The most-recent figures released Monday afternoon by Burke County health officials show Burke currently has 90 positive COVID-19 cases.

A previous news release from last week indicates more than 75-percent of Burke’s total comes from those associated with local long term care facilities.

Published reports say state health officials are due to release details on the locations of dozens of nursing homes and other living facilities with virus outbreaks across the state.

The state department of health and human services planned release of outbreak locations follows new guidance the agency issued to county health departments by email Sunday night.

9-thousand-142 people across NC have tested positive for the virus, while 306 have died from COVID-19.

District Attorney Scott Reilly and associates appeared before the Catawba County Board of Commissioners last week to request permission to submit a grant application to the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

If approved, the grant will monetarily assist in establishing a Veteran’s Treatment Court.

Reilly told commissioners there are almost 10-thousand veterans in Catawba County; adding that veterans interactions within the criminal justice system can be best addressed by a specialized court trained to recognize and consider their unique experiences.

The total potential grant funding is 500-thousand dollars over three years and would be used for court staff, operating costs, equipment expenses, program materials, drug testing and specialized training.

Catawba commissioners unanimously approved Reilly’s request to submit the grant application.

Catawba will be the fifth county in the state to have a treatment court for veterans.

The court will begin in January 2021.

Two Morganton residents are arrested on felony theft charges.

41-year-old Jennifer Brooke Laws and 34-year-old Douglas Herman Saunders both of 4670 Crystal Creek Road were charged after Burke deputies located a pair of stolen trucks loaded with 30-thousand-dollars worth of stolen furniture parked at their home last Friday.

A news release states the theft had occurred earlier in the day from 1185 Drexel Road.

Upon officers arrival, Laws fled on foot and was located hiding under a shed’s crawlspace at a neighbor’s house minutes later.

Reports say Saunders fled into his home’s crawlspace and entered the mobile home through a hole cut out in the home’s floor.

Refusing to come out of the residence, negotiators worked with Saunders by phone; convincing him to surrender just prior to the arrival of a SWAT team nearly three hours after the incident began.

A K-9 further searched the home, but did not locate any other subjects.

Laws and Saunders were both charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

Laws was additionally charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle and felony larceny.

Laws bond was set at 50-thousand dollars secured; while Saunders was 30-thousand dollars secured.

Along with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Glen Alpine Police and Burke EMS assisted at the scene.

A Marion man faces meth charges after his arrest last month.

McDowell deputies were called to Cane Creek Road to a reported suspicious man asleep inside a car while parked in a residential driveway.

Officers located 44-year-old Stephen Joseph Obar the second of Linville Hollow Drive.

A search of his person turned up 1-point-2 grams of meth.

Alexander County authorities arrest a Granite Falls man with a sex offense.

47-year-old Shane Dula is charged with felony first-degree statutory sex offense and felony indecent liberties with a minor according to a press release.

His bond was set at 1-point-1 million dollars.

An investigation continues.