RALEIGH. N.C. (AP) — North Carolina state regulators now declare a nonprofit run by the wife of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson must repay over $132,000 for what they call disallowed expenses while carrying out a federally funded child care meal program.

The state Department of Health and Human Services revealed a larger amount in a Friday letter to Yolanda Hill following a compliance review of Balanced Nutrition Inc., for which Hill is listed as owner and chief financial officer. Robinson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor this fall, worked in the nonprofit years ago before running for elected office, according to his memoir.

Hill previously announced she was shutting down the nonprofit’s enterprise and withdrawing from the Child and Adult Care Food Program on April 30. But state officials had already announced in March that the fiscal year’s review of Balanced Nutrition would begin April 15.

The review’s findings, released Wednesday, cited new and repeat problems, including lax paperwork and the failure to file valid claims on behalf of child care operators or to report expenses accurately. The program told Hill and other leaders to soon take corrective action on the “serious deficiencies” or regulators would propose they be disqualified from future program participation.

The state health department said on Thursday that the Greensboro nonprofit also owed the state $24,400 in unverified expenses reimbursed to several child care providers or homes examined by regulators in the review.

But Friday’s letter counted another $107,719 in ineligible claims or expenses that the state said was generated while Balanced Nutrition performed administrative and operating activities as a program sponsor during the first three months of the year. Forms signed by regulators attributed over $80,000 of these disallowed costs to “administrative labor” or “operating labor.” The records don’t provide details about the labor costs.

This week’s compliance review did say that Balanced Nutrition should have disclosed and received approval from the program that Hill’s daughter was working for the nonprofit.

The owed amounts and proposed program disqualification can be appealed. A lawyer representing Balanced Nutrition and Hill did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

The lawyer, Tyler Brooks, has previously questioned the review’s timing, alleging Balanced Nutrition was being targeted because Hill is Robinson’s wife and that “political bias” tainted the compliance review process. Program leaders, meanwhile, have described in written correspondence difficulties in obtaining documents and meeting with Balanced Nutrition leaders.

The health department is run by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. He was term-limited from seeking reelection. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is running against Robinson for governor.

Balanced Nutrition helped child care centers and homes qualify to participate in the free- and reduced-meal program, filed claims for centers to get reimbursed for meals for enrollees and ensured the centers remained in compliance with program requirements. The nonprofit received a portion of a center’s reimbursement for its services.

Balanced Nutrition, funded by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show.

Robinson described in his memoir how the operation brought fiscal stability to his family, giving him the ability to quit a furniture manufacturing job in 2018 and begin a career in politics.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that a provision in North Carolina’s abortion laws requiring doctors to document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills should be blocked permanently, affirming that it was too vague to be enforced reasonably.

The implementation of that requirement was already halted last year by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles until a lawsuit challenging portions of the abortion law enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly in 2023 was litigated further. Eagles now says a permanent injunction would be issued at some point.

But Eagles on Friday restored enforcement of another provision that she had previously blocked that required abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy to be performed in hospitals. In light of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, she wrote, the lawmakers “need only offer rational speculation for its legislative decisions regulating abortion.”

In this case, legislators contended the hospital requirement would protect maternal health by reducing risks to some women who could experience major complications after 12 weeks, Eagles said. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a physician who initially sued offered “credible and largely uncontroverted medical and scientific evidence” that the hospital requirement “will unnecessarily make such abortions more dangerous for many women and more expensive,” Eagles added.

But “the plaintiffs have not negated every conceivable basis the General Assembly may have had for enacting the hospitalization requirement,” Eagles, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, wrote in vacating a preliminary injunction on the hospital requirement.

Unlike challenges in other states like South Carolina and Florida that sought to fully strike down abortion laws, Eagles’ decisions still mean most of North Carolina’s abortion law updated since the end of Roe v. Wade is in place. GOP state lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and enacted the law in May 2023 . It narrowed abortion access significantly from the previous state ban on most abortions from after 20 weeks to now after 12 weeks. The hospital requirement would apply to exceptions to the ban after 12 weeks, such as in cases of rape or incest or “life-limiting” fetal anomalies.

Eagles on Friday affirmed blocking the clause in the abortion law requiring physicians to document the “intrauterine location of a pregnancy” before distributing medication abortion.

Lawyers representing House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger defending the law argued the documentation protected the health of women with ectopic pregnancies, which can be dangerous and when ruptured may be similar to the expected symptoms of a medication abortion, according to the opinion.

But Eagles wrote a medication abortion doesn’t exacerbate the risks of an ectopic pregnancy. And she remained convinced that the law is unconstitutionally vague and subjects abortion providers to claims that they broke the law — and possible penalties — if they can’t locate an embryo through an ultrasound because the pregnancy is so new.

The provision “violates the plaintiffs’ constitutional due process rights,” she wrote.

Spokespeople for Planned Parenthood, Berger and Moore didn’t respond to emails late Friday seeking comment. Eagles’ upcoming final judgement can be appealed.

State Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, abortion-rights supporter and 2024 candidate for governor, was officially a lawsuit defendant. But lawyers from his office had asked Eagles to block the two provisions, largely agreeing with Planned Parenthood’s arguments.

The lawsuit was initially filed in June 2023 and contained other challenges to the abortion law that the legislature quickly addressed with new legislation. Eagles issued a preliminary injunction last September blocking the two provision still at issue on Friday. Eagles said last month she would make a final decision in the case without going through a full trial.

North Carolina still remains a destination for many out-of-state women seeking abortions, as most states in the U.S. South have implemented laws banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they are pregnant — or near-total bans.

An AMBER Alert has been issued for a missing child in Durham, North Carolina, who police said they believe has been abducted by his biological mother.

Nine-year-old Geon King-Parriett was last seen at approximately 6:03 p.m. on Thursday, Durham Police Department said in a statement shared with Newsweek. The DPD described the child as a Black male, approximately 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 100 pounds.

King-Parriett has brown hair and brown eyes, the police said. He was last seen wearing an all black outfit which included a black hoodie and black sweatpants.

His mother, Mariah King, is described as a 33-year-old Black female. She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. She also has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing gray sweat pants and a black crop top, and was wearing her hair up.

According to a report from local news station WRAL, the pair walked away from 202 S Benjamine Street on Thursday.

Social media users have been commenting on the Durham Police Department’s Facebook post, expressing criticism over how the AMBER alert was issued.

One user wrote, “Whoever sent out the Amber alerts needs to be fired. Both of them contained ZERO useful information, and the second alert wasn’t even correct.”

Another user wrote, “Whoever did the amber alert needs to rethink how they send an amber alert it gave no description or anything at all.”

Newsweek emailed the Durham Police Department for comment on the criticism regarding the AMBER alert, and a representative advised Newsweek that The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons issues the Amber Alerts that are sent out to wireless phones.

Newsweek has reached out to The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons for comment.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Durham Police Department at 919-475-2511 or to call 911.

What is an AMBER Alert?

The term AMBER Alert refers to the emergency response system that shares information about child abduction in order to mobilize the public into locating the child.

The “AMBER” stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.”

The emergency message means that a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger.

It was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996.

The alert system functions by using media broadcasts, highway signs and other communication channels to share descriptions of the child, suspect and any vehicles involved.

As of 2023, 1,200 children were found through the AMBER Alert system and 180 children were rescued because of the emergency alerts.

Recent AMBER Alerts

A Wisconsin toddler remains missing months after an AMBER Alert was issued. The child’s mother and her boyfriend are currently facing child neglect charges.

3-year-old Elijah Vue was last seen on February 20 in Two Rivers while he was staying with his mother’s boyfriend, Jesse Vang. Vang took a nap and woke up three hours later to find the child gone.

The AMBER Alert said that “He was last seen wearing gray sweat pants, long sleeve dark colored shirt and red and green dinosaur slip on shoes.”

In June, an AMBER Alert Review was requested following the murder of a child in Louisiana.

Rep. Dixon McMakin said that the AMBER Alert system was “not as efficient or effective as it should be,” after it took “hours to issue” in the wake of the disappearance of two girls, Erin and Jalie Brunett on June 13.

Four-year-old Erin Brunett was found dead hours later. Her mother was also killed.

Update, 7/26/24, 10:45 a.m. ET: This piece was updated with additional comment from the Durham Police Department.

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