RALEIGH — Recent state statistics show that the juvenile crime rate in North Carolina has dropped 11 percent since 2008. Ensuring that 16- and 17-year-old juvenile offenders are handled in the juvenile justice system – rather than in the adult system – would likely drop the crime rate even lower.
SBI audit energizes death penalty foes – State – NewsObserver.com
Death penalty opponents have renewed calls to repeal state-supported executions and to commute the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison, in the wake of a scathing audit of the State Bureau of Investigation.
Blue Cross cites health reform in proposed rate increases :: WRAL.com
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina on Thursday asked the state Department of Insurance to approve rate increases for two of its health insurance plans.
The state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross wants premiums to go up by almost 7 percent for its Blue Advantage program and by about 2 percent for its Blue Options HSA program. Together, the two plans serve more than 300,000 customers.
Justice demands Edwardo Wong gets fair trial | Asheville Citizen-Times
As the case against Edwardo Wong moves toward trial, Western North Carolina is getting a textbook example of how the criminal-justice system works in a free country.
Wong has been given every chance to dispute the charges against him.
His attorneys fought an uphill, and ultimately unsuccessful, fight to have the evidence gathered at the scene thrown out. They have explored seemingly every possible means of getting their client set free.
This is as it should be.
Forsyth Medical Center disputes report on waits – Winston Salem Journal
Increased demand for emergency behavioral-health services contributed to Forsyth Medical Center’s high ranking among private hospitals with long waits for patients who need a bed at a state psychiatric hospital, medical-center officials said yesterday.
Psych crisis plan still on – Winston-Salem Journal
Old Vineyard Behavioral Health Services said yesterday that it has chosen a lower-cost option for opening a 50-bed psychiatric-emergency department.
Legal tangle may slow SBI reforms – Raleigh News & Observer
The task of reforming the State Bureau of Investigation, as Attorney General Roy Cooper promised to do, will be complicated by civil lawsuits, potential criminal investigations and other attempts to hold the agency accountable for decades of misconduct.
Wake commissioners honor those buried in unmarked cemetery – Raleigh News & Observer
RALEIGH — The Wake County Board of Commissioners today gave official recognition to the nearly 300 poor, sick and older people once cared for at its county home, then buried in what had been an unmarked cemetery near Five Points.
FayObserver.com – Community Advisory Board: Everyone needs to soldier on
Call me bitter, jealous or hardened if you like, but this new way of saying that our soldiers and their families are “sacrificing” just because the soldiers are in Afghanistan is a bit over the top. In my mind, the only families who are sacrificing are those who have lost a loved one to death in the wars in which we seem to be perpetually involved, or, soldiers who suffer from maiming injuries, either physical or mental.
83 put on hold waiting for help – Winston Salem Journal
Forsyth Medical Center ranked third in North Carolina in the number of people who had to wait at least 48 hours to be admitted for treatment of mental-health issues.
The Wake County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness released a breakdown yesterday of people waiting in private hospitals for an available bed at a state hospital.
