Year: 2020

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Face masks now mandatory as numbers rise

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Wearing a face covering in public is now mandatory in North Carolina. Citing rising numbers of hospitalizations and continued high numbers of newly identified cases of COVID-19, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order Wednesday requiring people to wear a face covering in public. The order...

General Assembly to abolish coroner office
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General Assembly to abolish coroner office

Caption: Frank Crumpler is coroner in Hoke County. He’s held the office longer than anybody has held any office in the U.S. By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer •   America’s longest-serving elected official still in office, Hoke County Coroner Frank Crumpler, is serving his final term after state leaders voted to dissolve four of...

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Raeford departments briefly close due to virus

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Concerns about a city employee potentially exposing other employees to the COVID-19 virus caused Raeford officials to temporarily close some offices. The city of Raeford’s Public Works and Inspections closed for a few days last week as a precaution. Several departments’ employees were all tested for COVID-19. The...

Other Stuff, Not Necessarily The News
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Other Stuff, Not Necessarily The News

By Ken MacDonald •  Here at The News-Journal we’re working remotely, or, as I like to say, remotely working. And when I’m remotely working, my thoughts turn to our gong machine. We’ve been at Gong, version II for quite sometime, so with any spare time afforded by the worldwide pandemic, my thoughts turned to a...

Marine from Raeford stabbed to death at post
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Marine from Raeford stabbed to death at post

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer •  A Marine from Raeford died last week at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune after suffering stab wounds from an incident that’s still under investigation. Lance Cpl. William “Billy” Jacob Luce, 22, an infantry rifleman with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, was fatally stabbed at Camp Lejeune in...

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Virus death toll in Hoke is 3

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Two people from Hoke County have died after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to health officials. An African-American man died June 12 at FirstHealth of the Carolinas, and a Hispanic woman died June 18 also at FirstHealth of the Carolinas after testing positive for the virus....

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Work continues on 4-laning NC 211

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Work is ongoing in the planning process for turning N.C. 211 between Raeford and Aberdeen into a four-lane road, according to a project schedule from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). A website for the project, dubbed R-5709 in the state’s transportation plan, noted in the project...

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County budget expected Wednesday

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • The Hoke County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote this week on a proposed 2020-2021 county budget ordinance. The board members plan to meet again Wednesday to take a vote on the proposed budget, County Manager Letitia Edens said in an email Monday. The board met in...

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Charges against pastor dropped

By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • A pastor in Raeford who spent years fighting fraud allegations won the battle this month when a prosecutor dropped the charges before the case ever went to trial. The two-and-a-half years the Rev. Dr. Lent Christopher Carr spent going to court and working with attorneys took a toll...

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Browsing the Files: 75, 47 and 25 Years Ago

75 Years Ago•  June 28, 1945 17-year-old Dannie Lowder was eating dinner in the John Marcus Café in Aberdeen Sunday about 8:30 p.m. when a bullet, fired by a policeman to stop a speeding driver, ricocheted and hit him in the neck. Officer W. Glenn Davis, night policeman, attempted to shoot the tires of a...

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City approves $65k project overage

To keep from having to cut off water for an extended time to South Main Street customers, including some businesses, Raeford City Council approved spending $65,000 more than planned for storm water improvements in the area. In a special called meeting Monday morning, the board approved the installation of valves so that asbestos cement water...

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Cape Fear Valley gets COVID-19 grant

Cape Fear Valley Health has been awarded $149,747 from the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation’s COVID-19 “Fill the Gap” Response Fund. The money will help fund three different needs within the health system.  The needs include behavioral health support for frontline healthcare workers, enhanced discharge support for underserved patients, and increasing nursing coverage to allow additional...

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Ro Huff: Feeling helpless in uncertain times

These are certainly unusual times. We are in the midst of the worst pandemic in a hundred years while downtown areas all around the country are being burned and looted in the wake of more horrible police brutality which resulted in another dead black man. These seemingly unrelated issues have coalesced into a stew of...