Tagged: Charlotte Observer

Students attend Central Piedmont Community College for many reasons, but the story of 20-year-old Riyam Al Ghrary’s journey to CPCC surely ranks among the most harrowing.

It began in Iraq, about six years ago, on the day she was kidnapped. It will culminate Thursday evening, as she accepts her diploma at Bojangles’ Coliseum, one of about 1,900 graduates, the largest number in CPCC’s 50-year history. She was student body vice president and a scholarship winner. She’s graduating with a 4.0 average.

  Former Mecklenburg County District Judge Bill Belk, already banned from holding judicial office, now faces possible punishment from the North Carolina State Bar.

On Aug. 23, Belk will appear before the bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission on charges he lied during a 2009 investigation into his possible misconduct while he sat on the bench.

Margaret Cloutier, the bar’s deputy counsel, said Monday that Belk faces disciplinary action ranging from warnings, reprimands and censure, to suspension of his law license and disbarment.

Newly unsealed documents in the divorce case of NASCAR Chairman Brian France provide a rare glimpse into how much money the privately held racing organization has generated for the France family.

France’s assets totaled more than $550 million in 2005, according to a financial statement included in the 1,500 pages of documents.

Owned and controlled by the France family, NASCAR paid Brian France more than $9 million in 2004, the documents show.

  Residents along the Catawba River should remain vigilant through tonight for rising waters caused by this week’s heavy rains, Duke Energy and emergency management officials warned.

A road in Charlotte was blocked Tuesday and firefighters were going door-to-door warning people about flooding along the Catawba River.

Water flowed downstream after mountain counties received heavy rainfall Monday. Some areas of the mountains got as much as seven inches of rain. Charlotte received 1.6 inches of rain, breaking a precipitation record.

A Lincoln County man faces misdemeanor animal cruelty charges after he allegedly used his van to drag a donkey down a road Thursday evening in the northwest part of the county.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says Richard Ricky Hudson, 68, was arrested and charged with conveying animals in a cruel manner. He was released on $4,000 bond late Thursday.

  Was it a happy accident that N.C. Dance Theatre’s “Contemporary Fusion” concert premiered Thursday, on the night of the full moon? All three pieces had a touch of lunacy, from the giddy ecstasy of Sasha Janes’ “Rhapsodic Dances” to the mad humor of Jiri Bubenicek’s “L’heure bleue” to the wild hijinks of Twyla Tharp’s “The Golden Section,” which looked like the coolest aerobics class there never was.