WRAL Newscasts
6AM News on WRAL - Friday, June 28, 2024
I chose William Peace University because of the small class sizes. I feel that you get more one-on-one time with teachers. With class sizes like about 16, her teacher, you can really get that one-on-one help a lot of students need. A 12-to-one student to faculty ratio is just one of the many reasons students choose William Peace University. Extra attention starts day one for career planning with their Career Services Center. Find out all they have to offer at peace.edu. Live from WRL news headquarters in Raleigh, your number one source for local news. WRL news coverage you can cut off. Air Force One lands in Raleigh at 2 a.m. Plans for the President's rally later today. The traffic impact to follow and the big names expected to be here. President Biden is here in the Triangle just hours after he faced off with former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate. By the time he left, he was thinking about chaos. He was thinking about chaos. He has not done a good job, he's done a poor job in inflation, killing our country. Their stance is on the key issues and reaction to what many saw as a poor performance from President Biden. And our due point, just jump back up to 70. It's a warm and sticky start this morning with a small chance for storms later this afternoon. But over the weekend, that chance goes up. I'll show you when we'd have a better chance of seeing rain. And Cruz responded to an early morning fire at a home. The damage left behind after firefighters were able to control it. That is one of many stories we will get to you on your Friday morning here. Thanks for joining us, I'm Michelle McConaughey and for NA2. And I'm Jeff Hogan. Thanks for making us part of your Friday. Here, beautiful sunrise, right on us here behind us and lots to get to today. We'll start with Elizabeth Gardner and the WRS Severe Weather Center as we get ready for the weekend and a more muggy heat. Yeah, I wish I could say everything's going to change over the weekend. It'll feel so much better, but it won't. Actually, we're going to probably go the other direction. We take a live look at Roxborough this morning. Pretty sunrise, a little bit of cloud cover out there and a few places. It is 75 in the triangle with a due point of 70. And that number may go up this afternoon, making it feel even stickier. You know, we did not even hit 90s yesterday. We hit 88, officially. And already, you could tell it was feeling a little better. But we're at 75 now in the triangle, 70 in Southern Pines and Rocky Mountain, 67 up in South Hill. We'll likely feel like around 100 to 102 this afternoon with the heat index. And we do have a small chance for thunderstorms. Let's walk through that quickly for you. We'll kick things off here at noon with partly cloudy skies. And into the afternoon, just a few tiny showers and thunderstorms pop up. Nothing that's going to cause any sort of dent in our drought situation, which I'll show you coming up in just a few minutes. I have 93. It's not that our temperatures will be that much hotter over the weekend, but our humidity climbs and climbs. I'll show you when we can have another heat advisory coming up, Ken. All right, 6-0-1, Elizabeth, a pleasant and quiet start to you. Morning can you, unlike the forecast, right, heated humidity. Nothing but green showing up on a map this morning, which is a good thing. We're seeing the I-40, the Beltline, all free and clear this morning. I want to get you out to outside and show you what's going on in I-40 and airport Boulevard. This is one of the roadways that will be impacted by the president's visit later on today. Coming up about about 10 minutes, I'll let you know how that could affect your morning commute later today and into this afternoon. All right, thank you, Ken. President Joe Biden is in Raleigh this morning, hours after a debate performance that even some Democrats are criticizing. He struggled with his talking points on the big issues, and former President Donald Trump is also on the campaign trail after that debate. He'll be at a rally near Norfolk later today. We'll take a closer look at the debate in just a bit, but first, let's check in with WRL's Kelsey Coffey at the state fairgrounds Kelsey Biden will be there for a rally later today looking to rebound from last night. Michelle, exactly, and it's going to be a quick turnaround from last night's debate. The president and first lady landed here in Raleigh just a few hours ago, and they're set to have a campaign rally here inside of the Jim Graham building at the state fairgrounds later today. Our crews were there when dozens of supporters welcomed the Bidens at RDU. Air Force One arrived at the airport around 2 AM. We're working to confirm what time the rally will start, but hip-hop artist Fat Joe and E40 are expected to join the Bidens today in Raleigh. The president and first lady are scheduled to head to New York City after the rally. They will attend an official event and campaign reception there. We'll have live crews here throughout the morning and afternoon, so if you want to stay up to date on everything related to the president's