Latest news with #NCSupremeCourt
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jewelry brand's NC debut to include SouthPark store
Fast-growing jewelry brand Gorjana has set its sights on SouthPark mall. The Laguna Beach, California-based concept plans to open that store this spring. READ: Family's fight against HOA over chickens goes before NC Supreme Court It will be in the mall's center court. A second location is planned in Durham; these will be the brand's first stores in North Carolina. 'The energy in these cities is unmatched, and we can't wait to channel that vibrancy into our stores,' co-founder Gorjana Reidel says. Keep reading here. READ: Family's fight against HOA over chickens goes before NC Supreme Court
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Man buys land in foreclosure, finds out it's adjacent to the one he wanted
James Hoffman saw the paperwork: A piece of property in foreclosure, which was a parcel for sale on Rozzelles Ferry Road in northwest Charlotte. ALSO READ: Family's fight against HOA over chickens goes before NC Supreme Court 'I said, 'Oh man, this is a great deal,'' he told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke. He bid on it and won. Then he found out he didn't buy the property with a house that he wanted. He had bought the vacant lot next door. 'I would not have bought it,' he said. The address had changed during the foreclosure process. The address on the court documents, which was what Hoffman relied on, was the old one. Stoogenke explains what happened. The person who owned the overgrown lot owed taxes, and Mecklenburg County foreclosed on it. Somewhere in that process, the street address changed. It's not clear why. But the lawyers for the county say legally the property's 'legal description' must stay 'identical' throughout 'the foreclosure.' So, it did. The county said buyers should go by parcel numbers anyway, saying 'street addresses are subject to frequent change.' The county emailed Stoogenke this full statement from the law firm that handled the sale for the County (excluding personal information): 'At the time we initiated foreclosure on July 6, 2021, the tax records on file in Mecklenburg County indicated a street address of [xxxx] Rozzelles Ferry Rd as being affiliated with Parcel Identification Number [xxxx]. Therefore, we articulated that address in our legal description for Parcel Identification Number [xxxx]. It appears that the County subsequently updated the street address affiliated with Parcel Identification Number [xxxx]. 'However, the legal description contained in the complaint must be identical to that in our judgment, notice of sale, and eventual deed within the course of the foreclosure action. Therefore, we did not update the street address midstream in the foreclosure action to reflect [xxxx]. 'Because street addresses are subject to frequent change, it is critical when researching a particular parcel to rely on the Parcel Identification Number, which remains consistently affiliated with the parcel, as opposed to the street address. 'A basic search query of the Parcel Identification Number '[xxxx]' in the online Mecklenburg County tax records, as well as Geographic Information System (GIS), yields the exact vacant parcel on the winning bid. 'It's on the buyer to do their own due diligence,' Hoffman said. 'But I think it's … for the law firm ... to do what's right. Who can you trust?' In this case, the parcel number didn't match the Rozzelles Ferry address anymore. It matched the overgrown lot Hoffman ended up with. 'I feel like Mecklenburg County should make it right, even to the point that they should even give me what I lost,' he said. Plus, he says the parcel he now owns is landlocked -- no access to the street -- so he's not sure what to do with it. He says he's out more than $73,000. Bottom line: Whether you're buying property in foreclosure or not, it may sound odd, but don't trust the street address. Always go by the parcel number. And make sure you check every digit carefully. The two parcels in this case had the same numbers except for the last two digits. VIDEO: Family's fight against HOA over chickens goes before NC Supreme Court
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court's Riggs-Griffin ruling is an assault on democracy
NC Supreme Court (Photo: Clayton Henkel) It's been almost six months since state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin narrowly lost last year's election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. Two recounts confirmed the result. Unfortunately, Griffin's effort to overturn the election based on the farfetched theory that thousands of registered voters should have their ballots thrown out continues. And last week, four Republican state Supreme Court justices endorsed the scheme — ruling that the votes of numerous military and overseas voters will be trashed unless they can somehow provide a photo ID in short order. This despite the fact that state rules required no such thing at the time of the election. It's a remarkably dangerous ruling that Republican Justice Richard Dietz blasted as an invitation to losing candidates of all kinds to engage in post-election meddling. The bottom line: If there's any fairness left in the world, Justice Riggs will prevail in her appeal to the federal courts. But even if she does, the damage done to the legitimacy of our judiciary and our democracy by the Supreme Court ruling will be immense and long-lasting. For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC Justice Allison Riggs vows to fight for military and overseas votes
NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs speaks at the In Our Court conference at NCCU (Photo: Lynn Bonner) The day after the state Supreme Court put conditions on military and overseas votes counting in her race, Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs said she is eager to take the fight over those votes to federal court. 'I was elected to keep my seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, and I am committed to fighting tirelessly to ensure that the will of North Carolina voters is respected,' Riggs told an audience at NC Central University's law school on Saturday. 'The eyes of the country are on the people of this state,' she said. 'Because we are people of resilience, we are people of community, we're going to show the country what it looks like to fight in tough times.' Riggs was the final speaker at the 'In Our Court' conference, sponsored by Common Cause NC, the American Constitution Society, Emancipate NC, Democracy NC, and about a half dozen other groups. On Friday, a majority on the state Supreme Court decided that thousands of absentee ballots cast by members of the military and overseas voters should have included their photo IDs. The court said those voters would have 30 days to provide IDs after the state Board of Elections mails notices. People who don't provide ID would have their votes in the state Supreme Court election thrown out. The court majority decided a few hundred votes from people who live overseas and are connected to the state through their parents should be erased from the Supreme Court race total. Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, leads Republican challenger Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes. Her lead in last November's election has been confirmed in two recounts. In an effort to unseat her, Griffin sued the state Board of Elections to have more than 60,000 votes tossed out. Most of the voter challenges were based on Griffin's claims of incomplete registrations. A Supreme Court's 4-2 majority reduced the votes in jeopardy to those cast by military and overseas absentee voters. Riggs immediately asked federal District Judge Richard Myers for a preliminary injunction, basically to freeze action in case. Myers on Saturday ordered the elections board to follow the state court's instructions for notifying voters what they have to do to have their votes count, but not to certify the election until hearing more from the court. The board is to tell Myers by Tuesday how many voters could be affected and which counties they're in. Myers also set a schedule for written arguments. The exact number of overseas and military voters affected is unclear. In her dissent, Justice Anita Earls wrote that at least 2,000 to 7,000 military and overseas voters could be affected. Those challenged military and overseas votes could be limited to Guilford County or could include overseas votes from a handful of other heavily Democratic counties Griffin added to his protest. 'They may be military members who have been serving on battlefronts in war zones,' Riggs said Saturday. 'They are foreign service officers who are working to make this whole entire world a safer place to live,' she said. The state's military and overseas voting law is modeled after a federal law meant to encourage service people to vote. These voters were told they did not need to include photo ID with their ballots. Most use an electronic portal that does not allow voters to submit a photo. The majority on the Supreme Court said the state Board should have required overseas voters to supply photo ID. While Riggs has focused her comments on military voters who may be disenfranchised, the challenged group also includes a high proportion of college-aged voters. Griffin has included in his challenge overseas voters from Durham, Forsyth, Buncombe, and Guilford — all counties with significant student populations. The challenged overseas voters in these are five times more likely to be Democrats, said Gunther Peck, founder and co-director of the Student Voting Rights Lab at Duke and NC Central universities. The lab's analysis found that challenged voters in this group are 4.6 times more likely to be between the ages of 18 and 25 than over the age of 65. More than 260 Duke students living aboard and voted absentee had their votes challenged, Peck said. Ann Webb, Common Cause NC policy director, said there are still questions the federal court can decide. A big one is whether it's fair to single out military and overseas voters from a select group of counties. The 'gaping question' of which counties are supposed to be included needs to be resolved, Webb said, and may end up back in state court.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans are looking to overturn more elections than just the Supreme Court race
NC Supreme Court (Photo: Clayton Henkel) Many North Carolinians have been rightfully angered in recent months by Republican efforts to overturn Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin's election loss to Justice Alison Riggs by seeking to throw out thousands of legally cast ballots. But sadly, there are other equally treacherous efforts underway. The most obvious are bills from GOP lawmakers that slash the powers of two Democrats who won convincing victories last fall – Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. Rather than respecting the will of the voters, Republicans have sought to, in effect, overturn their decisions by seizing powers long assigned to those offices. But wait, it gets worse. Lawmakers are also seeking to transform the state auditor – an obscure office long held by a series of apolitical accountants – into a powerhouse with unprecedented duties. The reason: simple, a Republican won last fall. The bottom line: North Carolina voters had no inkling of these radical changes when they cast their ballots last November, and by pursuing them now, Republicans are once again thumbing their noses at them. For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
