WFAE staff and wire reports

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley campaigned alongside President Donald Trump in Greenville on Tuesday night, attacking Democrat Roy Cooper’s record as governor on issues including crime and COVID-19 restrictions.

More polls show Democrat Roy Cooper’s lead widening in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, while polling in South Carolina shows that state’s Senate contest remains a toss-up.WJZY reports a new Trafalgar Group poll released Monday shows Democrat Annie Andrews trailing Republican Darline Graham by just 3 percentage points.

A federal judge declined to block North Carolina’s new mail-in ballot rules from taking effect, ruling that it would be “infeasible” to do so because voting has already begun.

The Carolina Panthers beat the Philadelphia Eagles 25-14 on Sunday for their third win of the season.

The Charlotte Hornets continued their preseason schedule Wednesday night with a 114-93 road loss to the Boston Celtics.Brandon Miller and Tidjane Salaun each scored 16 points to lead the Hornets.Charlotte visits the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.

A Conover-based company that manufactures infrastructure components for utilities will add 105 new jobs, officials said Wednesday.

The town of Cornelius has named a new police chief. Jennifer Thompson becomes the first woman to hold the job of the Mecklenburg County town. She’s been with the department for 25 years, most recently as deputy chief. Current Chief David Baucom is retiring at the end of the year

Corvid Technologies, a Mooresville defense contractor whose work includes missile defense and warhead designs, said Tuesday that it will add more than 400 new jobs as part of a $95 million expansion.

Six patrol officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been cited for termination in connection with racist text messages, according to WSOC.The messages reportedly included use of the N-word and were discovered during an investigation into former CMPD officer Seth Elliott's alleged misuse of Flock license plate reader cameras.In July, Elliott was accused of using the license plate reader system to track an individual.He was eventually charged with illegally accessing a government computer for non-law enforcement purposes.

Carowinds has temporarily closed Fury 325 and Thunder Striker after parent company Six Flags Entertainment Corp. shut down several similar roller coasters across its parks.The closures follow a fatal incident on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia.