producers along with co-creator Ryan Murphy. Kardashian will play the role of a top divorce attorney at an all-female law firm in L.A. but no word yet on other actresses roles. Barbie actress Margot Robbie is expecting her first child with director husband Tom Ackerelie. Robbie and Ackerelie both 34 first met in 2013. The two later married in Australia in 2016 and representatives for the two stars did not respond to a request for comment but congratulations to that wonderful news. All right look at this video taking in Oak Island yesterday. You can see what appears to be a water spout right off the coastline there. Got another photo to show you here of a different vantage point right there on the right part of your screen. These were photos sent from W.R.E.L. viewers and we so appreciate you doing this. We can't be everywhere at once so when you send us stuff like this we'll try to put it on TV. And hey before we go to break here are the winning lottery numbers just in case you missed them. Here's Megan with Parkway Sleep Centers. Our sleepless nights affecting your life. Parkway Sleep Health Centers can help. We've treated sleep disorders in the triangle and beyond for over 20 years. We offer sleep studies, office visits, CPAP machines, supplies and more and our streamlined process allows us to see you sooner and usually saves hundreds of dollars. And sleep problems. Live your best life. Experience the Parkway Sleep Difference. Visit parkwaysleep.com and start your journey to better sleep today. Parkway Sleep Health Centers. Sound sleep. Sound health. 5280 exteriors James Hardy's sighting is a low maintenance sighting made primarily of cement that resist flame spread and repels woodwind insects and woodpeckers. Through the month of July you'll receive free rigid foam installation with the purchase of whole house sighting. That's installing additional insulation behind your sighting for free but only for the month of July. 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