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Education
On Tuesday the NC Department of Public Instruction announced that 28 school districts in “economically distressed” counties in North Carolina will receive significant grants to replace and repair school buildings. The $400 million in funding comes from the state lottery, and it will be distributed in grants awarded under the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund. Schools across the state estimated last year that $12.8 billion across 5 years is needed to improve aging school infrastructure; these funds will help to meet the needs of schools where local tax revenues are insufficient to do so.
Criminal Justice
On Tuesday a State Court of Appeals ruled that District Attorney Jim O’Neill did not follow the requirements of the Rules of Civil Procedure when he sought a protective order to prevent the release of documents to the media about the death of Jim Neville while he was detained in the Forsyth County Jail. Neville, a Black man, died in 2019, three days after being placed in a “prone restraint” by jail deputies. News & Observer reporters filed public records requests in 2020 with the state Department of Health and Human Services for documents including the State Bureau of Investigation’s file on Neville’s death; however, once O’Neill learned the records would be released, he asked a Forsyth County Superior Judge to seal them and did not notify the N&O.