4:30AM News on WRAL - Thursday, July 30, 2026

increase in water use is enough to trigger a lift in those restrictions. An assistant state climatologist Corey Davis, he says we're not in the clear yet, but the drought monitor should show widespread improvement over the central part of the state. We're not back to normal for the year just yet, but certainly I think when we look back at this drought a year or two from now, we should see July as that turning point. That's when it stopped being exceptional and started being manageable. Yeah, so this is great news to hear after dealing with this drought for so many months. The new drought monitor is expected to come out later this morning, and we, of course, will bring you that latest information as soon as we have it. Live at Falls Lake, Kirsten Clark, WRL News. So July has changed the picture, but are we finally turning the corner? Well, tonight at 6, the WRL Severe Weather team breaks down where the drought stands now. They also break down what's improved and what comes next. The Tar Hills will be back on the practice field today for the start of a highly anticipated second season for head coach Bill Belichick. W. RELS Kelsey Coffey joins us live now from UNC. Kelsey, today's practice is happening after questions about GM Michael Lombardi being placed on administrative leave. Yes, Chris, Michael Lombardi, the highest pay GM and college football now on administrative leave. And so far, UNC has been silent, but that could change today as the Tar Heels head into their first practice of the season. Speculation about Michael Lombardi's future has been covered nationally. The New York Times, ESPN, and other media outlets have all reported the leave is the result of an HR complaint. Lombardi's job comes with a $1.5 million. dollar price tag a year. WRL Sports investigative reporter Brian Murphy explains a college football general manager is focused on player personnel which has become even more important in recent years. There have always been directors of scouting right because you're having to pour through thousands of high school players well now you're also having to pouring through thousands of college players because they may enter the transfer portal and now you're having to negotiate contracts with them. UNC's chancellor and head coach Bill Belichick are expected to address the media later this morning, so we'll be sure to keep you updated on whether they answer our questions about Lombardi's administrative leave. Kelsey Coffey, WRL News, live in Chapel Hill. And WRL will be at today's fall camp seeking answers to our questions about Lombardi. So watch for updates through the WRO News app and during our evening newscast starting at 4 p.m. It is the first day of school for some Raleigh students under unusual circumstances. Durant Road Elementary students will start the year at nearby Greg Abbott's Creek Elementary School, and that's while the district is completing emergency repairs on their school. WRL's Alley Cablbar has been following that story very closely and joins us live from the school. Ali, those repairs are on track to be done by the start of the traditional school year. Now, Chris, in an update this week, the district says it is on schedule to be complete by the start of the traditional school year. We can see equipment right here outside Durant Road Elementary. We're also seeing signs directing parents to go to Greg Abbott's Creek Elementary for carpool this morning. The district has two more weeks to finish repairs here before staff at Greg Abbott's Creek Elementary need to go back for teacher work days. Wake County Schools says crews are more than halfway done with most of the work.

at Durant Road Elementary. It's one of three Wake County schools where structural issues must be fixed before students can go back on campus. Crews are on track to finish emergency repairs at Creech Road and Davis Drive Elementary as well before the first day of school there. Repairs are on track to be complete by August 17th for Durant Road Elementary. And also, that's a week before Greg Abbott's Creek Elementary students go back to school. Reporting live. And Raleigh, Al-Qaddebar, WRA, Alp News. And also today, the newest school in Wake County will welcome students to the classroom for the first time. Hilltop, Needmore Road Elementary School in Fuqua Verena will officially open today. And we got a first look inside the building yesterday. Teachers and school leaders are looking forward to using the new collaborative spaces where children can learn outside the classroom. W.R.E. Education insider Emily Wachanhorse says the school was built to combat overcrowding in the area. There's been so much growth in that area. They're always having to open up these new, especially elementary schools, where there are a lot of limitations on how many students you can have inside of a classroom. Wade County Superintendent Robert Taylor will visit the school today along with other special guests. Meanwhile, Nash County Schools is hosting its Back to School Festival tonight. There's going to be food, games, prizes, a petting zoo, and some educational resources for you parents and your students. The event will be at Nash Community College's Brown Auditorium in Rocky Mount and runs from 6 to 8 p.m. A state lawmaker who has suggested a sex-based dress code for elementary school employees says that she has received threats over her proposal. Way County Representative Aaron Paray says she wants to implement the dress code to protect children. Paray says parents have raised concerns about an elementary school teacher and parents have told her the teacher is biologically male but dresses like a female. It's really about making sure that... The kids are protected from age and appropriate content in the classroom. Now, we did reach out to the Wake County Schools about this situation, Pari's Post. We asked if this concern has been brought to their attention and how it's being handled, but the district did not answer our questions directly. Instead, they pointed us to the handbook where the policy states the district prohibits unlawful discrimination while taking into account all requirements in state and federal law. Riley police are investigating a shooting at a wing stop restaurant on New Bern Avenue. I want to show you the video from Sky 5. The shooting happened just afternoon yesterday. Employees were working inside the restaurant at the time, but despite the shooting, no one was hurt. Police have not made any arrests. On Capitol Hill, a vote that was scheduled for this morning on Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General. That's been postponed. It was delayed because North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and Texas Senator John Cornyn. brought concerns to the DOJ about the Trump IRS settlement. Both senators have clashed with the president before, and neither is up for re-election in November. Todd Blanche has been serving as acting AG since President Trump fired Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche was previously the president's personal attorney. All right, the power brought jackpot. It is growing again. No one matched all six numbers in last night's drawing. Well, now the jackpot is up to $707 million. The next drawing is Saturday night, and you can watch it right before W. REO News at 11.

