Southeast
UNC 'Flagstock' erupts in 'USA!' chants as John Rich, Lee Greenwood tells students 'it's OK to be patriotic'
![UNC 'Flagstock' erupts in 'USA!' chants as John Rich, Lee Greenwood tells students 'it's OK to be patriotic' UNC 'Flagstock' erupts in 'USA!' chants as John Rich, Lee Greenwood tells students 'it's OK to be patriotic'](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CH2A9119.jpg)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – It’s OK to be patriotic.
That’s what John Rich of Big & Rich wanted college students at the University of North Carolina to feel at Flagstock 2024, the concert-turned-music festival he put on in honor of the fraternity brothers who stopped the American Flag from hitting the ground during anti-Israel protests in May, according to Rich’s manager, Marc Oswald.
“My question for you is this: Do you still love America?” Rich asked students in the crowd during his performance on Monday at the local American Legion in Chapel Hill.
The crowd responded by chanting, “USA! USA! USA!”
FLAGSTOCK: UNC CHAPEL HILL FRATERNITY BROTHERS WHO DEFENDED AMERICAN FLAG FINALLY GETTING THEIR ‘RAGER’
A patriotic flyover graces the stage. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Rich wanted to host a “protest to support patriotism” — hence the name “Flagstock” — and “make sure students and people in general feel it’s OK to be patriotic,” Oswald told reporters on Monday when asked about the name of the concert.
Several hundred Chapel Hill students attended the music event, which included performances from Big & Rich, Lee Greenwood, Aaron Lewis and John Ondrasik, a.k.a. Five for Fighting — less than the anticipated 2,000 students organizers expected earlier in the week. Roman Rene Ramirez of Sublime also made a surprise appearance.
Still, those who did show were proud to express their support for the country with “USA” chants, while others wrapped themselves in American or Israeli flags.
ANTI-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS GATHER AT UNC-CHAPEL HILL CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE, SMEAR RED PAINT ON BUILDING
![Students embrace draped in American and Israeli flags](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_940_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
UNC draped in the US and Israeli flags embrace. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Matthew Broderick, a senior and a journalism major, told Fox News Digital that the “vibes on campus have been very split” in the lead-up to Flagstock.
“There’s a lot of people who are in huge favor of this. They love this. And then there’s a lot of people who think this is a really bad idea,” Broderick said. “I mean, I think some fraternities and sororities have been telling the people … ‘Hey, don’t come to this. We think it’s a bad look.’ And then some have been like, ‘Hey, please go to this is. It’s a really good look. It’s good for our fraternity and our sorority.’ … But I don’t think there’s a consensus about this.”
“It’s very split.”
Back in May, activists on campus tried twice to replace the American flag on Chapel Hill’s quad with a Palestinian flag, but when they began taking it down the flagstaff for the second time, a group of students stepped in to prevent Old Glory from touching the ground.
A student photographer captured the moment that went viral on social media and made national headlines as similar protests occurred on college campuses throughout the country.
![UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_506_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
![UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_143_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
After the photo caught the country’s attention, a GoFundMe page created by a man named John Noonan, who initially started the fundraiser to buy “a few kegs” for the students and give his friends a good laugh, ended up raising more than $500,000 to throw the students a “rager.” Noonan ended up creating a 501 C-4 organization called Pints for Patriots, complete with a board of directors, to help organize the funds and the event it would eventually grow into.
Then, Rich offered to help by hosting a concert in the student’s honor. At first, Rich was planning on putting on a small show in front of a fraternity house, but plans changed when they raised half-a-million dollars, according to Oswald.
![John Rich performs](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_483_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
John Rich performs in front of the iconic photo. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Noonan broke down how some of the funds that helped put the show together while giving reporters a tour of the venue on Monday. The stage itself, from Technical Arts Group (TAG) Live, cost $100,000, though TAG also donated a lot of material support for the event.
“We haven’t seen kids do what these kids did in a long time,” TAG Live Operations Director Jarrod Choury told Fox News Digital, adding that the students’ actions on campus “spoke to” TAG Live to be a part of the concert.
“We haven’t seen kids do what these kids did in a long time.”
