By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • A child behavioral health center in Hoke County is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, according to the Hoke County Health Department. Three employees and 14 residents at the Canyon Hills residential treatment center have tested positive for the illness, Health Department Director Helene Edwards said. Two facility employees...
Cape Fear Valley CEO Mike Nagowski will hold a live Facebook community town hall Tuesday to answer questions about the COVID-19 virus. The question-and-answer session will air during the Making Rounds Live radio show on Tuesday, April 28 from 11 a.m. to noon. Viewers can watch and submit their questions on Cape Fear Valley Health’s...
An employee at the Bojangles restaurant in Raeford has tested positive for COVID-19, the company said Friday in a press release. The employee last worked in the restaurant Wednesday, April 22. The person is self-isolating at home. The company learned Friday of the employee’s COVID-19 diagnosis, a press statement said. The company immediately closed the...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • North Carolina public schools, including Hoke County Schools, will stay closed through the end of the school year. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, N.C. Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson and State Board of Education Chair Eric Davis made the announcement Thursday. “We don’t make this decision lightly, but it’s...
Deputies with the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man Thursday in connection with a fatal shooting at a gas station earlier in the day. Lares Santwan Blue, 31, of Hoke County was shot and killed, Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said. Deputies arrested Willie Davis McArn Jr., 31, on a charge of first-degree murder...
A woman from Parkton was killed Thursday afternoon in Hoke County when her car ran off the road and struck a steamroller, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Rachel Melton, 32, of Parkton died in the single-vehicle accident, investigators said. Authorities notified her family before releasing her identity to media. Melton was driving on...
One person was dead and a suspect being questioned after a shooting this afternoon on Rockfish Road, according to Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin. What started as an apparent fight at the Lucky Stop gas station on the corner of Rockfish Road and U.S. 401 Business ended in a fatal shooting. Lares Santwan Blue, 31,...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper today extended the stay-at-home order until May 8, and outlined a three-phase plan for gradually reopening the state. Hoke County is up to 35 known COVID-19 cases as of today (see story). Additionally, the governor will make an announcement Friday afternoon about the...
The driver of a car was killed this afternoon when her car struck a paving machine beside the road near the intersection of Camden and Rockfish roads. The identification of the driver isn’t being released, pending notification of next of kin. A highway patrol trooper said the car apparently continued straight though the road bended,...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County’s total known COVID-19 cases rose from 25 on Tuesday to 35 by Thursday. The newest cases include employees at Smithfield Foods and Mountaire Farms, according to Hoke Health Department Director Helene Edwards. A local family is also experiencing an outbreak in their home, with multiple family...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • While the U.S. Department of Labor and N.C. Department of Commerce are tracking unemployment, it’s hard to say exactly how many people in Hoke have lost work due to COVID-19. So far more than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, according to the...
The National Weather Service believes most severe weather will stay to our south as a storm front pushes through today (Thursday). There is a slight chance of severe thunderstorms. Just a heads-up… Saturday afternoon brings another round, but the risk at this point is slight.
Employees of Hoke County Schools Child Nutrition continue working every day to prepare thousands of meals for children, even while schools are closed. Photos are courtesy of Director Deborah Carpenter and Area Supervisor Cheryl Cunningham of Hoke Schools Child Nutrition. We’re updating with more photos as they become available!
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • There are now 30 known cases of COVID-19 in Hoke County, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The five cases added Wednesday marked the largest single-day increase for the county. The COVID-19 spread in Hoke has been slow so far. Health officials have...
The Storm Prediction Center has increased the forecasted risk of severe storms for Hoke County tomorrow. We’re now in the “Enhanced” category. “There is increasing concern that this could become the focus for organized severe thunderstorm development, including supercells and an upscale growing convective system by Thursday evening, if not earlier. Given strong to extreme...
The Cape Fear Valley Blood Donor Center has scheduled a blood drive in Hoke County April 30. The event will be held at Stone Gables Apartments on US401across from the FedEx facility from 3-7 p.m.
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • North Carolina officials announced this week the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, or P-EBT, will give eligible families an extra $250 per child to help feed their children while schools are closed. Apparently, all families with a child enrolled in Hoke County Schools are eligible, because of how the school...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke’s number of known positive cases of COVID-19 remained low this week, as officials continued efforts to prevent outbreaks at nursing homes and the Hoke County jail. Hoke had 25 cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to Hoke County Health Department Director Helene Edwards. Many of the cases...
The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office shut down an alleged illegal nightclub in Shannon last week and arrested the owner on multiple drug charges. The sheriff’s office received “numerous complaints” about an illegal nightclub operating on the 3100 block of Balfour Road in Shannon, according to a press release. The Hoke Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • A driver allegedly exceeding the speed limit ran off the road and crashed into Hillcrest Fire Department early Easter Sunday morning, according to a report from the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Jada McLeod of the 100 block of Lantern Lane in Raeford was driving about 70 miles an...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Money for rural hospitals like the two in Hoke County could be on the way in new state legislation geared toward addressing COVID-19. The work groups of the Special House Committee on COVID-19 planned to meet this week to discuss the bill meant to help medical facilities in...
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Even as Hoke County departments continue providing services during the COVID-19 emergency, county officials are also continuing the work of putting together the county budget and completing the yearly audit. County department heads turned in their budget proposals to Hoke County Manager Letitia Edens by the end of...
To the Editor: I am writing this letter in response to the article written by Mr. Ron Huff entitled, “We Don’t Need This Kind of Leader,” which appeared in the April 8 issue of The News-Journal. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinions. However, I don’t understand why people like you and most others in the...
To the Editor:“However (political parties) may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled, men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the...
By Ron Huff • In Hoke County, one of the poorest counties in the state, we have more than our share of poverty. Poverty in the United States can go largely unnoticed by those who are best equipped to lend a helping hand. Those of us not living in the midst of poverty on a...