|
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 20
WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018
Inside College football coaches on the hot seat, Sports
NORTH
STATE
JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
JIM BOURG | REUTERS
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 9.
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
Cooper signs voting bill into law Raleigh Governor Roy Cooper signed HB335 into law, which restores the last Saturday before the 2018 election day as a one-stop early voting day. The measure means that N.C. voters can register to vote and vote early until 1 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2018. The bill also says that if a county opens any one-stop voting site on a Saturday, it must open them all. The measure passed the N.C. Senate unanimously and passed the House 70-48, with only one Democrat voting in favor of it.
Only some migrant families to be reunited in U.S. as deadline arrives New York Facing a court-imposed deadline, the U.S. government said Tuesday it expects to have reunited 54 young children and parents separated by immigration officials after crossing into the United States from Mexico. It could not meet the July 10 deadline for all of the roughly 100 children under five years old it had been ordered to reunify because, in some cases, children's parents had already been deported or failed a criminal background check. Others were unable to prove the relationship and some detained parents had been released from custody and could not be contacted. The children were separated from their parents under a "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which called for the enforcement of laws against crossing the border without authorization. President Trump signed an executive order ending the separations in June and a federal judge in California ordered that the youngest children be returned to their parents by July 10.
Confederate flag flies again at S.C. capital Columbia, S.C. On Tuesday the Confederate battle flag returned to the S.C. State House, but only for one day. Members of the S.C. Secessionist Party held a ceremony on the third anniversary of the permanent removal of the flag from the state capital grounds. Each July 10 since the flag was removed the party has been permitted to put the flag back up near the Confederate soldiers' monument.
INSIDE $20M in grants awarded for hurricane Matthew recovery Jones & Blount
5
20177 52016 $2.00
8
Trump’s Supreme Court pick tests vulnerable Senate Democrats By James Oliphant Reuters WASHINGTON, D.C. — It may soon become difficult to determine who sits in the hotter seat: President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, or Senate Democrats from conservative states who must decide whether they are jeopardizing their political careers by opposing him. Trump, a Republican, named Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge from Washington, D.C, to the highest court on Monday, setting the stage for a political fight that could consume the weeks before the congressional elections in November. “In nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, President Trump has put forth a highly qualified and respected candidate committed to the rule of law,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Monday night. “Judge Kavanaugh’s credentials are impeccable, and as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit he has considered many of the most pressing le-
gal questions of our time.” Conservative advocacy groups are ready to pressure five moderate Senate Democrats to support Kavanaugh, all of whom are up for re-election in states that overwhelmingly backed Trump in his presidential run. They argue that not doing so will damage the senators politically. The Senate must confirm Trump’s nominee by a majority vote. The president’s party holds 51 of 100 Senate seats, so liberal groups will apply pressure on those same Democrats to hold firm against Kavanaugh because the loss of only a Republican vote or two could sink the nomination. “They are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. Three of those largely rural state Democrats, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted to confirm Trump’s previous Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, last year. All three have touted their ability to work with Trump on various issues.
The other two Democrats in socalled red states that lean Republican, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, are also at risk of losing their seats. “Obstructing confirmation will only backfire on vulnerable redstate Democrats and show voters that all their talk of bipartisanship is nothing but hot air,” Katie Martin, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which backs Republican Senate candidates, told Reuters. To that end, the Judicial Crisis Network, which pushes for conservative judicial nominees, will launch a $1.4 million ad campaign targeting Donnelly, Heitkamp and Manchin, according to a representative for the group. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative policy advocacy group backed by the influential Koch network, has planned a seven-figure ad campaign to support Kavanaugh, as it did last year on behalf of Gorsuch, as well as mounting a grassroots campaign in Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.
Trump himself has been keenly aware of the political dynamic involved. The White House invited on Monday several vulnerable Democratic senators to the event naming Kavanaugh in order to place maximum pressure on their vote. Each declined. As a counterweight, a new liberal interest group, Demand Justice, plans to spend as much as $5 million to push the moderate Democrats to hold fast against the nominee, as well as attempt to persuade two moderate Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to oppose Kavanaugh. Democrats have another reason to worry about the impact of the Supreme Court nomination, said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst in Washington. The red-state senators’ support for Kavanaugh could dampen the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump enthusiasm and, as a result, reduce voter turnout in the congressional elections. See SUPREME COURT, page A8
Residents file petition in support of farming neighbors An estimated 1,600 farming advocates turn out for Duplin County rally on Tuesday
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE BOTT
The 2012 Democratic National Convention contributed an estimated $91 million in direct spending to the city of Charlotte.
