New laws to better track purchases of meth ingredients and help ex-offenders avoid repeating their crimes will make North Carolina safer, Attorney General Roy Cooper said.

House Bill 12 and House Bill 641 were both signed into law Friday, June 24, by Governor Bev Perdue.

AG concerned that recent budget cuts could reverse trend

Reports of crime across North Carolina fell by 5.6 percent while violent crime dropped by 10.2 percent in 2010, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Tuesday. It’s the lowest crime rate for North Carolina since 1977 and includes the lowest murder rate since North Carolina began collecting statewide crime statistics in 1973.

While the Attorney General lauded the drop in crime, he warned that future success will be more difficult due to recent budget cuts to law enforcement personnel and equipment.

This summer the Western North Carolina Alliance (WNC A) will be continuing the Muddy Water Watch by monitoring logging operations, eroding roads, trails, campsites, and off road vehicle areas. Problems with these areas can add pollution to critical cold-water streams. More than 20 percent of the French Broad Watershed is in the National Forest, so WNCA members say this work is important to ensure protection of these headwater streams.

Onsite training will be offered to review forest best management practices so that volunteers will be prepared to identify sources of sediment pollution.

$15,000 will fund two new trails for ‘Kids in Parks’ initiative

U.S. Representative Heath Shuler has announced that the Blue Ridge Parkway has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the National Park Foundation for the addition of two TRACK trails, part of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s “Kids in Parks” initiative. The goal of the TRACK trail program is to encourage children and their families to explore the outdoors through a series of brochure-led, self-guided activities.