TownTalk: Diamond Unique’s Domestic Violence Story

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Victims of domestic violence suffer at the hands of people who supposedly care for them – whether it’s physical or emotional abuse, or both, the suffering is real. But victims who make a plan to get out of a dangerous situation and then do so triumphantly call themselves survivors.

Once they choose survivor over victim, the tide turns and healing begins.

Just listen to Diamond Unique’s story, and you’ll hear what a survivor sounds like. She’s put the past behind her and she’s ready to share her story with others, in hopes of inspiring others who find themselves in similar circumstances.

The name Diamond Unique is not the name she was given at birth, but it is the name she goes by as she pursues a career as an actor, podcaster and author.

She reached out to WIZS to tell her story, “to let everyone know that I am a living testimony.” By sharing her story on various social media platforms, this single mother said she wants others to know they aren’t alone in their struggles.

Diamond said she thanks God for delivering her from her abuser. “Without the Lord, I would be nothing,” she said on Tuesday’s TownTalk. As she lay in a hospital bed, with a concussion from that last attack, she said God sent her a message: “You have a message, get your voice out. Let people know the real meaning of domestic violence.”

And now she’s using Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Tik Tok to do just that. She said she’s got 20.8K Tik Tok followers, which she describes as “amazing…incredibly empowering.”

Domestic violence robs people of their self-love, their determination, Diamond said. “It makes you feel less than who you are,” she said. She felt like a nobody.

After she had gotten away from her abuser, she said “I could finally lift my head up and know that I was a person who made it through.”

She wants to send a message of empowerment to others through her acting and her video posts; she wants others who are suffering at the hands of abusers to know that there is more to life than their current situation.

Diamond is working on a book that chronicles her life and her experiences. The title is “Woman Behind the Bruises.” She doesn’t have a publication date yet, but she anticipates it will be out soon.

Find Diamond Unique on Facebook and Youtube; you’ll find her on Tik Tok and Instagram as Miss Pretty Ambitious.

Listen to the entire interview here.

Vance County Courthouse

eCourts Odyssey Roll Out

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UPDATE 4-30-24 Noon

Clerk Of Court Henry Gupton Said Day 1 Of ‘Odyssey’ Went Smoothly on WIZS Radio’s The Local Skinny!

The clerk of court staff put in a full day Sunday – 9 to 5 – to make sure the transition from paper to paperless went as smoothly as it possibly could, and Vance County Clerk of Superior Court Henry Gupton said he thought things went very well on Monday – Day 1 – of the online data management system.

Gupton said he was happy and proud of the court staff, and he predicted that things would smooth out as everyone gets used to the Enterprise Justice system, also called Odyssey. Odyssey replaces paper processes with online access uploads and transactions. Features include online citation and ticket payments, as well as a free search portal to display court records and case events.

“The system is slow, we’ve got to get used to it,” he said on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! “It’s going to be very beneficial,” Gupton added.

But for the next 10 weeks or so, it’s going to probably be a slog.

Most of the work will fall to the clerk’s office at first, he said. “If we all give it time and we’re all patient, we’ll be fine.”

Gupton said he’s going to take part in a meeting later this week to discuss equipment at the detention center that could be used to provide detainees a virtual first appearance, which could ease sheriff’s officers of the burden to transporting detainees to and from court.

**Previous update below as well as additional audio.

CLICK PLAY!

**UPDATE 4-29-24 Noon

Vance County is among 10 counties switching over to eCourts today, putting an end to paper files and transitioning to a cloud-hosted digital case management system.

The Enterprise Justice system, also called Odyssey, replaces paper processes with online access uploads and transactions. Features include online citation and ticket payments, as well as a free search portal to display court records and case events.

As Enterprise Justice expands statewide, millions more North Carolinians gain mobile access to their courthouse, saving time and providing transparency, according to information from the N.C. Office of the Administrative Courts.

Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin counties are in Track 4 of the statewide rollout. There are two more groups of counties to go live in 2024, and the process should be completed by the end of 2025.

But in an April 15 work session of county commissioners, Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame said he and other sheriffs across the state are less enthusiastic about the rollout.

