Iconic North Carolina tourist attraction damaged by Helene will be demolished

Iconic North Carolina tourist attraction damaged by Helene will be demolished

By MAKIYA SEMINERA and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press

Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene’s devastating pathway through western North Carolina, a vibrant tourist attraction offering visitors a serene escape in the Blue Ridge Mountains is being torn down.

Like many other beloved sites in the region, the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge in Rutherford County crumpled from the relentless floods and winds from remnants of Helene last September. Now, the town of Lake Lure said Thursday that it will start its demolition of the historic structure later this month.

A three-arched bridge spanning the Broad River in western North Carolina was saved from demolition and transformed into a beloved tourist attraction. But damage from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene’s remnants is forcing Lake Lure to tear down the famed Flowering Bridge. (AP video/Allen G. Breed)

While the three-arched bridge dates back to 1925, it didn’t become the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge until almost a century later. Once the bridge was decommissioned, a group of local volunteers, Friends of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, worked to enhance it by adding its iconic gardens in 2013, according to the group’s website. The bridge attracted more than 150,000 visitors annually, said Linda Reandeau, a master gardener and the group’s marketing chair.

But then Helene brought destruction to western North Carolina last year, with the Lake Lure area — which served as a backdrop for a few scenes in “Dirty Dancing” — sustaining some of the worst damage. The town of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village, as well as the lake itself, were covered in a layer of disfigured debris. The area still hasn’t recovered, but tourist attractions such as Chimney Rock State Park have reopened.

In the Flowering Bridge’s case, one end of the structure completely collapsed. Several other points also buckled from the damage, and its lush greenery was swept away in the storm. Over the past 11 months, the bridge has only continued to deteriorate, Reandeau said.

“It would have been 100 years old this year,” she said. “To see it destroyed as it was in the storm was very emotional and heartbreaking for me, along with all the other volunteers and so many people who have visited.”

The decision to demolish the bridge came after two engineering firms concluded that it couldn’t be restored, according to the town’s website. Demolition is expected to start on Aug. 18.

While the bridge will no longer remain, Reandeau said the landmark’s volunteer group is in the planning process for how to move forward. The nonprofit is waiting for occupancy certification to reopen its relatively unscathed education center, where it can hold gardening and art classes — and hopefully install new gardens nearby, Reandeau said.

“We haven’t gone away, we’re still here, and we really look forward to the day we can welcome back visitors to the gardens,” she said. “We fully intend to make another magical space. It’s just not going to happen immediately.”

Iconic North Carolina tourist attraction damaged by Helene will be demolished

Iconic North Carolina tourist attraction damaged by Helene will be demolished

By MAKIYA SEMINERA and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press

Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene’s devastating pathway through western North Carolina, a vibrant tourist attraction offering visitors a serene escape in the Blue Ridge Mountains is being torn down.

Like many other beloved sites in the region, the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge in Rutherford County crumpled from the relentless floods and winds from remnants of Helene last September. Now, the town of Lake Lure said Thursday that it will start its demolition of the historic structure later this month.

A three-arched bridge spanning the Broad River in western North Carolina was saved from demolition and transformed into a beloved tourist attraction. But damage from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene’s remnants is forcing Lake Lure to tear down the famed Flowering Bridge. (AP video/Allen G. Breed)

While the three-arched bridge dates back to 1925, it didn’t become the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge until almost a century later. Once the bridge was decommissioned, a group of local volunteers, Friends of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, worked to enhance it by adding its iconic gardens in 2013, according to the group’s website. The bridge attracted more than 150,000 visitors annually, said Linda Reandeau, a master gardener and the group’s marketing chair.

But then Helene brought destruction to western North Carolina last year, with the Lake Lure area — which served as a backdrop for a few scenes in “Dirty Dancing” — sustaining some of the worst damage. The town of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village, as well as the lake itself, were covered in a layer of disfigured debris. The area still hasn’t recovered, but tourist attractions such as Chimney Rock State Park have reopened.

In the Flowering Bridge’s case, one end of the structure completely collapsed. Several other points also buckled from the damage, and its lush greenery was swept away in the storm. Over the past 11 months, the bridge has only continued to deteriorate, Reandeau said.

