RELAY ONE DAY AWAY – Daily Southerner

TARBORO — Edgecombe County’s Relay for Life, the observance and celebration of the fight against cancer, is little more than a day away.

Opening ceremonies will get under way at 6 p.m. Friday at the Tarboro High School football stadium. The Survivor lap will be at 6:30 p.m., followed by the Caregiver lap at 6:30. Guest speaker for the opening ceremony is Wendy Wheeler. (More)

Tarboro NC: College Round-Up 2012 Edgecombe Community College

Click on picture to view 164 total.

Click on picture to watch video 1 hr. 34 mins.

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Press Release: THE BLACK HERITAGE MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER, INC. PRESENTS THE 2012 COLLEGE ROUND-UP ON MARCH 10, 2012

College Round-Up

Edgecombe County: Filing ends for May primary election – The Daily Southerner

Response: I am very much tickled to death at how many people filed for office. Some I know and some I have never heard of before. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

TARBORO — Filing for the May Primary ended at noon Wednesday with eight of the 13 municipal seats contested as well as those for State Senate District 3 and House of Representative District 23. (More)

Significant deficiencies in county audit – The Daily Southerner

TARBORO — Auditors told Edgecombe County Commissioners on Monday night that they found significant deficiencies while compiling the 2010-2011 annual audit of county finances. Still, the audit received an unqualified opinion. (More)

 

Education: Attorney William Solomon Seeking Books And/Or Magazines To Be Donated To Juvenile Detention Center/Youth Development Center In Pitt And Edgecombe Counties

William Solomon

Yes this is long, but take a minutes and read it please. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

It seems like only yesterday my son was being born. Now he is four years old and it’s time for us to prepare for him to start kindergarten next year. Recently my wife and I toured Rocky Mount Academy to get a feeling of how we liked the program that they offer. We were impressed. I love to read and so I was impressed with the library that was available to the students and their access to technology. I started thinking back to how much I enjoyed the vast libraries of books that were available to me when I was young. There were wonderful libraries available to me at home and at my alma maters of Bullock Elementary School, West Edgecombe Middle School and South West Edgecombe High School. Having access to a wide array of reading material can open a child’s mind to all of the possibilities that the world has to offer to them.

A few days after our tour of Rocky Mount Academy, I went to the Juvenile Detention Center in Pitt County to visit with a client that I represent in my law practice. I asked him, as I do most of the young people that I represent and come in contact with, what kinds of things has he been reading when you have the time. I was pleased to hear that he does read, but he said that he has tried to read the same book more than once because they do not have a lot to choose from in the detention center. Most of the children being held in the 9 detention center across North Carolina are there because they have been charged with committing a serious crime and while they are waiting to go to trial a judge has decided that it may be too dangerous for the community to let them come home.

These are children who are sometimes at the tipping point of either becoming involved in criminal behavior in their adult life or being productive members of society. I believe that these children need and deserve to have access to as wide an array of reading material as any child in a public or private school in North Carolina. Who knows, a child in a detention center may flip through a book or a magazine and learn about a part of the world they never knew existed or discover a career path they would have never dreamed. The dreams that reading material can inspire can make the difference in weather that child wastes their life in and out of jails at tax payer expense or is sworn in as the future Governor of North Carolina.

I have spoken to the director and staff of the Detention Center in Pitt County and the director and staff physiologist at the Youth Development Center in Edgecombe County They are receptive to and excited about the idea of expanding the libraries that are available to the children there. I am asking all who read this message to consider donating books or an age appropriate magazine subscription to be added to these libraries. Be mindful that our target audience consists of children under the age of 18 and should not include objectionable content that would not be allowed in a school setting.

Donations of reading material can be made at my office – The Solomon Law Firm – 161 S. Grace Street, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. For more information please review the article in the Community Section of my web site at www.wsolomonlaw.com or call 252- 442-0348. Thank you for helping to create a better North Carolina one child at a time.

Will Solomon
The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

www.wsolomonlaw.com

The Solomon Law Firm – Open Letter from Will Solomon

North Carolina Prep in final stage of application process – Source: The Daily Southerner

TARBORO — Committee members of North East Carolina Prep School attended the NC Public Charter School Advisory Council meeting at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh on Wednesday, December 14th. (More)

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North East Prep School

Edgecombe County Public Schools

Edgecombe County: North East Carolina Prep School

Visit North East Carolina Prep School on Facebook to learn more about a new preparatory school coming to Edgecombe County. (Read more)

Edgecombe County: Charter School application accepted by state officials–Source: The Daily Southerner

TARBORO — The wait for the approval of a new charter school in Edgecombe County is currently in effect.

