WAYNESVILLE
Local victims remembered
Hiwassee Dam residents Austin and Avery Hawkins, along with Brady Singleton, all lost their lives in automobile accidents caused by someone who was driving under the influence.
They and other victims will be remembered at 11 a.m. today, when the WNC Regional DWI Task Force gathers at the Haywood County Courthouse to announce a unique pre-holiday traffic safety operation. In October, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office was awarded a $25,000 special overtime grant project by the N.C. Governor’s Highway Traffic Safety Program with the goal to help improve highway traffic safety by focusing on speeding, those failing to use occupant protection devices and impaired drivers.
This Thanksgiving, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is teaming up with the sheriff’s office and task force to keep you safe on the roads. On Thanksgiving Eve – also known as “Drinksgiving” or “Blackout Wednesday” – there is an increase in the overconsumption of alcohol, so the groups are urging drivers to make the right choice to refuse to drink and drive by spreading the message that, “Buzzed driving is drunk driving.”
RALEIGH
Patrol joins Safety Week
From Nov. 13-17, the N.C. Highway Patrol joined forces with first responders throughout the nation in recognition of Crash Responder Safety Week.
This Federal Highway Administration-sponsored initiative served to highlight the importance of education and awareness surrounding safe driving behavior while responders are working on the roadside.
SHP members investigate roadway crashes daily with fellow emergency responders, including firefighters, emergency medical services, law enforcement partners, towing & recovery, public works and safety service patrols.
Collectively, these traffic incident responders assist road users in need, applying well-rehearsed procedures to provide emergency traffic control and quickly clear incidents from roadways. The Highway Patrol, along with other participating agencies, remind all road users to “Protect those who protect you.”
RALEIGH
33 states sue Meta
A broad, bipartisan 33-state coalition has filed a federal lawsuit in California against Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, alleging harms to youths’ “mental and physical” health after a nationwide investigation announced in 2021 involving many of the coalition’s member states.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta “designed and deployed harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children and teens” and seeks injunctive and monetary relief. More specifically, the lawsuit claims Meta has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which protects the online privacy of children under 13 years old, California’s False Advertising Law, which prohibits false and misleading advertising, and California’s Unfair Competition Law, which prohibits unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices.
The attorneys general claim Meta’s business model is focused on maximizing young users’ time on its platforms, uses “harmful
and psychologically manipulative platform features while misleading the public about the safety of those features,” reports “misleadingly low rates of user harms,” and both “conceal[s] and downplay[s] its platforms’ adverse effects.”
The states part of the federal lawsuit filed in California include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Florida filed its own federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and eight additional attorneys general – representing the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont – that have filed related actions in their respective state and state-level courts.
Compiled by Publisher David Brown.