News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
More than 100 days after Helene, state releases its long-awaited list of storm deaths, but Watchdog finds inconsistencies • Asheville Watchdog
The state health agency finally released a list of storm-related fatalities this week, more than three months after Tropical Storm Helene, but it includes a woman who died of breast cancer and other inconsistencies that conflict with the agency’s own records.
For months, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services denied public records requests from Asheville Watchdog and other media outlets for information about the deceased. Death certificates, autopsy reports and related documents are public records in North Carolina, but agency spokesmen said they were waiting until the death investigations were complete.
On Monday, the DHHS sent a list to the media. But it contained names only – no ages, circumstances or causes of death, or even a county where each person lived or died.
And the numbers did not initially match up with the agency’s own web page for storm-related fatalities, a source DHHS has consistently cited as the official record-keeper of Helene victims.
The department did not respond by deadline to questions about the list or the apparent discrepancies.
The list released Monday contains 104 names, but the agency’s storm fatality web page has said for weeks that 103 people died statewide. After The Watchdog asked about the difference, the state changed the web page to 104 total deaths.
The web page also says 43 people died in Buncombe, but as The Watchdog documented in its series, The Lives We Lost, just 41 death certificates citing Helene as a cause have been filed in the county.
Those 41 people are on the state’s list, along with one other woman from Buncombe.
That woman died at a nursing home on Sept. 27, the day of the storm, but the cause of death was metastatic breast cancer with no mention of Helene, according to her death certificate. It describes the manner of death as “natural.” The Watchdog is not identifying the woman because her family could not be reached.
DHHS did not respond to a question about why her name was on the list.
The Watchdog has provided the only full accounting of the deaths in Buncombe, which suffered the most fatalities of any county. Reporters identified the deceased by combing through more than 850 death certificates, opening each PDF one at a time, to find those attributed to the storm and tracking down relatives and friends.
Lives We Lost profiled each of the 41 people for whom death certificates have been filed in Buncombe. You can read the 10-part series here.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
Hundreds charged in health care fraud crackdown, including some in Triangle
SUMMARY: A nationwide healthcare fraud crackdown has led to charges against over 320 people, including some in North Carolina’s Triangle area. The fraud involves schemes like paying patients for treatments, receiving kickbacks from labs, and providing unnecessary medical equipment or therapy bills to Medicare and Medicaid. Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Bubar highlighted cases such as a substance abuse clinic accumulating $25 million through kickbacks and equipment providers charging $39 million for unneeded items like knee braces. Immigrant communities were targeted for fraudulent services. Nationwide, defendants billed over $14.6 billion in false claims, prompting intensified enforcement in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Some Triangle-area cases include issues of paying patients to receive treatment and getting kickbacks from a lab, sending medical equipment to people who didn’t need it and targeting immigrant communities to receive services that they didn’t need or never received.
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
Frozen: How scientist are trying to prevent species from going extinct
SUMMARY: The San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo, celebrating 50 years, preserves skin, egg, and sperm cells from over 1,300 species to prevent extinction. Founded by Dr. Kurt Benirschke before cloning technology existed, it stores cells frozen indefinitely without feeding. The Frozen Zoo has helped revive critically endangered animals like the California condor and black-footed ferret. Scientists emphasize the urgency as many species face rapid decline. Their current mission is to train global facilities to replicate this effort, preserving biodiversity and genetic diversity to support vulnerable populations worldwide and enhance conservation efforts.
“Jurassic Park” raises that sticky ethical question about whether scientists should essentially play God by reviving extinct species. But one team at the San Diego Zoo is doing what they can to prevent species from going extinct in the first place.
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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
Judge will instruct jury to continue deliberations amid juror issue
SUMMARY: Jury deliberations have begun in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial. Twelve jurors, eight men and four women aged 30 to 74, are deciding his fate after six weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses. Prosecutors allege Combs used his business as a criminal enterprise to exploit and traffic women through power, violence, and fear, urging conviction on five charges including racketeering and sex trafficking. Combs denies all charges, claiming all sexual encounters were consensual, and his defense argues the case is exaggerated. If convicted, Combs faces life in prison. The judge has ordered the jury to continue deliberations despite a juror issue.
The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
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