WRAL Newscasts
Noon News on WRAL - Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Your heart. It's the only one you have. Fortunately, you also have a choice. Expert cardiologists. Talented surgeons. Highly skilled specialists. All of whom chose WakeMed. Why? The main reason is the same reason patients choose WakeMed. Everything you need for the best possible care is right here. Learn more at weightmed.org. WakeMed heart and vascular physicians. Your heart. Your choice. Now breaking news from WRAL. Coverage you can count on. Breaking at noon. A child is in the hospital after a near drowning at a Wake County home. How the child is doing and what we're learning about what happened. And our two point is down at 58. That puts us in the comfy zone. It doesn't mean it's going to be a cool day. As a matter of fact, we're really going to heat things up by tomorrow into the triple digits. I'll show you what that will feel like. Plus we're hearing from the 14 year old who was bitten by a shark at Thompson Beach. What he says he was going through his head during those terrifying moments for him. Good afternoon to you. I'm Jeff Hogan. And I'm Renee Chiu. Thanks for joining us. We begin with breaking news in Wake County where a two year old was pulled from a private swimming pool. This child was found unresponsive. WR has Destiny Patterson joins us live from the neighborhood in Wendell Destiny. This is always a sad part of summer. What can you tell us? Jeff Renee, you can see deputies have pushed us pretty far back from where they're focusing much of their attention here. We're about three houses down from where they're going in and out of that house. And if you take a look at skified video, you can see several people outside over radio traffic. Deputies describe the victim as a two year old boy. And they said that he was unconscious and not breathing in that radio traffic. Wake County Sheriff's Office tells us the boy was rescued from the pool. And he's now in the hospital with life threatening injuries. Now, at this point, deputies say that they are still investigating and we're working to get you as much information as we can. And of course, we'll keep you updated. Destiny Patterson, WRL News, Wake County. All right, Destiny, thank you for that. Right now we're getting a small break from the heat today. If you consider mid 90s a break, we'll take it. The big difference. So is how it feels out there. Deaerologist, Elizabeth Gardner joins us live from the W real weather patio. Elizabeth, so what's different today? So our dew point has dropped considerably yesterday morning. Our dew point was sitting at 75. It dropped a little bit during the afternoon. But our dew point is really plunged into the 50s. And that's the comfy zone. If you ever hear us talking about dew points in the summertime, if we can drop it into the 50s, it feels fine. Problem is, it's going to be in the mid 90s this afternoon. So really, it's not going to be fine. 85 and and dew point in the 50s feels fantastic. This is a live look at the gardens. We're seeing a lot of sunshine out here. It's already 88 degrees, but that dew point sitting at 58. So if you're in the sun there, it definitely feels toasty. But here's the thing. It's not going to feel any hotter than the dew point as long as it's in the 50s. So feeling like 88 here in the triangle, it does feel a little hotter than say Clinton 97. The dew points higher. There's more moisture down in Clinton and Fayetteville because it's a little bit closer to the coast. It feels like 90 in Goldsboro. But it's 90 in Rocky Mount feeling like 90 84 in Roxborough feeling like 84. Our heat index will hold pretty much right at our temperature through the afternoon. We're going to climb to 94.95 this afternoon. And that's that's plenty hot, but it could feel a whole lot worse. If our dew point goes up tomorrow, we're looking at a high of 100. For the second time this week, we sit 100 on Sunday, it'll likely feel like 105. It's possible that we would see a heated advisory. We'll talk about that potential coming up. And happening right now in the WR a live center, Southbound lanes of highway 501 are reopening after a hazmat situation earlier this morning. Highway 501 was closed in both directions. This between Preston Andrews Road and Snow Hill Road and Bahama due to a leaking tanker truck. This is video from Sky five that was over the scene. Fire crews were there. You can see multiple fire trucks on scene there. Again, there they do say that now. Southbound lanes of five highway 501 are reopening. New in noon for the first time we are hearing from the teenager who was bitten by a shark over the weekend. WRS Noah Klein is here now know that boy's recovering in the hospital. He is. We're hearing from him from his hospital bed while that leg recovers. 14 year old Blaine Brown spoke about the moment he realized what happened and what was going through his head. I was holding my hand and I was like, I'm not gonna be okay. I'm gonna lose my leg. This happened at North Topsle Beach. Police and first responders already happened to be in the area responding to other calls when this happened. People at the beach tried to help putting pressure on that wound and wrapping it with towels. Brown's family friend was in the water with him when this all happened and I remember like falling down or something and turning back and looking at Blaine and that's kind of like when I was like, hey, you got bit by a shark. I seen him. So he pulled a few tendons and has staples in that leg. Brown says he knows he's lucky and says he's just grateful it wasn't worse. Now with a busy beach season just getting started, we're looking at how common these shark bites are. I'm speaking with the UNC Wilmington professor about if this is something you and your family need to worry about that's coming up tonight at 4. Scary stuff. New information this noon police say a crash that injured a toddler and an adult last night started at a traffic stop. Garner police say officers were chasing a stolen car when the driver, Chad Harper, ran a red light and hit other cars at Trion Road and Lake Wheeler Road. Harper and a 16 year old ran from that scene. 