visit, you can do that on air and online at WRL.com. Chelsea Copy, WRL News, live in Raleigh. Last night's debate was a memorable one, but for supporters of President Joe Biden, maybe not for the right reasons. The debate has left some Democrats saying they are panicked over his shaky performance. At times, he struggled to talk, mostly summoning a weak, raspy voice repeatedly tripped over words early in the debate. In NBC News, post-debate coverage, Kristen Welker broke it all down. There's no way to sugarcoat this. This night got off to a tough start for President Biden. He delivered a performance that was at times halting, at times he seemed to lose his train of thought. At times, he started to talk about one topic, for example, the economy, and then shifted to Afghanistan. People close to the Biden campaign say he is suffering from a cold right now. His campaign defended his performance, saying he offered a positive and winning vision for America. Republicans, meanwhile, are celebrating what they consider to be a strong showing by Trump. Both he and Biden pushed their policies on abortion, immigration, and the economy. The first question of the debate was about inflation under the Biden administration, and the moderators first posed the question to President Biden, who talked about the economy he inherited after Trump left office. We'll give you that statement first, followed by former President Trump's response. "The economy collapsed, there were no jobs, unemployment rate rose to 15 percent, it was terrible. And so what we had to do was try to put things back together again, and that's exactly what we began to do." "We got a lot of credit for the economy, a lot of credit for the military and no wars and so many other things, everything was rocking good, but the thing we never got the credit for and we should have is getting us out of that COVID mess." As Trump was asked if he will honor the results of the election, no matter who wins, Trump said that he would quote, "if it is fair." Analysts say that Trump made some false claims during the debate, but was much less aggressive than in past debates. And Republican Senator Tom Tillis shared his thoughts about the debate on X. He posted, quote, "Trump brought his A-game tonight, Biden shouldn't have even wasted his time suiting up, not even close." A flash poll conducted by CNN found 67 percent of voters thought Trump won the debate. 33 percent thought Biden won. Prior to the debate, 55 percent of those same voters thought Trump would turn in a better performance. Be sure to stick with WRL throughout the day for coverage of President Biden's visit here in Raleigh, and we'll have full coverage breaking down everything that happened in last night's debate on WRL.com. That includes a fact-check of each of the candidate's statements from our partners at PolitiFact. A long-standing Fayetteville landmark goes up in flames. Fire crews say they were able to knock down a fire at Rogers and Breeze Crematory that's on North Street, but not before it caused the major damage. The funeral home has been serving the Fayetteville community since before 1900. Crews responded about 8.30 last night. They found fire coming out of the roof of the single-story building. They have not determined what caused the fire. There are no reports of any injuries. Well, another firefighters here are working to learn what caused the fire at a workshop in Moore County. Several fire departments responded to this scene on NC Highway 73 just before 1 AM. Officials say that workshop was fully engulfed in flames when they got there. Smoke was also coming from a nearby garage that had a pickup truck and a motorcycle in it. Crews were able to put out the flames, but the workshop and the garage were badly damaged as well as the two vehicles. No one was hurt. And now to a story that WRLL has been covering for months now, the deaths of these two children. The adoptive mother of Blake and London Devon stood before a judge Wednesday, a day after her arrest. Avante Devon seemed calm as she entered the courtroom and stood before the judge. The charges against her include two counts of first-degree murder, concealment of death, kidnapping, and felony child abuse. Investigators say that Blake and London Devon are dead. They had been missing for years, but Avante never reported them missing. Authorities say they found a metal burn barrel with partial human remains. They believe the children were physically abused by their adoptive mother. Investigators say London Devon died of starvation and neglect. And the Cumberland County District Attorney says the case is one of the most heinous he has ever prosecuted. All of us have have soft spots for children, and the cases with children are the most difficult that we deal with. The fact that this involved allegations of the abuse and the death of children was certainly the thing that they grabbed my attention first, particularly the manner in which the allegations suggest that they died. Avante Devon is being held without bond at the Cumberland County Detention Center. She could face the death penalty if convicted on the murder charges. Turning to Olympic News, another