ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at Noon - January 22, 2026

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Eyewitness News at Noon - January 22, 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watch Lauren Johnson tonight on ABC 11. I Witness News. Welcome back to I Witness News at noon. And new this noon, Durham Public Schools holding a press conference addressing indictments against three staffers accused of not being fully forthcoming surrounding an investigation into child abuse. Yeah, this stems from a November 2024 incident at Eno Valley Elementary involving a six-year-old girl with autism, allegedly tied to a chair by an educator. ABC 11's Michael Perchuk has been covering this story. and he's joining us live from DPS headquarters. So Michael, what's the superintendent saying during his remarks? Yeah, Dr. Anthony Lewis highlighting the importance of students' safety, adding they reviewing their internal processes,

including how they log and store legal files and instituting mandatory retraining for principles. Essentially, authorities claim the trio of staffers to varying degrees. We're misleading in their statements, including the timeline of when and how they learned of this troubling allegation at Eno Valley Elementary. Dr. Tanya Giovanni, the deputy superintendent of administrative legal and compliance services facing five counts of felony obstruction of justice. Aisha Hunter, Senior Executive Director of Employee Relations, facing six counts of felony obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury. And Dr. Tanya Wright, who have been serving as principal at Eno Valley Elementary, facing three counts of felony obstruction of justice and one count of perjury.

All three now suspended with PA as DPS conducts an internal investigation led by an outside law firm. When we're talking about the safety, the well-being of our scholars, there's only one path forward. And that is, we must act with urgency and we must cooperate fully. And if we fail to do that, we must indeed hold people accountable. Lewis says the two employees in the classroom during the alleged incident ultimately resigned. ABC 11 has made attempts to reach all three. staffers indicted this week but have not been able to do so. The Durham Association of Educators tells ABC 11 it does not have a comment on this matter. Again, it is important to stress the

trio of staffers are not accused of or charged with child abuse. This relates solely to their alleged conduct following that apparent incident over at Eno Valley Elementary in November of 2024. I'm Michael Perchick, ABC 11, eyewitness news. All right, Michael, thank you. Switching gears here, this year's Oscar nominations announced today and Senators is leading the field with a staggering amount of nominations. That's so we new at 1230. And the critical meeting happening tonight to discuss the future of a data center in Apex. And Buddhist monks on a mission are cameras capturing them as they continue their peace walk across the U.S. now traveling through North Carolina what the governor has said about them as we approach the impending storm.

Let's coming up after this. Happening today, a controversial new data center will be back in the spotlight in Apex. The Town Council and Planning Commission holding a joint meeting to discuss the proposed site near Old U.S. 1 and Sharon Harris Road. Town leaders will review a report on the impacts, including land use, energy and water consumption, noise, traffic, and public health and safety. Today's meeting starts at 3.30 at Apex Town Hall. And new at noon, the Buddhist monks that have captured the nation are now walking thousands of miles to promote peace, and they're making their way through Chatham County today. The monks walking from Silor City to Pittsburgh today.

I mean, as he's catching up with this group this morning as they continue their 2,000-plus-mile journey to help unite what they describe as a divided world. The Monks' Walk for Peace began in Texas and will end in Washington, D.C. They're expected to be in Raleigh this weekend. Of course, during the governor's press conference, Kuala, and somebody did ask him about them, and he said, we're not telling them what to do. We're bummed. A lot of people are bummed that they were excited to have them in Raleigh. But because of everything going on, and this is going to affect most of not all of the state.

they're going to have to make a decision about what they're going to do and it's going to be rough out. It is going to be rough. It's going to be cold and it's going to be dangerous out there on the roads as well as they're walking. So we definitely want to figure out how we can keep them warm and safe in this scenario. Listen, we're not alone. Over 200 million people impacted by this system, which is going to cross the country. There are the watches, warnings, alerts and play all the way from the plain states down to the Gulf South. This storm system is still out west, but the impacts begin Friday for the desert southwest, crossing the country and we're going to load up on impacts with the cold air starting Saturday morning but with the precept by Saturday afternoon. Your first alert that the winter storm

watch continues for us Saturday afternoon through Monday afternoon for heavy mixed precept. We're talking dangerous road conditions out there, power outages because of the ice accumulating. You should generally take this as an ice storm. We're keeping that impact scale at a level four or five for this system as those travel concerns continue to build along with power outages, still great agreement on our models as far as consensus goes. The euro starts that warming trend, though, into Sunday. So areas south in the sand hills could finish up with a bit of rainfall as this event comes to an end. But that will be it for a short time.

