Former Lumberton football standout, NFL veteran and local businessman L. Donnell Thompson speaks to a crowd of local service organizations Tuesday in Lumberton. Thompson, a 1981 first-round draft pick, played professional football for the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts for 10 years before retiring to become a franchisee of fast food and hotel properties. He credited his success to influential teachers and community leaders in high school, college and professional sports. He said he learned early on that to succeed “you do what you are trained to do and do it better than anyone else.”

LUMBERTON — Robeson County drivers saw average gas prices retreat a bit during the last week, dropping to just a little more than $3 per gallon.

LUMBERTON —More than $300,000 in grant funding will make its way to the Robeson County Housing Authority.

PEMBROKE —The Pembroke-based health care service provider HealthKeeperz, is handing its home health division over to the nonprofit BAYADA Home Health Care with the goal of bettering its remaining services.

LUMBERTON — Following fire and freeze warnings Robeson County’s skies on March 21 were blue and and mostly devoid of clouds. Compared to earlier in the year the wind seems to have died down, with the National Weather Service predicting calm wind on Wednesday and describing Friday as breezy.

ASSAULT: The following assaults were reported recently to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office: Spruce Street, Proctorville; Moores Lane, Lumberton; Ridgefield Drive, Lumberton; Highway 72 West, Lumberton.

LUMBERTON — Robeson Community College welcomed many 9-1-1 telecommunicators to its campus recently for the NENA Center Manager Certification Program Conference.

PEMBROKE — The University of North Carolina at Pembroke earned a second-place finish and won $7,000 in the Collegiate Hunger Challenge designed to address food insecurity on and around college campuses.

RALEIGH — On March 14, the North Carolina Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 189, “Fentanyl Drug Offenses and Related Changes.” The bill was filed in response to the growing number of tragedies being caused by the overdose epidemic in North Carolina.