Your time this Thursday morning is 440. Racial profiling case. The ACLU is taking on the Trump administration because a local man was detained by ICE, the viral encounter that was shared a TikTok and honoring Brooklyn Carroll. The 10-year-old Apex Pearl was killed in a boat crash on Harris Lake almost a year ago, how her family is keeping her legacy alive. And you'll notice probably when you step out the door that it feels more comfortable. I'll let you know how long this dry or air mask sticks around coming up. 444 and we do have the top of the tower lit in blue for clear skies today. You can see just a little bit of cloud cover here behind the tower, but it's not much. So we're mostly clear this morning. Big pretty moon out there if you happen to catch it if you're headed out here in the next 30 minutes or so. You'll also notice that it feels cooler in most places. Fayetteville's still at 74, which is about where we were yesterday. But that cool air is coming in from the north. So eventually it'll reach you there in Fayetteville and 64 in Lewisburg, 64 in South Hill, 69, and Irwin and 67 in Rocky Mount and Wilson. Lunch outside, absolutely. Our humidity has dropped. Temperature is going to feel very comfortable. It's going to be very nice to spend your lunch hour outside. And it's going to feel great walking the dog. If it's not always your chore, you might want to volunteer for it this morning. It feels so nice out. And highs will make it into the mid to upper 80s this afternoon, but our humidity stays low. I'll show you for how long coming up, Chris. Sounds good, Elizabeth. Homeland Security is responding to a lawsuit involving a local man. Fernando Vasquez is suing the Trump administration. He argues he was. wrongfully detained during a high-profile immigration rate last November. Well, he shared that account to her on TikTok and it has been viewed more than nine million times. DHS is denying allegations of racial profiling in this case. And the 18-year-old says that he was at a landscaping job in Kerry when he was detained. He's a U.S. citizen and was born in the triangle. When we spoke with him last year, he said he told officers he was a citizen and his real ID that he had it in order to prove it. I told him from here. And then he also asked me, he was like, but where were you born? I told him that I was born. Said an officer threw out his wallet and stranded him in the woods away from his work site. The ACLU has filed a damages claim against the federal government. It alleges this was racial profiling. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson denied the allegation saying a person's immigration status makes them a target for enforcement, not their skin color, race, or ethnicity. We asked for clarification since Vasquez is a U.S. citizen, but we have not heard back. The former Rivers Correctional Institution in Herford County will become a 1,300-bed immigration processing center. The Florida-based Geo Group says that it entered into a five-year agreement with ICE. Immigration advocates urged state lawmakers the leaders there not to do this. They point to allegations of mismanagement and abuse at similar facilities nationwide.

Well, this weekend will mark one year since the tragic death of a 10-year-old girl from Apex on Harris Lake. Brooklyn Carol died last August on the second after a boat hit her while she was swimming. A memorial is now in place at the Crosspoint boat ramp. Brooklyn's loved ones want to make sure her name lives on and her legacy helps keep others safe on the water. Everybody did everything. They could, but was there something more that could have helped? That's an answer we'll never know. And that's an answer that we hope to be able to keep other families from asking themselves. Just two months after Brooklyn's death, the family established the Brooklyn May Carroll Foundation. They hope to raise money for safety kits that will be put at boat ramps across North Carolina. They're gathering online donations and sponsorships at upcoming golf tournament as well. Kerry-based SaaS is celebrating 50 years as a tech leader. In an exclusive interview, SaaS CEO and founder Jim Goodnight talks about what's next. He says the company uses generative AI to explain its findings and leaves the decision-making to the people. When we find a money laundering situation, we will then use AI to explain exactly what we found. We don't use AI to produce answers, but we use it to try to explain the answers. He talks about how the company started and why places like Google have studied their workplace culture. You can watch WRL Presents SaaS at 50 on WRL.com. Right now, actually. Okay, so we have Elizabeth Gardner tracking the next weathermaker for us. But I think we should just for a moment, just bask in the fact that we walked outside. I didn't find out. I was melting this morning. It wasn't too humid. It's actually very comfortable outside. It really is. You know, if you're a morning runner, you walk the dog in the morning, you're really going to notice. It just feels really nice out there. It'll feel good this afternoon, too. We're still going to climb into the mid to upper 80s, but that low humidity will be something that you notice. We're nice and dry all the way up until Sunday. And then we start our wetter pattern again. And it looks like it could last. next week. So our rain chances continue. We're still, we've seen leaps and bounds of improvement this month. And it looks like that may carry on into August as well. We stay nice and cool as well. High temperatures are in the 80s except for one day. So we'll show you which day looks the hottest. This is a look at the deep app and they're all prepped for another game tonight. Homestand this week looks wonderful at least all the way up until Sunday. It is 69 right now. The Mike DeWine point of 61. So both of those numbers are down nicely. And the Mike DeWine point at 61 this time of year really feels. refreshing. 87 in Durham and Raleigh, but 90 in favor this afternoon. So yes, it will still be warm. But again, it gets really comfortable early on. 645. They throw out the first pitch. Temperatures will be in the low 80s and then dropping through the low 80s into the upper 70s by the time the game is over. Available moisture. It is all to the south. The green shaded area here isn't rain. It's actually humidity. And it stays well south of us. This high pressure system is going to keep pushing that humidity away. But notice here it comes. By the time we get to Friday and Saturday, it's on our doorstep again. And it does come moving back in for Sunday and Monday. That's because of the chance for rain. If we have rain, obviously, we'll have a lot of moisture in the atmosphere. 91 is our normal high. We only hit 91 time in the next seven days. So that is nice. Our storms return Sunday, but both Friday and Saturday, and you know, we always want to count Friday as the weekend. Both days look really good. And of course, the tropics are nice and quiet. We haven't had any development there in quite some time. Saharan dust.

