North Carolina

(Newser) - Kay Hagan, the North Carolina Democrat challenging Elizabeth Dole for her US Senate seat, has launched a defamation suit, and counter-ad, against the incumbent after a Dole spot questioned Hagan’s belief in God, the Charlotte Observer reports. The ad showed Hagan, a Sunday-school teacher, while another woman’s voice intoned, “There is no God.” Hagan accuses Dole of “bearing false witness against fellow Christians.” More »

(Newser) - The husband of a jogger found dead in July has been charged with her murder, Raleigh's News & Observer reports. Police say parts of the testimony made by Brad Cooper during a custody hearing for the couple's two daughters earlier this month were inconsistent with what he had told investigators soon after his wife's strangled body was discovered. More »

(Newser) - Rep. Robin Hayes is still struggling to get out from under a comment he made last weekend that “liberals hate real Americans,” and the Republican National Committee has cancelled plans to help in a tight re-election fight with an ad buy in his North Carolina district, the Charlotte Observer reports. Denying he made the remarks only to see the audiotape surface hasn’t helped, either. More »

(Newser) - In 2002, Elizabeth Dole easily claimed the rock-solid Republican seat in North Carolina once held by Jesse Helms. But in 2008, Dole's seat has become a prime target for a Democratic pick up, reports the New York Times , and the party's senatorial fund has spent more there than in any other race. Once up by double digits, Dole now faces defeat at the hands of Kay Hagan, a relatively unknown state politician. More »

(Newser) - John McCain finds himself fighting to hold some states that went red in 2000 and ‘04—a bad sign for the Republican, Time reports. Polls show Barack Obama in real contention in once-solid GOP states like Indiana and North Carolina, and inching ahead in crucial Ohio. Obama has also opened wide leads in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, Democratic in ’04. More »

(Newser) - Customers made a “silent run” on Wachovia as the North Carolina bank negotiated a buyout from Citigroup last week, the Charlotte Observer reports. Wachovia execs noticed customers withdrawing money from large accounts following Washington Mutual’s failure, lowering their balances to below the federally insured limit. More »

(Newser) - Gas is in short supply throughout the Southeast this week after oil production was hit hard by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the Washington Post reports. Some didn’t make it to work as gas station lines grew to 60 cars long; half the stations in Atlanta were closed. “I drove past 9 or 10 gasoline stations that were out of gas,” said a Charlotte worker. Two major petroleum pipeline continue to operate well under capacity. More »

(Newser) - Tropical Storm Hanna hit the shores of the Carolinas this morning, bringing big waves and some flooding, wind damage, and blackouts, CNN reports. Some 22,000 homes in the two states lost power while nearly 2,000 residents entered shelters. “Large and dangerous battering waves” as well as tornadoes could be on their way, forecasters warned. But “it's actually going fairly well,” said an emergency spokesman. More »

(Newser) - Federal authorities are threatening to cut funding for a North Carolina hospital where a psychiatric patient died after being ignored for 22 hours, the AP reports. It’s still not clear what killed the 50-year-old, who at one point choked on medication, but surveillance video shows him sitting unattended while staff played cards and watched television just feet away. More »

(Newser) - The family of a woman found murdered in North Carolina has won custody of her two children after they told the court that her "mentally unstable" husband had been emotionally abusive and had been involved in an affair. No suspects have been named in the mystery murder, but police have taken a DNA sample from the husband. More »

(Newser) - A move by Sen. Elizabeth Dole to honor former Republican colleague Jesse Helms by adding his name to a bill that would combat AIDS has Pandagon blogger Pam Spaulding seeing red. "Dole spits in the face" of gay activists, Spaulding writes, by attaching the stridently anti-homosexual Helms to a measure that could save thousands of lives. More »