A Morganton man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday, at federal court in Asheville. According to the US Attorney's Office WNC District, 21-year-old Justin Sullivan will spend the rest of his life in federal prison. Official documents reveal Sullivan intended to carry out a mass casualty attack on behalf of the terrorist group ISIS two years ago. Official documents reportedly say Sullivan was conspiring with an ISIS member as authorities were able to retrieve a text conservation from his phone. Reports say during the sentencing, the Court found Sullivan's activities were an act of terrorism and found Sullivan's offense cold and calculating. The state will now proceed with Sullivan's murder case in the 2014 killing of 74-year-old John Bailey Clark of Morganton. State prosecutors, reports say, will seek the death penalty.

Nearly 150 tires have been removed from the Linville Gorge. Some 85 volunteers worked over 1800 hours to remove the tires which washed down into the Gorge from a business north of the area during a flood in the 1970's. Since that time, the tires have been a common sight along the Linville River. Volunteers have spent over a year carrying tires one by one for miles through the Gorge in relays to the Wilderness boundaries. They were carried over private land to a point accessible by a truck provided by the US Forest Service, where they were taken to a recycling center.

Sex charges are filed on a Burke County man. Deputies with the Burke County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a residence earlier this month, after receiving a report that a man was secretly video recording an underage minor who was attempting to bathe and was in the state of undress. On Tuesday, the Sheriff's Office reported the arrest of 56-year-old James Ward Moody of Morganton. He was charged with First Degree Exploitation of a Minor, Secret Peeping and Indecent Liberties. Bond was set at $50,000 secured.