North State Journal — Vol. 2., Issue 35

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 35

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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017

inside College football season is here, Sports

Students make their way out of Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh after the first day of the new school year for Wake County schools.

the Wednesday

NORTH

NEWS BRIEFING

STATE

Two NC rescue teams on the ground in Texas Houston Soldiers from the HeloAquatic Rescue Team, instrumental in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, are in Texas as residents there battle rising floodwaters. Eight national guardsmen and six first responders left Monday for San Antonio in UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The teams are from Salisbury, Charlotte, Asheville and Transylvania County. They will spend 10 days supporting rescue missions in Texas from Hurricane Harvey.

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

Legislature passes new district maps

More charges in confederate statue vandalism

Republican committee chairman “proud” of new lines; Democrats say they’re still racially gerrymandered

Durham Three more people have been charged in the toppling of a Confederate statue in front of Durham Courthouse last week. Eight people had already been charged in the incident. The new charges are all misdemeanors involving property damage in excess of $1,500.

By Jeff Moore North State Journal RALEIGH — The North Carolina Senate passed the House’s redistricting plan Monday night after the House voted in favor of them Monday afternoon. The votes came after weeks of adopting criteria, considering public input, and tweaking district lines to address members’ concerns.

“I’m very proud of the map that this committee has produced,” said Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), chairman of the Joint Redistricting Committee, on the House floor Monday.

“We produced a redistricting plan that complies with the criteria that the committee adopted as well, and most importantly, with state and federal law.”

Lewis stated that the current House map is better than any enacted over the past two decades when considering required criteria.

“This map splits 39 counties; the fewest of over two decades of maps,” asserted Lewis.

“This map is more compact than maps enacted by the General Assembly over the past two decades. This map splits fewer precincts than maps produced over the past two decades. It splits 39 precincts total, but 30 of those are retained from unaffected county groupings.”

New maps were called for by courts when por-

UNCW faculty member dies, possibly of meningitis Wilmington UNCW announced Tuesday that a member faculty passed away on Monday. Dr. Hannah Frank, who joined the faculty in 2016 in the Film Studies department, may have died from pneumococcal meningitis, according to a statement from the school.

The New Hanover Health Department says the strain is not considered contagious.

“We have received no notification from local authorities that there is a public health concern at this time,” the school stated.

— Sen. Bill Cook (R-District 1) announcing Tuesday he will not seek another term

See N.C. HOUSE, page A3

$2.00

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New state school superintendent promises transparent testing

By Donna King North State Journal RALEIGH — Nearly 2 million students and teachers head back to class this week as the first day of school bell official rang on Monday for schools across the state. More than 125 year-round schools started earlier this month.

In honor of a new school year, N.C. Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Mark Johnson issued a video for the first day, directed at teachers, that highlights the department’s work to increase communication and address concerns about too much standardized testing.

Since January the department eliminated some tests and created a new Testing Transparency Report.

“Starting this school year, for the first time, we will have transparency in testing so that you, parents and others will be able to go to a DPI resource that describes all the tests you give and whether that test is required by federal government, the state government or your even your own school,” said Johnson in the video. “Armed with this transparency, we will start the work of ridding our system of overtesting.”

Johnson also announced that he is sending a series of surveys to teachers via email to get feedback on proposed changes and concerns.

The first one scheduled to go out assesses whether teachers would be willing to resume classes earlier in August.

“We hope to have participation because we will be able to use this to demonstrate to lawmakers what teachers want. Raleigh has no shortage of opinions,” said Johnson.

See BACK TO SCHOOL, page A3

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A detail view of different dried forms of Improved Nature’s Improved Meat product as seen at the company’s headquarters in Garner.

The NC company that wants to feed the world Improved Nature looking to the future with sustainable product

N.C. House overrides two Cooper vetoes Jones & Blount

20177 52016

North Carolina students head back to school

“The recent redistricting changes have prompted me to re‑evaluate my commitment to my family.

And as much as I love the folks of Eastern North Carolina, I love my family more.”

INSIDE

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EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

By Donna King North State Journal

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

GARNER — Operating out of a 30,000-square-foot plant in Garner, an R&D team whose credits include launching Slim Jims and Lunchables to consumer markets now has their sights set on a loftier goal.

Dr. Rody Hawkins and his colleagues have developed a commercial technology to convert plant protein into food products and ingredients. The company claims their proprietary processing capabilities allow them to produce some of the most sustainable quality protein food products available worldwide. The core products the company creates are made from two ingredients — non-GMO soy plant protein and water.

See IMPROVED, page A2

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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08.30.17 #91

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North State Journal (USPS PP 166) (ISSN 2471-1365) Neal Robbins Publisher Donna King Managing Editor Cory Lavalette Sports Editor Ray Nothstine Opinion Editor Published each Wednesday

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IMPROVED from page A1 Improved Nature’s founders include Hawkins, Steve Klawiter, Larry Chandler, Moshe Meidan and Sarid Shefet. Most of the team met at ConAgra foods, an Illinois-based food service company.

Shefet and Meidan, the inventor of the technology from Israel, struck up a friendship nearly 20 years ago working in the industry. Shefet and Chandler both studied food science at N.C. State University.

The soy-based protein starts as a powder that is molded into strips, like pasta. After 15 minutes of boiling water and flavoring, it becomes a meat substitute that can be baked, fried or microwaved like any other meat. Their first products are similar to jerky and chicken nuggets or tenders, but the potential is endless, according to Watkins.

“We can take that base product and put it in a Thai dish, or a sweet and sour pork, or beef and brocco-

Municipalities could be allowed to privatize their water systems “Private industry is out here and can be part of that solution.”

— Shannon Becker, Aqua North Carolina

Groups trying to loosen N.C. regulations

By Donna King North State Journal RALEIGH — Official interest in privatizing water utilities in cash-strapped U.S. cities is extremely high, said Aqua America CEO Christopher Franklin.

In his 24 years with the company, Franklin said he has “never before” seen such a high level of interest among mayors and public officials in selling off their publicly owned drinking and waste water systems.

Eight years after the end of the “Great Recession,” some local governments are still facing sluggish revenue growth, big unfunded pension liabilities and reduced levels of state aid.

Some municipalities, particularly in the northeastern U.S., have turned to selling public assets, including utilities, to help raise money or pay for infrastructure improvements that towns cannot afford on their own. However, in N.C. that is not happening.

“Unlike a lot of other states, we have some barriers, the biggest being that right now private utilities cannot typically pay a municipality for the fair market value of their assets,” said Shannon Becker, president of Aqua North Carolina.

“Just like you wouldn’t want to sell your $10,000 car for $100, municipalities aren’t really interested, even if they need to have capital available to make other investments that the need to, they aren’t going to give their assets away for free and the rules in N.C. are not real conducive to that exchange right now.”

Aqua North Carolina operates 800 water systems across 51 counties in the state, mostly in rural areas and new developments. They are among the groups trying to change the regulations so that municipalities have the option to privatize their water systems and use the money for other infrastructure investments.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Jeff Collins (R-Franklin), H.B. 351, passed the House

li or chicken chow mein,” he said.

“We can do all those all vegetarian. … We can make a white fish filet, or a grilled chicken. We can turn it into beef tenderloin. We can even make a bacon out of it.”

Prior to forming Improved Nature, all the founders, with the exception of Median, worked on products like shelf-stable meats and sandwiches for the military’s Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Over the years they’ve also worked with NATO and the United Nations Feeding programs. In September, they will speak at Concordia’s Annual Summit about developing sustainable food products and solutions for food shortages in developing and politically unstable regions of the world.

Improved Nature is currently launching pilot programs with a “crispy tender” product, a vegetarian alternative for fried chicken tenders, for approximately 15 K-12 school districts in the U.S. that

PHOTO COURTESY OF AQUA NORTH CAROLINA

Aqua North Carolina operates more than 800 well water systems in 51 counties.

in April, 89-30, and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee. Chris Ayers, executive director of the public staff for the N.C. utilities Commission says that their purpose is to look out for the consumers and rate-payers. While they do not weigh in on legislation specifically, they provide their expertise to lawmakers and other officials.

“Our concern is that appropriate rate-payer protections are built in to ensure that different customer classes are not subsidizing each other,” said Ayers.

Supporters say that privatization could help fund a looming $26 billion infrastructure need that N.C. faces.

“There is just not that much capital out there,” said Becker. “The state and federal government comes up with grants and low interest loans to subsidize these assets and installations. For municipalities, there is just not that much available, and the time it takes to access to that is considerable. So we want to be part of that solution.”

A handful of states — including Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — have enacted legislation in the past few years that lets private companies pay fair market value for water systems instead of depreciated values.

But critics of privatization say towns sometime give away important assets for too little money in a quick, one-time budget fix.

Public interest groups like Food & Water Watch say accountability is limited by corporate ownership that is beholden to shareholders and that privately run wa-

ter companies charge higher rates.

Some deals have turned sour. In 2003, Atlanta and Suez SA dissolved a private water system deal after just four years of a 20-year agreement. Users blamed the Suez unit for water main breaks, poor maintenance and slow billing operations.

Franklin says Aqua America strives to work with communities early on to avoid such problems.

“I’m not going to ruin [the company] by doing the wrong thing for the community we hope to serve for a long time,” he said.

So far this year, the company has bought three public water utilities — two in Indiana and a sewer system in Tobyhanna, Pa. — for a total of $5.8 million, Aqua said earlier this month.

Acquisitions of another four larger systems, worth an estimated $120.5 million in total, are in the works, it said. At the federal level, uncertainty about infrastructure funding has privatization proposals making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

“Private industry is out here and can be part of that solution,” said Becker.

“We have an extra layer of protection; our rates are set by the utility commission. I cannot raise rates without going for a rate case, we’ve been doing it for 130 years, we have significant access to capital and we are not going to wait to make a decision on whether something needs an improvement or a change.”

Supporters of the bill say that the Senate plans to take it up during the legislative short session.

“We want to help people access quality food. That’s been the mission from the start and that’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years.”

— Dr. Rody Hawkins, CEO of Improved Nature

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

serve over a million meals a day.

With just the core group partners working in the Garner facility right now, Improved Nature plans to hire about 30 people within the year to manufacture the base product. For now, they are rolling out the first samples and recipes for their products and attending trade

shows and conferences, along with meeting with major food companies, vegetarian organizations and others to give them a taste of their work.

“The worldwide market has 8.5 percent growth rate for plantbased proteins; it’s huge,” said Improved Nature’s CFO David Swin-

tosky. “We are collapsing the supply chain from the field with much less resources and time to the production facility and getting a 20 times greater efficiency rate than the animal protein supply chain.”

“As the population grows, you’ve got limited land and limited water; water is probably the most critical; how do you feed 10 billion people with the same resources we have today?” said Hawkins. “Agriculture and technology have done a phenomenal job of being more productive with the land and growing more crops. It is a success story, and it’s kept up very well, but eventually you are going to peak out. We have a way to be 20 times more efficient so we could actually feed 10 billion people, no problem.”

“I occasionally get a vegetarian who says I just can’t eat this because it reminds me too much of meat, it violates my conscious,” said Hawkins. “We take that as a compliment every single time.”

Want to learn more about North Carolina Agriculture?

The First Furrow www.FirstFurrow.com

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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NC high court hears key cases in ongoing legislative battles

By Donna King North State Journal RALEIGH — The N.C. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on two key cases that have dominated headlines in the state this year.

The first is a challenge to the 2011 legislative maps that the U.S. Supreme Court sent back to the state earlier this year. This is the third time this case has been before the justices on the state’s highest court. Previously the court sided with the legislature on the maps that the Supreme Court later said were gerrymandered with race being too big a factor.

On Monday, lawyers for the plaintiffs asked justices to officially declare the 2011 maps invalid, saying that the current redistricting process does not mean their case is over.