Democrat opposition to RNC event grows Republicans to meet next week on whether N.C. will host their 2020 convention, some Democrats say they’ll fight it By David Larson for the North State Journal CHARLOTTE — A movement to prevent Charlotte from being the location of the 2020 Republican National Convention is picking up steam in North Carolina. At least two of the Charlotte City Council’s Democratic members have made statements that they will oppose the convention. Other Democratic state and city leaders, including Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, back the event however. The Republican National Convention will meet next week on July 17 to decide between Las Vegas and Charlotte as the site for their convention two years from now. Christian Holm in Lyles’ office confirmed to North State Journal on Tuesday that the trip
was still on the mayor’s calendar and she still supports bringing conventions, including the RNC, to the city when possible. President Barack Obama’s second Democratic National Convention was held in the same Spectrum Center in 2012. The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, the group that will travel with the mayor to Austin, said it is not interested in getting involved in the politics of these events. “Our scope of work is about pursuing meetings and conventions that will have a local economic impact and keep people working,” CRVA communications director Laura White told the North State Journal. “We conducted an economic impact study after the 2012 DNC Convention, and it had an $163.6 million total impact with $91 million in direct spending.” White said this was the “highest economic impact the city has ever seen from a single event on record,” and it had more than 35,000 attendees. Similar numSee RNC, page A2
“We did sign the petition in 1991 and then built our house in 1992. It was mostly because of a fear of the unknown,” said Pierson, who works for Farm Bureau Insurance in BeuBy Donna King laville. “Since then my wife walks North State Journal with the dog every day and I run. We’ve held engagement parties outDUPLIN COUNTY — A rally in side around our pool, we’ve never Duplin County brought out more had a problem with smell or anythan 1,000 supporters of the state’s thing.” The debate over the two petifarming industry, calling recent nuisance lawsuits an attack on their in- tions, signed nearly three decades apart, is coming up again as Smithdustry. The rally came as a group of res- field works an appeal of the June deidents in Duplin County launched cision. The rulings so far were on an effort to push back against the two lawsuits filed by neighbors who claimed that the smells lawsuits that may put their coming from the hog farming neighbors out of farm prevented them business. Fifteen residents from being able to use filed a petition in June with “Agriculture their land. They object the Duplin County manag- is a not a to the farms’ use of “laer in support of the local hog goons” for waste runoff. farms that are facing fall- nuisance These are two of nearout from recent nuisance – it’s a ly 30 similar lawsuits allawsuits. The N.C. farms blessing. ready filed by personprovide meat to Smithfield al injury attorneys from Foods, the defendant in the Proud to Austin, Texas on behalf suits and the largest pork stand with of hundreds of N.C. resiproducer in the world. The residents decided to #ncfamilies” dents. Advocates of the farmfile the new petition after ers say the claims are exthey found out that a 1991 — Rep. aggerated and motivated petition they signed was David Lewis by the promise of milsuccessfully used against lions in damages. The the farms in recent litiga- (R-Harnett) N.C. Farm Bureau estition. via Twitter mated on Twitter that “I was notified after the fact that they used our 25-year-old 1,600 people turned out on Tuessignatures in court; I just wanted to day at a farm in Duplin County for do the right thing and correct the re- a press event featuring Lt. Govercord,” said Duplin County resident nor Dan Forest, House Speaker Tim Doug Pierson. “We’ve been there for Moore, Agriculture Commissioner years and not had a complaint about Steve Troxler and Rep. David Lewis. The group called the lawsuits, the farm.” Pierson and more than a dozen of and the judgements, attacks on the his neighbors say the court that ruled farming industry. “Pig farmers are ‘bout to make against Smithfield Foods, awarding tens of millions to complainants, re- a stink,” tweeted one eastern N.C. fused to accept their June 2018 pe- farmer. Pierson and his neighbors echoed tition supporting the farm into evidence. The court did however take the support, saying that the court their 1991 petition asking that the refused their updated petition, but then-projected farm be moved to a different location on the same land. See FARMING, page A2