19 year old Traceon McNeil stayed in the vehicle. Police found three guns and marijuana. Harper and McNeil faced charges. The 16 year role will face a juvenile petition. They say how a patrol is looking for the driver who hit and killed a pedestrian in Wayne County. Sky 5 flew over the scene in Mount Olive in the daylight. It happened right around 5 this morning on Slapout Road. W. R. I'll sneak Pearl and drove to the scene in the W. R. I'll break a news tracker and shares what he learned. State Highway Patrol told me they're investigating a hit and run after somebody ran over a woman on this stretch of Slapout Road in Mount Olive. Sadly, the woman died. I do want to take into this video from the W. R. L. breaking news tracker and you can see tire marks left behind on this stretch of Slapout Road as well as law enforcement in the area as they try to figure out what happened. We do know that the original call came in just before 5 a.m. Now, State Highway Patrol tell me they're continuing to conduct interviews to figure out what exactly happened. We're still working to find out the identity of the woman as well as the person who hit her once we have more information. We'll update you in Mount Olive Nick Pearl in W. R. L. News. State drivers license offices are back to business as usual this hour. D. And the offices across the state could not issue licenses early this morning. The problem turned out to be a software issue with an outside vendor. People waiting in line had a brief delay. It was fixed within an hour. The officers were back to serving customers by 915 this morning. It could be up to four years before Apple decides to move forward with its plans to bring a campus to research Triangle Park. The project was expected to be one of the largest in our state's history at the time. But very little progress has been made and we don't know when or if it will still happen. W. R. L. Sean Gallagher has been following this and Sean what are the chances this might not happen at all. Yeah, Jeff Apple says that it's still deeply committed to growing its team here in R. T. P. And it's looking forward to developing the campus here as well. This is the site that they're looking to develop. And as you can see, it is relatively unchanged since they made this announcement three years ago that R. T. P. would be the location of the Tech Giants East Coast Hub. The original plan was for Apple to invest more than a billion dollars in the state by 2032. And a massive site included a million square foot research and development campus here in R. T. P. But after a review of its real estate, Apple is saying it's delaying the start of the project by up to four years. The project included incentives of nearly 850 million dollars in state grants to be paid out over 39 years. A lot of a lot of money there. But state leaders say we're protected if Apple doesn't meet its benchmarks. It's something obviously we prefer that they go forward. But but again, none of the state level incentives get paid until they start creating the jobs that were promised. And so they've got to make decisions based on what's best for their business. And they've apparently decided that slowing down moving forward is is what's best for their business. And local officials and experts remain optimistic about Apple's future here and really business in general in the state. Many pointing to the announcement just yesterday of a four billion dollar investment by Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk in Johnston County. Sean Gallagher, WRAL News, RTP. Today, Wake County school leaders will consider some changes to your child's school meals. Board members say they are interested in applying for more free meals in schools. They are also considering adjusting what's in the alternative meal kids get when they don't have enough money in their accounts. School leaders say they also want to look at waste to lower the amount of food waste. The board's policy committee will talk about the options during a meeting at three this afternoon. A Hope County man is charged with stealing seven mobile homes from a mobile home park. The property manager at Green Pines Mobile Home Park reported them missing June 2nd. Three of them were found in Harneck County, a tow truck driver told deputies Ryan Dobi told him to move the homes. Another woman told deputies Dobi sent her to another mobile home to take a stove. Dobi was arrested Sunday. Today, a group advocating for disability rights across the US will visit Raleigh and Durham. The caravan for disability freedom and justice will hold a pair of events in Durham from six to eight thirty tonight. They will share information about inclusion, disability rights and services, voter rights and more. An indoor event will be at Parton Parcel on Chapel Hill Road. An outdoor event will take place at Lion Park. Next at noon, the US Surgeon General declares gun violence as a public health crisis in our country. The step he says need to be taken to get gun related deaths and injuries down. Plus prosecutors are urging the Justice Department to take stricter action against Boeing for its faulty mishaps. What they say needs to be done. Also, it might feel like a lot of people want electric vehicles, but new data might surprise you. Why some people say they're just sticking to their gas gas powered ones. Keep watching WRL news over the air channel 34 and spectrum channel 1257. We take care of the things in our life. Knowing proper maintenance and upkeep will extend the life of what we love. Do you get the same attention here to your own body? Staying fit and eating right are key. Equally important is supporting health and mobility