![Students draped in American and Israeli flags](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_589_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
UNC students attend Flagstock in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Labor Day Monday, September 3, 2024. The concert was in honor of the fraternity brothers who stopped the American Flag on campus from hitting the ground during anti-Israel protests in May. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
The security budget for the event was approximately $80,000, including plainclothes security, 20 Orange County Sheriff’s Office staff, fire and EMS personnel. Pints for Patriots chartered more than a dozen 50-passenger buses to transport students to and from campus, according to Noonan.
Dan Cragg, an attorney working for Pints for Patriots, offered about $15,000 to $20,000 worth of pro-bono general counsel legal work for the event.
“We want to create an incentive system where sticking their neck out like that — defending the flag — there’s a there’s a bonus for that.”
‘What those kids did was honorable and patriotic,” Cragg told Fox News Digital. “And we want to support that. … And certainly, we want to create an incentive system where sticking their neck out like that — defending the flag — there’s a there’s a bonus for that. There’s a reward for that.”
![Flagstock 2024 UNC Chapel Hill](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_551_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
UNC Chapel Hill students and VFW members gather for “Flagstock 2024” in North Carolina.
Numerous VFW and American Legion personnel volunteered to help put the event together, as well, forgoing their Labor Day to help set up tents, port-o-potties and more.
While the show started out small and somewhat quiet, eventually, a large crowd of Chapel Hill students in attendance found their way to the stage as the night wore on and took part in the patriotic messages that singers presented during their sets.
‘What those kids did was honorable and patriotic. And we want to support that.”
![John Rich performs at Flagstock 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725444806_464_UNC-x27Flagstockx27-erupts-in-x27USAx27-chants-as-John-Rich-Lee.jpg)
John Rich performs at Flagstock 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Noonan told reporters it is unclear exactly how much — of any — leftover funds will go toward charity, but he is determined to remain transparent about what donor money was used for.
“We are extraordinarily cautious and judicious about ensuring the funds are used properly,” Noonan told reporters on Monday.
Read the full article from Here
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Southeast
Ritzy Florida beach town politician arrested for alleged DUI: 'I think the mayor is drunk'
![Ritzy Florida beach town politician arrested for alleged DUI: 'I think the mayor is drunk' Ritzy Florida beach town politician arrested for alleged DUI: 'I think the mayor is drunk'](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/image-42-2.jpg)
Naples, Florida, police arrested Mayor Teresa Heitmann on Aug. 28 for allegedly driving under the influence.
Police initially responded to a residence in the 500 block of 16th Avenue South after receiving a call from a man and his wife saying an unknown woman in a silver vehicle had followed them from 12th Avenue South and 3rd Street South — a popular strip of restaurants and shops in downtown Naples — to their residence.
When the couple arrived at their residence, the unknown woman “stopped her vehicle on the grass in front of their home,” police said in a press release.
After a “brief exhange” between the callers and the woman, she parked in their front yard, at which point the couple decided to contact police.
FLORIDA SHERIFF’S DEPUTY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL ONE MONTH AFTER DEADLY ‘AMBUSH’ ATTACK: REPORTS
Police initially responded to a residence in the 500 block of 16th Avenue South after receiving a call from a man and his wife saying an unknown woman in a silver vehicle was following them from 12th Avenue South and 3rd Street South to their residence. (Google Maps)
“I think the mayor is drunk and she just, she just literally—oh, she just drove over our mailbox,” the caller can be heard saying in a 911 call, according to local news outlet NBC 2.
When the police arrived, they identified the woman leaning on her vehicle as Mayor Heitmann. Police-worn body camera footage obtained by NBC 2 shows Heitmann appearing to distance herself from her own title while interacting with officers.
“Mrs. Mayor, will you come on over for me right here?” an officer can be heard saying to Heitmann in the footage.
FLORIDA WOMAN ARRESTED FOR AMBUSH MURDER IN KILLING OF DEPUTY, CLAIMED SHE WORKED FOR GOD
![Teresa Heitmann](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725425595_856_Ritzy-Florida-beach-town-politician-arrested-for-alleged-DUI-x27I.jpg)
Naples, Florida, police identified the unknown driver as Mayor Teresa Heitmann. (Collier County)
“No, don’t call me mayor. I am Teresa Heitmann right now, I am not the mayor,” she responds.
Officers believe Heitmann may have been intoxicated and asked her to complete a field sobriety test, which she agreed to. Upon completion of the test, responding officers “found probable cause to arrest Mrs. Heitmann for driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance,” police said.
Authorities transported the mayor to Naples Jail Center, where she agreed to participate in a breathalyzer test to determine her blood-alcohol content. Following the breathalyzer, police determined that she had a BAC of 0.155 and 0.169, while the legal limit in Florida is 0.08.
![500 block of 16th Avenue South in Naples](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725425595_689_Ritzy-Florida-beach-town-politician-arrested-for-alleged-DUI-x27I.jpg)
Mayor Teresa Heitmann was apprehended in the 500 block of 16th Avenue South in Naples, Florida. (Google Maps)
“City employees were saddened to learn about last week’s incident involving the Mayor,” Naples City Manager Jay Boodheshwar told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Naples community should rest assured that our City team is committed and dedicated to serving our residents. I have 100% confidence that our City employees will not let this incident affect service delivery to our community.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Heitmann’s attorney, James Derek Verderamo, for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
Southeast
Louisiana boy, 10, arrested in double homicide of former mayor, his daughter
![Louisiana boy, 10, arrested in double homicide of former mayor, his daughter Louisiana boy, 10, arrested in double homicide of former mayor, his daughter](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Joe-Cornelius-Sr.jpg)
A 10-year-old Louisiana boy was arrested after allegedly telling authorities that he fatally shot a former mayor and his adult daughter over the weekend.
Police responded around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday to a home in Minden and found the bodies of former Minden councilman and interim mayor Joe Cornelius Sr., 82, and his daughter, 31-year-old Keisha Miles, inside with multiple gunshot wounds, KSLA-TV reported.
A guardian brought the boy to the police station, where he allegedly confessed to the killings, the station reported.
Police have yet to release the identity of the 10-year-old boy or his relationship to the victims. Investigators have not released details about what led to the shooting.
ALL-AMERICAN WISCONSIN COLLEGE GYMNAST SHOT AND KILLED DAYS BEFORE CLASSES BEGIN
Joe Cornelius Sr., 82, was a former councilman and interim mayor of the city of Minden, Louisiana. On Sunday, he and his daughter, 31-year-old Keisha Miles, were found shot and killed inside a home. (City of Minden)
Neighbors told the station that they heard about eight gunshots after an apparent argument broke out between Cornelius and the 10-year-old boy over credit card charges for video games.
Minden Police Chief Jared McIver told the outlet that the boy has shown no remorse over the alleged killings.
FOUR PASSENGERS KILLED AFTER GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN CHICAGO-AREA TRAIN CAR ON LABOR DAY: POLICE
Minden Mayor Nick Cox remembered Cornelius for his service to the community in a post on social media.
“Joe Cornelius’s years of service to Minden were marked by his commitment and dedication to the betterment of our community,” Cox wrote. “On a personal note, I am grateful for his friendship and the many ways he supported me and others in our city.”
Cox asked the public to keep Cornelius’ family in their prayers.
Police are continuing to investigate the incident.
Read the full article from Here
Southeast
North Carolina elections board faces another lawsuit, as RNC sues swing state over noncitizen voting concerns
![North Carolina elections board faces another lawsuit, as RNC sues swing state over noncitizen voting concerns North Carolina elections board faces another lawsuit, as RNC sues swing state over noncitizen voting concerns](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2054033229.jpg)
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is facing another lawsuit, as the Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing the battleground state for allegedly opening the door for non-citizens to vote.
The lawsuit brought by the RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party in Wake County last week accuses the NCSBE and members, Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon, Siobhan Millen, Stacy Eggers IV and Kevin Lewis of failing to require identification to prove citizenship.
The lawsuit alleges that by violating the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and not checking the identification of approximately 225,000 voters, the agency “is opening the door for non-citizens to vote.”
North Carolina is the first state in the nation to start voting. The battleground state starts mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6.
“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections. Deliberately failing to follow the law, right before our country’s most important election, is inexcusable. We will fight every day to ensure that NCSBE follows the law, cleans the voter rolls, and protects the vote for North Carolinians.”
RFK JR. SUES NORTH CAROLINA TO REMOVE NAME FROM BALLOT BEFORE ELECTION
“I Voted” stickers at a polling station at the Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Allison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This State Board continually has problems ensuring voter rolls only have verified citizens,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons added. “This lawsuit will remedy their ongoing refusal to collect the required information from those who want to take part in North Carolina elections. Accountability and fidelity to following the rule of law is long overdue for the most partisan Elections Board in state history.”
