The Stars and Stripes will be proudly displayed all across Gaston County this July 4 weekend, but all that streaming and flapping in the wind is tough on textiles.

GB Shoe Warehouse will open later this month in the former Diamond Brand building on Asheville Highway in the Naples community near Park Ridge Hospital, said company representative Beth Radcliffe.

A Gastonia teenager was crossing Crowders Creek Road on Wednesday morning to join a carload of family and friends parked on the other side, when a volunteer firefighter responding to an emergency hit him.