“It’s going to slow down our court system,” Brame told commissioners. “Nobody likes it.” Brame said a typical court day in Vance County may have 300 names on the docket. Odyssey would reduce that number to 50, Brame said.

“Enterprise Justice has accepted over 600,000 electronic filings and supports tens of thousands of daily searches for digital court records in North Carolina’s largest population centers and five counties, jurisdictions serving nearly three million people,” said NCAOC Director Ryan Boyce.

Preparations and walkthroughs for each track of the eCourts transition begin months in advance to train court officials and the public on new technologies and processes, install improved network infrastructure in courthouses, customize programming integrations, and migrate case event data and court records from mainframe indexes and paper to a dynamic cloud-hosted platform.

In addition to electronic filing and records searches, the eCourts suite of applications also includes the already statewide eWarrants and Enforcement Mobile platforms, which integrate law enforcement processes with the court system, and Guide & File, a tool that helps self-represented users create and electronically file common legal actions through automated interviews. Statewide, more than 36,000 registered eWarrants users have issued 1.2 million criminal processes since the eCourts application for law enforcement replaced older systems in July 2022.

A large network of IT and software systems teams from NCAOC supports the eCourts transition through training, on-site assistance, remote monitoring and help desk response. Several eCourts platforms already operate statewide, including eWarrants, Enforcement Mobile, and a dual-form of Guide & File.

The NCAOC estimates that more than 2.3 million sheets of paper have been saved during the first two phases of eCourts by transitioning five counties to electronic filing and records access over a ten-month period. Historically, roughly 30 million pieces of paper were added to court files each year in North Carolina. The historic transition from paper court records to digital files is also shifting data storage from old mainframe technology to cloud hosting and storage, allowing NCAOC to retire outdated onsite application hosting and storage infrastructure while improving cybersecurity and online accessibility long-term.

TownTalk: AVID Equals Post-Secondary Readiness for VCS

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AVID is a program that’s been helping public school students unlock their potential for more than 40 years. Its longevity is a tribute in part to its effectiveness and in part to its response to the evolving needs of students.

The acronym stands for Achievement Via Individual Determination, and VCS AVID District Director Dr. Destiny Ross-Putney said today’s program focuses not just on college-bound students, but post-secondary pursuits that include work after high school.

Putney calls it “post-secondary readiness,” whether students are college-bound or head right into a career.

A typical AVID student is a student who has a GPA between 2.0 and 3.5. “It’s not for your typical high-flying student,” but rather for students who have the potential to be more successful with just a little bit more structured support in the classroom, Ross-Putney said.

“Some students are simply not interested in college,” she said, but AVID prepares students for life after high school graduation, whether it’s college or work. AVID teaches students how to be truly prepared to be active citizens in the community.

Three Vance County Schools have AVID programs – Vance County Middle School, Vance County High School and, new this year, Carver Elementary. There are about 70 middle school students at each grade level that participate in AVID, and there’s an elective class at the high school, Ross-Putney said. VCHS is a schoolwide AVID school, she added, which means that faculty use AVID techniques and strategies in their classrooms.

The third- and fifth graders at Carver are getting their first taste of AVID, Ross-Putney said. The plan is to introduce AVID in other elementary schools in the district.

The district also has professional development to share with teachers’ various AVID strategies, which include things like how to take good notes, create resumes, and effective interview techniques.

There’s a focus on writing with AVID, and teachers use the WICOR strategy to help students: WICOR stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading.

AVID helps students develop self-confidence and self-advocacy, she said. “I can see how confident students are,” when she visits AVID classrooms. “They are specifically taught how to have a discourse,” she said, which increase students’ “abilities to communicate as well as withstand rigorous course work.”

And AVID also keep track of students after graduation – it’s a built-in component of the program to check in one year and three years after graduation.

CLICK PLAY!

Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Growing Tomatoes

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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Kerr Tar Workforce and NCWorks

TownTalk: Kerr-Tar Regional Young Adult Hiring Event

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There’s a big show scheduled at Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre, but anyone who drives in will see that the feature isn’t the latest movie release from Hollywood but dozens of employers hoping to grab the attention of prospective employees.

