In Other News: As UNC chancellor says she’ll resign, she OKs removal of the remains of ‘Silent Sam’ Confederate statue; alien-looking, gigantic rotating ice disk forms in Maine river

Published 2:52 pm Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by the Daily Citizen-News staff. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. To suggest a story, email the appropriate link to inothernews@dailycitizen.news. 

As UNC chancellor says she’ll resign, she OKs the removal of the remains of ‘Silent Sam’ Confederate statue

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has moved the base of its “Silent Sam” Confederate monument into storage, hours after the university’s chancellor announced she authorized the removal and intends to resign. The monument’s base and commemorative plaques — the subject of intense recent debate as part of a larger national conversation about the purpose of and need for Confederate monuments — were removed late Monday or early Tuesday from the campus’ upper quad and put into an undisclosed “secure location,” the university said. — CNN

Federal judge bars Trump administration from adding citizenship question to 2020 census

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday barred the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that while a question on citizenship would be constitutional, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had added it arbitrarily and did not follow proper procedure. The ruling comes after a three-week trial in November. “Secretary Ross’ decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census — even if it did not violate the Constitution itself — was unlawful for a multitude of independent reasons and must be set aside,” he wrote. — Fox News

Alien-looking, gigantic rotating ice disk forms in Maine river

A colossal disk of ice that looked like something out of this world formed on a river in Maine earlier this week. The city of Westbrook, Maine, shared amazing images of a giant frozen disk that formed on the Presumpscot River. According to the Press Herald, a web developer whose company has an office overlooking the river where the disk formed estimates the disk as being 300 feet in diameter and rotating counterclockwise. “It kind of looks like a crop circle,” Doug Bertlesman, the web developer, told the Press Herald. “It’s pretty wild to look at.” — Fox News

Even if the shutdown ends today, the IRS may not issue you a timely tax refund

This already was going to be a challenging year to fill out your federal tax returns after major tax-law changes took effect in 2018. Then the political dispute over the U.S.-Mexico border wall sent most Internal Revenue Service workers home last month. Now, with the government partially shut down as tax-filing season approaches Jan. 28, there’s growing concern about whether a skeletal staff of IRS employees can handle the workload. — The Los Angeles Times