“It would have been 100 years old this year,” she said. “To see it destroyed as it was in the storm was very emotional and heartbreaking for me, along with all the other volunteers and so many people who have visited.”

The decision to demolish the bridge came after two engineering firms concluded that it couldn’t be restored, according to the town’s website. Demolition is expected to start on Aug. 18.

While the bridge will no longer remain, Reandeau said the landmark’s volunteer group is in the planning process for how to move forward. The nonprofit is waiting for occupancy certification to reopen its relatively unscathed education center, where it can hold gardening and art classes — and hopefully install new gardens nearby, Reandeau said.

“We haven’t gone away, we’re still here, and we really look forward to the day we can welcome back visitors to the gardens,” she said. “We fully intend to make another magical space. It’s just not going to happen immediately.”

Refreshing Caprese Salad

Refreshing Caprese Salad

This recipe is a classic! Great for an appetizer, light lunch or side in the summer heat.

Ingredients

  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 12 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced (or you can use mozzarella pearls)
  • 1 bunch fresh basil, washed
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp balsamic glaze
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning

Instructions

1. Prep the veggies and cheese
Slice your tomato and cheese and wash the basil.

2. Assemble ingredients
On a plate, place a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a few basil leaves on top of each other. Repeat until the salad is layered nicely and you use all of your tomatoes and cheese.

3. Drizzle
Drizzle the salad with olive oil and balsamic glaze.

4. Season it up
Sprinkle the salt, pepper and Italian seasonings and garnish with a few leaves of basil.

5. Serve it cold
Serve right away and savor the taste of summer.

Wall Street drifts as stock markets worldwide take Trump’s new tariffs in stride

Wall Street drifts as stock markets worldwide take Trump’s new tariffs in stride

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s tariffs taking effect on dozens of countries had only a muted effect on markets worldwide.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% after briefly climbing to the cusp of its all-time high during the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 224 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3% to a record.

Worries are high that Trump’s tariffs are damaging the economy, particularly after last week’s worse-than-expected report on the job market. But hopes for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve and a torrent of stronger-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies are helping to offset the concerns, at least for now.

Lower interest rates can give the economy and investment prices a boost, though the downside is that they can also push inflation higher. The Bank of England cut its main interest rate on Thursday in hopes of bolstering the sluggish U.K. economy.

The U.S. tariffs that took effect Thursday morning were already well known, as well as lower than what Trump had initially threatened. Some countries are still trying to negotiate down the tax rates on their exports, and continued uncertainty seems to be the only certainty on Wall Street. All the while, the U.S. stock market faces criticism that it’s climbed too far, too fast since hitting a bottom in April, with prices looking too expensive.

On Wall Street, worries about tariffs helped drag down the stock of Crocs.

The footwear maker tumbled 29.2% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it expects revenue to drop as much as 11% in the current quarter from a year earlier, while tariffs are dragging on its profitability. The company cited “continued uncertainty from evolving global trade policy and related pressures around the consumer.”

Eli Lilly dropped 14.1% even though the drugmaker likewise reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts said some investors were disappointed with results that Lilly provided for a late-stage study of its potential pill version of the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound.

Intel sank 3.1% after Trump called for its CEO to resign, while accusing him of being “highly CONFLICTED,” though he gave no evidence.

Apple helped keep the market’s losses in check, as it rose on hopes that its massive size can help it navigate Trump’s economy. Its stock climbed 3.2% after CEO Tim Cook joined Trump at the White House on Wednesday to say it’s increasing its investment in U.S. manufacturing by an additional $100 billion over the next four years.

Trump also announced a 100% tariff on imported computer chips, but he added “if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

“Large, cash-rich companies that can afford to build in America will be the ones to benefit the most,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “It’s survival of the biggest.”

DoorDash added 5% after the delivery app topped Wall Street’s profit expectations for the latest quarter. It attracted new customers and saw the total number of orders increase.

Duolingo, the language-learning app, jumped 13.7% after it crushed Wall Street’s expectations. The company said its subscription revenue grew 46% over the same period last year.

