Immigrants welcomed to work in North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA, CHARLOTTE, (AP):

North Carolina's biggest city is looking at ways to boost growth by attracting new immigrants to the United States, a move some complain would welcome people living in the country illegally.

The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/1nASJ4k ) the city council created a group last fall to study what other cities are doing to encourage immigrants to start businesses and get involved in civic life. The task force includes economists, school leaders, law-enforcement officers and business representatives. The head of a North Carolina group demanding tougher enforcement of immigration laws says Charlotte officials seem as eager to entice people in the country illegally as legal residents. Ron Woodard of NC Listen says the public doesn't want illegal immigration embraced.

- AP

Controversy over Bible verse T-shirt

WEST VIRGINIA, (AP):

Wood County school officials have asked their lawyers to review a wrestling team's T-shirts that bear a Bible verse on the back.

Superintendent Pat Law tells media outlets that the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation complained about the Parkersburg South High School team's T-shirts to school officials.

The verse states, "I can do all things through Him that strengthens me."

Law says the group's complaint alleges that the shirts violate the federal separation of church and state.

Law says school officials don't want to infringe on anyone's right to practice their religion. But he says courts repeatedly have said public institutions such as schools can't promote a religion.

Attorney Bill Merriman represents one of the wrestlers and his parents. He says wrestlers' parents bought the T-shirts.