Raleigh native is on her way to the Paris Olympics. Veronica Fraley qualified for Team USA in the discus last night at the track and field trials in Oregon. She was born and raised in Raleigh and went to Wakefield High School. She goes to Vanderbilt University, and earlier this month, she won the College National Championship in that event. Dylan Beard, trained at NC State, has been supporting his Olympic dreams by working at a Walmart deli in Wake Forest, but he didn't qualify for the final in the 110 meter hurdles. It's such a great story, finished 15th in the semi-final races. Well, coming up, some people in Kerry have their concerns about a proposed new development, why they are getting behind plans for a new construction at Waverly Place. Former police officers are now facing criminal charges in the 2022 U-Valley School shooting. The indictment handed up by a grand jury charging police for their botched response. We take a look at our forecast. Highs in the 90s, of course, it's going to feel hot this afternoon, but even hotter potentially Saturday and Sunday, the heat index could rise to the point of a heat advisory. I'll show you what to expect. As you get into your cartoon to WRL news, plus on your radio in Raleigh on 99.3 FM. In Durham, 96.5 FM at everywhere on 101.5 HD 3. Here's Brandon with Parkway Sleep Centers. Tired of waiting for a sleep treatment? At other sleep centers, it can take 6-8 months just to get an appointment, and cost you thousands more. Not Parkway Sleep Health Centers? We schedule you within weeks, and we'll save you money too. We have over 20 years of experience serving the triangle. Let our expert team help you sleep better sooner. End your 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 help. I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion won. 20 billion is an insane number. Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think, somewhere north, probably closer to 22, 23 after this year, and each year we get bigger and better, and our army grows, so the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's pound 529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24/7, 365. Wow. Dan Morgan. Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit ForThePeople.com for an office near you. 612, look at this gorgeous sunrise in progress here at Carolina Beach. If you're headed to the beaches over the weekend, look at the rip current danger. Looks better than it did last weekend. You always want to check before you go. It's looking moderate from, say, the Outer Banks back down toward around Surf City, but fairly low around our Southeast beaches. We take a look at the beach forecast. Inland is going to be hot. New burn at 92. But along the beaches, temperatures should be in the mid to upper 80s. It looks fairly dry, isolated thunderstorms mostly inland from the coast, but there is a front that comes through on Sunday, and so late in the day there may be a few isolated thunderstorms. Same thing in the mountains. Just isolated thunderstorms through the afternoon. If you get up in the highest elevations, Grandfather Mountain looking at 71 for tomorrow at 74 on Sunday. Happening now in the WRAO traffic center, we've got a really quiet start this Friday morning to commute all the major routes that delayed free this morning, which is a good thing. It's what you want to hear this time of the morning. Of course, we've been reporting that President Biden is in town today, expects some road closures and delays around his remarks, which is scheduled for about maybe around 1230 of the state fairgrounds. Of course, all these roadways around the airport and near the state fairgrounds could be affected. We'll keep you posted. President Joe Biden's visit to North Carolina today is the latest sign of how important the battleground state is to his re-election campaign. President hopes his rally at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh today can help him buck history. No Democrat presidential candidate has won the state since Barack Obama in 2008. However, Biden had some reasons to be optimistic. Trump's 1.3 percent margin of victory was the smallest of any state the Republican won in 2020. For the latest on Biden's visit, you can go to the NC Capital section of WRL.com. Two former U-Valley school district police officers are now facing criminal charges. A grand jury handed up the indictment yesterday against former police chief Pete Arendondo and former officer Adrian Gonzalez. They face felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child. Earlier this year, the Justice Department released a report finding law enforcement officers botched their response to the 2022 shooting, 19 children and two teachers died. Some people in carrier pushing back over a proposal to redevelop the Waverly Place shopping center. The town held a public hearing on the plan last night. Developers want to turn it into a mixed-use development, including stores and housing. The plaza currently has shops, restaurants and a movie theater and some people who live nearby say that's all it needs. The real estate group Heinz wants to put in hundreds of housing units, commercial