Latest news with #RockinghamCounty
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rockingham County Schools could have budget cut
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Proposed budget cuts could hit Rockingham County Schools in 2026. Possible budget cuts on the local level for RCS could stem from a reduction in funding on the federal level, according to Superintendent Dr. John Stover III. 'We lost about $200,000 from migrant funding. We lost about $100,000 from our Title 1 funding and … $200,000 for professional development funding,' Stover said. Stover said it's something he wants to avoid, but the decision ultimately falls on the school board. An anticipated decline in enrollment wouldn't help. '286 students less than projected, and so we are projected for approximately 10,900 students. Our budget is based on that,' Stover said. To make up for the loss of funds, Stover said the school district has to save $2 million to $3 million over the next fiscal year. He said he's looked at several options, including shrinking the school resource officer program through the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office. 'Which was basically one for every two schools. I actually talked to the sheriff, and he said he didn't think that was a good idea, and I told him … that's all I needed to hear, and that was off the table,' Stover said. As of right now, Stover's proposed budget cuts for the 2025-2026 fiscal year include the following: shortening the school year from 172 days to 168 cutting one unfilled counselor position cuts to the central office adjusting staff allotment cutting the parent resource centers Centers were launched as a Title 1 initiative, and Stover said they're currently run by three employees. 'We're one of the only counties in the state that still has that. It's an incredibly valuable program. We just weren't seeing enough traffic into those centers. Each center averaged five or less visitors a day,' Stover said. The cuts aren't something parents like Sarah Guymon want hanging over their heads as the school year comes to a close. 'I feel like they struggle every year to have enough staff and enough teachers and assistant teachers and bus drivers. It's really concerning,' Guymon said. Stover is looking to calm those concerns as summer break kicks off. 'None of these cuts I want to do. If we work together, and we have a conversation for what's best for our kids and our community, we can get through anything,' Stover said. Stover said he will present the proposed cuts at the Rockingham County Board of Education meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge refuses to revive defamation lawsuit linked to NC casino opposition
A state judge who previously dismissed a defamation case that has revealed secret moves to legalize casinos in North Carolina rejected an effort to remove him from the case, and said he would report the attorneys involved to the NC State Bar for disciplinary proceedings. In a hearing Friday afternoon, Special Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener denied any bias in the case involving a hotly contested Rockingham County commissioner race, and said he found no legitimate claim that candidate Craig Travis had been defamed. He sided with the defendants' attorneys who said in court that they viewed Travis' lawsuit as a frivolous attempt to revisit the state legislature's failed effort in 2023 to land three casinos in Rockingham, Anson and Nash counties. State Senate leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County sought the legislation, and his son Kevin is a Rockingham commissioner who voted to rezone property that would have been developed for a casino. Records obtained by the lawyers bringing the defamation suit reveal moves the Cordish Companies of Baltimore and its advocates made in Anson and in the legislature. The News & Observer obtained those records from Anson County in a public records request. Travis, a former county commissioner and a casino opponent, had narrowly lost a Republican primary election against Kevin Berger last year that would have put him back on the board. He claimed Berger, two other commissioners on the board last year, a Rockingham GOP leader and two political groups had defamed him during his campaign, in which his opposition to casinos was prominent. Tessener dismissed the lawsuit after a hearing on April 23, writing in a brief order that Travis lacked a valid claim. In court Friday, Tessener said the majority of the facts laid out in the complaint had to do with issues linked to the failed 2023 effort to legalize casinos in this state and not Travis' claims that he was defamed. He also noted that Travis' attorneys did not raise issues about his impartiality, which he defended, until after his decision. 'I do not have any relationships with any of the parties, I do not even know them,' Tessener said. He sparred with two of Travis' attorneys – Kimberly Bryan and Alicia Jurney – throughout Friday's hearing in Wake County Superior Court. Tessener took over Travis' case on April 23, hours after Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks recused himself just before the hearing began. Hicks had used The Differentiators, a prominent consulting firm, to administer his successful judicial campaign in 2022. The firm had been subpoenaed by Travis' attorneys. Travis' attorneys in a court filing said Tessener had conflicts that he should have considered before dismissing the case. They contend that he is too closely tied with one defendant in the case: GOPAC, a national political group that supports Republican candidates. 'The important thing is for people to have confidence in the judicial system,' Jurney said in court. Former House Speaker Tim Moore appointed Tessener a judge in 2023, the year the Republican-led state legislature put language into the massive state budget bill to give legislative leaders the power to create and appoint 10 Special Superior Court positions, a job previously filled by the governor. From 2015 to 2023, Moore sat on a GOPAC advisory board, Travis' attorneys said. Berger remains on the board, after taking a seat in 2020. Travis' attorneys also pointed to the judge's campaign contributions to Moore and Berger as evidence of a conflict. Tessener had made donations totaling $17,000 to Moore's legislative campaigns, much of it after 2014, and $6,600 to his congressional campaign, state and federal election records show. He gave $1,000 to state Sen. Phil Berger's campaign in 2017. But Moore and Phil Berger were not defendants in the case, and GOPAC's advisory board includes nearly every Republican state legislative leader across the country, said Ellis Boyle, an attorney for two of the defendants. Tessener has also made donations to several prominent Democrats over the years, including Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and former state appellate Judge Lucy Inman, Boyle said. 'You can't divine any bias or partiality from that,' Boyle said. Timeline of a high-stakes campaign to open North Carolina to the casino industry
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Rockingham County man charged with 4 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office has arrested and charged a man with sexual exploitation of a minor. According to a press release, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office recently received a National Center of Missing and Exploited Children cybertip from the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. The tip led to an investigation into Christopher Dalton Williams, 25, for the 'receiving, possessing and dissemination of child sexual abuse material.' Williams was taken into custody and charged with four counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He appeared before a magistrate where he was given a $50,000 secured bond and placed in the Rockingham County Detention Facility. Williams will appear in court on June 4. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge dismisses defamation lawsuit tied to casino push in NC legislature
A state judge has dismissed a defamation case tied to last year's Rockingham County commissioners' election, a decision that also has the potential to close off more details about a legislative push to land three casinos in that North Carolina county and two others. Special Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener did not give a detailed explanation for dismissing the lawsuit. It was filed by Craig Travis, who narrowly lost the Republican primary for a commissioner's seat last year. Tessener's one-page decision, filed late Friday afternoon, sided with the arguments the defendants' attorneys made that the lawsuit failed to state a claim the court could act upon and lacked jurisdiction in the case of one defendant. The defendants are commissioners Kevin Berger and Mark Richardson, former commissioner Donald Powell, Rockingham County GOP Chairwoman Diane Parnell, political groups GOPAC and the North Carolina Conservatives Fund, and Atlas Political Consulting. Travis, a former commissioner, claimed all were involved in spreading misinformation about his political record to prevent his return to the board. The commissioners and Parnell also made false claims about his character, he said in the lawsuit. The three commissioners had supported efforts to land a casino in Rockingham in 2023, including voting to rezone property in Stokesdale that would have paved the way for it. The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore casino developer, had formed a subsidiary that had taken out options on the property. Much of Travis' lawsuit focused on the casino developments. His attorneys contended the commissioners' actions in support provided the motive to defame him to keep him out of office. Travis opposes the casinos. Attorneys for the defendants say no defamation took place. One of them, Ellis Boyle, told Judge Tessener in a hearing on April 21 that the lawsuit was a 'fishing expedition' to drum up media interest in the casino push. Before legislation emerged to legalize casinos, Cordish had been working to line up land and support for them in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties. State Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican and the father of Kevin Berger, pushed for the legislation to authorize the casinos, and late in the 2023 session tried to include that legislation in the state budget. He could not win enough votes in the House, however, and the effort failed. Last week, The News & Observer reported on Cordish's efforts to obtain land and win support among Anson County officials. County documents and interviews with Anson officials showed the company had begun reaching out to the county at least roughly four months before the pro-casino legislation surfaced. The N&O obtained the documents through a public records request to Anson County. The N&O's reporting also showed that Jim Blaine, the co-founder of The Differentiators, a powerful consulting firm, was involved in winning over Anson officials. Blaine was Sen. Berger's chief of staff before co-founding the firm. Sen. Berger now faces Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, a prominent anti-gambling opponent, in next year's primary. Berger told The N&O in a statement for last week's story that he has changed his view on more casinos in the state. There are three operating on tribal properties. 'A number of voters in Rockingham County made it clear to me that this is not something they want,' Berger wrote. 'I do not support moving forward with, and I will not pursue, legislation that would bring casinos to North Carolina or Rockingham County.' In a brief interview Thursday before that day's legislative session, an N&O reporter asked Berger if he had discussed Cordish's casino plans with Blaine or had received any information from him about them. 'I've known Jim for 20 years. We've talked about thousands of things,' Berger said. 'I can just tell you that my decisions with reference to that issue had nothing to do with any conversation I may have had with him.' Boyle said he was pleased with the judge's decision. He represents the North Carolina Conservatives Fund and Atlas Political Consulting. 'I don't believe there was any evidence that my two clients engaged in any defamatory conduct,' he said. Alicia Jurney, one of Travis' attorneys, said in a short statement that they would be seeking to reverse the dismissal. The lawsuit has had an unusual path in court. The defendants first sought for it to be heard by Special Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers, a former chief of staff to then House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican. Moore appointed Somers to the judgeship, one of 10 such positions lawmakers created in the 2023 state budget. Wake's senior resident judge did not go along with the assignment, but then the Superior Court judge in line to take the case decided to recuse himself. State Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks of Cumberland County had paid The Differentiators nearly $72,000 for campaign administration when he won the seat in 2022. Hicks said from the bench on April 21, just before the hearing on the dismissal motion, that he did not see a conflict with his use of The Differentiators, but decided to step away after The N&O inquired about it. That's when Tessener, another Special Superior Court judge appointed by Moore, took over the case.