with chiropractic. Chiropractic keeps your body aligned and running smoothly. Help extend the life of your engine with chiropractic. Find yours at ncchiro.org/chiro. Breaking news, the designer can give you the kitchen of your dreams. I'm Dana Merrill, the owner of the designer in North Raleigh. I am true Merrill. I am the project manager. The designer is a lovely kitchen bath and closet remodeling company. We do pretty much any of the utility spaces in your house. If you want to store things in your cabinets, if you want to work on things on your countertops, if you want to have a floor that can get wet or muddy, we're the place to help you fix your home up. We are the designer in North Raleigh located at 3030 Wake Forest Road in the Holly Park Plaza. We would love to see you or visit our website at the designer.com. Happening right now in the WRAL Live Center, new details are emerging about that fiery crash of that Norfolk Southern train that derailed last year. The NTSB is holding a meeting right now. This is a live look at that meeting. You may remember dozens of freight cars derailed on February 3rd of 2023 in East Palestine, 11 were carrying hazardous materials. And the NTSB said early on that an overheated bearing on one of the rail cars that was not caught in time by trackside sensors likely caused that crash. And today they did confirm a trackside detector in Salem, Ohio failed to accurately detect that bearing. They also said that firefighters did not get the details of what was on that train for more than an hour after that derailment happened since then Norfolk Southern CEO has pledged to make things right. He has pledged more than $100 million in aid to people that live in East Palestine. A warning from the US Surgeon General this morning that firearm violence in America is now a public health crisis. Fox's Rebecca Castor explains the steps leaders plan to help put a stop to it. Following mass shootings in Arkansas, Alabama and Ohio over the weekend, America's top doctor says it's time for the US to take a different approach in preventing gun violence. Today, for the first time in the history of our office, I am issuing a Surgeon General's advisory on firearm violence. Those advisories have been used to warn of the risks of cigarettes, motor vehicles, and most recently social media. But with the number of deaths and injuries from guns increasing exponentially, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says this issue also deserves to be treated as a public health crisis. Our children should not have to live in fear that they are going to get shot if they go to school. None of us should have to worry that going to the mall or concert or a house of worship means putting our lives at risk. Murthy's recommendations to drive down gun deaths include banning assault weapons, requiring universal background checks and passing laws that would restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who failed to safely store their weapons, all actions that would require legislation from Congress. It does not have to be this way. We cannot ever normalize this. We need the people in the United States Congress to have the courage to stand up to the gun lobbyists. That was Rebecca Castor reporting. This advisory from Surgeon General Murthy is sure to be controversial on Capitol Hill. Before he's confirmed to the office, he told reluctant Republicans he would not use his position to push gun control. The WRL documentary Unsafe takes a look at the impact of gun violence, specifically on young people. WRL documentary reporter Kristen Severance talks with families whose lives are changed forever because of unsecured guns. You can watch Unsafe on WRL Doc.com. Federal prosecutors are pushing the Justice Department to file criminal charges against Boeing. This comes after recent issues over the company 737 Max Plains. A source familiar with the matter says the DOJ is still deciding what to do. The department does say Boeing likely violated terms of a deferred prosecution agreement from 2021. Boeing denies that and says it's improving its approaches to company culture and safety. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the US Justice Department. Assange plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge this week. The deal will allow him to go free after spending five years in a British prison. Assange's felony charge is related to his alleged role in one of the largest US government breaches of classified material. The plea deal still has to be approved by a federal judge. Rising floodwaters have caused a dam in Minnesota to fail with the potential. It could collapse. This is what we showed you during this newscast live yesterday. The dam was on the Blue Earth River about 90 miles south of Minneapolis. It had a it suffered a partial breakthrough Monday. Well, the Russian water already wiped out some buildings and it's putting nearby homes in danger. Roads in that area are closed. More stunning pictures out of South Dakota where flooding brought down a bridge. The railroad bridge connected North Sioux City in South Dakota with Sioux City, Iowa. A person was killed when it collapsed into the Big Sioux River. No other injuries were reported. 1217 is the time right now on our Tuesday afternoon. Elizabeth Gardner is out on the WRL weather patio right now. And hopefully that feels like temperature is going to hang in there and be OK today comparatively. It looks like it will. It should be with us all day. We're going to see that creeping up again tomorrow and then really picking up for Thursday. Thursday is going to be we'll see a whole different weather pattern for Thursday. So we'll see a lot of changes by then. Looking at the gardens right now looking beautiful. Get people out here enjoying their lunch outside in the shade. It feels good in the shade with these low do points in the 50s. But it's still hot. Don't get me wrong. 