“This is a case where it is important that it be made clear that the rights of the plaintiffs were violated by the initial maps and ultimately a remedy is put in place that fully cures that violation and itself does not violate any state constitutional provisions,” said Anita Earls, lawyer for the plaintiffs and founder of the Southern Coalition for Justice. “Because this is a case of important public interest and is central to our democracy it is important that this case continues until there is a final remedy.”

Lawyers for the legislature say the case is moot because the U.S. Supreme Court already sent them back to the legislature in May to be redrawn. The N.C. House passed their version of the new map on Monday and the Senate passed the House version Monday night, well ahead of the Sept.

1 deadline.

“The remedy here is the injunction,” said Michael McKnight, attorney for the legislative leadership. “There’s been an injunction preventing these maps that they’ve challenged, that the plaintiffs here have challenged, from ever being used again. The 2011 maps will never be used in any other proceeding. If there is a problem with the maps the legislature is enacting now or a problem with the congressional maps, they can file a new lawsuit, any that’s the appropriate course.”

The other case heard by the state’s high court is one of the law-

suits brought by Gov. Roy Cooper against leadership of the GOP-led General Assembly. Cooper claims state lawmakers violated the constitutional separation of powers in combining the State Board of Elections and the State Ethics Commission into one body, with members split evenly between the state’s largest two political parties.

Previously, the executive branch appointed most of the elections board members. Now, the state board must be bipartisan and all 100 county elections boards go from having a majority of Democrats on panels with odd numbers of members to having boards with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. If there are ties in local board that cannot be settled, conflicts move to the state board for a final decision. A lower court ruled in favor of the General Assembly saying that the new board did not violate the state constitution.

The lawsuit is one of several the governor has filed against the legislature since his narrow victory into office in November.

“The governor must be able to appoint people within those agencies who share his views and priorities,” said Jim Phillips, lawyer for Cooper.

“The court found that this board was different, but it’s not.

An examination of the duties and functions of this new board and the agency where it resides shows that it is clearly executive in nature,” he said.

Lawyers for the legislature point out that the new board members are still appointed by the governor from a list of choices provided by the state’s political parties.

“The governor wants to substitute for the legislative intent, his own views and priorities, which may be vastly different than those of the people who enacted the laws,” said legislative attorney Noah Huffstetler.

“He claims that he must have power to completely control people who work in his administration so that they are robotically inclined to follow his views and priorities,” he said. “He leaves no room for these persons to honestly consider … and that is not the legislative intent behind this statute.”

The N.C. Supreme Court justices have not indicated when they will rule on the cases.

FILE

PHOTOS BY EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Rep. David Lewis fields questions from across the aisle on the new redistricting map on the floor of the North Carolina House at the Legislative Building in Raleigh.

N.C. HOUSE from page A1 tions of 2011 Republican-drawn maps were ruled unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering. The 2017 Joint Redistricting Committee voted to ban the use of racial data in constructing the maps.

The elimination of race considerations has not satisfied Democrats in the General Assembly. Rep. Hank Michaux (D-Durham) reiterated during floor debate Monday that the problem with eliminating race altogether is that “it makes it impossible” to rectify the problems identified in the 2011 maps.

While the vote to approve the map fell mostly along party lines, Democrats were not the only ones offering criticism of how the districts were drawn.

Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) offered an amendment to reverse his own incumbent versus incumbent 2018 contest in the new maps. Pittman argued that he, a relatively new and consistently conservative member, is being pushed out in favor of more tenured lawmakers that ruffle fewer feathers within Republican leadership.

“This is the sort of thing that I believe is causing many citizens in our state and across the nation to demand term limits,” exclaimed Pittman. “They are tired of longterm politicians protecting their own status, as opposed to newer members the people might favor who don’t intend to make a career of it.”

Responding to the amendment, which failed to pass, Lewis expressed regret that such tough decisions had to be made, but re-emphasized that the adopted criteria made such decisions unavoidable.

A need to carefully balance criteria was a common response from Lewis as other lawmakers questioned why district lines were drawn across the state.

The committee chairman did adjust district lines in Wake County, and offered a successful corresponding amendment, after House Minority Leader Rep. Darren Jackson (D-Wake) raised concerns

Reps. Bert Jones, left, and Allen McNeil, right, look over a redistricting map on the floor of the North Carolina House at the Legislative Building.

that the original construct was less than optimal when considering criteria such as compactness.

“I didn’t see a single place were the split works to the advantage of the Democratic Party, and to the detriment of the Republican Party,” said Jackson.

Lewis, however, explained that such political implications would be found no matter where lines were drawn.

“Every choice, everywhere a line is made, there are political ramifications for where that line falls,” said Lewis. “And one of the reasons that I objected so much in the committee in trying to specify that a precinct or a county could only be split for population purposes, frankly, is I knew where every line went there would be political consequences for it and folks would blame me for violating the criteria.”

Ultimately, Jackson and fellow House Democrats stood against the new maps, claiming that they were flawed with the same old problems.

“I want to state publicly and clearly and for the record that I do not think their plan is racially gerrymandered because my colleagues in this body are racists,” said Jackson. “I do believe their plan is full of racial gerrymander just as the plan from 2011 was

found to be. I believe your plan racially gerrymanders so that you can lessen the opportunities of African-American voters to have their voices heard in more districts because that could in turn create more Democratic districts. That is at the core of your supermajority.”

Of the nine criteria adopted to draw new district maps, one specifically prohibited the use of racial data to construct district maps in order to comply with court orders.

“This reflects what the courts have asked us to do,” said Lewis of the maps.

The North Carolina General Assembly approved a final redistricting plan well ahead of the Sept. 1 deadline.

Democrats are still objecting to the plan, crying gerrymander. Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said out on the chamber floor Monday that political platforms, not gerrymandering, are the cause of Democrats’ Election Day losses.

“Democrats are only competing in 20 to 30 counties across the state,” said Berger. “That might be a viable strategy for squeaking out a win in the occasional statewide race, but you can’t build a legislative majority in a state with 100 counties when you only compete in a quarter of them.”

BACK TO SCHOOL from pageA1

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Students make their way out of Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh.

Gov. Roy Cooper spent Tuesday visiting kids who are still getting ready for school. He and N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen visited Excel Christian Academy in Burlington, a church-sponsored child care center with a pre-K program.

This year 1,800 more kids will participate in the state’s pre-K program, aimed at helping at-risk 4-year-olds. This year, legislators appropriated $27.3 million to whittle down the state’s waiting list for the program. Cooper had called for $32.4 million.

“We are delighted to give the Excel Christian Academy the opportunity to help more children benefit from this wonderful program,” said Cohen, who accompanied Cooper on his visit Tuesday. “Every child needs a great start for lifelong health, education and well-being.”

Teachers return to class in 2017 after years of debate over teacher pay. According to data from the nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division at the North Carolina General Assembly, starting teacher pay is now $35,000 per year with the average teacher salary at $50,906 annually, with a scheduled increase to an average of $53,394 in 2018-2019.

The N.C. Highway Patrol is also ready for the new bus routes and kids on foot headed to class. Troopers statewide will monitor school bus routes and are putting extra emphasis on enforcing traffic safety laws.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Nation & WORLD

Report: Trump could lift ban on military equipment for police

Border agents find smuggling tunnel in San Diego

Russia’s new Washington envoy meets U.S ambassador to Russia

Washington, D.C. The federal government may soon lift a ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments, according to a news report on Sunday. USA Today reported it had obtained documents outlining a plan which would lift an Obama-era ban on putting some of the military’s surplus equipment, such as armored vehicles and largecaliber weapons, in the hands of local police departments.

San Diego Border Patrol agents discovered a tunnel running under the U.S.Mexico border Saturday in San Diego apparently used for illegal immigration, authorities said.

Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Olmos said Saturday that agents detained about 30 people including Mexican and Chinese nationals. No drugs were found, he said.

Moscow Russia’s new ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov met U.S. ambassador to Russia John Tefft on Monday to discuss ties between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday. Antonov, appointed ambassador by presidential decree last week, takes over from Sergei Kislyak, whose contacts with members of President Donald Trump’s campaign team made him a central figure in the row over alleged Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. Navy recovers remains of all sailors missing after USS McCain collision Singapore The U.S. Navy on Monday confirmed recovery of the remains of all 10 sailors killed after the warship John S. McCain collided with a merchant vessel in waters near Singapore and Malaysia. The guided-missile destroyer collided with the Alnic MC east of Singapore last week while approaching the city state on a routine port visit.

ISIS readies to evacuate Syria-Lebanon border zone Beirut, Lebanon The Syrian army and Hezbollah on Monday prepared to escort ISIS fighters to eastern Syria from their enclave on the border with Lebanon under an agreement following a weeklong offensive against the jihadist group. It will end any Sunni militant presence on the border, an important goal for Lebanon and the Shi’ite Hezbollah group, and is the first time ISIS has publicly agreed to a forced evacuation from territory it held in Syria.

Kenyan government imposes world’s toughest law against plastic bags

By Katharine Houreld and John Ndiso Reuters NAIROBI, KENYA — Kenyans producing, selling or even using plastic bags will risk imprisonment of up to four years or fines of $40,000 from Monday, as the world’s toughest law aimed at reducing plastic pollution came into effect.

The East African nation joins more than 40 other countries that have banned, partly banned or taxed single-use plastic bags, including China, France, Rwanda and Italy.

Many bags drift into the ocean, strangling turtles, suffocating seabirds and filling the stomachs of “If we dolphins and whales with continue waste until they die of starvation. like this, by “If we continue like this, 2050, we by 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than will have said Habib El-Habr, more plastic fish,” an expert on marine litter in the ocean working with the U.N. Environment Programme in than fish.”

Kenya.

Plastic bags, which El— Habib Habr said take between 500 to 1,000 years to break El-Habr, an down, also enter the huexpert on man food chain through marine litter fish and other animals. In Nairobi’s slaughterhouses, some cows destined for human consumption had 20 bags removed from their stomachs.

“This is something we didn’t get 10 years ago but now it’s almost on a daily basis,” said county vet Mbuthi Kinyanjui as he watched men in bloodied white uniforms scoop sodden plastic bags from the stomachs of cow carcases.

Kenya’s law allows police to go after anyone even carrying a plastic bag. But Judy Wakhungu, Kenya’s environment minister, said enforcement would initially be directed at manufacturers and suppliers.

“Ordinary wananchi will not be harmed,” she told Reuters, using a Kiswahili word for “common man.”

It took Kenya three attempts over 10 years to finally pass the ban, and not everyone is a fan.

Samuel Matonda, spokesman for the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, said it would cost 60,000 jobs and force 176 manufacturers to close. Kenya is a major exporter of plastic bags to the region.

“The knock-on effects will be very severe,” Matonda said.

“It will even affect the women who sell vegetables in the market — how will their customers carry their shopping home?”

Big Kenyan supermarket chains like France’s Carrefour and Nakumatt have already started offering customers cloth bags as alternatives.

BRIAN SNYDER | REUTERS | FILE

President Donald Trump is joined onstage by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, left, at a campaign rally in Marshalltown, Iowa, in January 2016 after Arpaio endorsed Trump’s candidacy.

Message clear in pardon of ex-Arizona sheriff In the first pardon of his presidency, Trump clears ally Joe Arpaio

By Bill Trott Reuters WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans and Democrats are weighing in on President Donald Trump’s decision Friday to grant a pardon to controversial former Arizona lawman and political ally Joe Arpaio less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt for flouting a 2011 court order that barred officers from detaining Latino motorists solely on the suspicion they were illegal immigrants.

“Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration,” said a White House statement announcing Arpaio’s pardon, the first of Trump’s administration.

Arpaio, 85, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” lost a bid for re-election in Arizona’s Maricopa County in November after 24 years in office.

