This weekend, in Donald Trump:

*The Republican presidential candidate criticized the grieving parents of a United States soldier who gave his life for our country.

*He said Russia wouldn’t attempt to move into the Ukraine, even though it has already seized the country’s Crimean Peninsula.

*A bunch of nude photos of his wife, Melania, surfaced in the New York Post.

OK, then! Your local Monday news:

1. HB 2 goes to court. From the News & Observer:

As legal bills for the governor and legislators defending House Bill 2 climb above $176,000, lawyers arguing for and against the controversial law will step into a federal courtroom on Monday to begin a judicial process of great interest to people outside this state.

North Carolina has been an epicenter of the national debate over transgender rights since Charlotte adopted its ordinance barring discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and the state responded by adopting HB2 to overturn the city’s ordinance.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder will hold a hearing in federal court in Winston-Salem on a request from the first challengers of HB2 to block the law until they can make their case at trial.

The U.S. Justice Department has made a similar request in a lawsuit that in many ways mirrors the arguments brought by the first challengers – three transgender residents, a lesbian law professor at N.C. Central University and a lesbian couple in Charlotte.

The N&O says that it “is unclear whether Schroeder, a George W. Bush appointee, will make a decision from the bench on Monday. In recent cases, such as the challenge of the 2013 elections law overhaul, Schroeder often has listened to both sides and issued a ruling after pondering the arguments for days or weeks.”

Schroeder, notably, is the same judge who ruled in April that the state’s 2013 voter ID law was constitutional. That decision was overturned by a higher court this past Friday.

2. Airman shot in Goldsboro. An active-duty Air Force Base airman was killed early Sunday morning outside a bar in Goldsboro. From WRAL:

Officers with the Goldsboro Police Department responded to the 100 block of North Center Street around 2:30 a.m. and found 32-year-old Ryan Apollo Morgan suffering from gunshot wounds.

According to investigators, Morgan was shot near his truck in a parking lot near the Rail House Bar & Grill. The events that led up to the shooting are still unknown.

According to a technical sergeant at the base, Morgan was from Alabama and had been stationed at Seymour Johnson since 2013. He joined the Air Force in 2009.

Morgan did three tours in Iraq, his brother told ABC 11.

3. Wild horses. Up in Rougemont, two horses broke free from wherever they were being held and were killed in traffic early Sunday morning, TWC reports:

Authorities say it happened about 5 a.m. in the southbound lane of U.S. Highway 501 near Bacon Road.

When officials arrived, they found both horses severely injured and had to put the animals down.

The driver was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

ABC 11 reports that no charges will be filed, and it’s unclear where the horses came from.

4. Big drug bust in Hillsborough. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit on Friday night “seized 82 kilos of suspected cocaine and two kilos of suspected heroin, along with a firearm” at 511 West Hill Avenue Lot B10 in Hillsborough. More from Chapelboro:

Carlos Salazar, Edi Daniel Salazar-Jiminez, Miguel Angel Robles-Puentes and Jose DeJesus Villanueva-Miranda were arrested and charged with trafficking more than 400 grams of cocaine and trafficking more than 28 grams of heroin.

The four suspects are being held in the Orange County jail under a $500,000 secured bond, the site reports.

5. The Fayetteville Observer has been sold. The oldest newspaper in North Carolina, and one of the largest family-owned papers in the country, was bought last week by GateHouse Media, a national conglomerate. (In North Carolina, the company also owns the dailies in Wilmington, Jacksonville, and Kinston.) Poynter reports GateHouse paid $18 million for the Observer.

It may be slightly cooler this week. It is now August. Good day to you.