88 degrees is our current temperature. Our wind is east at 5 miles per hour right now. We will climb up into the mid 90s here shortly and stay there for much of the afternoon. Looking at 95 in Durham and Raleigh and 97 for our high temperature in Fayetteville this afternoon. We didn't have a few isolated storms yesterday. Our chance for that today is pretty slim. Our two point is dropped way down into the 50s. So we're in the comfy zone right now, which is fantastic. That will creep on back up into steamy by tomorrow and then tropical for for much of the end of the weekend into the weekend. Looking at Thursday, Friday, Saturday way up there at tropical and that's when it just feels oppressively muggy. So we take this kind of heat that we're feeling right now. Add to that and then add more moisture in the atmosphere and we get to the danger zone again pretty quickly. Let's take a look at our near record heat for tomorrow. Here's where we're headed looking at 100 for Durham and Raleigh, 101 for Fayetteville, 100 for Southern Pines, 99 for Rocky Mountain and Goldsboro. Those are our high temperatures for tomorrow. So today we'll feel pretty good compared to where we're headed tomorrow. We average 100 degree day per year. We typically see the first with them and the average first 100 degree day happens around July 13th. The average last is July 30th. So it's kind of a small window there in the month of July where we typically would have 100 degree day. The earliest was June 7th, the latest October 3rd. I remember that year when we had 100 degree days in October. That was terrible. Should never have 100 degree days in October. Take a look at our heat index. Today, it's just going to feel like around 95 to 96 by tomorrow. It's going to feel a lot higher than that up to 105. So it's going to be a big change. Maybe you're feeling okay outside today with these lower humidities or lower dew points. It's not going to be the case tomorrow. So the weather service may issue a heat advisory. We're watching for that Thursday a little bit lower at 103 101 Friday, but we're right back up into 106 plus again for Saturday and probably Sunday too. Our big change that happens on Thursday is our next cold front that comes through. That's going to bring us a better chance for some scattered storms. That front is likely to stall and bring us another chance for Friday and possibly into the weekend. So coming up in just a few minutes, I'll take you through that front. We'll talk about how much rain we may see. It doesn't look like it'll be enough to get us out of the current dry conditions, but every little bit helps. We will certainly take the rain when it comes. Thank you. Coming up today at four, an investigation is underway after seven mobile homes were stolen from a mobile home park, somewhere recovered. W Orioles Gilbert base talks with investigators about the person they say is behind the thefts. Then at five 30 ever thought about what's in the baby wipes you buy. You can find out which popular brands could pose a risk to your baby. But still hit this new one. Social media app is taking extra safety measures to protect teens. New features Snapchat is adding to help stop sex torsion and the bill legalizing medical marijuana in our state is moving forward. The changes we could see when it comes to recreational use in the future. Each year, millions of North Carolinians visit a doctor of chiropractic for a variety of different reasons. And because of the opioid epidemic, that number is expected to grow. Chiropractic is a drug free natural form of health care that helps people with all sorts of different painful conditions such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, sciatica and various different musculoskeletal conditions. But did you know that your doctor of chiropractic can actually help you improve your overall level of health? Visit nciro.org/info for more. I chose William P.S. 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 per teacher, you can really get that one-on-one help a lot of students need. A 12-to-one student of faculty ratio is just one of the many reasons students choose William P.S. University. Extra attention starts day one for career planning with their Career Services Center. Find out all they have to offer at p.edu. There may be some bumps in the road ahead for the electric vehicle industry. A new survey indicates nearly half of EV owners in the U.S. would go back to a gas powered vehicle if they could. One problem is depreciation. The cars lose almost half their value as soon as you drive them off the lot. Drivers are also unhappy with battery performance in cold weather. EVs accounted for 8 percent of all cars sold in the U.S. last year. Those sales dropped in the first quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, the audio industry is also asking the Biden administration to rethink parts of the new rule for automatic emergency braking systems in future vehicles. The DOT finalized the rule in April. Sedans, SUVs, and trucks must have the systems in place by the 2029 model year. The trade group says current technology for the system is impractical and would cost too much. Microsoft faces a hefty fine after the European Union says it violated antitrust laws for bundling its team's application. An investigation was opened into the claims a year ago after a complaint by the messaging app Slack. Slack claimed Microsoft gave teams an unfair advantage by including it with its office software. Slack leaders say they weren't given an equal opportunity to compete. Microsoft's fine could be up to 10 percent of its global revenue, which was $211 billion in its latest financial year. Snapchat is working to protect teams on the app from six-tortion. It's unrolling new safety features. They include expanding warning messages and monitoring friend requests from people they don't have in their contacts or have mutual friends. There will also be changes to the blocking feature. Law enforcement says there's been an uptick in online sex-tortion scams in recent years. A man accused in a capital murder case is being sentenced after nearly six years. What took so long and what we can expect to see in the case moving forward. And it was the first surgery of its kind ever conducted. What made one man's kidney transplant different than the thousands of others performed each day? And here's a look at your winning NC education lottery numbers. It's time for today's Lucky Land horoscope with Victoria Cash. Life's gotten mundane, so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with a trip to Lucky Land. You know what they say. Your chance to win starts with a spin. So go to luckylandslots.com to play over a hundred social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Get lucky today at luckylandslots.