All told the S&P 500 edged down by 5.06 points to 6,340.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 224.48 to 43,968.64, and the Nasdaq composite rose 73.27 to 21,242.70.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks climbed 0.2% in Shanghai and 0.7% in Hong Kong after China reported that its exports picked up in July, helped by a flurry of shipments as businesses took advantage of a pause in Trump’s tariff war with Beijing.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6%. Toyota Motor’s stock fell after it cut its full-year earnings forecasts largely because of Trump’s tariffs, but Sony rose after the entertainment and electronics company indicated it’s taking less damage from the tariffs than it had expected.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.22% late Wednesday after the latest reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed.

One said that slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. That could be an indication of rising layoffs, but the number remains within its recent range.

“There is nothing to see here!” according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “These are not nearly recession readings.”

A separate report said that productivity for U.S. workers improved by more during the spring than economists expected. That could help the U.S. economy grow without adding more pressure on inflation. And that’s particularly important when Trump’s tariffs look set to increase prices for all kinds of things that U.S. households and businesses buy.

___

AP Business Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

August 8th 2025

August 8th 2025

Thought of the Day

August 8th 2024

Too many folks go through life running away from something that isn’t after them.

Rushing floodwater from heavy rain kills 2 in North Carolina

Rushing floodwater from heavy rain kills 2 in North Carolina

SPRING HOPE, N.C. (AP) — Two people were found dead in central North Carolina after they and a police officer trying to save them were swept away in rushing floodwaters, authorities said Wednesday.

Another cluster of storms was dumping rain on the region Thursday, a day after a 24-year-old woman and 55-year-old man were found dead when flooding on a section of highway receded, according to police in the town of Spring Hope.

Some communities had been under flash flood warnings and advisories Wednesday while as much as 5 inches (127 millimeters) of rain fell in parts of the Raleigh and Durham areas.

The woman and man, both from the small town of Louisburg, had been trapped in a vehicle that was pushed into a ditch filled with about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of fast-moving floodwater, police said. The woman was climbing out of the roof when she fell into the water and an officer jumped in to save her, police said.

The strong current swept away the woman, the man and the officer, who escaped unharmed as the two people disappeared. Authorities searched but the two died.

The storm’s pathway over central North Carolina follows Tropical Storm Chantal’s flooding in parts of the region last month. Public assistance damage estimates are already more than $42 million, according to Gov. Josh Stein’s office. Stein also issued a state disaster declaration Tuesday for eight counties because of Chantal damage, meaning residents can seek out state financial aid.

Dean Cain, former TV Superman, will be sworn in as honorary ICE officer

Dean Cain, former TV Superman, will be sworn in as honorary ICE officer

Dean Cain, the actor best known for portraying Superman on a 1990s television show, wants to join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In an interview with Fox News this week, Cain said he’d already spoken to the agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda.

Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s spokesperson, said Thursday that Cain would be sworn in as an “honorary ICE Officer” in the coming month. It wasn’t immediately clear what his duties as an honorary officer would entail. Cain, 59, told Fox News he was already a sworn deputy sheriff and a reserve police officer.

Dean Cain, the actor best known for portraying Superman on a 1990s television show, wants to join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)

Earlier this week, Cain posted a video to his social media accounts encouraging others to join the agency. The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that it is removing age limits for new hires at the agency responsible for immigration enforcement, as it aims to expand hiring after a massive infusion of cash from Congress.

Cain has in the past decade been outspoken in his conservative viewpoints and endorsed Trump in three elections. A representative for Cain did not respond to request for comment Thursday.

McLaughlin referenced Cain’s titular role in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” which ran from 1993 to 1997, in her statement, saying in her statement that “Superman is encouraging Americans to become real-life superheroes.”

Warner Bros., which released a new “Superman” last month, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The film, which has made over $550 million and stars David Corenswet, became a hot-button topic with right-wing commentators who criticized the movie as “woke” after director James Gunn referred to the character as being like an “immigrant.”

___

Associated Press journalist Rebecca Santana contributed reporting.

