The main stories we’re following this morning at Public Radio East:
- Swell from distant Hurricane Nigel will impact the beaches into the weekend, bringing rough surf and an elevated rip current risk. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Newport say a low pressure system will also impact the area Friday into the weekend with heavy rainfall, strong winds, and isolated strong to severe thunderstorms.
- The wet storm system expected in eastern North Carolina this weekend has brought a popular event to a halt. Officials with the Emerald Isle Beach Music Festival say the event has been canceled.
- State lawmakers will be voting Thursday on a budget bill that’s nearly three months overdue.
- The North Carolina Coastal Federation is celebrating National Estuaries Week through Saturday, and the public is invited to join the group to clean up litter along coastal waterways.
- Take a Child Outside Week begins on Sunday and runs through the end of the month.
- On Thursday, federal and state officials are expected to announce new funding to combat maternal mortality and improve maternal health, particularly in underserved communities in North Carolina.
- A shortened flounder season is underway, and this year it will last just two weeks, through Sept. 29 at 11:59 p.m.
- A North Carolina Highway Historical Marker soon will be placed recognizing the efforts made at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to train officers, pilots, and cadets during World War II.
- A man was pulled from a shrimp boat in Hyde County and taken to jail, accused of setting a trailer on fire with his ex-girlfriend inside.
- The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence.