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void were prohibited by law 18 plus terms of condition supply. And happening right now in the WRA live center following some breaking news from overseas. UN officials have told Israel that they will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless they can get improved safety. They say steps have to be taken there to better protect humanitarian workers, including some direct communication with Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza. The UN officials say there has been no final decision. They are simply just talking about this right now. No final decisions on suspending operations across Gaza. This is just a conversation that they're having. The UN World Food Program, they have already suspended aid delivery from a U.S. built pier in Gaza over safety worries. Michelle. Thanks. A man accused in a capital murder case is finally getting his day in court. Brandon Hill has been in jail since his arrest in 2018. W. Rose Kent Smith is here now with why this case shines a spotlight on capital murder cases in Wake County, Ken. Renee Hill's case was the focus of a death qualification hearing a couple of years ago that had nothing to do with a capital murder charge right now. We'll get to more on that and hearing in a minute. Hill's case though is the oldest capital murder case on the docket that is now in the process of jury selection. District Attorney Lauren Freeman says jury selection lasts several weeks. Of course that means opening statements in the trial will not start for several weeks while the police say Hill was caught on camera shooting and killing Dwayne Garvey outside the America's value in back in 2016. I mentioned that death qualification hearing that was based on a challenge by Hill's attorneys with the ACLU. They argued the practice disproportionately removes prospective black jurors from serving the state defender the practice saying it's the law and it would make sense to put someone who's against the death penalty on a capital jury. Again jury selection in Hill's capital murder case is underway. We'll keep you posted as that trial moves forward. Ken Smith reporting. First Lady Joe Biden will be in North Carolina today speaking at a political finance event in Charlotte. This will be the first of two visits for the First Lady to the state this week. She'll be in Raleigh along with President Joe Biden on Friday. That visit will come the day after the first 2024 presidential debates. Joe Biden and Donald Trump will square off for the debate in Atlanta hosted by CNN. A campaign memo says President Biden's preferred topics are abortion rights, the state of democracy and the economy. Former President Trump's team sees immigration, public safety and inflation as key issues. The debate happens Thursday night at nine and you can watch it right here on WRAL. This morning a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in North Carolina is moving to the state house. The Senate passed it last night with some changes. WRS Laura Levine shares those changes include putting a ban on legalizing recreational marijuana use in the future. Here at the state legislature, lawmakers have been debating this issue for quite some time. We know that a stricter version of a medical marijuana bill passed the state Senate last night. It's a last-minute effort to get a legalized bill over the finish line. So this bill would ban North Carolina from allowing fully legal marijuana even if the federal government legalizes it. That's meant to win over skeptics specifically on the religious right. They're concerned that medical marijuana would be a first step toward recreational legalization for all adults. The bill now goes to the state house where it remains to be seen if this new change would win over more people, more lawmakers in this case. We'll have to see. It's a story we'll continue to stay on top of. Laura Levine, WRL news in Raleigh. From brush fires to new firefighters and a film crew coming to town. Our county by county coverage takes us to Halifax, Orange and Lee counties. A large brush fire in Halifax County is now out. Crews responded to the fire in Enfield around 630 last night. The cause is still under investigation. Officials say a large area of woods was on fire as well as several logging equipment and fuel trucks. Departments from Halifax and Nash counties worked for nearly four hours to put out the fire. In Lee County, the city of Sanford will graduate its first-ever class of firefighter trainees tonight. Six recruits worked through the Sanford Fire Academy since April. The fire department posted pictures of their progress on Facebook. Those recruits become full-fledged firefighters tonight at six in a ceremony at the Sanford Municipal Building. In Orange County, UNC Chapel Hill will be the backdrop for another TV series. UNC says filming will largely take place outside McCorkle Place and surrounding buildings. Now the impact of traffic will be real parking problem between July 8th and the 10th. If you'll be around that