FBI forces out more leaders, including ex-director who fought Trump demand for Jan. 6 agents’ names

FBI forces out more leaders, including ex-director who fought Trump demand for Jan. 6 agents’ names

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is forcing out more senior officials, including a former acting director who resisted Trump administration demands to turn over the names of agents who participated in Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigations and the head of the bureau’s Washington field office, according to people familiar with the matter and internal communications seen by The Associated Press.

The basis for the ouster of Brian Driscoll, who led the bureau in the turbulent weeks that followed President Donald Trump’s inauguration last January, were not immediately clear, but his final day is Friday, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the personnel move by name and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

“I understand that you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I have no answers,” Driscoll wrote in a message to colleagues. “No cause has been articulated at this time.”

Another high-profile termination is Steven Jensen, who for months had led the Washington office, one of the bureau’s largest and busiest. He confirmed in a message to colleagues on Thursday he had been told he was being fired effective Friday.

“I intend to meet this challenge like any other I have faced in this organization, with professionalism, integrity and dignity,” Jensen wrote in an email.

Jensen did not say if he had been given a reason, but his appointment to the job in April was sharply criticized by some Trump supporters because he had overseen a domestic terrorism section after the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The FBI has characterized that attack, in which the Republican president’s supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to halt the certification of election results after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, as an act of domestic terrorism.

Spokespeople for the FBI declined to comment Thursday.

A broader personnel purge

The news about Driscoll and Jensen comes amid a much broader personnel purge that has unfolded over the last several months under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Numerous senior officials including top agents in charge of big-city field offices have been pushed out of their jobs, and some agents have been subjected to polygraph exams, moves that former officials say have roiled the workforce and contributed to angst.

Driscoll, a veteran agent who worked international counterterrorism investigations in New York and had commanded the bureau’s Hostage Rescue Team, had most recently served as acting director in charge of the Critical Incident Response Group, which deploys resources to crisis situations.

Driscoll was named acting director in January to replace Christopher Wray and served in the position as Patel’s nomination was pending.

He made headlines after he and Rob Kissane, the then-deputy director, resisted Trump administration demands for a list of agents who participated in investigations into the Jan. 6 riot. Many within the FBI had seen that request as a precursor for mass firings, particularly in light of separate moves to fire members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team that prosecuted Trump, reassign senior career Justice Department officials and force out prosecutors on Jan. 6 cases and top FBI executives.

The Justice Department’s request

Emil Bove, the then-senior Justice Department official who made the request and was last week confirmed for a seat on a federal appeals court, wrote a memo at the time accusing the FBI’s top leaders of “insubordination” for resisting his requests “to identify the core team” responsible for Jan. 6 investigations. He said the requests were meant to “permit the Justice Department to conduct a review of those particular agents’ conduct pursuant to Trump’s executive order” on “weaponization” in the Biden administration.

Responding to Bove’s request, the FBI ultimately provided personnel details about several thousand employees, identifying them by unique employee numbers rather than by names.

In his farewell note, Driscoll told colleagues that it was “the honor of my life to serve alongside each of you.”

He wrote: “Our collective sacrifice for those we serve is, and will always be, worth it. I regret nothing. You are my heroes and I remain in your debt.”

Agents demoted, reassigned and pushed out

The FBI has moved under Patel’s watch to aggressively demote, reassign or push out agents seen as being out of favor with bureau leadership or the Trump administration. In April, for instance, the bureau reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Numerous special agents in charge of field offices have been told to retire, resign or accept reassignment.

Another agent, Michael Feinberg, has said publicly that he was told to resign or accept a demotion amid scrutiny from leadership of his friendship with Peter Strzok, a lead agent on the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation who was fired by the Justice Department in 2018 following revelations that he had exchanged negative text messages about Trump with an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page.

Greek Pasta Salad

Greek Pasta Salad

This light and fresh greek pasta salad is the perfect summer side. It’s a great meal prep recipe, as it gets better with some time to marinate and you can enjoy it throughout the week.

