North Carolina
Tornadoes damage homes, injure more than a dozen
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Residents, meteorologists and emergency officials in eastern North Carolina were surveying the damage Saturday from multiple tornadoes that damaged more than 200 homes the previous day and sent more than a dozen people to the emergency room.
Meteorologists said Saturday that tornadoes with winds of more than 111 mph touched down in Pitt and Beaufort counties on Friday, and they were continuing to investigate storm damage.
Elsewhere, Texas, Oklahoma and other states in the Plains and Midwest were bracing for severe storms expected to start Saturday and continue overnight. There, the main threat was expected to be large hail and damaging wind gusts.
Alabama
LGBT campaign planned in 3 Deep South states
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A national organization is launching a three-year, $8.5 million campaign to promote LGBT equality and push for new legal protections in three Southern states dominated by conservative politics and religion and known for resistance to change: Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi.
The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign is planning a campaign based on using chats and front-porch visits between relatives and friends to foster an environment more welcoming toward people of all sexual orientations.
The idea is simple, and it’s borne out in polls: People are less likely to oppose expanded rights and acceptance if they know and care for someone who’s gay. Activists hope that’s particularly true in a region that values hospitality.
Connecticut
School stabbing suspect described as genial
HARTFORD, Conn. – A teacher at the Connecticut high school where a student was stabbed to death says the suspect is a teenager with a good sense of humor who gave no indication of trouble.
Authorities have not released the name of the suspect.
He is charged with murder as a juvenile offender in Friday’s slaying of fellow student Maren Sanchez at Jonathan Law High School in Milford. His attorney said his client is under psychiatric evaluation.
Ohio
Many who own exotic animals lack new permit
COLUMBUS, Ohio – About 1 in 3 owners of exotic animals still lacks a permit more than three months after a state law requiring it went into effect, according to records obtained from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The permits are among the last pieces of the state’s crackdown on private ownership after the 2011 release of dozens of wild animals by a suicidal owner at his eastern Ohio farm in Zanesville. Fearing for public safety, authorities hunted down and killed most of the animals, including black bears, Bengal tigers and African lions.
Owners in Ohio were required to obtain the state permits by Jan. 1 of this year.
The Agriculture Department had issued 51 permits as of Friday after receiving 82 applications, according to state data obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request. Permit applications for 23 owners remain unresolved. Eight other applications were dropped either because the animals died, were relinquished to the state or were sent elsewhere.
Associated Press
