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It's been two decades since, on March 19, 2003, United States forces invaded Iraq. President George W. Bush ordered the invasion to neutralize what he said was the threat of weapons of mass destruction posed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Except it turned out Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction. U.S. forces searched and searched and searched, and never found them. In all, 4,586 American servicemen and women died in the war, and 32,455 were wounded. Read moreByron York: Looking Back on Iraq War 20 years later

A few weeks ago, three members of the North Carolina Senate — Amy Scott Galey of Alamance County, Lisa Barnes of Nash County, and Michael Lee of New Hanover County — filed a state Parents’ Bill of Rights to ensure that local schools respect parental authority to direct the education, development, and medical treatment of their children. This legislation, Senate Bill 49, is well-crafted and deserves support. Read moreJohn Hood: States should lead on parental rights

For more than a decade we’ve studied the problem exhaustively, we’ve talked about it almost incessantly, we’ve engaged the latest curriculum du jour, and have spent more than $50 million, yet we still can’t solve the mystery of our children’s reading proficiency. Our patience is wearing thin. Now the finger-pointing has begun. We want to know who to blame. Read moreTom Campbell: Get back to basics to make overdue reading improvements

State AP Stories

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The nation’s top financial regulator is asserting that Silicon Valley Bank’s own management was largely to blame for the bank’s failure earlier this month and says the Federal Reserve will review whether a 2018 law that weakened stricter bank rules also contributed to its collapse. The Fed’s vice chair for supervision, Michael Barr, says in written testimony to be delivered Tuesday at a Senate hearing that the California-based bank's failure “is a textbook case of mismanagement.” Barr points to SVB's “concentrated business model,” in which its customers were overwhelmingly venture capital and high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. Barr contends the bank failed to manage the risks of its bond holdings.

President Joe Biden will visit an expanding North Carolina semiconductor manufacturer as he launches an extended effort to spotlight the impact legislation passed earlier in his administration is having on the U.S. economy. The Democratic president also will seek to contrast his vision with that of Republicans. Biden’s visit Tuesday to Wolfspeed Inc. follows the Durham-based company's announcement last September to build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Chatham County. Months earlier, Biden won passage of a $280 billion legislative package known as the CHIPS Act, which is intended to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry and scientific research.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration announced that electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal electricity production in the United States for the first time in 2022. The growth of wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and experts say these two resources will be the “backbone” of clean energy growth in the U.S. because of their reliability and affordability. Renewables passed nuclear electricity production for the first time in 2012 and continued to outpace it.

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North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has signed a Medicaid expansion law that was a decade in the making. Cooper celebrated on Monday the passage of expansion legislation from the Republican-controlled General Assembly with the bill-signing ceremony at the Executive Mansion. Cooper has wanted expansion for years, but Republicans came around to the idea recently. North Carolina has been among 11 states who haven’t accepted expansion. Cooper isn't thrilled with a provision in the bill that requiring the legislature to pass a separate state budget law first for expansion to be implemented. The governor said the law will be the "working families bill of the decade” once implemented.

National & World AP Stories

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Russian athletes were given conditions Tuesday that could lead to their return to international sports events, though the International Olympic Committee said its advice to sporting bodies did not include the 2024 Paris Games.

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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says a deal to protect Europe’s largest nuclear power plant from a catastrophic accident due to fighting in Ukraine could be “close,” but that intensified combat in the area has increased risks to the plant. In an interview with The Associated Press a day before he was to cross the front lines to visit the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he felt it was his duty to ramp up talks aimed at safeguarding the facility. He met Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said he would “most probably” head to Russia in the coming days. The Vienna-based agency has a rotating team based at the plant, whose six reactors are shut down.

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Mexico’s president says migrants set fire to mattresses in an immigration detention center where 39 died. He said the migrants were protesting after learning they would be deported. The fire in a dormitory at the center near the U.S. border was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a major crossing point for migrants. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.

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A new study says warming will fuel more supercells in the United States and that those storms will move eastward from their current range. The study says that makes it more likely that the lethal storms will strike more often in the more populous areas of Southern states. Supercells are nature's nastiest storms, producing most killer tornadoes and damaging hail. Even with moderate warming, the study projects a nearly 7% increase in supercells by century's end. The study author says what computer simulations show for the year 2100 seems to be here now. Scientists say Friday's Mississippi tornado fits the projected pattern but can't be blamed on climate change.