area during that time, you can expect delays, road and parking closures. Federal judges temporarily blocked parts of President Biden's student debt relief plan. The rulings were from judges in Kansas and Missouri. They blocked most of the loan repayment plan, which cancels and lowers payments for millions of borrowers. The ruling also stops the Department of Education from easing loan payments expected to start on July 1st. Both rulings are preliminary. They are set in place until the end of the separate trials. North Korea is sending hundreds more trash balloons over its border to the south. South Korea's military says it's detected about 350 balloons set from North Korea as of this morning. North Korea has sent more than 1,000 balloons toward the south since May. Officials say no hazardous substances have been found so far. It is the latest tip for tap exchange between the two countries. There's controversy over the new Starbucks drink that is now on the menu. How much caffeine is in it and the worries just months after another popular chain had to pull a drink off its menu for similar reasons. And keeping calm during an emergency in the air. How a flight instructor landed this plane safely on a highway median in the Carolinas. Be sure to download the latest version of the WRL News app to get breaking news and weather alerts right on your phone. [Music] 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. We take care of the things in our life. Knowing proper maintenance and upkeep will extend the life of what we love. Do you give the same attention care to your own body? Staying fit and eating right are key. Equally important is supporting health and mobility with chiropractic. Chiropractic keeps your body aligned and running smoothly. Help extend the life of your engine with chiropractic. Find yours at nckyro.org/chyro. Happening right now in the WRAO Live Center, the European Union has officially launched membership talks with Moldova. That's an Eastern European country that neighbors Ukraine. This comes just a few hours after Ukraine's membership talks were launched. Right now the EU has 27 member states and since Russia has invaded Ukraine, neighboring Moldova says they have faced very scary times saying they are very much affected by the brutal war. Hooters announced it is closing several of its underperforming restaurants. The chain says it's under pressure from current market conditions. We still don't know what locations are affected. There are reports dozens of restaurants in Florida, Texas, and Virginia have already shut down. No word on it if any will close here in North Carolina. Starbucks has debuted a new energy drink which has as much caffeine as six cans of coke. It's called iced energy. The drink has up to 205 milligrams of caffeine in it. It comes less than two months after Panera announced it was discontinuing its controversial charged lemonade. Lawsuits blame that drink for two deaths and was referred to as dangerous. Paramount Plus is raising its monthly subscription prices. The company says the Paramount Plus was show time plan will go up a dollar a month to 12.99. The Paramount Plus essential plan will go up two dollars to 7.99 a month. New customers will see the new prices go into effect in late August. Current customers will not see the increases until late September. New research shows some adults should not be taking low doses of aspirin on a daily basis to prevent blood clots. Researchers found nearly 30% of adults 60 or older are still using aspirin for that reason. Around 5% of them are doing so without medical advice. Doctors say taking aspirin every day could cause excessive bleeding. It's recommended to talk with your doctor if you should continue taking it. A 92 year old woman in Indiana is an inspiration for her community. And I've got the 10,000 steps. There's Sonya LZ for the last seven years. She's gone to zoom but classes that are local wine every day that it's been open and then does extra cardio to get her steps in. The 92 year old says she makes the effort to stay fit so she can do things with her family. Her goal is to inspire other people of all ages to stay fit. Keep moving. Your flight could be delayed or even canceled this summer over a potential strike. The airline impacted and the changes flight attendants are calling for. Plus a first of its kind surgery has been completed. How doctors managed to perform a kidney transplant with the patient awake the whole time. Your heart. It's the only one you have. Fortunately you also have a choice. Expert cardiologists. Talented surgeons. Highly skilled specialists. All of whom chose WakeMed. Why? The main reason is the same reason patients choose WakeMed. Everything you need for the best possible care is right here. Learn more at WakeMed.org. WakeMed Heart and Bascular Physicians. Your heart. Your choice. 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 1800 Granger. Click ranger.com or just stop by. Granger. For the ones who get it done. This isn't good. A potential strike could affect your summer travel plans. Flight attendants and American airlines appear to be at an impasse on contract talks. The association of professional flight attendants says a year of mediated talks has not given workers adequate compensation or a raise in five years. American Airlines says they've offered an immediate 17% pay raise without profit sharing. Flight attendants cannot go on strike yet because of a 30 year cooling off period ordered by the National Mediation Board. The TSA expects to screen more than 32 million people over the July 4th holiday travel period. That's a 5% increase over last year's Independence Day travel numbers. Friday will be the peak travel day. TSA expects to screen more than 3 million people on that day alone. TSA says it's ready to handle the high volume of travelers. Here's an air travel story for you. Flight instructors being celebrated for