TOM FOREMAN

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into the Maryland State Police to determine if the agency engaged in racially discriminatory hiring and promotion practices.

Praise and lament for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned abortion rights filled sacred spaces this weekend.

Legendary civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and three other men had their convictions vacated posthumously.

A North Carolina sheriff’s office has announced a $3 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Black man shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies more than a year ago.

Historic Princeville, on the banks of the Tar River in eastern North Carolina, is one hurricane away from disaster.

Police say former U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo was arrested after she was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle in North Carolina with her 2-year-old twins inside.

More than five years after a Black congregation merged with a mostly white North Carolina church, members of The Refuge Church continue striving to be an example of unity and racial reconciliation in the American South.

An uncontrolled fire at a fertilizer plant has continued to burn in North Carolina.

President Joe Biden often cites the critical role that South Carolina played when he won the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Forecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia have put much of the Southeast on an emergency preparedness footing as shoppers strip store shelves of supplies and road crews treat highways ahead of an approaching weekend storm.

Henri is now a hurricane.

Behind the statistics and the political blame game over rising gun violence are the victims.

Investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones says she will not teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill following an extended fight over tenure.

Trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have approved tenure for Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Long-standing grievances over the treatment of Black students, faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have reemerged in light of the controversy over investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

A major University of North Carolina donor whose name is on its journalism school says he is curious about how much research went into the selection of Nikole Hannah-Jones to join the faculty.

The chairman of the University of North Carolina's board of trustees says investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure application was halted because she didn’t come from a traditional academic background.

Motorists are finding gas pumps shrouded in plastic bags at tapped-out service stations across more than a dozen U.S. states.

Videos of a Black and Latino Army lieutenant who was pepper-sprayed and handcuffed during a traffic stop in rural Virginia have been viewed millions of times.

Advocates for female firefighters say their struggles are part of a larger trend, as evidenced by recent gender discrimination lawsuits against fire departments in Illinois, Virginia, and Texas. The first female chief of a municipal fire department in the state says she briefly pondered suicide after years of sexual harassment. According to the National Fire Protection Association, 93,700, or 8%, of U.S. firefighters were female in 2018, the latest year for which data was available. Similar lawsuits have been filed — and won — by female firefighters in Illinois, Texas and Virginia. Williams said she is the third female department head in Carrboro to file such a suit against Andrews, who recently announced that he would retire in July.

Other Black firefighters who endured similar treatment in the Winston-Salem Fire Department recently brought their complaints before the city. The grievance they filed in October calls for Chief William “Trey” Mayo to be fired for failing to discipline white firefighters who, the group said, have created a hostile work environment through comments in person and on social media. Across the country, firefighters are confronting incidents of racism and discrimination as part of a burgeoning movement to call out and address racial injustice in America. Two Black women sued the city of Denver in September, saying its fire department discriminated against them because of their gender and race. Almost right away, she said, other firefighters stole her food and took her uniforms out of her personal space.

Jail, authorities restrain John Neville in his cell as a nurse speaks with him, in Winston-Salem, N.C. The body-cam video from the jail shows Neville struggling with jail guards to get up from the floor where he was lying on his back, shouting that he couldn't breathe and calling out "Mama, mama!" Five former jail officers and a nurse were charged in July with involuntary manslaughter in Nevilles death. As he is being transferred, Neville yells, Help me, somebody! A guard tells him he's had a medical episode and he needs to calm down. Once in the cell, the five officers remove Neville from the chair and lay him on a mattress.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)WASHINGTON Massive protests against police brutality nationwide capped a week that began in chaos but ended with largely peaceful expressions that organizers hope will sustain their movement. Roderick Sweeney, who is black, said the large turnout of white protesters waving signs that said Black Lives Matter in San Francisco sent a powerful message. In Raeford, North Carolina, a town near Floyds birthplace, people lined up outside a Free Will Baptist church, waiting to enter in small groups. Back in North Carolina, the Rev. "But it took 401 years to put the system in place so nothing would happen.___Pritchard reported from Los Angeles and Foreman from Raeford, North Carolina.

Trump and the RNC had demanded that the August convention be allowed to move forward with a full crowd and that participants not have to wear face coverings. Protecting public health and safety during this pandemic is a priority.A traditional GOP convention brings together roughly 2,500 delegates, the same number of alternate delegates and many times more guests, journalists and security personnel. The RNC's leader, Ronna McDaniel accused Cooper of dragging his feet on giving them guidance for proceeding with convention plans. Tennessee's Bill Lee said GOP officials were coming to scout Nashville on Thursday. ; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina; and Tom Foreman Jr. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contributed to this report.