“I have to thank the president for what he has done, that’s for sure,” Arpaio told Reuters in a brief telephone interview

Florida court concedes that DNC had a right to favor Clinton in Democratic primary

By Mollie Young North State Journal

BAZ RATNER | REUTERS

A cow walks near a pile of trash including plastic bags as it grazes in Nairobi, Kenya.

from his Arizona home. “He’s a big supporter of law enforcement.”

Arpaio said Monday that the “real story” behind the case that brought him to trial was that the prosecution by the administration under President Barack Obama was a politically motivated attempt by the Obama administration to undermine his re-election bid.

Civil rights advocates slammed Trump’s decision as an endorsement of racist and unlawful immigration policies.

“Once again, the president has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of color and that have been struck down by the courts,” said American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who sought the court injunction against Arpaio.

Criticism even came from top leadership in Congress.

“Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a statement.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said it was “disheartening that he set the bar so very low for his first pardon. … The ex-sheriff

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a fraud lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee involving former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz and the DNC’s favoring of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary election.

On Friday, Judge William Zloch for the Southern U.S. District of Florida dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against the DNC by supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, claiming that the political committee and their leader violated the DNC charter by swaying the public primary system toward the candidate of their choice.

Filed in June 2016, the lawsuit was prompted by the WikiLeaks release of a trove of emails from top DNC officials that revealed a significant bias toward Clinton. Wasserman Shultz, a Florida

congresswoman, resigned from her post as chair of the committee just days after the emails went public and took on a role within Clinton’s failed presidential bid.

The lawsuit was an effort to get Democratic officials to admit their wrongdoing and reimburse Sanders supporters for campaign donations.

“People paid money in reliance on the understanding that the primary elections for the Democratic nominee — nominating process in 2016 were fair and impartial,” Jared Beck, one of the attorneys representing Sanders supporters, said during the proceedings.

However, lawyers representing the DNC claimed that Article V, Section 4 of the party charter — which states that DNC staff must ensure neutrality during the primary process, was a simply a “discretionary rule” that the court had no right to interpret or rule on.

After months of litigation, Zloch said he found it difficult to contend that the

is a self-aggrandizing braggart who promoted racist law enforcement practices and cost taxpayers millions, and that is a reason they did not re-elect him.”

However, others agree that while it did send a message, it was one that meant for supporters who say crackdown on illegal immigration is a top priority and critical to the nation’s economy and security.

Arpaio, who campaigned for Trump in 2016, was convicted on July 31 by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, who ruled he had willfully violated a 2011 injunction barring his officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists solely on suspicion that they were in the country illegally.

Arpaio admitted to inadvertently disobeying the court order but said his behavior did not meet a criminal standard.

Arpaio been scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and faced a fine and maximum sentence of six months in jail.

His tenure as sheriff brought Arpaio praise a criticism as it made national headlines. He led massive roundups of suspected illegal immigrants. Under his leadership at the Maricopa County jail, he reinstated chain gangs, made inmates wear uniforms that were pink or old-fashioned black and white stripes and forbade them coffee, salt and pepper.

case was within his jurisdiction or that Sanders or his supporters suffered “concrete injury” traceable to the DNC or Wasserman Shultz.

The ruling; however, appeared to reaffirm that the Democratic primary was stacked toward Clinton, while also demonstrating the court’s limited ability to intervene in the operational decisions of a political committee.

“The court thus assumes that the DNC and Wasserman Schultz preferred Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president over Bernie Sanders or any other Democratic candidate. It assumes that they stockpiled information useful to the Clinton campaign. It assumes that they devoted their resources to assist Clinton in securing the party’s nomination and opposing other Democratic candidates.

And it assumes that they engaged in these surreptitious acts while publically proclaiming they were completely neutral, fair and impartial,” the final order read.

“This order therefore concerns only technical matters of pleading and subject-matter jurisdiction.”

The court also signaled that Sanders supporters had an opportunity to air their grievances about the candidate selection process “through the ballot box, the DNC’s internal workings, or their right of free speech — not through the judiciary.”

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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Trump vows full response to Harvey’s ‘epic’ flooding in Texas More than 16 percent of overall oil refining capacity is already offline as Harvey takes aim at plants along the Louisiana coast

By Gary McWilliams and Ernest Scheyder Reuters HOUSTON — President Donald Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday and vowed the federal government would have a complete response to the devastating flooding of Tropical Storm Harvey, the biggest natural disaster of his White House tenure.

The slow-moving storm has brought record-breaking rains and catastrophic flooding to Texas, killed at least nine people, led to mass evacuations and paralyzed Houston, the fourth most-populous city in the country.

Some 30,000 people were expected to seek emergency shelter as the flooding entered its fourth day.

Officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, said reservoirs built to handle drainage water were beginning to overflow on Tuesday. They urged residents to evacuate as they released water to alleviate pressure on two dams, a move that would add to flooding along the Buffalo Bayou waterway that runs through the area.

Brazoria County, south of Houston, also called for immediate evacuations around a levee Columbia Lakes that had been breached by floodwaters from Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in more than 50 years.

Trump, speaking in Corpus Christi near where Harvey first came ashore last week, said he wanted the relief effort to stand as an example of how to respond to a storm.

“We want to do it better than ever before,” he said. ”This was of epic proportion. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this.”

Some 3,500 people already have been rescued from high waters in the Houston area with police, firefighters and National Guard troops continuing to try to locate those marooned in high waters.

The storm broke Texas rainfall records at one measuring site south of Houston, which recorded 49.32 inches of precipitation since the storm’s start. The rainfall is more than the region typically sees in a year and exceeds 48 inches recorded in 1978.

Multiple looters were arrested overnight, police said.

Harvey has roiled energy markets and wrought damage estimated to be in the billions of dollars, with rebuilding likely to last beyond Trump’s four-year term in office.

After Corpus Christi, Trump was headed to Austin, the state capital, to meet with officials.

Houston was not on his itinerary because much of it is impassable.

While much of the damage in Houston has been rain-related, the storm’s winds picked up overnight, bending street signs and tearing at metal fences downtown.

Much of the Houston metropolitan area, where 6.8 million people live, remained underwater on Tuesday. Dangerous rescues went on through the night.

ADREES LATIF | REUTERS

RICK WILKING | REUTERS

Main, a man walks through floods waters and onto the main road after surveying his property which was hit by Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas.

Bottom left, Lisa Rehr holds her 4-year old son, Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated.

ADREES LATIF | REUTERS

About 9,000 evacuees were staying at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said his office had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assets to allow the city to shelter another 10,000 people.

“I’m just trying to stay strong,” said Julio Gamez, 35, who evacuated to the center on Saturday night with his wife after floodwaters rose to within a foot of his roof.

“We’ve lost everything. But at least we’re safe.”

Other shelters were set up in Dallas, about 250 miles to the north, for about 8,000 people, and Austin, 160 miles west, to take in 7,000 people.

Television pastor Joel Osteen’s sprawling Lakewood Church of-

“We’ve lost everything.

But at least we’re safe.”

— Julio Gamez, Houston resident fered to accept flood-stranded residents a day after posting on its Facebook page that it was inaccessible due to severe flooding.

After a deluge of angry comments on social media, the church said on Twitter that it would take in people who need shelter.

Harvey was expected to reach Louisiana early on Wednesday — one day after the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hit the state and killed 1,800 people.

Bottom right, People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on an air boat in Dickinson, Texas.

Among the most recent deaths from Harvey was a man who drowned on Monday night while trying to swim across flooded Houston-area roads, the Houston Chronicle quoted the Montgomery County Constable’s Office as saying.

The slow-moving storm’s center was in the Gulf of Mexico about 113 miles southeast of Houston by midday Monday. It was likely to remain just off the coast of Texas through Tuesday night before moving inland over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Harvey was expected to produce another 6 to 12 inches of rain through Thursday over parts of the upper Texas coast into south-

western Louisiana, the National Weather Service said.

Schools and office buildings were closed throughout the area, with hundreds of roads blocked by high water and the city’s two main airports shut.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to half of U.S. refining capacity. The reduction in supply led gasoline futures to hit their highest level in two years this week as Harvey knocked out about 13 percent of total U.S. refining capacity, based on company reports and Reuters estimates.

The floods could destroy as much as $20 billion in insured property, making the storm one of the costliest in history for U.S. insurers, according to Wall Street analysts.

NOT ALL VODKA IS MADE FROM POTATOES SWEET POTATOES ARE VEGETABLES VEGATABLES ARE GOOD FOR YOU

— YOU’RE WELCOME Covington vodka is available in 750 mL and 1.75 L. covingtonvodka.com

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Murphy to Manteo

Go west

A7

Jones & Blount jonesandblount.com @JonesandBlount

Bee Sweet Orchards Reidsville

Western North Carolina is home to most of the apple orchards in North Carolina.

The hot days and cool nights of late summer and early fall cause the bright red, yellow and green coloring and ripening of our apples. This is the perfect time to plan a visit to an apple orchard to pick your favorite variety of apples! North Carolina is the seventh-largest apple-producing state in the nation, and most of our apple orchards are owned and farmed by third- or fourth-generation farmers who truly love the land and growing food for us.

Don’t forget the North Carolina Apple Festival is held in Hendersonville on Labor Day weekend.

More on Deal Farms B6.

NC House overrides two vetoes

Perry Lowe Orchards

Moravian Falls

The Orchard at Altapass

By Jeff Moore North State Journal

Spruce Pine

Ramseur

Carrigan Farms Mooresville

Lineberger’s Maple Spring Farm

Henderson County alone produces 85 percent of the state’s apples. From Hendersonville to Chimney Rock, HWY 64 turns into “Apple Alley,” with an abundant amount of pick-your-own orchards. Not only can you pick the freshest Fuji, Gala, and Pink Lady varieties, you can take home fresh apple cider and

Dallas

Franklin

Henderson County

and corn mazes for the kids. With harvest running from late August to early North Carolina, and what better way to ring O in fall than to visit one of the many orchards found throughout the state.

Justus Orchard Grandad’s Apples N’ Such

Apples are healthy!

Mountain Fresh Orchards Hendersonville

A medium apple has about 80 calories and is fat-free, sodiumfree, and cholesterol-free!

RALEIGH — The North Carolina House overrode two more vetoes issued by Gov. Roy Cooper as the Republican legislative supermajority continues to negate the governor’s veto powers. Should the North Carolina Senate join the House is overriding vetoes of House Bill 140 and House Bill 770, it would bring the total number of laws enacted “notwithstanding the objections of the governor” to seven.

H.B. 140 would allow for credit property insurance to be sold for an expanded list of products, such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). Such policies cover damage or loss of property that is used to secure a loan.

With coverage of ATVs that are purchased on credit, for instance, the premiums are rolled into the original loan and pay out to the creditor.

However, H.B. 770 has more political flavor as it contains a provision allowing a current state employee to collect payment from two state-funded positions.

Bill Peaslee, chief deputy commissioner of the N.C. Industrial Commission, also receives a paycheck from intermittent work as a member of the N.C. Property

Millstone Creek Orchards

Sky Top Orchard Flat Rock

Coston Farm & Apple House Lyda Farms Creasman Farms Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard

INFOGRAPHIC BY LAUREN ROSE AND ALLY LEVINE

WEST Hundreds turn out for American Idol auditions Buncombe County The line of hopefuls started around 3 a.m. Sunday morning as locals from Asheville and out-of-towners gathered for their chance at fame. Asheville was one of 19 cities chosen this year to host auditions for the popular reality show “American Idol,” now in its 16th season.

The singers performed before Idol producers and singer Caleb Johnson, who won the show in 2014. The auditions wrapped at 8 p.m. Sunday night. Those who made it through face two more rounds of producer auditions before facing celebrity judges.

World War II Bible returned to soldier’s daughter Catawba County Susan Little purchased a worn soldier’s pocket New Testament from a thrift store in Winston-Salem for her WWII enthusiast husband, Don, as a gift.