space and a structured parking lot. People who oppose the project say they're hesitant to get behind it without knowing what the end result will be. We don't know if it's four-story and seven-story, seven-story is bigger than the hospital across the street. It is a god-awful eyesore for the people who live in jail. A petition opposing the rezoning has gotten about 900 signatures. Town Council says it will take that feedback from the meeting and forward it to the planning and zoning board. The Carolina Hurricanes are staying in Raleigh for another 20 years. The owners of PNC Arena have given final approval to at least extension with the team and along with it, the vision for a much larger entertainment district around the arena. The new deal allows the team to develop a total of 80 acres of land around that arena and the vision includes restaurants, a hotel, a live nation music venue and housing. Hurricane's owner Tom Dunden says it will be a world-class experience. The arena itself will also be renovated under a separate agreement that was approved last year. That work is expected to start next summer. There are a lot of events headed our way this weekend in the triangle. Yeah, we have your out and about best bets, including one way your family can take a break from all of this heat. LEGO fans will want to head to the Raleigh Convention Center this weekend for brick universe. This fan exhibit will include exhibits, the event will include exhibits, building zones and lots of LEGO merchandise. General admission tickets are available for Saturday and Sunday. Tickets start at $20 at the door. So on Saturday there will be more than 50 food trucks on Fayetteville Street from the downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo. It's from noon to 6pm. Admission is free. Bring your appetite. This is always a popular event. And on Sunday, there will be a Pride event at Downtown Kerry Park. Pride in the park is from noon to 4pm. This event is open to the public and includes family-friendly activities like lawn games, arts and crafts, friendship, bracelet making, bubbles and temporary tattoos. And for more on these events and others this weekend, go to www.WRL.com and search out and about. We do have some marine chances for this weekend and we sure need it. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner showing us the drought status. I mean, it is moderate. It is something that is highly unusual. We went to nothing showing up on the map two weeks ago to last week abnormally dry and this week moderate drought. It doesn't usually happen that fast. I am tracking a front that will come through that will bring us some showers and thunderstorms for Sunday but it will take a while most likely to get us back to drought free. So last week we had no moderate drought across the state and now 52% of the state has moderate drought. We take a look at what's happening out there right now. Looking at partly cloudy skies, we'll have a small chance for showers and thunderstorms later today. We have a cold front that's stalled to our south and of course ahead of it. We can't just a few isolated showers or thunderstorms that could develop later on today. It's not going to be much. A lot of us won't even see that but we do have a better chance on Sunday. Our next front comes through. We'll see some scattered showers and thunderstorms possibly lingering into Monday. Sunday morning is likely to be fairly dry, maybe a sprinkle or two and then the cold front arrives late in the afternoon and into the evening and you see some pretty good coverage especially from the Triangle area south and east. That may linger into early Monday and then the front moves offshore and takes the rain along with it. Boy, we certainly need it. On Sunday, we have a level one risk for severe storms so damaging wind especially really from the Triangle area. Eastward is what the models are showing some heavy rain hopefully and possibly some hail as well. How much rainfall in the next five days which is really going to be isolated showers and thunderstorms and then that better chance on Sunday anywhere from half an inch in the north to as much as an inch in our southern counties and then sort of three quarters of an inch around the Triangle is what we're looking at and that will be helpful for sure. A little sunshine popping up there in Goldsboro looking pretty, some clouds and apex and partly cloudy, beautiful here in Chapel Hill right now, courtesy of top of the Hill restaurant and of course there's Fayetteville at our newsroom. Tropics are getting very active at this point. We're watching what's happening over here off the coast of Africa, two systems actually, one of them, the one that's farther to the west has about a 30% chance of developing but the one there in orange, a 90% chance that this will develop in the next seven days. Barrel is the next name so likely to be Tropical Storm Barrel and possibly Hurricane Barrel by the time we get to next weekend as it moves there into the Caribbean and another one developing there potentially in the Gulf of Mexico with a 30% chance in the next seven days. Around here we're seeing a fairly moderate day