Local

By Carrie Wellman

Wilmington, NC – Wilmington City Council hopeful Pat Delair has filed her candidacy for a special election that will take place on October 10th.

This marks the second time Pat Delair has signed on to run for a seat on the City Council.

Delair came in fourth last year in a three-seat Council race and was overlooked in last month's appointment of a replacement for Bill Saffo.

By Carrie Wellman

Burgaw, NC – Oral arguments were heard Monday in Pender County superior court in a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union.

Emergency dispatcher Deborah Hobbs was living with her boyfriend in 2004 when Sheriff Carson Smith advised her that this did not comply with a 200-year-old state law making it a criminal offense for unmarried couples to cohabitate.

The ACLU filed a case on Hobbs's behalf last year.

By Carrie Wellman

Wilmington, NC – A program promoting carpooling in Wilmington will get thousands of dollars from the state to encourage alternative forms of transportation.

With the help of new state funding, Wilmington Cape Fear Breeze program hopes to get more drivers using alternative transportation.

Breeze coordinator Lawless Bean says the program has a comprehensive website offering a carpool database.

By Catherine M. Welch

Wilmington, NC – Police at Wrightsville Beach are cracked down on littering and drinking alcohol on the beach.

Town officials past measures last week giving police authority to make random sweeps to enforce littering laws and check for alcohol consumption, which is prohibited on the beach.

Town manager Bob Simpson calls excessive littering a brewing problem that came to a boil after the 4th of July weekend.

Wilmington, NC – The U.S. Maritime Administration retired the two ships. The Cape Lobos left the region Friday. The Cape Lambert will follow in early August.

The ships are part of the government's Ready Reserve fleet. They're known as roll-on, roll-off' vessels: ramps in the stern allow them to load and unload vehicles. But the ships can't handle the latest generation of tanks. Instead of upgrading, they're going into retirement in Beaufort, Texas. The ships may still be called up for emergencies.

By Catherine M. Welch

Wilmington, NC – The Pender County Sheriff's Department has landed a water patrol vessel on loan to boost patrols on county waterways.

For the next four months deputies will be able to pull out the Jet Ski for law enforcement during busy weekends.

Major Keith Hinkle with the Pender County Sheriff's Department says the department usually turns to coastal law enforcement and Pender County Rescue squads during emergencies and sometimes on deputies' grab their own boats.

By Catherine M. Welch

Wilmington, NC – The state has lifted its swimming advisory for a stretch of the Cape Fear River.

The Division of Water Quality issued a swimming advisory a week ago for the Cape Fear River from Wilmington to Keg Island.

The advisory came after a sewer pipe broke in Wilmington near the river. All in all nearly 4.8 million gallons of wastewater spilled from the River Road sewage pipe, half of that into the Cape Fear River.

Wilmington, NC – The crowd filled every available space in the Council chambers, and lined the balcony. Everyone from family members to aggrieved firefighters turned out for the transfer of power at last night's City Council meeting.

Wilmington, NC – Broadhurst's two-and-a-half years as mayor officially come to an end at tonight's City Council meeting. Looking to the future, Broadhurst said he expects the council to continue functioning efficiently, and not just in terms of shorter council meetings.