The state board formerly used a voter registration form that failed to require HAVA-required identification information, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. Election officials admitted the form was non-compliant with HAVA and eventually fixed it, but in the meantime, approximately 225,000 people registered without supplying the HAVA-required information, the complaint says.
Election officials allegedly refused to take remedial action and did not reach out to these voters to collect the required information. Instead, what the defendants “offer as a solution is a half-hearted promise that those who were ineligible to register but were allowed to anyway will naturally filter themselves out from the state’s voter rolls when they conduct other election-related activities,” the complaint says.
“This inaction misses the mark,” the lawsuit says. “Not only does this ‘solution’ fail to remedy the ongoing violations of state and federal law or account for Defendants’ responsibilities under the same, but it leaves North Carolinians to wonder how they can trust in the security of their elections, especially when those tasked with protecting their rights cannot be bothered to do what is required by law.”
![Trump North Carolina rally](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725387675_202_North-Carolina-elections-board-faces-another-lawsuit-as-RNC-sues.jpg)
Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 21, 2024. (PETER ZAY/AFP via Getty Images)
TRUMP RALLIES IN NC BEHIND BULLETPROOF GLASS AT FIRST OUTDOOR EVENT SINCE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
“Even worse, this ‘solution’ sends the message to the millions of duly qualified and registered voters in North Carolina that their chief elections officials will shirk their responsibilities and refuse to verify whether those who vote in the state’s elections are entitled to do so in the first place,” it adds.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the NCSBE told Fox News Digital, “This lawsuit asks for an impossible solution.”
“Despite being aware of their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs have waited until two weeks before the start of voting to seek a court-ordered program to remove thousands of existing registered voters. Federal law itself prevents such removal programs if they take place after the 90th day before a federal election, which was August 7. So, the lawsuit is asking for a rapid-fire voter removal program that violates federal law,” the spokesperson said. “The lawsuit also misunderstands the data and vastly overstates any alleged problems with voter registrations. If a voter does not have a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number populated in the voter registration database, that does not necessarily mean that they were allowed to register improperly.”
The statement went on to say that federal law “allows voters who lack one of these numbers to nonetheless be registered” and “state law also allows a registrant whose information fails to exactly match with the DMV or Social Security databases to be verified by showing another type of ID before voting.”
“And in any event, all these voters will be asked to show photo ID again when they vote this year,” the NCSBE spokesperson said.
This is the second lawsuit filed by the RNC and the NCGOP against the North Carolina Board of Elections in a matter of weeks.
Last month, Republicans sued the board for allegedly failing to check jury questionnaire responses to identify and remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, as required by law.
![Harris in North Carolina](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1725387675_187_North-Carolina-elections-board-faces-another-lawsuit-as-RNC-sues.jpg)
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigns at the Hendrick Center For Automotive Excellence on Aug. 16, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)
Last year, the state legislature passed SB747, a major election integrity law that requires state elections officials to cross-check when an individual claims to be a non-citizen on a jury questionnaire, to make sure that same person is not on the voter rolls. The RNC and the NCGOP allege that despite the law going into effect July 1, election officials have not begun to enforce it.
In February, North Carolina’s Office of State Budget and Management reported that approximately 325,000 “unauthorized” immigrants were residing in the state.
That was out of the total of 501,000 foreign-born non-citizens in North Carolina, according to the complaint in that case.
In a statement reacting to that suit, the NCSBE spokesperson asked that the NCGOP and RNC “immediately rescind their press releases on this topic, as they will undermine voter confidence on an entirely false premise.”
“State Board staff have worked diligently with the clerks of superior court across North Carolina since that provision became law in July. In August, the superior court clerks provided the State Board with lists of voters excused from jury duty because they claimed they were not U.S. citizens,” the spokesperson said in part. “The State Board compared those lists with the North Carolina voter rolls, and nine individuals matched, across the state. If a check of state and federal databases shows any of those nine individuals have not obtained citizenship, the State Board will send them letters informing the registrants of the agency’s findings and invite them, if not U.S. citizens, to cancel their registrations to comply with the law.”
Last week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also sued the North Carolina State Board for denying his request to be removed from the state’s ballot before the November election. Despite the candidate dropping out of the race and endorsing former President Trump, the board decided in a 3-2 vote to keep Kennedy’s name because nearly 2 million ballots had already been printed.
Kennedy also was unable to remove himself from the ballot in the fellow battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Read the full article from Here
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