her quick thinking by making an emergency landing on I-77 in South Carolina. She landed the plane safely after she and her student experienced a mechanical failure of some sort. This happened last week just north of Columbia. Nicole Smith says she and her students started hearing clicking noises about 40 minutes into their flight. She believes a piece of the plane fell out. She needed to find a place to land safely and quickly. My thought at the time was just to make sure that I didn't go into oncoming traffic. I did see the cars kind of going off on the shoulder and I was trying to mitigate that as best as possible while still landing safely. Yeah, pretty calm through the whole thing. She was able to land the plane, no injuries to her, her student, or anyone on the ground driving by. Authority say there wasn't even a backup on the interstate. Incredible. This is pretty incredible. Doctors at a hospital in Chicago performed the first kidney transplant while a patient was awake. Instead of using general anesthesia, the 28-year-old was given a spinal anesthesia shot. This is similar to what pregnant women are given during a C-section. Well, during his surgery, he was talking, answering questions from doctors. Oh, and get this. He even had the chance to see his new kidney before it was put inside of him. Doctors say this kind of surgery lets patients recover quicker. I would pick another option, but that's just me. I don't know if I need to be away. I wouldn't mind seeing it, but then I'm going night, night. Yeah, then sleepy sleep. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner is out on the WRL weather patio where the sun is shining and it's feeling toasty. It is definitely feeling toasty. We're going to climb up to 95. A lot of times in the summer, we would climb to 95 and it would feel more like 100 or 102 or 103. But our humidity has dropped. We have cold front come through yesterday, brought a few isolated thunderstorms to our southeastern counties, and it has delivered us a little bit drier air. Not any cooler, just a little bit drier. The gardens are beautiful right now. We've had people out and about, not a lot. You know, it's not like it is when the azaleas are in bloom. Plus it's hot out here, but there's some people hanging out in the shade over there behind us. We take a look at our next good rain chance that comes on Thursday. Tomorrow is going to be just a brutally hot day with the temperature around 100. But our cold front comes through on Thursday. The front will stall across our area and then that rain chance will continue into Friday. So it's not going to be enough rain to kind of wash out these very dry conditions that we're seeing. But hey, every little every little bit helps. Okay, so take a look at that high pressure system. High pressure systems rotate clockwise. That high was able to grab some slightly drier air and drag it down into North Carolina last night and into this morning. So we've seen our humidity drop off just a little bit. Notice up to the north and west we do have some thunderstorms along a different front. That's the front that's going to drop in on us by the time we get to Thursday. We're probably not going to see a lot of widespread severe weather with this, but you can see that front at lunchtime moving on into North Carolina and around six o'clock or so. We start to see a few scattered storms developing. There's 6 p.m. on Thursday. Then that front stalls and by two o'clock on Friday afternoon there may be a few isolated showers and storms and then there's six o'clock and again a few showers and thunderstorms. That could continue into the weekend. One of the things that we'll see over the weekend is as this front sits here, it's going to be able to help to focus some of the moisture. That moisture is going to stay in the atmosphere. Whether or not we continue to see showers or thunderstorms or not, and that means that we will end up with the potential for some muggy conditions over the weekend. Today and tomorrow we have a 20% chance. Most of us will end up staying dry, but we'll have a better chance on Thursday and Friday, and then that chance drops a little bit for us on Saturday and Sunday, but our humidity will continue to go up or at least stay steady and fairly high over the weekend. How much rain in the next seven days? Well, that light blue area is going to be about three quarters of an inch to an inch. The darker blue area is going to be around half an inch or so, so you know, we'll have some measurable rainfall. It looks like with that front stalling over us. And boy, do we need it. We take a look at the dark red areas. That's where we've had zero percent of our normal rainfall in the last 30 days. It doesn't mean that we haven't seen any rain at all. When we look at a percentage as a whole, it's been hardly anything that measures there. Now you see the yellow areas south of Raleigh, where we had some rain in the last day or so, and that's about 30 percent of our normal rainfall. We'll check the tropics. Things are pretty quiet right now. There's a system that may be developing near Central America. We'll zoom in on that 20 percent chance that that becomes a system over the Yucatan Peninsula or down there in the Bay of Campeche. But here's one of the reasons that it's been fairly quiet. Last week we had our first name storm, Tropical Storm Alberto, but now we have our wind coming from Africa over toward the Caribbean. And it has a lot of dust with it from the Sahara and desert. And that's a very dry air mass and not conducive to storms developing. And that's okay. Here's what's not okay. We may see the second 100 degree day, the week we hit 100 on Sunday. We'll likely see it again for tomorrow. After that, our temperatures are a little lower for the rest of the week. But boy, it's going to be a doozy tomorrow. I'll tell you. Thanks Elizabeth. The samples from the moon, the dark side of the moon, are back on Earth. The country who completed this mission and what scientists plan to do with those samples. Winning powerball numbers, 5, 6, 36, 53, 69. The powerball is 8. The multiplier is 2. [Music] Each year, millions of North Carolinians visit a doctor of chiropractic for a variety of different reasons. And because of the opioid epidemic, that number is expected to grow. Chiropractic is a drug free, natural form of healthcare that helps people with all sorts of different painful conditions, such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, sciatica, and various different musculoskeletal conditions. But did you know that your doctor of chiropractic can actually help you improve your overall level of health? Visit nckiro.org/info for more. So the reason I chose William Peece was because of their stellar game design program. It's very rare to find a game design program in the United States at all the alone North Carolina and this place seemed like the right place for me for World One to go and the connections I could make within the program. Turn your hobby into a career in one of the highest paid professions in the country with William Peece University's simulation and game design program. Master design, 3-D modeling and programming in a state-of-the-art space with the latest and most remarkable technologies available. Find out more at peace.edu. We ramp things up with a look at a few of the headlines we are following for you today. Breaking news. A child is in the hospital after reported drowning call at a Wake County home. Deputies responded to that call on Gayle Ridge Lane. First responders and EMS were already on scene providing life-saving measures. The boy is now in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. It could be up to four years before Apple decides to move forward with its plans to bring a campus to research Triangle Park. The project was expected to be on one of the largest in our state's history at the time. Apple says it is still deeply committed to growing its teams in RTP and that we are looking forward. They are looking forward to developing their new campus in the coming years. This noon, we heard from the teen who is bit by a bit my shark over the weekend. It happened at North Topsel Beach. 14-year-old Blaine Brown is in the hospital recovering. He pulled a few tendons and has staples in his leg. Brown says he knows he is lucky. He says he is grateful it wasn't worse. China's lunar probe is back on Earth with the first ever samples from the far side of the moon. The probe landed back in China this afternoon. For the first time ever, it carried with it rock and soil samples from the moon's far side. Scientists believe the samples include volcanic rock estimated to be around 2.5 million years old. They also plan to compare geographic differences between soil samples from the moon's two sides. Our market challengers Amazon has set the dates for its July Prime Day and it's two days. Two days of sales will be held on July 16th and 17th. You'll get access to thousands of deals ranging from electronics to clothing to toys. Prices usually drop to the lowest level of the year during these prime days and in the past companies like Walmart, Target and others cut their prices to compete with Amazon. Will Smith is returning to his hip-hop roots. The BET Awards says Smith will debut a new single in a live performance at the show Sunday night. He already has one new song out. Light 'em up from the bad boys ride or die soundtrack. Shrek and Donkey are returning to movie screens. Eddie Murphy revealed in a recent interview he has already begun filming Shrek 5. Can you believe they're on number 5? Last year, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures reported that they were thinking about making another movie with the original cast which would include Murphy, Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Murphy also confirmed that a donkey spin-off is in the works. No word on a release date. It is time for a look at our pet of the day. We want you to meet Baxter. He's a sweet and loving beagle in search of his forever home. He enjoys adventures, walks and loves to ride in the car. Baxter gets along with other dogs, cats and kids. He is housebroken and crate trained to learn more about adopting him or if you want to meet him, visit TriBeagles.org. Baxter, don't eat the entire cheese wheel, all right? Durham County leaders want to look into how they can make railroad crossings safer. Coming up at 4 o'clock, we are taking a closer look at the repair project and how they plan to cover those costs. All right, so we're staying in the 90s today but tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the week, hitting possibly 100 degrees. Actual triple digits, not even the feels like that would be the second time this week that we hit 100. So it's kind of early in the year to be hitting 100 and the feels like it's going to be in dangerous levels. But by the time we get to Thursday, hopefully better chance of rain we sure need it around here. NBC News Daily is next on WRAL. We'll have your next local news update coming in 30 minutes. I remember you can always get breaking news updates anytime with our WRAL News app. Have a great day. Keep watching WRAL News over the Air Channel 34 and Spectrum Channel 1257. 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. 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. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest. Life comes at you fast, which is why it's important to find some time to relax a little you time. Enter Chumba Casino. With no download required, you can jump on any time, anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes. So treat yourself with Chumba Casino and play over a hundred online casino style games all for free. Go to ChumbaCasino.com to collect your free welcome bonus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply.