WASHINGTON (WBTV) – A student from North Carolina finished fourth in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night.

Thirteen-year-old Kushi Gottimukkala made it to the 15th round of the May 28 spelling bee in Washington, D.C. before she misspelled the word “cara sposa.” She spelled it “carra spoza.”

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, cara sposa is an Italian word that means “dear wife.”

Gottimukkala is a seventh-grader at Carnage G&T Magnet Middle School in Raleigh. She was one of a handful of students to have been sponsored by the Carolina Panthers.

This year’s bee was not her first time participating in the national spelling competition. She finished 41st in the 2025 event.

Outside of spelling, Gottimukkala is active in Science Olympiad, MathCounts and a dance group. She enjoys reading and has an interest in history books and documentaries.

Fourteen-year-old Shrey Parikh from California won Thursday’s spelling bee after a “spell-off” decided the champion.

Also Read: 14-year-old battles nerves, dominates spell-off to win National Spelling Bee

A shooting last week outside a Raleigh courthouse is reviving a push for laws that would allow a court to confiscate firearms from people who are believed to be a threat to themselves or others.

Twenty-two states have laws allowing extreme risk protection orders, known as “red- flag” laws, which allow courts to temporarily restrict firearm access for people considered dangerous.

The laws generally allow a judge to make that determination and order a gun owner to surrender firearms and permits. It would also allow an appeals process.

Authorities say Gwendolyn White retrieved a handgun from her vehicle before shooting two lawyers outside a Wake County courthouse on Friday. Authorities said they later recovered multiple firearms from her home, including rifles. White has been charged in the shootings. 

Attempts to reach White and her current legal representative have been unsuccessful. 

Seth Blum, a lawyer who previously represented White, told WRAL that she called the police on her neighbors dozens of times. “Every time the police came out, they would investigate,” Blum said. “And Ms. White had this fixed belief that her neighbors were poisoning her through her air conditioning system, which there’s no evidence at all that that was true.”

Police alleged that White previously threatened a hospital and Blum described her as having an “untreated mental illness.”

“This case shows why this should be law,” said Wiley Nickel, a Democrat who is running unopposed for Wake County district attorney, referring to red-flag laws.

Democratic state Rep. Marcia Morey, has introduced red-flag legislation since 2018, but the bills have not advanced in the Republican-led General Assembly.

“From just the news reports I’ve heard, I agree that this might have helped,” Morey said, referring to the White case. She said under her proposal, a judge could have been asked to temporarily remove firearms if concerns were raised about mental illness and access to guns.

Spokespeople for Senate leader Phil Berger did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for House Speaker Destin Hall said Thursday: “This legislation is going nowhere” and criticized Democrats, including Morey, who voted against legislation last year that ramps up monitoring of alleged criminals with mental health problems, among other reforms.  Morey didn’t immediately provide a response to Hall’s comment.

Republicans and gun rights groups oppose the proposal, arguing it violates due process protections by allowing firearms to be removed based on allegations — before an actual criminal conviction. They also argue the focus should be on keeping repeat violent offenders and people in crisis off the streets, rather than restricting access to guns through civil court orders.

Paul Valone, president of gun-rights advocacy group Grass Roots North Carolina, said existing laws surrounding involuntary commitment and criminal enforcement should be used more aggressively instead of creating a new firearm restriction process. 

“They leave violent offenders on the streets, while confiscating firearms from lawful gun owners, in ex-parte hearings that defendants might not even know are occurring, much less get a chance to defend themselves in court,” Valone said.

Eighty-seven percent of respondents to a 2022 WRAL News poll supported red-flag laws.

Gov. Josh Stein has also supported similar restrictions. After a 2024 mass shooting in Southport, Stein said North Carolina needed a stronger response to “profoundly troubled” people and called for adoption of a red-flag law.

At the federal level, the debate intensified after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students dead. 

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., helped negotiate the bipartisan federal gun safety law signed by former President Joe Biden that encouraged states to adopt crisis intervention and red-flag programs.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina leaders are raising concerns about staffing shortages at state prisons, as officials roll out a pilot program aimed at boosting hiring for correctional officers.

“The Department of (Adult) Correction has only about half of the correctional officers needed to safely operate state prisons,” said Governor Josh Stein.

Those vacancies have impacted daily operations.

“My primary goal is to make sure that everyone working at the institution and everyone that’s incarcerated there stays safe. Having critical shortages of staff makes that much more difficult. Ten years ago, it was routine to have about 28 officers and five sergeants on shift and lineup. Today you may see seven or eight officers and three sergeants on shift,” said Captain Derrick Simmons of Neuse Correctional Facility.

Simmons said shortages can limit access to rehabilitation programs for inmates.

“If you don’t have the custody staff where they have the programs, that they won’t be able to have them because they don’t have that security there,” he said.

Officials point to pay as a key factor contributing to vacancies, an issue that would need to be addressed through the state budget process. Stein is calling for a 15% raise for correctional officers, in addition to step increases, while Republican leaders have proposed average 15.4% raises with their step increases.

“Twenty years ago, our correctional officers were among the best paid in the Southeast. Now we are second to last in the country,” Stein said.

As those budget discussions continue, the state has introduced a pilot program designed to streamline hiring. The initiative uses a contingent hiring model that allows applicants to begin working in certain roles while completing certification requirements.

“We are using now a contingent hiring model to address the problem,” Gov. Stein said. “Once someone passes through the initial steps of getting hired, we put them to work immediately in other roles as the certification steps continued to play out.”

Dismukes cited workers can fill roles in the gatehouse or control booth while their certification process moves forward.

“This will allow us to bring people inside the walls and allow them to experience what it’s like to work with us before we send them through basic training,” said Dismukes.

The program has been implemented at Central Prison, Harnett Correctional, and Pasquotank Correctional. Officials say it has led to 31 new hires at Central Prison, 43 hires at Harnett Correctional, and 21 hires at Pasquotank Correctional.

“We’re hiring people at a higher rate, and we reduced the time to hire by about ten days,” Dismukes said. “So fewer people are dropping out of the hiring process along the way.”

SEE ALSO | New Executive Order targets use of insider information in prediction markets

Download the ABC11 News app for breaking news alerts