The Kerr-Tar COG is hosting a young adult hiring event from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Apr. 30 at the drive-in theatre, 3336 Raleigh Road just outside Henderson.

And although the focus is on high school seniors who may be looking for work after graduation in a few short weeks, Desiree Brooks said anyone from the community is welcome to attend.

Brooks is business services manager for the KTCOG Workforce Development Board and she said that 40 employers from across the five-county KTCOG region will be on site to share information about available jobs at their respective businesses.

“There are some really cool jobs out there that you can make a career of,” Brooks said on Monday’s TownTalk. Young people often believe that they have to go to larger areas nearby to find work, she said. But the employers who will be at the upcoming hiring event are from right here in our region.

So far, more than 100 students have registered to attend and there’s still plenty of time to sign up, she said. KTCOG is working with the Career and Technical Education programs in the five counties’ school districts to promote the hiring event.

It’s a time when graduating seniors can “either secure employment, or at least identify what they want to do after graduation,” Brooks said.

Turning Point CDC’s Mobile Van will be on hand, and Kittrell Job Corps to share options for post-secondary education programs.

These days, manufacturers are using cutting-edge technology to make and deliver products, and those who attend the hiring event will get a chance to see some of this technology up close and personal – whether it’s heavy equipment from Sunrock to drones flying overhead as part of Vance-Granville Community College’s presentation.

It’s important for job seekers to understand that factory work has become more than just working on a production line, she said. “Advanced manufacturing involves robotics, welding and engineering – all of these things you could have a great career in,” Brooks said.

Wolfspeed is just one business that will be on site next week. It manufactures energy efficient power products for electric vehicles and has a facilities in Durham, among other cities in the state.

In addition to reps from the advanced manufacturing field, expect to see representatives from local, county and state government, banking, information technology and popular trades like HVAC and more.

Find the event on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ncworkskt or call the Career Center at 252.598.5200. Learn more about this program and more at www.ncworks.gov.

 

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Harrington Wanted for Murder

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— from Henderson Police

UPDATE 6 p.m. Friday, April 26:

Police remind you to contact law enforcement if you have any information about this incident or the whereabouts of Antarious Tebron Harrington.

UPDATE 2 p.m. Monday, April 22:

On April 15, 2024 at approximately 9:30 p.m., a shooting occurred during an altercation at 1800 Julia Avenue. The victim, Tyquel M. Alston, age 24 of Daffodil Drive, was shot in the yard of the home by the assailant at close proximity.

Alston was transported to an area medical facility where he has succumbed to his injury. Investigators of the Henderson Police Department worked diligently on the case and warrants have now been obtained for the arrest of Antarious Tebron Harrington, age 28 of Barclay Lane, for the murder of Tyquel Alston. Harrington is currently out on pre-trial release for felony drug charges.

If anyone has any information about this incident or the whereabouts of Antarious Tebron Harrington, please contact us through following: Henderson-Vance Crime Stoppers at (252- 492-1925 or P3 app), Henderson Police Department’s main number 252-438-4141, Facebook or Instagram, or just call 911.

SportsTalk: Thomas Works At Rebuilding JF Webb Sports

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During his first year as athletic director for J.F. Webb High School, Keith Thomas has certainly faced some challenges.  The school was unable to field a baseball team this season due to a lack of players but Thomas is hopeful this will change.  “We have a JV team this year and next year those kids can move up,” Thomas said on Thursday’s SportsTalk.

Building J.F. Webb’s programs back up is all about relationships Thomas said. “Community outreach and putting a good product on the field will help us build relationships,” Thomas added. “We want to win but win the right way,” he continued.

The track team is doing well this season.  “I like our kids.  They have a positive attitude,” Thomas said.  He was with the track team in Louisburg for a meet on Thursday.

Softball is also on its way back after two years without a team and the numbers are growing.  Football is also bringing in more student athletes as well.  Thomas was an assistant football coach with the Warriors before taking over as athletic director.  This is Thomas’ first AD job and he says it has been an interesting learning experience.  “I’ve picked up a lot on the fly,” Thomas said of his first year.