Man traveling for transplant passes away

A West Virginia man traveling to Texas for an artificial lung transplant has died in a crash in North Carolina. Media outlets report 56-year-old John Michael Newman of Beckley, West Virginia, died Wednesday in the two-vehicle accident on U.S. 74 near Kings Mountain. North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper L.T. Randall says Newman was a passenger in the SUV driven by his relative when it was rear-ended by a pickup truck while trying to merge onto Interstate 85.