RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina state senator who helped lead a powerful committee has resigned days after the General Assembly completed this year’s primary work session.

The resignation of Republican Sen. Jim Perry of Lenoir County was effective Tuesday, according to a letter he sent Monday to the Senate Principal Clerk’s Office.

Perry, who was a co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a majority whip, already was not seeking Senate reelection this fall. And he delivered a farewell address to his colleagues on the Senate floor last Thursday.

Perry was appointed to the Senate in early 2019, replacing the retiring Sen. Louis Pate. He’s represented Beaufort, Craven and Lenoir counties.

“It is a special privilege to serve in the North Carolina Senate,” Perry wrote Monday. “I am appreciative of those who sacrificed their time to help me to gain a little more knowledge on each day of this journey.”

Perry announced last December that he wouldn’t run, saying he couldn’t make the time commitment necessary to be an effective senator for another two-year term.

“I am entering a season of life where I will need more time to support those closest to me,” he said at the time.

Republican activists in Perry’s 2nd Senate District will choose someone to fill his seat for the remainder of his term through the end of the year. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is obliged by state law to appoint their choice.

Republican Bob Brinson and Democrat Charles Dudley already are running in November for the same Senate seat in the heavily GOP area, although it will be renamed the 3rd District.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Gov. Roy Cooper broke ground Monday on a new high-speed rail line that will link Raleigh to Richmond, marking the project’s first phase, which includes constructing a bridge to carry Durant Road over a railroad line.  

The $1.3 billion project funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest grant ever received by the NC Department of Transportation. It will provide passenger service between downtown Raleigh and Wake Forest by 2030 and is the first leg of a planned high-speed rail connection between Raleigh, Richmond, Virginia, and the Northeast.  

“This is the beginning of a new chapter in passenger rail in North Carolina and really one of the biggest projects that we’re supporting anywhere in the country,” Buttigieg told reporters.  

The stop marked the first on Buttigieg’s national summer construction tour. He will visit Winston-Salem on Tuesday where he will participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Salem Parkway multi-use path. Buttigieg will then return to Durham, which recently received a $12 million federal grant to improve 33 downtown intersections.  

Cooper highlighted the role of passenger rail in improving connectivity and reducing carbon emissions during Monday’s ceremony. “It helps reduce carbon emissions and helps us to save our planet as well as providing a great opportunity for people to get from one place to the next in a better way,” said Cooper.  

“We know cutting down travel times in that arena is going to make it even better for our economy and make it better for the people in North Carolina,” Cooper said.   

The Raleigh-to-Richmond rail project will use the existing S-Line rail corridor, a freight rail corridor currently owned by CSX. Virginia has already acquired its portion of the line, and North Carolina officials are finalizing a deal to purchase the corridor in our state. 

In May, the White House announced that it has allocated nearly $454 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to over 56,000 projects around the country since the passage of the $1 trillion bill in 2021. 

North Carolina is set to receive $9.4 billion in funding from the law for 512 projects, according to the White House. The funding includes about $633 million for clean water projects, with $175 million going toward replacing toxic lead pipes, according to a fact sheet released by the White House in May.   

“North Carolina has done very well in investments from the federal government with this bipartisan infrastructure legislation,” said Cooper. “I’m so grateful that President Biden got this and other major pieces of legislation through that really are generational investments that will help our children and our children’s children.”  

One person was arrested after three pro-Israel activists were beaten at a North Carolina anarchist book fair on Saturday, the Asheville Police Department and victims said.

Police said on Monday that they were still investigating the alleged assault at the ACAB Bookfair at the West Asheville Library.

The three victims were checked by emergency services for minor injuries.

Monica Buckley, David Moritz and eighty-year-old veteran Bob Campbell shared on social media and with the police that they had attended the “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance” seminar and live streamed the event before confronted by other participants.

Buckley published a video on Sunday in which one participant alerted the speaker that Zionists were filming the seminar.

The speaker, either Idris or Adi according to the book fair schedule,  asked the crowd of 80 to 100 people what they wanted to do with the three pro-Israel activists.

The anarchists surrounded Buckley and Moritz to block their cameras. Moritz, with bruises on his face, explained in a Saturday social media video that they began to push the three in their seats.

Buckley’s phone was grabbed from her hand, and when she attempted to retrieve it was punched. Moritz said that he attempted to aid Buckley but was also punched repeatedly and put in a headlock.

One person could be heard saying that they were going to throw the phone against a wall.

Attempting to expel pro-Israelis

The anarchists allegedly attempted to expel the pro-Israel activists from the library, during which Campbell reportedly fell to the ground.

“I don’t give a F**k  about your age,” a voice could be heard in Buckley’s recording.

Moritz said that the library had further footage of the assault, and he would be pressing charges

Taylor Danielle Zarkin, 35, was charged with two counts of resisting, delay, and obstruct during the initial investigation.

Moritz said that the three had attended the event out of curiosity, and that they wouldn’t have gone if it was a private event rather than one billed as open to all and held at a public library. Moritz also said that they had complied with rules to wear medical masks. He said that they had sat quietly until they were assaulted.

The schedule for the seminar offered to teach the “strategic practices” developed by “Palestinian resistance groups” over 75 years.

“What can revolutionaries in ‘the West’ learn from the Palestinian resistance, now that the struggle to stop the genocide in Gaza and free Palestine spreads to this terrain?” read the schedule.

Buckley claimed that the speaker had started his speech praising the October 7 Massacre.