WRAL Newscasts
4:30AM News on WRAL - Friday, June 21, 2024
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And some local swimmers will make their final attempts to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic swim team. A look ahead to their races. We got a couple people in the race. We'll tell you who they are coming up. Thanks for joining us on your Friday morning. I'm Michelle McConaughey, and for any too. And I'm Jeff Hogan. It's great to have you along. Those swimming trials have been super exciting. We have such local talent and that can't wait for it. Elizabeth Gardner in the WRL Severe Weather Center right now with our start on this Friday as we head towards the weekend. Did you see the moon when it came in? Oh my goodness. It was so pretty out there. It is starting to set. It's fairly low on the horizon right now. I couldn't immediately find it on one of our cameras. But it is beautiful. It is 72 in the triangle. 63 is our due point. So we're still sitting in that sweet spot this morning feeling very comfortable. And we will, of course, have another day like yesterday. It feels hot here in the afternoon. But the humidity is still going to stay on the moderate side. 63 in Roxborough right now. 64 in Goldsboro. 66 in Southern Pine. 65 in Clinton. So comfortable start this morning. We'll climb into the mid to upper 80s at lunchtime and we'll see a high of 93 for this afternoon. Coming up, we're going to take a look at how long this heat wave lasts. And it does look like it's a pretty long one. W-O-R-L is following breaking news here in the W-O-R-Life Center. Good morning. I'm Chris Loving. We have learned from Durham Police that there is a shooting being investigated right now. At least three people have been shot. It's unclear exactly the extent of their injuries right now. Again, this is on Fayetteville Street in Durham. There is an active scene right now. W-O-R-L is headed to the scene at this very moment. As soon as we have more information, we'll have a live update here on W-O-R-L. Thanks, Chris. And more breaking news in Durham. A two-year-old girl has life-threatening injuries and two adults are hurt after a shooting. This happened at an apartment complex on East Cornwallis Road. Nick Pirlan joins us live from the scene in the W-O-R-L breaking news tracker. Nick, this investigation has been underway for over eight hours. Michelle, it's right. I can tell you a couple of minutes ago, we did see crime scene investigators leave the front entrance of the Cadence apartment complex where I'm at. I'm at the front entrance. The crime scene is further towards in the parking lot of the complex. I do want to get you to this video from the W-O-R-L breaking news tracker to show you a little bit more of what I mean. You can see Durham police officers here swarming into this parking lot in the apartment complex and large parts of it being taped off. Like Michelle was saying, we know three people are shot. One of them being an adult man, another being an adult woman. They're expected to be okay. But a two-year-old, a two-year-old baby girl was also shot and she's fighting for her life right now. We're trying to get more information on her condition as well as the other two people who were involved, who were hurt rather. And of course, we're still trying to find out if Durham police have any leads as to who's responsible for the shooting. We're going to continue to stay on top of this all morning. Reporting live in Durham, Nick Perel in W-O-R-L News. A man wanted for having and distributing child sexual abuse materials as now in the Halifax County Jail. 27-year-old Cameron Houston turns himself in last night. Roanoke Rapids police charged him with 15 counts of felony, second-degree exploitation of a minor. He is now being held on $750,000 bond. He's due in court next Friday. I-40 between Clayton and Southeast Raleigh will be getting a bit rougher. A change is coming to the asphalt in an effort to reduce the number of accidents caused by hydroplaning in that area. The DOT is testing a new method to try to reduce risks on the road when it rains. It's called shot blasting. Equipment will blast that roadway with sanders and small pieces of metal. And the sand off a thin layer of the asphalt there makes it a little rougher, only about the width of two pieces of paper. What that's doing is it's kind of adding a little profile depth to it that helps water shed or tires a little more friction. DOT will use the technique on the new lanes of I-40 that are now being constructed and they are expected to open a traffic next month. The State House and Senate will not agree on how to spend a $1 billion surplus by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1st. That's what the House Speaker is saying. The Senate agrees with the House on giving more money to child care and private school vouchers. However, the Senate plan would not give bigger raises to state employees like the House wants to do. The House gave final approval to its plan on Thursday. The Senate will vote on its plan Monday night. The Republican-led chambers will have to agree on a plan before sending it to Governor Roy Cooper. Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both chambers. For complete coverage of the budget proposals, go to the NC Capital section of WREL.com. We have some new information about NC State's plans for Poe Hall. That's the building where hundreds of people worked or studied and now believe it gave them cancer. NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson put out a public explanation with plans to gut the building. Alumni are fighting to keep the building the way it is so they can have it independently tested right now. Attorneys fighting NC State in court say the school hasn't done enough testing to have a full picture of the problem. Former President Donald Trump will get the final word when he debates President Joe Biden next week after a coin flip to determine podium placement and the order of closing statements. The coin landed on Tails, which was the Biden campaign's pick. That meant that his campaign got to choose whether it wanted to select the president's podium position or the order of closing statements. Biden's campaign chose the right podium position and Trump's campaign then chose for the former president to deliver the last closing statement. The debate is happening Thursday night. Parts of Texas on the coast are dealing with the aftermath of the first-named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Alberto caused flooding during high tides in Galveston and other coastal communities. Some of the areas were drenched by more than four inches of rain before the storm started to weaken as it moved inland. Alberto made landfall in Mexico as a tropical storm yesterday morning. Mexican authorities blamed the storm for at least four deaths. That includes two young people who were electrocuted while riding bicycles out in the rain. The storm brought heavy-range regions of that country that have been parched by a recent drought. If you're in a rush to get your passport, no worries. The U.S. State Department is opening six new passport agencies and one is right here in North Carolina. The new facilities will be located in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Orlando, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio. The State Department has not announced opening dates yet. The news comes after the State Department began testing an updated online passport renewal program earlier this month. Overnight closures remain in effect in Holly Springs as work to complete the 540 loop continues. The on-ramp from NC55 to 540 will be closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night through June 25th. So next week, a detour is in place for drivers looking to travel west on 540. An NC State swimmer is headed to Paris for the Summer Olympics after making the cut for Team USA. Catherine Burckhoff punched her ticket to Paris with her performance in the 100-meter backstroke. She took second place in the finals clocking in at 57.91 seconds. Burckhoff follows in the footsteps of her father David, who is a four-time Olympic medalist. Two of those are from the 100-meter backstroke. And Burckhoff is also very special. So, yeah, I mean, he was my earliest inspiration. So to be able to do what he's doing is really cool. And Burckhoff is now the 43rd NC State athlete. To make the Olympics, congratulations. Carries Claire Kurzan will race in the final heat of the 200-meter backstroke tonight, her specialty. She finished second in her semi-final heat last night. There were two other Wolfpack elite swimmers competing in the same category, Ryan White and Kennedy Noble. Both women also advanced to the finals tonight. The Olympic swimming trials continue through Sunday. You can watch it all on WRAL. A North Carolina family's nightmare unfolds in their own backyard when their two-year-old daughter almost drowns in the pool. I never, ever in my life thought that would happen at my pool with my kids. We'll show you the moments caught on camera when the dad jumps into action, saving his daughter after she became unresponsive. And we'll have a look at the tributes that continue to pour in for actor Donald Sutherland after his passing. And it is officially summer. This is a live look at Franklinton this morning. This weekend we could see some dangerous heat. Meteorologist Elizabeth Garner joins us after the break with a look at those temperatures. ♪♪ From the WRAL Severe Weather Center, North Carolina's most experienced team of meteorologists. It's quite a start again this morning. Our jubons are fairly low, it's a nice comfortable morning temperatures are mostly in the 60s. It's a live look at Goldsboro and we should have