ECFD, kids team up for Fishing With a Firefighter Day

Tropical Storm Colin has brought rain and winds to parts of North and South Carolina, though the storm has weakened and conditions are expected to improve by Monday's July Fourth celebrations. Separately, the center of Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled into the Pacific on Saturday after a rapid march across Central America, where it caused flooding, downed trees and forced thousands of people to evacuate in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Forecasters say Bonnie is likely to become a hurricane by Monday off the southern coast of Mexico, but it is unlikely to make a direct hit on land.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out the 2020 conspiracy and bribery convictions of a major political donor in North Carolina and his associate, declaring that the trial judge erred in his jury instructions.

A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday. He killed at least six people and wounded at least 30. Police say hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fled in terror. The suspect remained on the loose hours later as authorities scoured the area. Highland Park Police Commander Chris O’Neill urged people to shelter in place as authorities search for the suspect. Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said at a news conference that the gunman used a high-powered rifle that was recovered at the scene.

Authorities in Virginia say the 17-year-old daughter of Toronto Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski died in a tubing accident in Richmond over the weekend. A spokesperson for the Department of Wildlife Resources says Julia Budzinski was one of two girls who fell off a tube being pulled behind a boat on the James River on Saturday. As the boat operator returned to get the girls out of the water, the boat hit a wave. That caused it to be pushed on top of Budzinski and striking her with the propeller. Budzinski was a rising senior at Glen Allen High School who played soccer and other sports.

The number of U.S. flights being canceled is slowing down, but plenty of travelers are facing long delays as they try to get home from trips over the July Fourth holiday weekend. By late Monday afternoon on the East Coast, more than 2,200 U.S. flights had been delayed and more than 200 were canceled, according to FlightAware. The good news is, that's fewer delays and cancellations than we've seen in recent days. Industry experts say airlines are struggling because demand for travel has recovered from the bottom of the pandemic faster than anyone expected. That's causing airports to be almost as crowded as they were in 2019, before the pandemic.

Brittney Griner made an appeal to President Joe Biden in a letter passed on to the White House through her representatives saying she feared she may never return home and asking that he not “forget about me and the other American Detainees.” Griner's agent says the letter was delivered on Monday. The Phoenix Mercury All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist is in the midst of a trial in Russia that began last week after she was arrested on Feb. 17 on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for her Russian team. The trial will resume Thursday.

Independence Day celebrations in the United States have been rattled by a shooting that left at least six people dead at a parade in Illinois. The shooting further rocked a nation already awash in turmoil over high court rulings on abortion and guns as well as hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection. Police say at least two dozen other people were wounded in the attack in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Authorities asked residents to seek shelter while they search for the suspect. News of yet another mass shooting came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.

Across the U.S. West, rural residents have historically faced barriers in accessing abortion, such as long travel distances and lack of transportation. Now, abortion providers serving rural areas are concerned those pre-existing challenges could be further compounded by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as more patients travel to their clinics from states where the procedure is now banned or greatly restricted. In Oregon, the sole Planned Parenthood clinic serving the eastern half of the state is hiring more staff in expectation of an influx of patients from neighboring Idaho, where a trigger law banning most abortions is expected to take effect this summer.