State Board of Elections approves 99 student, employee ID cards

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCT) by: Jason O. Boyd

The State Board of Elections approved 99 student and employee identification cards across North Carolina for use in the 2023 municipal elections and 2024 primary and general elections. These newly approved student ID cards include all UNC System schools, as well as many other public and private colleges and universities.

Pitt County Parks & Rec recognizing National Parks and Recreation Month

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) by: Sarah Gray Barr, Mekaela Muck

July is National Parks and Recreation Month. Pitt County is home to 59 parks. Pitt County Community Schools and Recreation is offering 20+ different opportunities for people to get out and get active. Department officials said they are excited about the Office Park Recreation Center, saying it’ll increase their program abilities.

“Families to come together, grandparents bringing grandchildren here, so to be able to do that on the south side of the river and the north side of the river will really increase our outreach,” said Alice Keene, special projects coordinator for Greenville Parks and Recreation.

In the Alice F Keene District Park alone, hundreds take advantage of the space each week, officials said, adding that they serve thousands of people every season through their sports and community programming.

Greenville ENC Alliance looks to add more air travel options

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT)

by: Erin Jenkins, Mekaela Muck

A new survey is looking to bring more air travel options to the area.

The Greenville ENC Alliance is working to do that by learning more about travel needs. They will conduct a survey that will look at things such as how often you or a local company travel through an airport every year or even use the local highways.

The data collected from this survey will be used to look at adding opportunities in Pitt County, such as adding more flights or another destination out of Pitt-Greenville Airport. Officials with the Greenville ENC Alliance say more flights and connectivity is what’s needed to continue attracting business and economic growth to the area.

The survey is open now and only takes a few minutes to complete. Click here to access it and to find out more.

New law allows more trafficking victims to draw compensation

The Carolina Journal

A provision in the N.C. Senate’s anti-human trafficking bill, recently passed and signed into law, allows more human trafficking victims to collect compensation under the Crime Victims Compensation Act. Victims can now be compensated if crimes they committed while being trafficked were “contributory misconduct under duress.” The Crime Victims Compensation Act previously prohibited victims from receiving compensation if they were participating in a felony at the time. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, North Carolina ranks 12th in the nation for incidents of human trafficking with nearly 25% of the cases reported involving minors. Unanimously approved by both chambers of the N.C. General Assembly, Senate Bill 626’s compensation provision went into effect when Gov. Roy Cooper signed the bill on June 30.

Golden LEAF SITE Program is now open for the Fall 2023 round

Through this program, Golden LEAF will award funds to communities to identify potential industrial sites for economic development, enable completion of due diligence on sites already identified, or extend public utilities to or conduct grading and clearing of publicly owned or controlled sites for which due diligence has been completed.

There is a total of $12.5m available for the SITE Program this fiscal year. The maximum award for a development project is $1.5m. Applications are due at noon on September 14 for decisions made in December. A second round will open in early 2024.

Golden LEAF will host a webinar on Monday, July 24. Registration is available at this link. For questions about this program, interested organizations can reach out to the Golden LEAF team via this portal or by email to SITE@goldenleaf.org.

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