Federal jurors convicted a Chapel Hill couple in a sweeping union corruption case after prosecutors said union dues were used to bankroll no-show jobs, luxury travel and expensive meals instead of serving workers.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Newton Jones, 72, former president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, and his wife, Kateryna Jones, 33, were convicted June 5 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. William Creeden, the union’s former secretary-treasurer, was convicted of racketeering, while former vice president Lawrence McManamon was convicted of embezzlement.

Prosecutors said the scheme involved theft of members’ dues through elaborate foreign trips, personal shopping and dinners, unearned vacation payouts, health care fraud and an unauthorized $7 million loan to a union-related bank. Trial evidence showed the union spent more than $5 million on unnecessary luxury international travel and paid nearly $1.8 million to Kateryna Jones for a job in which she performed little to no work, DOJ said.

The case has a direct North Carolina tie. The News & Observer reported the Chapel Hill couple charged more than $160,000 in date-night meals to the union. The outlet reported a federal judge is scheduled to sentence the defendants Sept. 1.

The convictions followed a 2024 indictment accusing seven defendants, including current and former union officials, of participating in what prosecutors described as a 15-year, $20 million embezzlement scheme.

The Boilermakers Union said it supports the verdict and cooperated with the government. The union said its Executive Council has made structural and governance changes to prevent similar misconduct.

Newton Jones, Kateryna Jones and Creeden each face up to 20 years in prison, while McManamon faces up to five years on each count. A federal judge will determine sentences under federal guidelines.

The Trump administration’s Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation this month into Cabarrus County Schools after reports alleging the North Carolina district allowed males into girls-only bathrooms and locker rooms.

The Department’s Office for Civil Rights said the Title IX investigation will examine whether Cabarrus County Schools violated federal sex-discrimination protections by allowing males in girls-only intimate facilities. Federal officials alleged multiple female students reported being required to change in the presence of males and said their concerns were ignored or dismissed.

Cabarrus County Schools said it is cooperating with the investigation and remains “committed to providing a safe, respectful, and legally compliant learning environment for all students,” WBTV reported. The district said it is limited in what it can say about allegations while the Office for Civil Rights process continues.

The investigation follows months of debate over transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker rooms, according to The Charlotte Observer. The outlet reported officials have said the district handles accommodations case by case while trying to comply with federal law and court rulings.

The district’s own nondiscrimination policy says Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities and lists compliance officials.

The probe comes as the Trump administration pushes to restore Title IX enforcement around biological sex, a sharp reversal from the Biden administration’s approach. The Education Department has not announced public findings yet, but the investigation puts Cabarrus County at the center of a national fight over privacy, civil rights and transgender student policies.

Several months after a Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train in a killing that shocked the nation, the man charged with her murder may never face trial.

On April 7, the public defender’s office filed a motion revealing that Decarlos Brown Jr. was found “incapable to proceed” following a December mental health evaluation at Central Regional Hospital, a North Carolina state psychiatric facility. The evaluation determined Brown lacks the mental capacity to stand trial in the murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska.

A judge must still formally accept the evaluation’s findings. If the court determines Brown’s mental capacity has been restored, proceedings could resume. But if the judge rules Brown is permanently incapable of standing trial, the charges could be dismissed entirely — leaving Zarutska’s family without the criminal accountability they have waited nearly two years to see.

The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office agreed to delay by 180 days a hearing on whether to seek the death penalty in the case.

Zarutska, 23, was a Ukrainian refugee who had come to the United States seeking safety from war. On the night of August 22, 2024, she boarded a Charlotte Area Transit System light rail train at 9:46 p.m. and sat down in front of Brown. Four minutes later, surveillance cameras captured Brown allegedly stabbing her to death. Brown later claimed he acted because Zarutska was reading his mind.

The graphic video of the attack spread widely, capturing national attention and drawing a response from President Donald Trump. The case became a flashpoint in broader debates about public safety on transit systems and the consequences of inadequate mental health intervention before violence occurs.

Brown’s legal jeopardy extends beyond state court. He was indicted in October on federal charges of violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death, and is currently held at a federal prison in Illinois. A separate mental health evaluation is also underway in the federal case.

Should Brown ultimately be found competent to stand trial, he could face the death penalty — both on the state murder charge and potentially under federal statutes, further complicated by a 2015 armed robbery conviction.

Legal experts warn that North Carolina’s psychiatric facilities have severely limited capacity, with some defendants waiting more than a year for a bed to open. That bottleneck means Brown could sit in legal limbo indefinitely — neither tried nor treated — while Zarutska’s family waits for a justice system that appears increasingly unlikely to deliver a verdict.

For a woman who fled one of the world’s most brutal conflicts only to be murdered on a commuter train, the prospect of her killer avoiding trial entirely is a failure that demands accountability — from the courts, from the mental health system, and from the public officials responsible for both.