today. It's going to feel like around 100 but Saturday and Sunday that heat index could go above 105. We'll talk about whether or not we could have a heat advisory for either one of those days coming up Ken. And Elizabeth, the happening now in the W.R. Traffic Center, we've just got the support of a crash. We'll get to that in just a minute, Doug, but all you major rounds this morning, a delay for you right now, I want to mention the President's visit coming in this afternoon. The President will be at the State Fairgrounds for running midday this afternoon. We will keep you posted in terms of what's going to happen but expect road closures and delays around the route when the President goes to the State Fairgrounds and of course when he goes back to RDO International Airport, that's usually the case. It's going to be an hour before 1230, an hour after 1230. We'll keep you posted here in the W.R.A. Traffic Center. This is one of the roadways that will no doubt be affected this afternoon. I-40 and Airport Boulevard, we don't know the specific route because of security reasons. We'll definitely keep you posted when it comes to the President's visit and how it could affect your morning commute. This crash just happened about 20 minutes ago. We're talking about the apex police working this crash. It's on William Street in northbound lanes near Highway 1, not really seeing any delays in the area. We are seeing a little bit of break tapping going on right now, likely as a result of that crash but we'll keep you posted. Of course, if you're listening to us on the radio, we appreciate that and when you're heading out and you want to do the same, you can do so at 99.3 FM in Raleigh and 96.5 FM in Durham. Well, here's what for an unusual police chase in North Carolina. Police tried to track down a stolen Amazon truck in a chase that spanned two counties. And history made at the NBA draft, the pick that has a lot of people talking this morning, that's coming up and what's trending. And here's a look at your winning NC Education Lottery numbers. If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally. But don't sweat it, Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial-grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. Save on a Riley Break Parts Cleaner. Get two cans of a Riley Break Parts Cleaner for just $8, valid in-store only at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Riley! Auto Parts. This What's Trending Report, sponsored by Rugged Home. A familiar face is joining LeBron James on the L.A. Lakers roster. His son. Yeah, Ken Smith here now. What's trending, Ken? You know, people have been talking about this for a long time now. The Lakers took Ronnie James at the 55th pick in the draft last night. He and LeBron will be the first father-son duo ever to play in the NBA at the same time head along the same team, Jeff and Michelle. Yeah, so I covered LeBron when he was in high school. He did not have a dad in the picture, and by all accounts, he is a good dad. And to his three kids. And it's L.A. This is a Hollywood story. Let's face that. I don't know if it'll win games for him. Somebody is writing that script as we speak. Exactly. Yeah, it's a good story. Well, how about this? I'm a little skeptical about this. Dolly Parton trolls, Ryan Reynolds, and a new ad for Welcome to Rexxham. Parton claims she doesn't know who Reynolds is. And after opening a gift from him, Rexxham AFC scarf. I love it so much. I mean, listen, if there's anybody, I don't know if she's serious. Or not. But if there's anybody that you control, I'm sure she knows Ryan Reynolds is you control him. Because if you've ever been on Ryan Reynolds page, he is like the king of making, you know, poking fun at people and making these jokes. So I love this, him and Mackalette, I mean, it's just, it's great. She knows who he is. She knows who he is. Sure. Thanks, Ben. I will take a look at this adorable baby otter spotted on an outer pink beach. Look how small. A National Park Service employee captured this photo of the pup exploring on Bode Island Spit. River otters are actually quite common on the outer fangs, typically in sound-side waters. They usually keep their distance from humans, though. Air Force One lands in Raleigh at 2 AM. The plans for the President's rally today, the traffic impact to follow, and the big names were expected to see here. And taking a look at our chance for rain today, we need the rain desperately. Only a 20 or 30 percent chance of some showers and storms. But over the weekend, we'll have a better chance of which day looks the wettest coming up. And crews respond to an early morning fire at a home in Moore County. The damage that's left behind after they were able to put it out. I chose William Peace because of the personalized education it offers, which allows students to truly know their professors. It's really possible to make genuine connections with your professors and learn intentionally here and dive deep into what you're passionate about. A 12 to 1 student to faculty ratio is just one of the many reasons students choose William Peace University. 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