a beautiful sunrise again. A really nice full moon out there right now is just starting to set so you might get a chance to take a glimpse of it before it sets. It's interesting if you didn't know as the full moon sets the sun is rising they do it simultaneously. That's the only time really in a month that it happens. That way it's kind of cool. 61 in Lewisburg, 66 in Southern Pine, 65 in Erwin, 67 south hills, so 60s all across our graphics this morning. But it is going to be a hot afternoon so if you're headed out for a run you want to do it as early as you can. We climbed 93 for a high today and of course even hotter this weekend. ♪♪ I want to bring you back here into the WRAL Live Center where we're in Durham right now. This is on Fayetteville Street. What you're looking at right now is through the lens of photojournalist Mark Elastic. You'll see there are several different officers walking around and toward the left I counted at least from this angle about eight different crime scene markers out of their evidence markers if you will. And we're learning that three people were shot during this situation. It's unclear though how exactly they're doing. But I tell you what, come back to us in about 15 minutes because we're going to see Heidi Kirk live. She's going to be trying to get more information about this. That's why you don't see her now. She's trying to gather some more information. And we will bring you breaking updates here on WRAL News. Few are undocumented immigrants are crossing the Southern border. That's from new numbers published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That's what they show from April to May. It was nearly a 10% decrease in border crossings. The dip in numbers seen this year can largely be attributed to increased help from Mexico in slowing migrations. For the third year in a row the state Senate has voted to legalize medical marijuana. But House Republicans may still not be on board to pass it into law. The bill would allow people with certain terminal or life-threatening diseases like cancer, ALS and Parkinson's to use marijuana prescribed by a doctor. Conservative religious groups that wield power in the legislature are opposed to medical marijuana. House Speaker Tim Moore has said that while he personally supports the idea, most of his fellow Republicans in the House don't. And the day that we have a majority of the Republican caucus read about for it, then it will suit me to go ahead and vote on. But until we have that, it won't come to the fort. The bill would also regulate sales of CBD products in the state. It would require them to be inspected and taxed and sold only to people 18 and over. The first gene therapy to help treat muscular dystrophy now has FDA approval. The drug is called elevitas and it helps to treat a form of muscular dystrophy called Duchenne. It was approved last year for four and five-year-old children. Now the FDA says it is okay for anyone over the age of four with the disease. Duchenne muscular dystrophy progressively makes muscles weaker. It can prevent children from being able to walk. A study from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA shows North Carolina schools are becoming more segregated. A major redistricting by Durham Public Schools goes against that grain, giving more access to equity and equity to families. The Growing Together initiative redraws boundaries, making sure more families have the ability to enroll in special programs like Montessori or dual language. Together is simplifying those choices, making them closer to home, and increasing the diversity and access to our programs, which will actually bring together our aims towards equity and efficiency. And research shows that students who attend racially and socioeconomically diverse schools have a better chance to succeed. A memorial for actor Donald Sutherland is growing on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fans are paying their respects for the veteran actor. Sutherland died yesterday at the age of 88. He was known across generations for roles in mash, animal house, and the Hunger Games. He had been suffering from a long-term illness at the time of his death. An incredible pool rescue in North Carolina is caught on camera as a dad jumps in to save his two-year-old daughter's life after she nearly drowned in the family pool. Myla Shortridge was swimming with her siblings and friends in their Gaston County backyard. Her father, Matthew, says he heard his 10-year-old scream and noticed his two-year-old daughter floating in the pool with her head down. He jumped in and immediately started mouth-to-mouth while a friend started chest compressions. Myla survived and has made a full recovery. Her mom, Amy, hopes to help parents everywhere with their story. I want everyone possible to know CPR because it really does save lives. And some other tips that could