keeps that atmosphere dry and wind shear keeps the storms from being able to develop. So that's what's happening in the tropics. As we turn to a wetter pattern next week, our temperatures also stay nice and comfortable, mainly in the mid-80s, Chris. I mean, we need more rain, right? Not mad about it. Thanks, Elizabeth. So do fitness trackers really work? Is it a scam? Well, it depends on what you want to use them for. Doctors explain how they are effective and the areas where they fall short. And no Grammy submissions. K-pop superstars, BTS will not provide songs for award considerations. Group's opposition to a new category will explain why. Remember enjoying Saturday morning cartoons and savoring the sugary milk at the bottom of your cereal bowl? Well, Kachava's new cinnamon French toast, all-in-one nutrition shake, gives you all the nostalgic feels and benefits. Made with real cinnamon bark for rich, authentic flavor. Just two scoops provide the complete nutrition your body craves. Take a sip of nostalgia. Go to kachava.com and use code news for 15% off your first order. That's Kachava, k-h-a-v-a-v-a.com code news.

Good morning to our friends in Kerry right now who are at Fenton. If you're waking up this early, we appreciate it. Grab some coffee, though, so you can stick with us the entire morning. So with so many fitness trackers on the market these days, it can be hard to know which one to buy or if any of them actually work. Doctors who have studied these devices say they are very good at tracking sleep count, the step count, I should say. Heart rate tracking also seems to be fairly accurate. But other metrics, such as calories, burns, stress level, and quality of sleep are considered much less accurate. One doctor says that doesn't mean, though, that fitness trackers are a waste of money. But it does mean it's important to ask why you might meet one. What are you actually trying to improve? Do you need accountability? Do you need something partly objective to say, here's what I've done, or here's a way for me to track some of the things that I haven't been tracking? Will you actually use this? Now, if you opt not to buy a fitness tracker, there are other ways to monitor your health progress. You could take before and after photos or even document body measurements. I mean, I use one to monitor my sleep, one of those rings on her. I don't know. I think it's nice. Okay, so BTS appears to object to a Grammy category and a look at Michael B. Jim Jordan and the Thomas Crown Affair. Davis Daniel has more in today's Hollywood Minute.

No Grammys for BTS next year. The K-pop Supergroup announced they will not submit music to be considered for the 2027 Grammy Awards. A statement by the group included the hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is rather than being divided by region or language. Last month, the Recording Academy confirmed next year's ceremony will include a new category for Asian pop music performance. And I was surprised how easy it was. But I'm not finished yet. That's what excites me. Here's your first look at Michael B. Jim Jordan in the latest remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. He follows in the fashionable footsteps of Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan as a rich businessman turned art thief. Jim Jordan does double duty directing the film as well. The Thomas Crown Affair is due in theaters next March. In Hollywood, I'm David Daniel. I mean, the trailer looked really cool for that movie. Well, OpenAI is launching a new program for academic research, and that program will give selected institutions free access to its frontier models. OpenAI says those researchers will have access to the scientific literature searches, satellite imagery, and data platforms. Selected academics will also get higher usage limits and improved memory across chat GPT. Open AI says academics are quickly adopting its tools to their research. However, the company says its strategy is not to try to solve scientific problems themselves. Head at 5. UNC football practice starts today. The preseason preparations as questions are still looming about Michael Lombardi's status with the university. And a new drought monitor. Today we will see how much the recent rain has improved in our dry conditions. The data that we are looking forward to seeing this morning. And it is going to be a clear and pleasant day. Say what? This is a live look right now over North Hills right now. Pretty comfortable outside. Meteorologist Elizabeth Garder will show us how much of a break we're going to get from the humidity.