State lawmakers are moving forward with efforts to regulate homeless camps across North Carolina and crack down on drugs in homeless shelters.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday gave a favorable report to House Bill 437, which would impose harsher restrictions on people who attempt to sell drugs in homeless shelters. The committee voted to add to the legislation parts of House Bill 781, which seeks to ban unauthorized sleeping in public spaces and empower local governments to direct homeless people to a designated space. 

The proposal goes next to the Senate Rules Committee for approval. 

Rep. Brian Biggs, a Randolph County Republican who led the push for House Bill 781, told lawmakers Wednesday that the bill will benefit cities and their homeless populations. Shelters in North Carolina’s cities are often full, Biggs said, leaving homeless people with little choice but to sleep outside where they’re vulnerable to crime and illness. 

Biggs’ legislation proposes to give local governments authority to designate a publicly owned outdoor space to be used for camping and sleeping for up to a year — so long as the space isn’t near residential areas, commercial properties or schools. Local governments would also have to provide security and supply toilets and running water for sanitation purposes. 

“We’re allowing people to be on the streets without any kind of sanitation and without any kind of dignity,” Biggs said.

Critics of the bill said state leaders should be focusing on efforts to address the causes of homelessness, such as mental illness, substance abuse and an insufficient amount of housing.

“It’s sending the signal: We sort of give up. We sort of give up trying to figure out how we’re going to develop more housing, and we give up on the kinds of outreach that are happening in Charlotte and Raleigh and Garner and all parts of all of our districts,” said Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake.

Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, took exception with Grafstein’s suggestion that lawmakers have given up on trying to help the homeless.

“Giving up is what is going on right now. Giving up is allowing these abhorrent conditions to continue, where it’s unsafe for all citizens and it’s unsafe for our homeless citizens,” Overcash said. “Giving up is allowing these encampments to continue.”

Biggs said that his proposal would help North Carolina municipalities qualify for grants of up to $25 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program, which funds housing and homelessness prevention programs. 

Minority leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, said she doubts the federal government would fund the types of homeless sites that Biggs’ bill would create. 

“It’s not as if they’re going to get this boon of money that’s going to come in from the feds … to have running water at some acre of land that they’re going to randomly put somewhere,” Batch said.

ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Chaos and violence erupted when a party in Alamance County got out of control over the weekend. Now, North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement says they’re investigating shots fired, a stabbing and numerous fights.

NC ALE and other agencies helped the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday night after receiving reports of a disturbance on Florence Road in Alamance County.

One neighbor tells FOX8 off-camera that people were parking in her yard and blocking her driveway. She said it got so bad that she felt like a prisoner in her home.

Court documents say a crowd of more than 1,000 people showed up for what was called “FreakNik 26.”

Dennis Bass, 43, is accused of organizing the party, according to court documents. He faces five total charges, including inciting a riot.

Those documents say Bass allegedly planned the party to promote mass impairment, which resulted in numerous fights, shots fired, a law enforcement officer almost being run over and a stabbing. ALE says one person was airlifted to the hospital for stab wounds. 

Investigators are also charging Bass for allegedly paying for unlicensed armed security guards. 

A spokesperson with ALE says Dale Williams is facing two charges, including carrying a concealed weapon and acting as an unlicensed armed security guard.

Tirek McRae is also facing two counts of acting as an unlicensed armed security guard. 

Nisuon Williams-Oliver is facing two charges, including carrying a concealed weapon and performing as an unlicensed armed security guard. 

RALEIGH, N.C. — A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 31 former N.C. State male athletes alleging sexual abuse under the guise of treatment and harassment by the Wolfpack’s former director of sports medicine.

In orders filed Tuesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins dismissed claims against Robert M. Murphy Jr., as well as multiple N.C. State athletics officials tied to their oversight rules, citing procedural reasons.

The lawsuit was filed in February in state court in a case that began with a federal lawsuit from a single athlete filed in 2022. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, including improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.

Collins granted the motion seeking a dismissal from Murphy’s attorneys, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired in claims dating back as early as 2013.

Collins also dismissed claims against multiple athletics officials such as former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan on jurisdictional grounds. His ruling stated any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission – a state agency that deals with workplace matters with N.C. State as a public university – rather than civil court.

Jared Hammett, a Raleigh-based attorney representing Murphy, issued a statement to The Associated Press describing his client as “someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes” while referring to a “rush to judgment” that can impact “real people’s lives.”

“The truth is nothing happened but a man’s career being ruined for money,” Hammett said. “As a lawyer I am just glad that we have been able to help another person who needed support and found himself needing that defense.”

Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, said the athletes plan to appeal.

“This dismissal has nothing at all to do with Mr. Murphy’s sexual abuse of these 31 former student-athletes,” Sutton said in a statement to the AP. “It was decided based only on questions of legal procedure. We plan to appeal this outcome and in coming days will be adding new claims against NCSU for men who have recently come forward.”

All but two of the 31 athletes are “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect anonymity, while two former men’s soccer players are named.

One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.

Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss those pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the case to state-level jurisdiction in September 2025.

Murphy, at N.C. State from 2012-22, was among nine defendants originally named individually. Others were school officials accused of negligence in oversight roles, saying concerns about Murphy’s conduct reached senior levels of the athletic department but the school’s response was insufficient.

Sutton and co-counsel Robert O. Jenkins filed in April to dismiss former N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson as a defendant.

“N.C. State does not condone sexual misconduct of any kind,” the school said in a statement Tuesday evening. “The health and safety of our students and student-athletes is paramount to the university and our athletic programs.

“We agree with the court’s analysis and the decision that the law supports dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims in this case. We recognize the immense courage it takes for someone to come forward, and our hearts go out to any student or student-athlete who has been impacted by distressing experiences.”