Recent Articles

FRANKLINTON - Funeral services for Robert "Rob" Hilliard, 51, who died Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, will be held Saturday, Aug. 13, at 1 p.m. at the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg.

Louisburg High School's Hannah Nobles works on her hitting skills during a recent volleyball practice session for the Lady Warriors.

Whitney Bolton is once again expected to be a dominant hitter for Louisburg High School.

Hayes Tharrington will be a key defender this season for Franklinton.

BUNN -- A preseason trip to Raleigh for the old Pigskin Preview used to be a much-anticipated event for the Bunn High School football team.
But the preview at Carter-Finley is long gone, so the Wildcats have stayed away from Wake County scrimmages over the past several campaigns.
The Wildcats will be making a return this Saturday as part of the HighSchoolOT.com jamboree at Cardinal Gibbons High School in West Raleigh. The school is located adjacent to the PNC Arena on Edwards Mill Road.

LOUISBURG -- A Franklinton police officer is a "person of interest" in a state investigation into allegations of sexual assault.
Franklinton police have placed officer Jason Tate on administrative leave while agents with the State Bureau of Investigation look into allegations made by an 18-year-old girl during the early morning hours of Aug. 7.
According to Franklin County Sheriff's Office Chief of Staff Terry Wright, WakeMed North staff reported the incident to law enforcement around 4 a.m. Sunday.

LOUISBURG -- The county's airport board agreed to cut a tenant's rental bill in half in an attempt to appease him after he claimed a former airport employee cost him $13,000.
At a meeting of the board of the Triangle North Executive Airport in August 2014, Brett James of James Aeronautics alleged that Bruce Allen cost him about $13,000 when he accosted a pilot who was bringing a plane to his business hangar to be repaired.

LOUISBURG -- The Cooperative Extension's annual Horse Farm Tour observed its 21st year, which is fitting because the event has always felt like a celebration for equine enthusiasts.
"It's just wonderful," said Louisburg resident Marsha Aldrich, who has made a habit of attending the tour of the county's horse farms.
"And it's fun to see all the people who come out and the farms."

LOUISBURG -- A court in Onslow County has continued an injunction that keeps law enforcement agents and prosecutors from targeting certain types of sweepstakes cafes, meaning that two operations in Louisburg can keep their doors open.
The General Assembly ruled that such businesses were illegal and earlier this year, agents with Alcohol Law Enforcement shut them down and district attorneys across the state vowed to prosecute those who kept their doors open.

A local woman whose personal artwork captured scenes of Franklin County over more than half a century will be honored with an exhibition entitled "Lost Landscapes" that will debut Aug. 22 at Louisburg College.
The exhibition of Betty McKinne's work is being sponsored by the Tar River Center for History and Culture and will be on display through Oct. 7 at Louisburg College's Edith C. Lumpkin Community Gallery.

Franklinton High School graduate Tyler Irby

FRANKLINTON -- Sheriff's deputies arrested a Louisburg woman following a stabbing.
According to authorities, Debbie D. King, 36, got into an argument with a 25-year-old woman at a house on Mitchiner Grove Road when she pulled out a knife the afternoon of Aug. 8.

LOUISBURG -- A relative of a woman killed by a roommate in an assisted living facility has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging its operators were negligent.
Franklin County sheriff's deputies responded to The Jordan during the early morning hours of Dec. 29, 2015 to find Elouise Collier dead from knife wounds.
Her roommate, Patricia Marrow, 57 at the time, was charged with stabbing the 88-year-old woman with a steak knife.
On Aug. 4, Collier's grandniece, and administrator of her estate, Angela Alston, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility and its operators, Carolyn and John Newell.

Emergency crews responded to a wreck on U.S. 401 Monday morning involving a flipped over truck. Above, emergency crews transported the driver, who had not been identified, to a local hospital for treatment. First responders on the scene said when they arrived, they found the man outside of the truck and he was able to walk around.

We lived the cartoon life for a few days last week when we slipped off to Myrtle Beach for a little R&R before Nick heads back to classes and we all start that inevitable post Labor Day slide toward Christmas!
Cartoon life because, on Thursday, as we were getting ready to leave, the N&O ran a cartoon of a guy walking toward the beach and past a sign dictating the rules of the beach.

At the risk of sounding alarmist, it is important to realize that a disease about which little is truly known -- and for which no treatment exists -- is here in the United States.
Not only that, it has triggered the first-ever travel warning by the Centers for Disease control focused on a portion of our mainland.
That disease, of course, is the Zika virus which first began to cause concerns many months ago, mostly in South America.

The last time I wrote a column about Rod Blagojevich, he was facing as many as 300 years behind bars on charges of political corruption.
Ultimately, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his transgressions.
You remember Blago, as he was known in some circles, right?
Well, let me refresh your memories.

"Not my problem."
How many times have you heard someone say that in recent years?
That is also the attitude too many North Carolinians have about the goings on in Raleigh.
They think the misdeeds of the radical Republicans in charge don't adversely affect them; it only hurts those "other people." Let's take a deeper look at that.

Dear editor: School supplies are a basic need for students. The truth is though, that not all families can afford to supply these basic needs themselves.
Teachers fill in the gaps for these families out of their own pockets. No one is forcing teachers to pay for classroom supplies, ­­ we do it voluntarily.
North Carolina already ranks as the second-worst state to be a teacher, and we rank 46th in the country for per student spending.

EVENING FUN. Law enforcement and the community met for Franklinton's annual National Night Out on Aug. 2. Above, Jaylen Hawkins, 4, has fun in a bounce house provided by A-1 Gumballs in town.

The Franklin County Board of Education had one of its shortest meetings in recent memory this week -- the public portion was barely 10 minutes long!
During the public portion, the school board set the tuition rate for county schools at $1,782.08 per student per year.
That rate applies for students who live outside Franklin County but want to attend Franklin County Schools.
Essentially, the rate equals the amount that Franklin County government spends on each child enrolled in the county school system.

FRANKLINTON -- Nine and counting.
That's the number of former Franklinton High School student-athletes who will be competing in either cross country or track and field on the collegiate level during the 2016-17 season.
The number increased last Saturday as a trio of Red Rams signed letters-of-intent to continue their respective careers at Virginia University of Lynchburg.