help save a life include supervision, have adults, take turns, being the designated water watcher. In public, always check for lifeguards and where they are stationed. Another is barriers. Residential pools need a fence and self-locking gate and consider alarms on doors that lead outside. So glad that little girl is okay. Well, tonight the U.S. Olympic track and field trials get started. They're happening at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, through June 30th. Coverage tonight at 9 right here on WREO. Michael Strahan's daughter is a Bella Strahan. Had a very big reason to celebrate this week. Former NFL star posted this video on Instagram of Isabella ringing the bell at Duke Hospital. As she celebrated the end of her chemo treatment, Isabella had been battling a brain tumor since October 2023. Her dad called his 19-year-old daughter "superwoman" in this touching post. That's so great to see. Ringing the bell. It's a big step. Elizabeth Gardner is in the WREO Center for us this morning. Elizabeth, there's a lot of construction around the world. We're looking at two nice, clear skies for the most part. Pretty moon out there if you happen to catch it before it sets. 72 in the triangle. But this is where we're seeing the warmest temperatures pretty much everywhere else. I look for seeing temperatures in the 60s this morning. So feeling comfortable again. And our humidity is on the low side. I love this photo from Ken Christensen. He has some beautiful photos from Northampton County. Mockingbird. They're caught by the moon yesterday. Isn't that amazing? Beautiful, beautiful shot there. We'd love to see your weather watcher photos. Go to www.doperiel.com search weather watchers. Around town today, 93 in Raleigh and Durham. And 94 in Fayetteville. A little bit warmer than yesterday. But we jump into our bigger heat starting tomorrow into the weekend and for a lot of next week too. We're sitting in tolerable with our dew point right now. And so that's, again, not so bad. It feels fairly comfortable this morning. But it does start to climb. We're going to see tropical up to around 70 for the first time this year as we get into Sunday and Monday. So Saturday will be a little hotter and more humid. It's really Sunday and Monday right now that look the worst. However, Wednesday, this goes out to Tuesday. Wednesday of next week, we have 100 in our forecast for the temperature, not just the heat index. And, of course, just to our north. And they've been dealing with heat for several days now. This is, I think, maybe the fourth day that we've seen widespread heat advisories, some excessive heat warnings, and an excessive heat watch there for Northern Virginia and pretty much all of Maryland. Tomorrow, we'll see 96 and Sunday 97, the record 100. So it'll probably be just under record heat for the weekend. On Sunday, we do have major heat risk. We're in red all across the viewing area. So that means heat index would be up over or at 105. And then on Monday, we even have some pockets of purple, which would be extreme. So Sunday and Monday are going to be the most dangerous days of the next five. Now, temperature-wise, tomorrow we still hit 96. Our normal high is 89. At 98 Monday, 97 on Tuesday, it's just all about the dew point in terms of how it's going to feel with the heat index. So heat index of 102 Saturday, and don't take that lightly. I mean, that's still serious. But we don't really hit heat advisory criteria until Sunday and Monday. Weather services hasn't said much about which day they may hit issue a heat advisory, but it does look like that we would fall into that category for both Sunday and Monday. It just continues, too. Above normal temperatures are likely across most of the country all the way through the end of this month. And again, we're going to hit 100 on Wednesday. The last time we had a 100+ day at RDU was last September when we hit 102. I don't even remember that. I don't know why. I guess maybe I put it out of my mind. But there it is. That 100 for Wednesday. A couple of chances for storms, though. Monday and Thursday, we'll talk about the potential, how much rain we'll see. And, of course, look at the tropics, where we have two systems, potentially, that could develop. Just to see 100 on that forecast. Oh, my goodness. Thanks, Elizabeth. Two whales are safe in Spain this morning. After a dangerous journey from Ukraine, a look inside the rescue operation. And, like father, like son, we'll tell you about Tiger Wood's son, Charlie, and his latest accomplishment in the golf world. Hey, I have a question. What the f*ck is lane filtering? It's a new Colorado law on our roads. Motorcycle riders can now legally pass on the left side of a vehicle, but only one of them can do. And the left side of a vehicle, but only while traffic is stopped. Lane filtering. I like it. This message is brought to you by CDOT.