Courting upgrades: County eyes $100K in courthouse repairs

Advocates say schools increasingly are removing children with disabilities from the classroom because of behavior issues related to their disability but not recording the actions as suspension. The practice is known as informal removal, which advocates say amounts to a form of off-the-books, de facto denial of education that evades accountability. Because the removals aren’t recorded, there’s no way to quantify how often they happen. But the assistant secretary for the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, Catherine E. Lhamon, says the practice has "taken hold in a way that is dangerous for students and needs to be addressed.”

A Delaware judge says cigarette manufacturer ITG Brands assumed liability for tobacco settlement payments to the state of Florida when it acquired four brands from Reynolds American in 2015. Vice Chancellor Lori Will also said in Friday's ruling that ITG must compensate Reynolds American for losses due to that assumed liability. Reynolds sold the Kool, Winston, Salem and Maverick brands to ITG in 2014 to gain federal regulators' approval of Reynolds’ acquisition of Lorillard Inc. Before the sale closed, Reynolds American affiliate R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was making payments under a preexisting settlement agreement with Florida for reimbursement of smoking-related health care costs.

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections is directing county election officials not to engage in signature matching when reviewing absentee ballot envelopes this fall after a judge rejected the GOP appeal of a state board ruling prohibiting the practice. According to a directive sent to county election directors from the board’s legal counsel Paul Cox, the judge’s ruling maintains the status quo outlined in state law. Superior Court Judge Stephan Futrell ruled from the bench Monday afternoon, denying the party’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preventing the use of signature matching in the 2022 general election, state board spokesperson Pat Gannon said.

Emergency responders are seeking to evacuate residents from the largest barrier island off Florida's Gulf Coast, and survivors there spoke of the terror of riding out Hurricane Ian in flooded homes and howling winds. A volunteer group, Medic Corps, was flying residents off Pine island by helicopter on Saturday. The bridge to Pine Island was heavily damaged by the hurricane, leaving it reachable only by boat or air. Some residents said they hadn’t seen anyone from outside the island for days and spoke of being trapped in flooded homes as boats and other debris crashed around their houses in the storm surge. Some feared they wouldn't make it.

A late burst of buying on Wall Street has the market on pace to add to its big gains this week. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in late-afternoon trading Wednesday. It’s coming off its best two-day rally since the spring of 2020, spurred in part by hopes a softening economy may convince central banks to take it easier on interest-rate hikes. But analysts have said such hopes may be premature. A report on U.S. job growth at private employers came in stronger than expected Wednesday, as did a report on the service sector.

A Democratic congressman who has made his opponent’s questionable record fighting the opioid epidemic a central theme of his campaign for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat has accepted campaign donations over the years from drug distributors blamed for key roles in the crisis. An Associated Press review found the $27,000 in combined contributions to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan from the nation's three largest drug distributors rolled in between 2007 and this August. The giving represents a fraction of Ryan's campaign contributions over the years, but it's notable because he's hammered Republican opponent JD Vance over the spotty record of his anti-opioid nonprofit.

A Russian cosmonaut has rocketed from the U.S. for the first time in 20 years, catching a ride with SpaceX. She launched to the International Space Station from Florida on Wednesday alongside two NASA astronauts and one from Japan. Their flight was delayed a couple days by Hurricane Ian. Leading the crew is Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman orbit Earth. She says despite their different backgrounds and the war in Ukraine, she and her crewmates are united in their mission. They should reach the orbiting lab Thursday for a five-month stay.