Don researched the original owner and uncovered the life and death of Ira G. Royster, a World War II soldier from Greensboro. The High Point couple tracked down a daughter in Hickory, Catherine Royster Corpening, 76, to return a piece of family history to the rightful owners. Seventy-two years after her father’s death, the Bible is home.

HIGH POINT ENTERPRISE

PIEDMONT NCBiotech companies raise $128M in Q4 Durham County North Carolina Biotechnology Center portfolio companies raised $128 million in the fourth quarter of the 2016-2017 fiscal year. RTP-based G1 Therapeutics topped the list by raising more than $108 million in its initial public offering in May, followed

by Benson Hill Biosystems ($6.5M), bioMASON ($3.4M), Locus Biosciences ($2.5M) and Advance Animal Diagnostics ($2.45M). NCBiotech awarded $3.6 million in loans and grant in the fourth quarter.

TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES

WCU and Mission use $1.3M grant for nursing students

N.C. Farm School Summit climbs to WNC local farms

Jackson County The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently awarded Western Carolina University’s School of Nursing the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant. The $1.3 million grant will fund the launch of “Partnership for Longitudinal Academic/Clinical Education Strategy,” a program WCU and Mission Health designed to increase the number of primary care nurse practitioners in rural areas with medically underserved populations.

Henderson County In its third year, the N.C. Farm School Summit will hike to the western side of the state on Sept. 14-15, touring local farms and offering educational workshops for beginning and experienced farmers. This year’s participants will tour Hickory Nut Gap Farm to learn about livestock and agritourism, Mills River Creamery to see a working dairy, as well as Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and North River Farms for those interested in horticulture operations. The Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River will host several workshops.

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES

MOUNTAIN XPRESS

Charlotte School of Law to close Mecklenburg County Less than a year ago, the American Bar Association placed Charlotte Law on probation, the U.S. Dept. of Education cut access to federal student loans and earlier this month, the UNC System did not renew Charlotte Law’s license to operate. The for-profit law school is in the process of notifying roughly 100 enrolled students and 20 faculty and staff that the uptown campus is officially closing.

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL

Charlotte mayor supports name change for Stonewall Street Mecklenburg County As the Confederate memorials and monuments discourse continues nationally, Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts is giving her support in changing the name of uptown’s Stonewall Street that is named after Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Charlotte’s City Council can approve a street’s name change at the mayor’s request.

WSOCTV

Coal ash pond neighbors file class-action lawsuit against Duke Energy Rowan County Neighbors of Duke Energy’s coal ash ponds filed suit against the company after being told their water wasn’t safe to drink more than two years ago. Plaintiffs from communities across N.C. who are affected by water quality concerns related to coal ash are seeking damages in excess of $25,000 in a jury trial. Duke Energy plans to pay for coal ash cleanup, in part, through a rate increase which will also pay for transitioning to “cleaner” energy sources and modernizing the electric grid. In addition to the lawsuit, plaintiffs filed petitions to intervene in the rate increase requests.

It’s harvest time!

Plan a family outing and visit a pick-your-own orchard to take home the freshest of the fresh. Or look for locally grown apple and fresh apple cider at one of the many roadside markets or in your favorite grocery store.

NC Apple Growers Association

Atlantic Coast Pipeline to establish new habitats for pollinators along pipeline route Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced last week an initiative to establish 750 acres of suitable new habitat locations for butterflies, bees and other pollinator insects along 50 miles of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline route. Areas of native flowers and grasses identified as ideal for the voluntary project for participating landowners are in southern Virginial and eastern N.C.

Settlement in Jones County will reconfigure Board of Commissioners to better represent black community

Town of Princeville workshop plans for development Edgecombe County Planners, engineers and architect teams gathered in Tarboro this week for a community design workshop focusing on development plans for the town of Princeville. The goal for the design teams is to create and present three different scenarios for a 52-acre tract of land planned for new housing and business developments connected to the historic portions of the town.

U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

THE BUSINESS JOURNALS

SALISBURY POST

To find an orchard or roadside market near you, visit www.ncapplegrowers.com

EAST

Officials investigate death of Fort Bragg soldier Cumberland County The cause of death for a Fort Bragg soldier, Spc. Myles A. Miller, 27, of Marion, Ind., is under investigation.

Miller died last week from undetermined causes at Womack Army Medical Center, according to the 18th Field Artillery Brigade. He joined the Army in April 2015 and was deployed to the Middle East to support Operation Inherent Resolve last year.

Fort Bragg was his first duty station.

FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER

Tax Commission. Peaslee reportedly uses vacation days from the former, while attending paid sessions for the latter.

Although “double-dipping” has been forbidden in state law since 1979, Peaslee argues that the law does not apply to the pay given to members of the Property Tax Commission, only to daily travel and food expenses.

Peaslee previously used to work as general counsel to the North Carolina Republican Party.

The issue was never raised during the administration of Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, but under Cooper’s administration the N.C. Department of Revenue found interest in Peaslee’s dual pay and notified the N.C. Department of Justice.

“Up until this point it really hasn’t been an issue, but under this new administration it appears to be,” said Peaslee in an interview. “I work hard, trying to make sure I get my time in at the Industrial Commission and use my vacation time to work on the Property Tax Commission. I’ll let people come to their own conclusions as to why this is happening now.”

Both bills now must earn supermajority approval in the Senate to fully override Cooper’s veto and become law.

North State little leaguers return to Greenville Pitt County The North State All-Stars returned home on Monday, greeted by family, friends and public officials after their run at the Little League World Series. The Greenville team left its legacy as the first U.S. team to throw two consecutive no-hitters in the tournament’s history. North State finished fourth place in the overall tournament. The city will hold a special recognition ceremony for the team on Wednesday evening at Elm Street Park starting at 6:30 p.m.

WITN-TV

By Mollie Young North State Journal TRENTON — A court settlement in rural southeastern North Carolina should mean that Jones County will see their first black county commissioner in more than 20 years.

On Thursday, a federal district court approved the replacement of the at-large method currently used to elect the Jones County Board of Commissioners with a system of single-member districts. Under the terms of the settlement, the nearly coastal county will add two seats to the board after the November 2018 election — increasing the number of representatives from five to seven members.

Three Jones County natives filed the lawsuit in February, arguing that the previous method of electing members to the board diluted the voting strength of AfricanAmerican voters, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case was the first case filed under the Voting Rights Act in the nation in 2017. The plaintiffs were represented by a lawyers’ committee based in North Carolina, New York and Washington, D.C. “This important victory ensures that African-American voters in Jones County will have an opportunity elect representatives of their choice,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil

Rights Under Law, during a press call on Thursday. “For over 20 years, the Board of Commissioners could willfully ignore the needs or concerns of nearly a third of the Jones County community. The Voting Rights Act continues to be a powerful tool to safeguard the rights of African-American voters in Jones County and beyond.”

Jones’ District 1, representing the Trenton area, has the highest concentration of black voters with 54.53 percent of the population being African American, according to the 2010 Census. Under the current at-large method, anyone within county lines can represent this district.

“We are glad that the system for electing Jones County commissioners is now fair for all citizens, black and white,” said Burton Craige, a Raleigh lawyer with the civil rights firm Patterson-Harkavy, said in a statement.

Initial negotiations worked toward reconfiguring the five board districts to better serve the African0American population, but the county eventually agreed to adding two extra seats.

“Everyone agreed the addition of two more members on the board would provide better representation to the black population,” County Manager Franky Howard told the Sun Journal in New Bern.

“Speaking for the county, obviously we wanted to do the right thing,” Howard said.

“We were glad we were able to come to an agreement.”

BUSINESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017

N.C. WINE AND GRAPE MONTH

Honoring our roots Governor Cooper signed a proclamation declaring September Wine and Grape Month in North Carolina, celebrating one of the state’s oldest crops, and now one of its fastest growing industries. Look for features in the North State Journal throughout September highlighting the rich stories behind North Carolina’s vineyards and wineries.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHILDRESS VINEYARDS

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FAST FACTS Sponsored by

Focused on improving the economic well-being and quality of life for all North Carolinians, a collaborative team of regional partners and allies represents the economic interests of businesses and towns from across the state.

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This week, NSJ highlights the NCEast Alliance.

The NCEast Alliance (The Alliance) is a regional, private, not-for-profit,economic development agency serving more than 1 million residents within several small metropolitan and micropolitan areas from the fringe of the Research Triangle to the Atlantic Coast. The Alliance provides community capacity building and assists companies with site location and expansion decisions. As a result of confidential interviews conducted by National Community Development Services with public and private leaders across the region, combined with several discussion sessions with regional leadership, three strategic priorities were selected for action by the Alliance: marketing and business attraction, workforce development and education, and advocacy for the region.

With numerous regional partners such as East Carolina University, Electricities and Vidant Health, as well as support from key private sector leaders, the Alliance is successfully living out its mission to build, expand and promote the bounty of beautiful eastern North Carolina.

Harvey hits insurance stocks as loss estimates surge to $20 bln; oil refineries threatened Harvey losses seen well below Katrina and Sandy

By Tim McLaughlin and Tom Sims Reuters BOSTON/FRANKFURT — Hurricane Harvey’s whipsaw of wind and rain across Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast hurt the shares of U.S. property and casualty insurers on Monday as Wall Street analysts estimated insured losses as high as $20 billion.

That would make it one of the costliest storms in history for U.S. insurers, but could ultimately help insurers and reinsurers to raise rates, some analysts said, after a period of low premiums.

“Our best guess at this point is Harvey could result in $10 billion to $20 billion of industry insured losses, making it one of the top 10 most costly hurricanes to hit the United States,” JPMorgan analyst Sarah DeWitt said in a research note on Monday.

Swathes of Houston were underwater on Monday, the effect of Harvey sweeping ashore on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in 50 years. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, but more rain is expected to fall on the fourth-largest U.S. city.

Damage caused by flooding is not included in standard homeowners insurance policies and is covered by the U.S. government.

However, flood damage to businesses is covered by commercial policies, said DeWitt, which could result in “meaningful losses for the commercial reinsurers and insurers.”

JPMorgan’s and other estimates are currently well below the $75 billion in insured losses caused by Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in 2005, but are likely to grow.

Shares of Travelers Companies Inc and Allstate Corp , two of the largest homeowners insurers in Texas, fell 2.6 percent and 1.5 percent respectively on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Pro-

n.c.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT Sponsored by

Get Inspired ColtraneStyle in High Point This Weekend

ADREES LATIF | REUTERS

Clouds from Hurricane Harvey are seen in the background as smoke rises from a burn off at an oil refinery in Corpus Christi, TX.

“Our best guess at this point is Harvey could result in $10 billion to $20 billion of industry insured losses, making it one of the top 10 most costly hurricanes to hit the United States.”

— Sarah DeWit, JPMorgan analyst

immediately after a catastrophic storm, but often beat the overall market once loss estimates become more accurate and insurers are able to stabilize or raise premium rates.

By contrast, insurance brokerage stocks, such as Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc, tend to rise immediately after a storm because such companies are not exposed to underwriting risk and a rise in premium rates boosts their commission income.

Shares of Marsh & McLennan, which bought one of the largest insurance brokerages in Texas in 2015, closed up 0.5 percent on Monday.

Houston is facing worsening flooding in the coming days as the storm dumps more rain on the city, swelling rivers to record levels and forcing federal engineers on Monday to release water from reservoirs in an effort to control the rushing currents.

Swiss Re said it is too early to gauge the full impact.

“There are so many areas that have been hit by devastating winds and now the massive flooding, and insurance adjusters are having to wait for first responders to simply

gressive Corp, a large auto insurer in Texas, fell 2.3 percent.

