State Supreme Court upholds districts
The state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that new Congressional district maps will stand.
The Republican-majority court denied a request from the office of the Attorney General to stay Superior Court Judge Knox Jenkins' decision to replace the General Assembly's maps with his own.
The decision, signed by Associate Justice Robert Edmunds, did not give a vote count. The Attorney General's office sought a stay last Sunday, arguing that the plans Jenkins provided were in violation of the Supreme Court's redistricting order.
Michaux files bills to raise state revenue
Representative Mickey Michau, D-Durham, filed five bills Wednesday with the Legislature, proposals he said will close tax loopholes and could help raise up to $1 billion for the state.
One of these bills include an increase in taxes on cigarettes, from 5 cents to $1. Other proposals include ending a sales tax cap on boats, planes and railway cars, eliminating a sales tax cap on business machinery, repealing a tax credit for cigarettes manufactured in North Carolina but sold overseas and cutting an interest expense tax deduction for banks.
Officials to crack down on ticket-fixing
State Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit Wednesday against ticket companies he said were trying to sell hockey playoff tickets at illegally high prices.
"These corporate scalpers systematically bought hundreds of tickets to resell for big profits," he said. "That deprives fans of a chance to buy tickets at face value.... State law is clear, and it doesn't change just because we're in the Stanley Cup Finals."
The Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings are competing for the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League's championship. At least two games will be played at Raleigh's Entertainment and Sports Arena; the first is Saturday.
Tickets for games at the ESA sold out less than an hour after they went on sale. Many were bought by ticket companies, who in turn resold the tickets to fans for as much as $1,000 per ticket or more, Cooper said.
Selling tickets for more than $3 above the original price is against North Carolina law.
In the Wake County Superior Court complaint, Cooper alleged that six ticket agencies across the nation broke the law.
Helms set to leave hospital following heart surgery
Sen. Jesse Helms' condition continues to improve since his heart surgery in April, and he hopes to be out of the hospital next week, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Helms' Chief of Staff Jimmy Broughton said that when he visited the senator Wednesday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va., Helms was tube-free--breathing without supplemental oxygen. "He's doing well and moving toward movement [from the hospital] next week," Broughton said.
Helms, R-N.C., had an operation April 25 to replace a worn-out pig valve installed in his heart 10 years ago. The original pig valve was used to replace Helms' mitral valve, which guards the opening between the left upper and lower chambers of the heart.
Helms announced in 2000 that he would retire next January and return to North Carolina at the end of his fifth six-year term in the Senate.
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