Gene Johnson

Jan 5, 2025 | ncnewsonline.com | Audrey McAvoy |Jennifer Sinco Kelleher |Gene Johnson

Oct 29, 2024 | ncnewsonline.com | Gene Johnson |Claire Rush |Gene Johnson

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Incendiary devices were set off Monday at two ballot drop boxes — one in Portland and another in nearby Vancouver, Washington — destroying hundreds of ballots in what one official called a “direct attack on democracy” about a week before a heated Election Day. The early morning fire at the drop box in Portland was extinguished quickly thanks to a suppression system inside the box as well as a nearby security guard, police said, and just three ballots were damaged there.

Oct 29, 2024 | ncnewsonline.com | Mark Thiessen |Becky Bohrer |Gene Johnson |Gene Johnson

KAKTOVIK, Alaska (AP) — Early last summer, George Kaleak, a whaling captain in the tiny Alaska Native village of Kaktovik, on an island in the Arctic Ocean just off the state’s northern coast, pinned a flyer to the blue, ribbon-lined bulletin board in the community center. “Attention residents,” it read. “In search of elections chairperson to conduct the August and November elections.

Sep 17, 2024 | ncnewsonline.com | Audrey McAvoy |Gene Johnson |Jennifer Sinco Kelleher |Gene Johnson

HONOLULU (AP) — Investigators reviewing the emergency response to last year's wildfire that killed 102 people on Maui said in a report released Friday they found “no evidence” Hawaii officials made preparations for it, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was coming. That lack of planning hindered efforts to evacuate the historic town of Lahaina before it burned, the report said.

Jun 11, 2024 | ncnewsonline.com | Gene Johnson |Gene Johnson

KENT, Wash. (AP) — Kabongo Kambila Ringo stood outside the tent where he has been staying with his pregnant wife and ate from a clear plastic tray of Girl Scout cookies melting in the midday sun. He was one of around 240 asylum-seekers camping in a grassy lot along a highway south of Seattle, wondering if police would follow through on threats to arrest them for trespassing, and hoping officials instead might let them move into the vacant motel next door.