Harvey struck only days before senior insurance executives hold their annual meeting in Monte Carlo to haggle over reinsurance renewals as premiums remain stubbornly low across the industry.

“We think Harvey could help stabilize global reinsurance pricing, but do not expect a major turn in pricing to follow,” Kai Pan, an insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a research note on Monday.

Property and casualty insurance stocks tend to underperform See TEXAS, page A9

Listen Live Weekdays 9am - 11am

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Listen to the north state journal staff every monday at 10:05am

This Labor Day weekend, jazz and blues lovers will gather in High Point’s Oak Hollow Festival Park to soak up the relaxing and positive vibes of the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival. For the 7th year, the festival will bring together the world’s jazz superstars and thousands of their fans to celebrate and honor the musical legacy of North Carolina native John Coltrane. By many accounts, it’s an inspirational experience.

The music of Coltrane, who was born in Hamlet and raised in High Point, is said to stir up deep emotion from even casual jazz fans.

It seems Coltrane wanted it that way. According to the Official John Coltrane website, “Coltrane felt ... his music was an instrument to create positive thought patterns in the minds of people.”

Want to add some Coltrane-inspired positivity to your Labor Day weekend agenda? Get festival details and purchase tickets at coltranejazzfest.com.

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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Southern hospitality: Hilton Garden Inn opens new hotel in Jacksonville, NC An exterior view of the Hilton Garden Inn Akron.

New hotel to be one of the largest on the N.C. coast

By Emily Roberson North State Journal JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Travelers taking a tour of the South before summer wanes have a new hotel option in one of the busiest areas near North Carolina’s Crystal Coast.

This month, Hilton Garden Inn opens a new hotel in Jacksonville, North Carolina, designed to cater to the evolving needs of the modern traveler. Opening as the largest hotel in this city near North Carolina’s coast, this 128room property is located just minutes from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, one of the nation’s top military training facilities. Its 5,000-square-foot ballroom is being marketed by Hilton for conferences, conventions and social events.

“In cities large and small, across the U.S. and throughout the world, Hilton Garden Inn strives to be where our guests want us,” said John Greenleaf, global head, Hilton Garden Inn. “Like all of our properties worldwide, these two new hotels will offer the light, bright and airy experience, enhanced food and beverage offerings and exceptional guest experi-

PHOTO COURTESY OF HILTON GARDEN INN

ence that set us apart from other upscale lodging brands.”

The new hotel features the Hilton brand’s food and beverage options, which Greenleaf says seek to address consumers’ changing preferences for healthier and more on-trend menu choices, small plates, premium varietal wines, national and local craft beers, and handcrafted cocktails.

The Jacksonville hotel -- like the 720+ in the Hilton Garden Inn portfolio -- is part of Hilton

Honors, the guest-loyalty program for Hilton’s 14 distinct hotel brands. Members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels receive perks such as an exclusive member discount, free Wi-Fi and a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay. Members can also redeem their Points for free nights, to gain access to events through the Hilton Honors auction platform or to make pur-

chases with Amazon Shop with Points.

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company, with a portfolio of 14 worldwide brands comprising more than 5,000 properties with more than 825,000 rooms in 103 countries and territories. The Hilton Garden Inn hotel brand targets “business and leisure guests with upscale yet affordable accommodations and modern amenities,” says Greenleaf.

THE BRIEF Duke abandons plan for nuclear station Charlotte/Gaffney, S.C. Duke Energy has asked permission from the N.C. Utilities Commission to abandon plans for the Lee Nuclear Station in Gaffney, South Carolina and impose a 13.9 percent rate increase. The Charlotte-based utility asked regulators to allow it to recover at least $368 million in planning and pre-construction costs from N.C. customers over the next 12 years. The remaining $173 million it already spent would come from S.C. customers.

Duke announced the $11 billion project in 2005, collaborating with Southern Co., but the Atlanta company pulled out of the project shortly after. This comes on the heels of another S.C. utilities announcement regarding their decision to abandon two unfinished reactors that were once hailed as the start of a U.S. nuclear power renaissance before they were dogged by billions of dollars in cost overruns. Like the Duke nuclear station, the S.C. reactors were proposed a decade ago when U.S. policymakers expected more than a dozen new nuclear power plants to provide carbon-free electricity.

Customers welcome cheaper prices at Whole Foods Multiple locations Amazon kicked off its first day as the owner of Whole Foods by slashing prices, adding its logo on signs and setting up a stand of “farm fresh” Amazon Echo voice-assistant devices by store entrances. It’s just the first phase of the moves the e-commerce giant will make at the organic grocer after it completed the $13.7 billion deal on Monday. In some of the boldest changes, a half-gallon of milk was 50 cents cheaper at a Whole Foods in New York, ground beef was down by $2 a pound, and an organic avocado cost a dollar less than the day before. The company aims to make Amazon Prime the rewards program at Whole Foods and some Whole Foods products will show up on Amazon’s site. The deal could also spur big changes in how people shop for groceries overall, according to market analysts. Soon, shoppers at all stores will be able to tap Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime program to get discounts at stores.

And they will eventually be able to buy some Whole Foods products from Amazon.com. Lockers will be added in some locations so Amazon shoppers can pick up e-commerce orders or return items they don’t want.

Harvey creates ripple effect on national gas prices

RICK WILKINS | REUTERS

A woman leaves the doorway of a destroyed house after Hurricane Harvey struck Fulton, TX.

TEXAS from page A8 check on the safety and welfare of citizens,” said Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas.

Claims are expected to accelerate once Texas residents get their bearings.

“We have just over 2,000 claims across all lines of business,” said Farmers Insurance Group spokesman Trent Frager. “While that may sound low, residents who are evacuated haven’t (yet) been able to assess and report damage for claims handling.”

Meanwhile, the estimated business impact from Harvey is continuing to look dire for the area’s

vulnerable coastal oil refineries.

The sustained heavy rains and flooding threatened refineries along the Louisiana coast after hammering plants in Texas, forcing Exxon Mobil Corp and Citgo Petroleum to consider shutdowns.

The storm dropped back over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, sending heavy rains from Houston through to Lake Charles, Louisiana. Between five and 15 inches of rain was expected in south-central Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday.

The Gulf Coast is home to nearly half the U.S. refining capacity, and nearly 2.7 million barrels per day, or nearly 15 percent of U.S.

refining capacity, is already shut off. Restarting those plants even under the best conditions can take a week or more.

Louisiana is home to about 3.3 million barrels of daily capacity; Texas has about 5.6 million barrels.

U.S. gasoline futures on Tuesday rose 0.9 percent to $1.73 a gallon, and have jumped about 6 percent since last Wednesday’s pre-storm close. Heating oil futures, a proxy for diesel and other distillates, added 0.5 percent.

Fuel prices are expected to keep rising as refining capacity remains down because of the storm.

In cash trading on Monday, the

spread between Gulf Coast gasoline prices and benchmark futures hit a five-year high in anticipation of constrained supply.

The full impact of the refining outages, which began last week when Harvey slammed into Corpus Christi, Texas, and is now affecting Louisiana’s refining center, remained uncertain, analysts said.

“The current disruptions are affecting both demand and supply, making it difficult to assess the impact on balances at this point,” wrote analysts at JBC Energy.

Additional reporting by Erwin Seba for Reuters.

Houston As Harvey barreled into Texas on Friday, it was the strongest hurricane to hit the state at the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry in over 50 years. U.S. fuel prices surged on Monday as two more Gulf Coast refiners cut output and a third considered reductions, leaving more than 13 percent of the country’s refining capacity offline after Harvey flooded plants and shut seaports. On Friday, the EPA granted a temporary waiver until Sept. 15 to help ensure an adequate supply of gasoline is available in areas directly affected by the storm until normal supplies could be restored. On Saturday, the EPA expanded it to include the Dallas area. In a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sent on Saturday, the RFA asked EPA to relax Reid vapor pressure limits to 10 psi for all finished gasoline blended with ethanol in conventional and reformulated gasoline areas nationwide, through Sept. 15.

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

A10

north STATEment Neal Robbins, publisher | Ray Nothstine, opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

EDITORIAL | RAY NOTHSTINE

Saving Texas and America Already over 2,000 citizens of Houston have been rescued from the rising floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, many of them in dramatic fashion.

MANY OF THE IMAGES from the Texas Gulf Coast and its biggest city Houston are heartbreaking and haunting.

One eerie photo captured nursing home residents calmly sitting in waist deep water waiting for evacuation. Already over 2,000 citizens of Houston have been rescued from the rising floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, many of them in dramatic fashion. “This is a Texas-sized storm and we are pulling together with a Texas-sized response: neighbor to neighbor, house to house, street to street,” declared the state Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Some of the imagery is hard to watch. Yet it serves as a collective reminder of our responsibility to those in need, especially the more vulnerable due to age, disabilities or socioeconomic circumstances.

ABC News captured the armada of rescue boats maneuvering around stranded vehicles in Dickinson, Texas.

Photos of the renowned volunteer Cajun Navy headed to Texas plastered social media. I wrote about that spontaneous call to action during last year’s flooding in Southeast Louisiana.

The devastating flooding wreaking havoc along the Texas Gulf Coast is as a reminder of the importance of a robust civil society and how our nation is stronger when it is united and working together. Many of the rescued are not saved by professionals, but brave and quick thinking neighbors or volunteers patrolling the waters looking to save lives.

During natural disasters, much of the national media focuses on what the federal government is going to do and the efficiency of their response, especially in our post Hurricane Katrina America. However, the federal government often plays a more limited role in the initial catastrophe, and like Katrina, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, it will be America’s churches and charitable organizations that drive the most important and efficient relief and rebuilding efforts. This despite a FEMA budget that has gone from a little under $3 billion by the end of the 1990s to $22 billion annually.

In fact, FEMA administrator and Newton, North Carolina native Brock Long was adamant that “we need citizens involved” in Texas because the storms and flooding “are greater

than the government can handle.” Only about 13 percent of FEMA employees dispatched to the region are involved in search and rescue in Texas, and that number is up from past disasters. It was mostly parachurch disaster relief groups that literally cut through the rubble of Katrina to serve hot meals and clean water the day after that historic hurricane. After tornadoes decimated parts of Alabama and the Southeast in 2011, even the Red Cross deferred to the expertise of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) and called their hot mobile food trucks a “well-oiled machine.”

Many charitable organizations are equipped, unlike government, to cut through the massive tentacles of red tape to help people rebuild immediately, while truly understanding the need over a one size fits all bureaucracy. They too have an innate sense of calling and mission to go beyond merely taking care of the material needs of families and individuals.

Despite the heartbreak of disasters like Hurricane Harvey, images of people and communities across the nation coming together displays our strength. It’s a reminder too that America is stronger than our divisions, even when those rifts are constantly fanned by the media or certain political figures.

There are still many examples of petty citizens trying to foment political discord during a disaster, such as Keith Olbermann’s profanity laced response to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on social media, who had the gall to offer the people of Texas her thoughts and prayers. But it’s largely the civilians and the anonymous who remain the greatest heroes of Hurricane Harvey. America is great when its people have the freedoms and independence to help each other. Even the federal response is no match for the citizen armies of compassion and its vast network of charities.

EDITORIAL | FRANK HILL

The insurance company with an army “…future generations will have at least $22 trillion in national debt to deal with no matter what happens in the next four years.”

Think of the federal government as a gigantic insurance company (with a sideline business in national defense and homeland security), which does its accounting on a cash basis, only counting premiums and payouts as they go in and out the door. An insurance company with cash accounting . . . is an accident waiting to happen. -Former President George W. Bush Treasury official, Peter Fisher, 2003.

IT IS KNOWN in budget circles as “The government is an insurance company with an army” statement.

Is it true?

The U.S. federal budget is now 50 percent consumed by spending for Social Security, a social insurance program; Medicare and Medicaid, two of the largest health insurance programs in the country; and various other social safety net programs which act as insurance plans as well.

