Thursday News and Sports

Linwood Williams has had the interim tag taken off of his title, as the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank School Board voted Wednesday to elevate him to the superintendent’s job. Williams had been the acting superintendent since January, after Dr. Tony Stewart was hospitalized for double pneumonia. Stewart died in his sleep last month. Williams has worked for the school system since 1982, including the last six as assistant superintendent.

A US Senate committee has voted against a provision in a Defense spending bill that would have blocked a practice jet landing field from being built in the area. The provision, which specifically named Hales Lake in Camden and Sand Banks in Gates, matched one approved in the House version of the military spending package last month. Senator Richard Burr will now likely introduce the amendment on the floor of the full Senate later this month. The two sites, and three in Virginia, are being studied by the Navy as possible locations for an outlying landing field, or OLF.

Two tractor trailers were involved in a crash that shut down Highway 168 for most of the day in northern Currituck County. The driver of an empty freezer truck changed lanes while heading northbound and struck a beer truck next to him just north of the Highway 34 intersection in Sligo. The beer truck overturned, with both coming to rest in the southbound lanes. Both drivers were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and the driver of the ice truck has been charged with unsafe movement.

The local telephone company will have a new name by the end of the year. Embarq announced Wednesday it has completed a merger with CenturyTel to form CenturyLink. The new company, which has customers in 33 states, plans to keep a regional headquarters in Wake Forest. No date has been announced for the name change however.

The North Carolina Education Lottery has exceeded its moneymaking projections for another year. The lottery announced Wednesday it transferred almost $411 million to a special education fund from revenues generated during the fiscal year that ended Tuesday. That's more than the $385 million that lawmakers had been told to expect from the games.

President Obama signed a bill Tuesday that officially names the Federal Courthouse in downtown Elizabeth City for retired Superior Court judge and former District Attorney J. Herbert Small. Small also served as a county attorney and special counsel to a Congressional committee, then was elected to three terms as District Attorney before serving as a Superior Court judge for 17 years before his retirement in 1998.

COLLEGE SPORTS
North Carolina has signed a new 10-year, $37.7 million contract with Nike, with the majority coming in the form of apparel and equipment for the school's 28 sports teams, and also includes individual deals for each of the athletic department’s 19 head coaches. The Tar Heels also finished 2nd to Stanford in the Learfield Sports Directors Cup, which is awarded to the school with best overall finish in a maximum of 10 men’s and 10 women’s sports for the academic year. UNC won in 1993-94, the last time a school other than Stanford won.

COASTAL PLAIN LEAGUE
Outer Banks 6 Petersburg 3
Edenton 7 Peninsula 6, suspended in 4th, resume July 17th as part of doubleheader

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 5, Tampa Bay 0
Boston 6, Baltimore 5, 11 innings
Minnesota 5, Kansas City 1
Oakland 5, Detroit 1
Chicago White Sox 6, Cleveland 2
N.Y. Yankees 4, Seattle 2
Texas 9, L.A. Angels 7

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Florida 5, Washington 3
N.Y. Mets 1, Milwaukee 0
L.A. Dodgers 1, Colorado 0
Chicago Cubs 4, Pittsburgh 1
Cincinnati 1, Arizona 0
Atlanta 11, Philadelphia 1
St. Louis 2, San Francisco 1, 10 innings
Houston 7, San Diego 1

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE
Norfolk begins 2-game home stand with Gwinnett tonight at Harbor Park

TENNISThe women's semifinals highlight today's Wimbledon schedule after Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and Tommy Haas advanced to the men's semis yesterday. Today's schedule has top-ranked Dinara Safina facing third seed Venus Williams after No. 2 Serena Williams battles No. 4 Elena Dementieva.

GOLF
Tiger’s tournament, AT&T National at Congressional in Bethesda, MD tees off today.

NASCAR
Jeremy Mayfield is free to drive again after a judge lifted the suspension imposed by NASCAR. The judge ruled the harm to Mayfield significantly outweighs any harm to NASCAR. He was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR May 9 after testing positive for methamphetamines eight days earlier.

Nationwide and Sprint Cup series are at Daytona Friday and Saturday, Trucks are off.

NHL
The Carolina Hurricanes are keeping Erik Cole with a two-year deal. He and the Hurricanes agreed to a contract Wednesday that will pay him $2.8 million this upcoming season and $3 million in 2010-11. Cole became the second player to re-sign with Carolina this week. Jussi Jokinen previously signed on for two years.