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    North Carolina Republicans are advancing legislation to spend hundreds of millions of dollars now to eliminate a large waiting list for scholarships to attend private schools and to meet expected higher demand ahead. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday for legislation that would spend another $248 million in the coming year to eliminate a waiting list of 54,900 applicants for K-12 schools. This is happening because GOP legislators dramatically expanded the program last year by doing away with income eligibility caps that had limited the scholarships, resulting in lots of applications. The bill also would spend $216 million more for the program in fall 2025.

      The judge presiding over the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to detainees' mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq two decades ago is speculating that the jury may not be able to reach a verdict. Federal judge Leonie Brinkema spoke to lawyers on the case Wednesday outside the jury's presence after jurors continued to ask questions on their seventh day of deliberations. The eight-person civil jury in Alexandria has now been deliberating for more than a week, longer than the trial itself. Three former Abu Ghraib detainees sued Reston, Virginia-based contractor CACI, which supplied civilian interrogators to the prison. The detainees allege those civilians contributed to their abuse.

        President Joe Biden is expected to travel to North Carolina on Thursday to meet with the family members of four officers killed earlier this week in the deadliest attack on U.S. law enforcement since 2016. The president is scheduled to visit Wilmington across the state on Thursday and is set to add a stop in Charlotte to meet with local officials and the families of officers shot Monday while serving a warrant, according to a person familiar with the matter. The four officers were killed Monday in Charlotte when a task force made up of officers from different agencies arrived in the residential neighborhood.

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        About a week after legislators brushed off his amendments to bills ensuring the right to contraception and requiring insurance coverage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he’s still thinking about what do.

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