An 11-month-old boy in North Carolina has died, two days after being injured in one of a series of tornadoes that hit in the state, authorities said. The fatality came on a weekend of potent thunderstorms that lashed wide areas of the South and unleashed deadly tornadoes in the Midwest.
Julia Jarema, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, said the boy died in a hospital Sunday but she didn’t release further details or the boy’s identity. More than a dozen people were reported injured and around 200 home and businesses destroyed or heavily damaged in Friday’s scattered tornadoes in North Carolina.
On Sunday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory toured that and other storm-struck areas of the state and said his prayers go out to the boy’s family. He pledged to seek state and federal government assistance for the victims.
Elsewhere, a new round of powerful storms hit around the Midwest and the South, spawning several tornadoes, including one that claimed lives in a small northeastern Oklahoma city and another that carved a path of destruction through several northern suburbs of Little Rock, Ark.
Forecasters, meanwhile, said they were checking radar reports suggesting possible tornadoes had developed Sunday evening in five locations in north Mississippi though none of those apparently touched ground.
Meteorologist John Sirman in the National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tenn., said those possible twisters appeared to have sprung out of two storm cells that swept through the northern part of Mississippi within two hours before those cells weakened.
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DAVIDSON, N.C. (AP) - The feisty personalities and anti-establishment fervor that fed tea party challenges in recent Republican U.S. Senate primaries are largely missing this year, a troubling sign for Democrats who want the GOP to nominate candidates with limited appeal.
In North Carolina, a once-promising clash between an establishment Republican and two harder-right rivals has yet to catch fire, with the May 6 primary approaching. Longtime activists say they find little awareness, let alone excitement, among conservative voters, even though Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan is a top target in November.
Asked about Democrats who say North Carolina Republicans are fighting a “civil war,” former Guilford County GOP chairman Marcus Kindley said, “They wish.”
The picture is similar elsewhere.
Early pledges to oust Republican senators seen as insufficiently ideological by some tea partyers fizzled in Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee. In Kentucky, tea party-backed Matt Bevin is struggling against Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
A Colorado tea partyer stepped aside to let a congressman run unimpeded for the Senate. In Georgia, the tea party has not coalesced around any of the seven GOP Senate candidates.
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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - Airport officials in Bowling Green are still aiming to lure a commercial airline to the field even though the facility lost out on funds that would have moved them closer to the goal.
Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed $750,000 in funding for the airport on Friday. The governor’s veto message said while there’s limited funds in the Aviation Economic Development fund, the project is worthy and could be financed at a later time.
Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport spokesman Rob Barnett said not having the funds reduces the airport’s capability to attract airlines.
Barnett told WBKO-TV in Bowling Green (https://bit.ly/1iqKmmDhttps://bit.ly/1iqKmmD ) that the cost of doing business with regional airlines is rising because many regional jets are being retired because of age and fuel consumption issues.
Barnett says because the State and House approved the funding, he was surprised when Beshear vetoed it.
“We would be bringing those tax dollars that are currently being spent in Tennessee back across the state line and back into Kentucky_- be it rental cars, ticket purchases, passenger facility charges,” Barnett said.
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MANCHESTER, Ky. (AP) - A southeastern Kentucky man who failed to return from hunting mushrooms has been found dead.
WYMT-TV in Hazard reported (https://bit.ly/1jZaEOuhttps://bit.ly/1jZaEOu ) that search and rescue workers found the body of 42-year-old Billy Bays at about 9 a.m. Sunday.
Bays’ family reported him missing Saturday afternoon when he did not return home from hunting mushrooms near Oneida.
Investigators say no foul play is suspected and there were no visible signs of trauma.
The case remains under investigation.
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