Ingredients

  • 1 box rotini noodles (or your choice of pasta)
  • 1 english cucumber, diced
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
  • 1/2 cup pickled banana peppers
  • 1/2 cup olives, pitted and sliced
  • 1/2 cup feta, crumbled
  • 1/2 cup red onion, diced
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried oregano

Instructions

1. Cook pasta
Cook your pasta on the stovetop until al dente, per the package instructions, then rinse under cold water.

2. Mix dressing
In a large bowl, whisk spices into the olive oil until combined.

3. Add pasta and toppings
Add your pasta, veggies and cheese into the bowl and mix until the dressing coats everything evenly.

4. Chill
Cover the bowl and store your pasta salad in the fridge until ready to serve.

5. Serve it cold
Enjoy cold as a light lunch or as a dinner side.

North Carolina Gov. Stein signs stopgap budget bill and vetoes opt-in bill helping school choice

North Carolina Gov. Stein signs stopgap budget bill and vetoes opt-in bill helping school choice

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed into law on Wednesday a stopgap spending measure while lawmakers remain in a state budget impasse. But he vetoed legislation that would direct state participation in a yet-implemented federal tax credit program to boost school-choice options, suggesting state Republicans acted hastily.

The Democratic governor had already said this week he would sign the “mini-budget” that the GOP-controlled General Assembly sent him last week. But he called it a poor substitution for a full two-year budget that House and Senate negotiators were unable to finalize before the new fiscal year began July 1.

Instead, Stein said, the spending plan fails to provide substantive pay raises or the full amount needed to cover increased Medicaid expenses. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai said the additional $600 million provided annually for Medicaid is hundreds of millions short and unless addressed would require reducing optional services, provider rates or both.

“This Band-Aid budget fails to invest in our teachers and students, fails to keep families safe, fails to value hardworking state employees, and fails to fully fund health care,” Stein said in a news release. “Despite these serious reservations, I am signing this bill into law because it keeps the lights on.”

The new law does cover anticipated enrollment changes for K-12 schools and community colleges, as well as for experience-based pay raises already in state law for teachers. There is also over $800 million for state construction projects and funds for state employee retirement and health care. It also creates a new agency for State Auditor Dave Boliek, who is tasked by year’s end to recommend which state offices and positions should be eliminated.

Some Republican budget-writers have said that Medicaid spending could be adjusted later during the fiscal year.

Stein’s veto seeks to block a decision by North Carolina legislative leaders to join the tax-credit program contained in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill that he signed into law last month.

The program provides starting in 2027 a one-to-one credit equal to up to $1,700 for those who donate to certain “scholarship granting organizations,” with those distributing K-12 private-school scholarships among them.

The federal law said each state must opt in to the program, and North Carolina Republicans who have already greatly expanded state-funded scholarships wanted North Carolina to be the first to do so.

Stein’s veto message aligned with arguments by Democratic state legislators who voted against the state measure last week that the program shifts federal funding away from helping public schools and helps wealthy people who can already afford private school for their children.

“Congress and the Administration should strengthen our public schools, not hollow them out,” Stein wrote.

By opting in, North Carolina-based scholarship organizations would benefit while costing state government no revenues.

The tax credit program is also designed to benefit organizations that provide aid for services for students who attend public schools. Stein said he would opt in to the program for the state once the federal government issued sound written guidance on program rules because he sees opportunities to “benefit North Carolina’s public school kids.” So, he added, the bill on his desk is “unnecessary.”

The vetoed bill now returns to the General Assembly, where override votes could happen as early as Aug. 26. Republicans are but one House seat shy of a veto-proof majority, and last week lawmakers were able to gain the Democratic support needed to override eight of Stein’s 14 earlier vetoes. Two House Democrats voted for the tax credit bill.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said Wednesday that with the veto Stein is “attempting to usurp the General Assembly’s authority to set tax policy” and anticipated a veto override “to ensure North Carolina can participate in President Trump’s signature school choice initiative.”

Stein also signed Wednesday legislation creating an expedited removal process for homeowners and landlords to remove people unauthorized to live on their property. He had previously vetoed another bill containing the language because a provision involving pet shop animal sales was added. But the legislature sent him a new measure last week with the pet shop item absent.

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