🗞️ From streetcars to school buses: a Triad maker turns 110

🗞️ Winston-Salem's youth curfew is now in effect. Here is how it works.

🗞️ Forsyth deputies are searching for a missing Clemmons teenager

🗞️ Lexington wants to become a fire-training hub for the Piedmont

🌡 Mostly sunny and warm | High: 86°F | Low: 64°F

A pleasant, mostly sunny Tuesday with a high near 86 and lower humidity. A nice break before the heat builds again later in the week.

The Triad is known for furniture, textiles and tobacco, but you can add the humble yellow school bus to that list. Thomas Built Buses, now based in Archdale, traces its roots back 110 years to 1916, when founder Perley A. Thomas lost his job as chief engineer at a High Point streetcar company that closed. Within weeks he opened his own shop with a group of former coworkers and became one of the country's top streetcar makers.

The company did not build its first bus until 1936, when North Carolina sought bids for 500 all-wooden school buses and Thomas won the contract for 200 of them. "It only took them two years to realize that they needed to be made of steel and not wood," company spokesman Chris Foster said. The firm officially became Thomas Built Buses in 1972 and is now a subsidiary of Daimler's Freightliner.

Today the Archdale and High Point plants turn out roughly 10,000 buses a year, up to 40 on a good day, with robot welders framing the shells and automated sprayers laying down that famous coat of school-bus yellow. The company also builds electric buses, which Foster says are a natural fit for fixed daily routes. The tell is the badge: "If you pass a bus in Guilford County and it has the blue badge, you know that's an EV."

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Winston-Salem has a new temporary youth curfew, effective Monday, June 22, after the City Council gave final approval. Under the "Youth Protection" ordinance, anyone 17 and under cannot be in public places from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day. The rule is set to expire Oct. 12, and the city says it is meant to curb late-night "disruptive behavior" and protect kids from being exposed to crime.

There are plenty of exceptions. A young person can still be out if they are with a parent or guardian, going to or from a job, responding to an emergency, traveling to or from a supervised school or religious or recreational activity, exercising First Amendment rights, or enrolled in college. Police say their focus will be on taking kids home, issuing warnings and referring families to a Youth Diversion Program rather than making arrests.

Adults can be held responsible too, facing fines up to $500 or misdemeanor charges if they knowingly let a minor violate the curfew. Mayor Allen Joines framed it as prevention, not punishment, and District Attorney Jim O'Neill renewed his push for the rule after two teens were killed in an April shooting at Leinbach Park. Kernersville has no such curfew, but plenty of local families spend time in Winston-Salem, so it is worth knowing the hours.

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The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help finding a missing teenager from Clemmons. Cameron Allman, 17, was last seen near the 3000 block of Turnstone Court, deputies said. He is described as a white male, about 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair.

When he was last seen, Allman was wearing black sweatpants, a maroon "Hocus Pocus" shirt, a gray zip-up and a silver hoop earring. Deputies said he may be riding a gray or silver bicycle with a brown leather seat.

Anyone with information about where Allman might be is asked to call the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office at 336-727-2112. A quick share from a neighbor can make a real difference in cases like this.

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Just down U.S. 52 from Kernersville, the city of Lexington is working on a project that could benefit firefighters across the region. City leaders are negotiating to buy 62 acres on the south side of town for a new emergency services campus, one that would include a fire-training complex serving fire departments from around the Piedmont.

City Manager Johnnie Taylor said the facility is envisioned as a modern, consolidated space that would bring multiple public safety functions together under one roof. The goal is better coordination among agencies and more efficient operations over the long term.

For Kernersville and other nearby towns, a regional training center could mean more local options for keeping firefighters sharp without long drives to distant facilities. The deal is still in the negotiation stage, so the timeline and final details are not set, but it is a sign of how Piedmont communities are planning together for public safety.

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