Except for one thing. None of these federal insurance programs operate as licensed sanctioned insurance plans as we see in the private sector where money is collected from the individual and invested or managed in a fiduciary manner to build assets to pay for claims in the future.

Money that goes to pay for Social Security claims of current retirees today comes directly from the payroll taxes of

current working Americans.

Money that goes to pay for Medicare claims of current retirees today is close to 90 percent paid for by payroll taxes and general fund tax revenues paid by current working Americans and active taxpayers.

The only part of Medicare health insurance coverage that is paid for by the participants, aside from the deductible, is the 25 percent of the Part B premium that pays for doctor bills. Part A payments for hospital expenses are 100 percent paid by payroll taxes of working Americans today.

Money that goes to pay for Medicaid coverage for our least well-off fellow citizens is 100 percent paid for by taxpayers at the federal and state level, an average of 67/33 split overall.

Since tax revenues are fungible and wind up being used for any and all government expenditures in reality, roughly 12 percent of every dollar spent in the federal budget is borrowed which means future generations will have at least $22 trillion in national debt to deal with no matter what happens in the next four years.

Given the massive amount of debt that has to be serviced in interest each year which accounts for 9 percent of all spending in the federal budget, the federal government is also the largest bond company in the world paying over $266 billion in net interest to holders of U.S. debt worldwide in 2016 alone.

If truth is told about our federal government today, we have “the largest insurance AND bond company in the world with an army.”

What does this mean to future generations of Americans?

Will they pay 100 percent of all of their income, payroll, excise, estate and corporate taxes to cover the social insurance programs plus interest in 15 years in 2032 to support their Boomer parents in retirement as currently projected?

Will they have to pay 25 percent more in taxes to maintain the status quo in federal social insurance programs?

What will happen to them if, and probably when, interest rates return to some sort of “normal” range of 5 percent on federal bonds? That will mean they will have to pay $1 trillion per year in net interest alone to service the national debt which will further compress any and probably all discretionary domestic program from building roads to keeping our environment clean.

Our current national debate has been dominated by politically charged issues since the 2016 election. The big issue we have failed to elevate to a national discussion stage is how are we going to change our government spending so our future will be bright for our children and grandchildren.

It is a discussion we need to have.

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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GUEST OPINION | RAJ ANDREW GOSHAL

Fake history: It’s time to remove memorials that erase our past Most monuments to the Lost Cause should be moved from courthouses and parks to museums, where they can be fully contextualized.

AS A SCHOLAR of commemoration and race, I’ve spent years researching how America remembers slavery, the Civil War and segregation. In graduate school, I became intrigued with the hidden history of the decades following the war.

As I immersed myself in research on this period, I was repeatedly struck by how little most of us learn about its key events. For instance, I learned that Reconstruction-era Mississippi sent African Americans to the U.S. Senate - a distinction that to this day, only five states have matched. I discovered that slavery was never fully outlawed in the United States, and that well-developed slaverylike systems persisted in some areas into the 20th Century.

Knowledge of this past reshaped my understanding of American history more broadly.

While our society’s awareness of this era is scarcer than I’d like, its total disappearance would be an incalculable loss.

So in recent debates over Confederate memorials, I’ve been heartened to hear politicians argue that we shouldn’t “erase history.” I agree.

Unfortunately, memorials’ defenders are drawing exactly the wrong conclusion from their premise.

Simply stated, the problem is this: it is the memorials themselves that erase history. That is, most Confederate statues and monuments aren’t history. They’re fake history, worse than no history at all. Let me explain.

Real historic representation involves an evidencebased, fair accounting of the past so that it can be better understood. This includes not merely discrete events, such as “soldiers from our state fought and died for a cause,” but also their context.

Most Confederate memorials are missing context to such a degree that they reduce viewers’ understanding of the past more than augment it.

Without slavery, economic tensions between the North and South would not have boiled over into war.

Yet to my knowledge, not a single memorial mentions that the Confederacy waged war so that some human beings could physically, economically, and sexually exploit, torture and kill other human beings with impunity.

What’s more, the U.S. Constitution is specific: treason consists “only in levying war against” the United States. As soldiers who took up arms for the Confederacy did so against the United States, they were traitors. This fact, too, is absent from our embattled memorials.

To be sure, soldiers for the rebellion were moved in part by ideas of honor, duty and loyalty. But the same could be said of Germans who fought for their fatherland under Nazism, or of modern-day terrorists

who kill in the name of religion.

Germany and Iraq revere honor and loyalty as much as we do, but they do not host many memorials that venerate Nazis and suicide bombers.

Because the outcry against “erasing history” ignores that the Confederacy used illegal methods in the service of immoral ends, I’ve come to suspect that the furor is not about preserving historical knowledge. Perhaps it instead reveals a hunger to cast our ancestors in the most positive light possible, regardless of the truth – that is, a hunger for fake history. If so, this is unfortunate.

It is vital that we understand how millions of our predecessors, nearly all of whom saw themselves as honorable Americans, were convinced to kill fellow citizens in defense of an evil system. Our memorials should invite us to reflect on this question.

If they instead erase history in favor of a defensive, insecure refusal to recognize that parts of what our forebears did were horrifically wrong, what hope do we have of moving beyond their mistakes?

So how should we mark this troubled past?

Most monuments to the Lost Cause should be moved from courthouses and parks to museums, where they can be fully contextualized. In some sites, we might replace these icons with figures that honor fighters against slavery and segregation. Some memorials that focus on rebel soldiers’ sacrifices might be kept on wider display, though only if sufficient context is given.

This shift could yield a fuller story of our past, while at the same time signaling a commitment to move beyond past mistakes.

There is one other way our misleading memorials could be useful.

In my hometown of Durham, protestors toppled a Confederate soldier figure. Like many of its brethren, the memorial lacked local connection, said nothing of the war’s context or causes, and was erected decades after the war during a wave of white supremacist violence. Its purpose was to distort the past as a means to control the present and future.

But where this statue failed as both historical representation and moral symbol, its remains might yet succeed.

What better way to commit ourselves to real history than by placing a new marker, telling a fuller story of the war, of the fallen memorial’s role in occluding history, and of the day we rejected it as a distorting symbol of white supremacy, at the statue’s original site - just above its crumbled remains?

Raj Andrew Ghoshal (rghoshal@elon.edu) is an assistant professor of sociology at Elon University in Elon, N.C.

Police wearing riot gear guard a statue of a Confederate soldier nicknamed Silent Sam on the campus of the University of North Carolina during a demonstration for its removal in Chapel Hill, N.C.

JONATHAN DRAKEI | REUTERS

CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES

STATEMENTS THAT MATTER Congressman Walter Jones is the U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. The excerpt below is a selection from his August 22 press release following President Donald Trump’s address outlining his strategy to continue the war in Afghanistan.

History shows that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. America has been digging its own grave there for 16 years, and it is disappointing to see this administration and congressional leaders in Washington intend to keep digging.

Over 2,200 American lives have been lost. Eight hundred billion of American taxpayers’ money has been squandered. How many more Americans must we lose? How many more billions must we waste? There has been no real progress, and we still can’t define how to measure success in Afghanistan. Enough is enough.

For far too long, congressional leadership on both sides of the

OMAR SOBHANI | REUTERS

aisle has aided and abetted the massive waste, fraud and abuse in Afghanistan. They’ve worked to keep the money spigot open and to block debate on the issue. That cannot continue. It is time for the American

public and their representatives to stand up and demand that Congress stop abdicating its constitutional responsibility. It is time for Congress to debate and vote on our future in Afghanistan.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS

Racial lies and racism ARLIER THIS MONTH, The New York Times ran an article titled “U.S. Rights E Unit Shifts to Study Antiwhite Bias” on its front page. The article says that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department’s civil rights division is going to investigate and sue universities whose affirmative action admissions policies discriminate against white applicants. This is an out-and-out lie.

The truth is that the U.S. departments of Justice and Education plan to investigate racial bias in admissions at Harvard and other elite institutions where AsianAmericans are held to far higher standards than other applicants. This type of practice was used during the first half of the 20th century to limit the number of Jews at Harvard and other Ivy League schools.

Drs. Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Radford documented discrimination against Asians in their 2009 award-winning book, “No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life.” Their research demonstrated that, when controlling for other variables, Asian students faced considerable odds against their admission. To be admitted to elite colleges, Asians needed SAT scores 140 points higher than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks. An Asian applicant with an SAT score of 1500 (out of a possible 1600 on the old SAT) had the same chance of being admitted as a white student with a 1360 score, a Latino with a 1230 and a black student with a 1050 score.

Another way of looking at it is that among applicants who had the highest SAT scores (within the 1400-1600 range), 77 percent of blacks were admitted, 48 percent of Hispanics, 40 percent of whites and only 30 percent of Asians.

To be admitted to elite colleges, Asians needed SAT scores 140 points higher than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks.

The case of Austin Jia is typical of what happens to Asian students. In 2015, Jia graduated from high school and had a nearly perfect score of 2340 out of 2400 possible points on the new SAT. His GPA was 4.42, and he had taken 11 Advanced Placement courses in high school. He had been on his school’s debate team, been the tennis team’s captain and played the violin in the all-state orchestra. His applications for admission were rejected at Harvard, Princeton and Columbia universities, as well as at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jia said that his rejection was particularly disturbing when certain classmates who had lower scores but were not AsianAmerican like him were admitted to those Ivy League schools.

California universities present an interesting case. At one time, they also discriminated against Asians in admissions, but now it’s a different story. As of 2008, Asians made up 40 percent of the students enrolled at UCLA and 43 percent at the University of California, Berkeley.

Last school year, 42 percent of students at Caltech were Asian. You might ask what accounts for the high numbers. It turns out that in 1996, Proposition 209 (also known as the California Civil Rights Initiative) was approved by California voters. The measure amended the state constitution to prohibit state governmental institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education.

The experience of California, where racially discriminatory admissions policy has been reduced, suggests that if Ivy League universities were prohibited from using race as a factor in admissions, the Asian-American admissions rate would rise while the percentages of white, black and Hispanic students would fall.

Diversity-crazed college administrators would throw a hissy fit. By the way, diversity-crazed administrators are willing accomplices in the nearly total lack of racial diversity on their basketball teams.

It’s not unusual to watch games in which there’s not a single white, Hispanic or Asian player.

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz says, “The idea of discriminating against Asians in order to make room for other minorities doesn’t seem right as a matter of principle.” Dershowitz is absolutely right, but he goes astray when he argues that investigating discrimination against whites raises a different set of questions.

He says, “Generically, whites have not been the subject of historic discrimination.”

Dershowitz’s vision fails to see people as humans, because what human is deserving of racial discrimination?

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

NEWS IN IMAGES

HEINO KALIS | REUTERS

Revelers play with fireworks during the annual “Corda” festival in the village of Paterna near Valencia, Spain.

WOLFGANG RATTAY | REUTERS

A cosplayer dressed as a jailer of the action role-playing video game Dark Souls III poses during the world’s largest computer games fair, Gamescom, in Cologne, Germany.

FAYAZ AZIZ | REUTERS

Men lead a recently purchased camel by a car, ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival in Peshawar, Pakistan.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2016

Another App St. upset?

The Mountaineers travel to Georgia looking to slay an SEC giant in their Week 1 game. Page 3.