The application process for the proposed charter school, North East Carolina Preparatory School (NECPS), began in March and was finally accepted Nov. 9 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

An anticipated approval date is scheduled to occur around Feb. 1, according to John Westberg, NECPS Coordinator. Once approved, the school would open for the 2012-2013 school year, the first school of it’s kind in Edgecombe County. (Read more)

Response: John Westberg is the former principal of SouthWest Edgecombe High School. He was moved to North Edgecombe due to a testing scandal. John Westberg lawsuit against Edgecombe County Public Schools is on the agenda for Monday night Edgecombe County Public Schools Board meeting. Curmilus Dancy II – The Political Agitator 

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Edgecombe County Public Schools

Response To Antwan Pittman Being Found Guilty In The Murder Of An Edgecombe County Woman So Quickly

I am lead to believe that the defense obviously didn’t have a lot to fight with so therefore the case ended quickly. I believe that the evidence presented must have been enough that the defense could not really challenge the facts as presented nor the witnesses.

The families of the other missing/murdered women need to be patient and hope that other evidence can be linked to Antwan Pittman and that it will be strong enough to bring before the courts. It is no need to go to court with a whole lot of doubt and allow the defense to make the DA and others look like fools.

I commend the local Edgecombe, Nash and surrounding counties law enforcement whom have played a role in trying to bring some closure on the murdered and missing women saga in Edgecombe and Nash Counties.

Now the least that everyone whom are concerned about the other missing/murdered women that have not been closed can do is to pray that justice will prevail.

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Pittman found guilty in missing Rocky Mount woman’s death – Source: WRAL

Murdered and Missing Women

Probe continues in eight other Rocky Mount deaths – Source: WRAL

Tarboro, N.C. — A day after a jury convicted an Edgecombe County man of strangling a Rocky Mount woman and leaving her body in some woods, authorities say they are still looking into several similar cases to see if they are connected.

"The investigation into all of the other murders will continue, and we are not looking for any other suspects right now," Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight said Friday. (Read more)

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Pittman found guilty in missing Rocky Mount woman’s death – Source: WRAL

Murdered and Missing Women

Pittman found guilty in missing Rocky Mount woman’s death – Source: WRAL

Windsor, N.C. — After less than an hour of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found an Edgecombe County man guilty of first-degree murder in the strangling death of a Rocky Mount woman more than two years ago.

"You all are sending an innocent man to prison for life," a sobbing Antwan Maurice Pittman yelled afterward. "I did not kill that woman." (Read more)

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Murdered and Missing Women

Breaking News Tarboro NC – Jury seated to decide fate of alleged serial killer – Source: WRAL

Tarboro, N.C. — Attorneys quickly selected 12 jurors and two alternates Monday to decide whether a Rocky Mount man is guilty of murder. Opening statements are expected to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the case of Antwan Maurice Pittman.

Pittman, 31, is charged with one murder — the 2009 death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson. But he is linked to the deaths of at least seven other women, and authorities have said they think he is a serial killer. (Read more)

Note: I would not have thought they would have selected the jurors that quick. Curmilus Dancy II – DCN Publisher

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Murdered and Missing Women

Groups focus on gangs – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

Graffiti is just a bit of paint, but it carries significant meaning to everyone in the community.

To the painter, it often is a form of communication among gang members. To the property owner, it is an added expense. To the passerby and the prospective business owner, it is a sign of a bigger problem. (Paid Content)

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Town Hall meeting focuses on growing gang problems – Source: Rocky Mount Telegram

County crime rates down – Source: The Daily Southerner

The Daily Southerner — Crime is down in Edgecombe County, according to the latest statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation for 2010. (Read more)

Lamm to receive Leadership Award – Source: The Daily Southerner

TARBORO — Dr. Deborah L. Lamm, president of Edgecombe Community College, has been selected to receive the I.E. Ready Distinguished Leader Award for 2011 from the College of Education at North Carolina State University. (Read more)