Election

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina legislators have approved an initial $273 million relief package to help address Hurricane Helene’s devastation and recovery in the mountains. The unanimous House and Senate passage on Wednesday came less than two weeks after Helene’s historical rainfall caused catastrophic damage and loss of life. Repubilcan legislative leaders who helped craft the measure described it as a down payment on aid. The bill also mostly follows rule alterations for conducting elections and turning in ballots that were approved unanimously Monday by the State Board of Elections for 13 western counties. But it would now cover 25 counties. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the board offered input for the bill.

LAKE LURE, N.C. (AP) — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is again forcefully pushing back against false claims and conspiracy theories about how her agency is responding to Hurricane Helene. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell appeared Monday in Asheville, North Carolina, to assure residents that the government is ready to help. Misinformation has spread over the past week in communities hit the hardest. Former President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans have questioned FEMA’s response and falsely claimed that its funding is going to migrants or foreign wars. The death toll from Helene has risen to at least 230.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged ongoing federal support for those affected by Hurricane Helene as she visited North Carolina. The Democratic presidential nominee met with state and local officials Saturday in Charlotte, where she praised the work of strangers helping strangers. She also helped pack aid kits and met with volunteers, calling them “heroes among us.” It was her second trip in four days to the disaster zone. Republican nominee Donald Trump was in the state a day earlier, and has been spreading false claims about the federal response to the disaster. But Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper says that federal officials have been on the ground in the state helping “since the very beginning.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential election campaigning is revving back up. Donald Trump heads on Tuesday to Michigan and Vice President Kamala Harris answers questions at a Black journalists forum in Pennsylvania. Their travels come as authorities continue to investigate a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump that’s roiled the race. Trump is holding a town hall in Flint, Michigan, and has appearances later in the week in New York, Washington and North Carolina. Harris will participate in a Philadelphia gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists. That follows a recent appearance before the group by Trump that sparked an uproar when he questioned the vice president’s racial identity.