SPORTS COLLEGE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

NC State’s Jaylen Samuels tries to fight off Wake Forest defensive back Jessie Bates after catching a pass last Oct. 1 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. The Wolfpack play in Charlotte against South Carolina Saturday, while Wake Forest opens its campaign Thursday by hosting Presbyterian.

the Wednesday SIDELINE REPORT COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Money flows both ways in NCAA’s opening week You can’t always tell the winners of early-season college football games by the numbers on the scoreboard. In many cases, the real winners are the teams that get large sums of guaranteed money just to show up and play. Appalachian State, for instance, will bank a cool $1.25 million to take on Georgia in Athens on Saturday, according to research done by USA Today. James Madison will pocket a $300,000 payout from East Carolina for its game in Greenville while California will get $200,00 for making the cross-country trip to UNC. NC State, meanwhile, can make as much as $2.5 million for its neutral site game against South Carolina in Charlotte, depending on how many tickets are sold.

EQUESTRIAN

N.C. hosts USEA American Eventing Championship Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring is hosting the USEA American Eventing Championships this week, with a record number of competitors entered. The competition began Tuesday with the amateur and junior dressage divisions and will run through the weekend with the cross-country and show jumping finals. Held annually, the AEC draws competitors from across the country to vie for national titles from the Beginner Novice through the Advanced level. Tickets for all events can be purchased at http://tryon.coth.com/ directory/List/type/263.

NC State looks to fill hole at cornerback heading into opener Saturday’s game against South Carolina could justify the hype surrounding the Wolfpack

By Shawn Krest North State Journal RALEIGH — NC State enters the season with high expectations.

The Wolfpack have a talented, experienced defense, led by one of the best defensive lines in recent memory.

“Our front four has been talked about a lot,” coach Dave Doeren said.

Behind the line is a strong linebacking corps.

“The linebacker position has probably the best depth in rotation that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Doeren said.

There’s the old saying about the weakest link in a chain, however, and unless the front seven can get a sack every time the opponent drops back to pass, an inexperienced Wolfpack secondary will get tested.

With the opening game against South Carolina looming, that test got a bit tougher for the State defensive backs.

“It was a strange, routine deal,” Doeren said about a play at practice last week where senior cornerback Mike Stevens was defending receiver Stephen Louis on a goalline play. “They were doing what DBs and wideouts do, having contact near the goal line on a fade — I don’t know the exact route.”

Stevens went down after the play, and everyone held their

breath.

“It didn’t look like one of those things where you’re saying, ‘Oh my God, he blew his knee out,’” Doeren said. “It just looked like a bone bruise or a strain.”

Officially, it’s a “lower leg injury” for Stevens, and it will keep him out of Saturday’s showdown at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

The good news is that Stevens will return from the injury.

“He’s doing much better than expected,” Doeren said. “It’s not surgical. He won’t miss a ton of time. He’s lifting. He’s bending.

He’s doing really well. … We were lucky. Any time you have something that’s nonsurgical, and you can get a guy back, especially a senior, I feel good.”

In the short term, however, it creates a major hurdle against South Carolina. The Gamecocks return 97 percent of their receiving production from last season, and they’re led by junior Deebo Samuel. A member of the All-SEC first team in the preseason, Samuel had a school- and bowl-record 14 catches in last season’s Birmingham Bowl, putting up 190 yards.

“They’re very good at receiver,” Doeren said. “We have a challenge.

An opportunity is how I’d look at it. The one thing I would tell you is we have a really good receiving corps here. Every day, you’re playing Kelvin Harmon and Stephen Louis, so I don’t think they’re going to be saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never covered a guy like this beSee NCSU, page B3

NFL

Rivera on Newton: “Won’t know till the opener” Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera is waiting like everyone else to see if his quarterback will be ready to start the season. Cam Newton, recovering from a torn rotator cuff, has played just one drive through three preseason games. “You really won’t know till the opener,” Rivera said Tuesday of Newton’s status.

“Just the way it is.”

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

NC State head coach Dave Doeren talks with Emanuel McGirt Jr. after spring football practice at the team’s practice facility March 24 in Raleigh.

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Chazz Surratt (12) runs the ball during the annual Spring Football Game at Fetzer Field on April 8 in Chapel Hill.

Fedora still mum on who — or how many — will play at quarterback Tar Heels host California in season opener with several options under center

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal

the equation to replace Mitch Trubisky, the second overall selection in this year’s NFL draft.

Asked Monday if the shuffling and continued uncertainty was the result of quarterback candidates being so good or so bad, Fedora chuckled and said, “I guess Saturday will determine that, won’t it?

“The extension of it,” he said of the ongoing competition for the job, “has been because nobody has separated themselves.”

Of all the candidates, though, one is on a faster and higher trajectory than the others. Surratt’s rapid rise up the pecking order since the start of camp has solidified Fedora’s belief that he’s a star in the making and that he might be ready to take over the team’s leadership role sooner rather than later.

“I think he's gotten quite a bit better than he was last year,” Fedora said of the 2015 Parade Magazine national high school Player of the Year. “I think that is just a full year into it and understanding the expectations and how we practice and what the focus has to be each day to be an elite quarterback.

“Sitting behind Trubisky for a year and watching him and watching how he approached each and every day and what he did was really good for him.”

Surratt came to UNC as the crown jewel of Fedora’s 2016 recruiting class after setting state prep records with 16,593 career yards and 229 combined passing and rushing touchdowns. The du-

CHAPEL HILL — Larry Fedora said at the start of training camp that the competition for North Carolina’s starting quarterback job would continue until one of the four candidates separated himself from the others.

With less than a week to go before Saturday’s season opener against California, that separation still hasn’t happened. Or perhaps the Tar Heels coach, as he’s done in the past, is just prolonging the suspense by waiting until the last minute to go public with his decision.

Either way, someone will have to be under center for the first snap.

If the depth chart issued by UNC on Monday is any indication, it could be either graduate transfer Brandon Harris, heralded redshirt freshman Chazz Surratt or sophomore Nathan Elliott — all of whom have the word OR in bold capital letters next to their names. But Fedora isn’t tipping his hand on who will start or how many quarterbacks will play against the Bears at Kenan Stadium.

“We could go with one, we could go with two, we could go with three,” Fedora said. “We could possibly go with four.”

Redshirt freshman Logan Byrd is the other quarterback in See UNC, page B3

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

B2 WEDNESDAY

08.30.17

TRENDING

Art Briles: The disgraced former Baylor football coach landed a new job Monday with the Hamilton TigerCats of the Canadian Football League, but the team reversed course later in the day, calling the original move “a serious mistake.”

Julian Edelman: Tom Brady and the Patriots lost a key offensive weapon when an MRI Saturday revealed the gritty receiver would miss the 2017 NFL season with an ACL tear in his right knee. The 32-year-old had 1,106 receiving yards last season, though just one catch for 2 yards in New England’s Super Bowl LI win.

Kyrie Irving: The former Duke star was dealt to Boston from Cleveland in a blockbuster trade that sent fellow All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas back to the Cavaliers.

But concerns over Thomas’ injured hip have the Cavs asking for more from the Celtics — including wanting 2017 third overall pick Jayson Tatum, a Duke product.

Jaromir Jagr: The 45-year-old future Hall of Famer wants to play in 2017-18 but is still looking for a home. The Calgary Flames have been mentioned as his most likely destination, but Jagr — who had 46 points while playing in all 82 games for Florida last season — is still in limbo.

Adam Jones: The Orioles center fielder hit his 25th home run of the season Monday, the seventh-straight season he’s hit at least that many. That gives Jones the tiebreaker over Hall of Famer Cal Ripkin Jr., who had six consecutive seasons with 25 or more home runs from 1982 until 1987 with Baltimore.

beyond the box score POTENT QUOTABLES

“I can not remember being this upset with a company as I am feeling now with @FrontierCorp / messed up our Fight party !Thnx FRONTIER”

BOXING

The fight that pitted one of the all-time best against an MMA opponent making his pro boxing debut ended as expected when Floyd Mayweather Jr. scored a 10th-round technical knockout of Conor McGregor early Sunday in Las Vegas. The win sent Mayweather into retirement at 50-0, passing Rocky Marciano’s unbeaten mark of 49-0.

Legendary college basketball analyst Dick Vitale (@DickieV) went on a 12-tweet tirade against cable provider Frontier when he — along with lots of other fight fans — had trouble viewing the Mayweather-McGregor bout and reaching customer service. He graded them “a flat out F.”

“It reminds me of seeing Barry [Bonds] years ago, when I was in the other dugout watching him do what he was doing.”

Padres manager Andy Green after Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton hit a tiebreaking home run — his 50th of the season — against San Diego on Sunday.

BASEBALL

13 Number of times the Durham Bulls have won the International League South Division in the 20 years they’ve been in the league, after clinching Thursday night. The Bulls have almost as many division titles as the other South Division winners have playoff games over that span: Norfolk: 15 games, Richmond/ Gwinnett: 13 games, Charlotte: 11 games.

MARK J. REBILAS | USA TODAY SPORTS

TENNIS

NASCAR

ROBERT DEUTSCH | USA TODAY SPORTS

RANDY SARTIN | USA TODAY SPORTS

After a week off, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup resumes Sunday with a trip to Darlington Raceway for the Bojangles’ Southern 500. It’s the penultimate race before the 10-race Chase for the Championship starts at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 17.

Maria Sharapova returned to tennis after a 15-month doping ban and picked up where she left off, knocking off world No. 2 Simona Halep on Monday in the first round of the U.S. Open. Sharapova, who was granted a wild card entry, won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

NFL

Suspended Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott’s long-shot effort to have his six-game ban for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy overturned on appeal began Tuesday.

Harold Henderson, a former league executive, is the NFL-appointed arbitrator for the appeal. Elliott, who was suspended for alleged domestic violence against a former girlfriend, could continue his appeal to federal court if the NFL doesn’t reduce or overturn his suspension.

TIM HEITMAN | USA TODAY SPORTS

Always Dry. Always Comfortable.

introducing the NEW 29 Express

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Find us on

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

B3

COLLEGE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

App State hopes to start season with SEC upset

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal

Appalachian State at Georgia

A LOT HAS changed in the 10 years since Appalachian State shocked Michigan in front of 100,000-plus at the Big House in what is generally considered the greatest upset in college football history.

The Mountaineers are no longer a plucky little FCS team hoping to knock off one of the big boys with a slingshot and a prayer. They’ve evolved into a full-fledged FBS member coming off back-to-back 10-win seasons, with a conference title to their credit.

One thing that hasn’t changed is their tradition of taking on some of college football’s most venerable blue bloods. Over the past few years, they’ve gone head-to-head with the likes of LSU, Clemson, Tennessee and Miami — taking the Volunteers to overtime in Knoxville before falling a year ago.

So while coach Scott Satterfield and his would-be giant killers will be a decided underdog when they venture between the hedges to play Georgia in Athens on Saturday, the one thing they won’t be is intimidated.

“I like our guys. I like the way our guys have been playing, and I think our guys will be able to go out and make some plays,” Satterfield said Monday on the Sun Belt

when Saturday, 6:15 p.m. where Sanford Stadium, Athens, Ga. watch ESPN

Conference’s weekly teleconference. “We’ve got to execute and do the things we’ve been teaching them to do, and I think they will.”

App State should be well-schooled in Satterfield’s teachings, with its starting quarterback, leading rusher and top receiver all back from last year’s Camellia Bowl championship team. Taylor Lamb completed 60.6 percent of his passes in 2016 for 2,281 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Jalin Moore ran for 1,450 yards and 10 scores while Shaedon Meadors caught 45 passes for 716 yards.

All that experience, though, will only go so far against an opponent that is the preseason favorite to win the SEC East.

“The experience they have coming back is one of the things that for us, is making it really challenging because those guys have played so much ball and really been a solid football team,” Satterfield said. “Anytime you bring back a quarterback, two running backs like they have and a defense that’s loaded with guys that have played a ton of football, it’s going to be challenging. But it’s one our kids are looking forward to.”

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTS

Appalachian State quarterback Taylor Lamb returns under center for the Mountaineers this season.

MATT CASHORE | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Duke quarterback Daniel Jones throws a pass in the Blue Devils’ win at Notre Dame last season.