The ice potential is the big concern. We're talking possibly around one half of an inch with isolated higher accrual possible in the triangle in north, up to around a quarter of an inch for areas in the sand hills too. The power outage possibilities just continued to increase for the area. In terms of snow, this is not our event. You will get some snow, though, if you're north around the state line. So parts of Warren County, Granville, Vance, Person, Mecklenburg County, Virginia. You could see around two to three inches of snowfall.

And I'm not saying we won't see any snow in the triangle. I think we'll start off with an onset of snow, but that quickly changes over to sleep towards the evening hours. For this system, we knew that the low pressure was going to be the key in its positioning for the type of precept we could see. And unfortunately, with this setup, the low pressure is going to be closer to the coast. So with that low, that means the temperature in the middle layers of the atmosphere will be above freezing. That's the warm nose that comes into play.

So this is Friday morning before the Arctic front comes in. The Salmon Pink represents temperatures above freezing in the mid layers. You can see we're covered with that setup. But then once the Arctic front moves through, that shifts to the south. But it lifts back to the north as the low pressure moves towards the coast into Saturday. And that mixes up the precip level. So ice is the concern when you have ice up to a quarter. of an inch trees and power lines are coated, slick rows develop, but we're going to have more

than that, so the impacts will be greater for us. What we're seeing right now with showers, not associated with the winter storm system. There's a cold front working through, but it's not going to cool this down today. We'll have some spotty rain possible. Highs near 60. We'll be in the upper 30s and the 40s tonight with spotty showers ongoing tomorrow morning. Now here we are Friday afternoon. We're looking at some spotty rain. Here's the Arctic front rolling in. We get into Saturday morning hours still dry noon as well as we start heading towards 5 o'clock, the onset snow and sleet. And then as we progress through the evening and night, sleet and freezing rain become the mainstay for us. And that's going to be continuing through

Sunday as well. Here's that transition to some showers late Sunday night for the sand hills, but everyone else freezing rain concerns. Here's a live look into downtown. We have temperatures 50s and 60s. Hard to believe a winter storm is coming our way with our current setup. Possibility of some concerns as we head into the start of next week. We will see some melting. So we'll get some help Tuesday afternoon with highs in the upper 30s and sun, but we freeze again Tuesday night. We melt again Wednesday afternoon, but unfortunately we will drop to the 20s, and that means more freezing concerns. And next week, just downright frigid, high temperatures, barely above freezing into the latter half of next week. Back to you.

Yeah, so hunker down is what Kualan is saying. The winter storm will bring some extremely cold temps as Kualan was just showing you knew at 1230, what you can do to avoid major sticker shock when the bills come in the mail. Facing possible deployment where troops from Fort Braggs could be sent if President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act. That story, two minutes away. Happening today, Vice President J.D. Vance will visit Minnesota, where his office says he will focus on, quote, restoring law and order. Vance is set to meet with immigration customs and enforcement agents praising their work while criticizing Minneapolis's sanctuary city policies. And it comes as Tensions continue between federal agents and protesters after the deadly shooting of Renee Good.

Happening now, the Pentagon placing hundreds of Fort Bragg military police on alert for a potential deployment to Minnesota. According to two U.S. officials, the preparations are tied to the possibility that President Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law, allowing the president to deploy federal troops to American soil. The soldiers are assigned to the Army's 16th military police brigade under the 18th Airborne Corps. Right now, North Carolina is under a winter storm watch. Starting Saturday, please do everything you can to stay off the roads. Governor Josh Stein warning North Carolinians to get ready now for the storm this weekend and to be prepared in case the power goes out. ABC 11 Together viewers answer the call for help just ahead. The turnout for our 6th annual ABC 11 Together Blood Drive.