Duke, Daniel Jones count on stability against NC Central

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

N.C. Central at Duke

DURHAM — Duke has the same opening opponent as last season and that’s not the only thing that’s the same for the Blue Devils.

“A year ago, 2016 was the year of the new,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said.

“We had a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive line coach, new offensive line coach, new special teams coordinator. New, new, new.”

This year, there was a little more stability in the offseason, which made the preseason that much easier.

“This year, I couldn’t wait to go watch practice,” he said. “To be focused on football, not on staff or anything else.”

When Duke takes the field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday, against crosstown foe N.C. Central, there will be one other area of stability — the starting quarterback.

Remarkably, sophomore Daniel Jones, who was named the starter late in preseason camp last year, is now the longest-tenured quarterback in the ACC Coastal Division.

What a difference a year makes. Teammates voted Jones one of Duke’s four captains for 2017. The other three — center Austin Davis, defensive end Mike Ramsey and defensive back Bryon Fields, are all

when Saturday, 6 p.m. where Wallace Wade Stadium, Durham watch ACC Network

fifth-year seniors.

“He’s much different from a year ago,” Cutcliffe said. “A year ago, he had no idea he was the starter. There’s no question who’s the leader on our offense, right now.

Daniel Jones knows more about what we’re doing, knows more about how to do it. What we’re starting to see from him is I want to see his demands met. In the end, it’s either good or bad based on him, and so you better be demanding in that position. I’m counting on that.”

Jones will get to show how much he’s advanced in one year, against the same opponent that he had for his collegiate debut last season.

Against the Eagles, Jones had a clean 10-of-15 passing day for 189 yards and two touchdowns. There were rough times as the year went on, but Jones bounced back.

“One of the things Daniel proved is that any great player has to learn to fail and return quickly,” Cutcliffe said. “He has proven that he can do that. You’re going to have some rocky roads, but he’s a special young man and outstanding talent.”

ECU vs. James Madison

Wake Forest vs. Presbyterian

Charlotte vs. Eastern Michigan

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday, 6 p.m. | ESPN3

BB& T Field Thursday, 6:30 p.m. | ACC Network Extra

Rynearson Stadium Saturday, 6:30 p.m. | ESPN3

Preview: This is no cupcake opener for the Pirates, who are anxious to put last year’s 3-9 season behind them. James Madison, the defending FCS national champion, returns many of its weapons from an offense that averaged 46.6 points per game while going 14-1 in 2016.

Players to watch: Graduate transfer DE Gaelin Elmore was brought in to improve ECU’s pass rush, which had only eight sacks last season. His ability to get pressure on the quarterback will be important against the Dukes, whose senior QB Bryan Schor completed 73 percent of his passes last season for 3,002 yards, 29 touchdowns and only six interceptions.

Fast fact: JMU will be without six players for Saturday’s game, all of whom were suspended for a violation of team rules.

What to expect: Clemson transfer Korrin Wiggins and Auburn transfer Tim Irvin have added Power Five talent to ECU’s defensive backfield, and both will be tested by a proven JMU offense. This could be a pivotal game for ECU with matchups against West Virginia, Virginia Tech and South Florida coming in the next three weeks.

Preview: The Deacons look to build on the improvement that saw them win seven games, including an upset of AAC champion Temple in the Military Bowl last year. An opening night FCS opponent that won just two games in 2016 should allow for a fast start.

Players to watch: Senior John Wolford emerged from a preseason battle with redshirt sophomore Kendall Hinton to win the starting quarterback job for the fourth straight year. Wolford leads all returning ACC quarterbacks in career passing yards with 5,602.

Presbyterian’s top offensive threat is second-team AllBig South WR DaShawn Davis, who compiled a teamleading 975 all-purpose yards in 2016.

Fast fact: Tommy Spangler returns for his second tenure as Presbyterian’s head coach after spending the past four seasons as the team’s defensive coordinator.

He was 42-24 with the Blue Hose between 2001-06 before leaving to become defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech.

What to expect: This game figures to be little more than a glorified scrimmage for the Deacons, who should have an opportunity to sharpen their execution while also getting a lot of players some valuable game experience.

Preview: Eastern Michigan’s 7-6 season ended with a trip to Nassau for the Bahamas Bowl, the first bowl bid in 29 years for the Eagles. Charlotte finished the season with a three-game losing streak, costing the 49ers a chance at its first FBS bowl bid.

Last September, EMU topped Charlotte, 37-19.

Players to watch: Senior WR Johnnie Niupalau helped pace EMU’s win over Charlotte last year with a 49-yard touchdown catch, one of four on the year.

For Charlotte, sophomore RB Robert Washington had the only 100-yard rushing game of his career against EMU. Fast fact: Do not adjust your set. Eastern Michigan is one of two teams in FBS to play on an alternatively-colored field. While Boise State’s blue turf is more famous, the grey turf at Rynearson Stadium gives an old-school black & white feel to the game.

What to expect: The 49ers want to break through with a bowl trip, and the opener seems like a winnable game to get them off on the right foot.

With a trip to Kansas State coming up next, it’s probably as close to a must-win as an opener can be.

— Brett Friedlander

— Shawn Krest

— Brett Friedlander

NCSU from page B1 fore.’ They’ll be ready.”

Doeren has plenty of options for replacing Stevens in the opener. The top candidates are: Sophomore Nick McCloud: “He played in the last two games (last season),” Doeren said. “He has good length. He had a good offseason, gained a lot of weight, which he needed to do.”

Redshirt senior and former receiver Jonathan Alston: “He redshirted last year and moved to DB,” Doeren said. “He did it for this reason. We thought that this would be a season that Jonathan could be a really good player on that side of the football, if he took advantage of his year in the development program. He did that. He was our scout team player of the year last year. He’s excited to play. He played a lot of football here at wide receiver. He’s made plays. He’s scored touchdowns. This isn’t gonna be a deal where he’s nervous.”

Redshirt senior Nicholas Lacy: “He’s earned a scholarship. He provides you a guy that has incredible trustworthiness. We know we can put Nick in a game at any time and he’s going to execute the call.”

South Carolina vs. NC State when Saturday, 3 p.m. where Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte watch ACC Network

Redshirt freshman Bryce Banks: “He’s come a long way. He was 165 pounds when he got here. He was a January enrollee. He’s 190-some pounds now. He’s 6-foot-2. He’s played nickel, safety and corner. He’s had a good camp. Had a groin injury early on and missed a little time, but he came back and he’s doing well.”

Redshirt freshman James Valdez: “He’s grown up a lot. I’m proud of him. (Last year) I had to suspend him for academic reasons.

He just got an A in summer school. He’s earned his way back.”

Whichever player fills in for Stevens on Saturday, they can expect to see Samuel coming his way, looking for that weak link on State’s big-name defense.

“Now they’ve got to make plays,” Doeren said. “That’s the one thing when you watch Deebo. That guy makes plays on the ball. So we’ve really got to go up with two hands and be strong and fight for the football.”

UNC from page B1 al-threat athlete was originally slated to take over as the Tar Heels’ starter in 2018, but all that changed when Trubisky unexpectedly emerged as a top NFL prospect and left a year early.

Faced with the possibility of being caught without a game-ready quarterback this season, Fedora brought in Harris from LSU as a potential stopgap.

It’s a decision he said he would make again even if he’d have anticipated Surratt’s rapid emergence.

“I would have done it exactly like we did it," Fedora said. "I wouldn’t have changed that because Brandon brings something that none of the guys have, his game experience. We needed somebody in that room with game experience.”

Even though he started 12 games over the past two seasons at LSU, Harris still had to learn an entirely new offense when he arrived in Chapel Hill this summer. He struggled early with things such as footwork and the terminology of the Tar Heels’ spread attack, but he has impressed Fedora with his ability to pick up on things quickly.

“He's improved quite a bit in the few

California at UNC when Saturday, 12:20 p.m. where Kenan Memorial Stadium, Chapel Hill watch ACC Network

weeks that he has been here just as far as the communication and understanding the offense and what we expect," Fedora said.

"I am comfortable with where he is right now."

He’s also comfortable with waiting until the 11th hour before deciding who will start the opening game. It’s something he did two seasons ago with favorable results — when Marquise Williams eventually beat out Trubisky and led UNC to 11 wins and an ACC Coastal Division title.

“It’s very similar, other than that year it was probably just two guys that really had a legitimate shot,” Fedora said. “I think we have an opportunity to have more guys than just two this year.

“We’ve got guys that are competing for a job. We were hoping somebody would separate sooner than now. It hasn’t happened.

That doesn’t change our plan, the way we go forward.”

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

B4 PANTHERS BREAKDOWN

A look at preseason week 3 Position battles become clearer in penultimate preseason game

Tournament’s top seed cruises to title without losing a set

By Shawn Krest North State Journal THE PANTHERS topped the Jaguars 24-23 in the third game of the preseason Thursday in Jacksonville. They close out the preseason with a home game against Pittsburgh this Thursday.

By The Sports XChange

Starters Cam Newton made his first start of preseason, completing both passes on a touchdown drive in his only series. Jonathan Stewart had 39 yards on five carries. Kelvin Benjamin had four catches for 36 yards and a score.

Draft picks Running back Christian McCaffrey had seven rushes for 21 yards and one catch for 12. He showed good change of direction on a run up the middle and fought for yards after contact. The team looked at him on three punt returns with little success. He went backward on the first return, missed a tackle on a fake punt the second time, and was blown up by a tackler on the third.

Receiver Curtis Samuel saw his first action after missing the first two games with a bad hamstring.

He had four catches for 15 yards, and it appears that the team will try to get him the ball at the line of scrimmage on a quick out and have him use his speed to produce yards.

Defensive back Corn Elder missed his third game with an injury.

Offensive lineman Taylor Moton appears to have lost the battle for starting right tackle to Daryl Williams. He entered the game for one series in the second quarter, then handled the second half.

Defensive end Daeshon Hall was held out after suffering a minor injury earlier in the week. Undrafted free agents Bryan Cox and Efe Obada, both of whom have had strong preseasons, made the most of the extra time. Cox recorded a sack, and Obada was around the quarterback on several plays.

Fullback Alex Armah again received very limited time, not a good sign for his chances to avoid a year on practice squad. He caught a screen pass for a long gain up the sideline, but his two penalties on punt returns — for a block in the back and running into the kicker — are likely what will stick in coaches’ minds.

Kicker Harrison Butker didn’t get an opportunity to kick for

Spain’s Bautista Agut sweeps Dzumhur in Winston-Salem Open

REINHOLD MATAY | USA TODAY SPORTS

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin (13) celebrates with running back Jonathan Stewart (28) after scoring a touchdown during Thursday’s preseason game at Jacksonville Jaguars.

points, thanks to the team’s repeated two-point attempts late in the game. He had one touchback on three kickoffs. Another kick went to the 7-yard line and resulted in a long return. The third went eight yards deep into the end zone but was taken out for another long return. Butker added a missed tackle on the latter kick, just to make matters worse.

Position battles Right tackle: Williams started and remained in with the rest of the first-string line. Barring injury, he appears to have fended off Moton for the job.

Kicker: Veteran Graham Gano had a PAT and a 31-yard field goal.

He also had a touchback and a pooch kick to the 12 that was only returned for six yards. The game was a big win in his quest to hold off Butker.

Punter: After Michael Palardy appeared to pull ahead last week, Andy Lee rallied. Palardy had a net of 39, thanks to a punt that rolled into the end zone. Lee had a 49-yard net on three punts.

Third wide receiver: Russell Shepard had a head-to-head showdown with Devin Funchess late in the third quarter. Funchess made a leaping catch, followed by another leaning grab where he was able to stay upright and fight for yards. Im-

mediately afterward, Shepard was targeted on three straight throws with no successful catches. Two went off his hands, including one where he may have heard footsteps and slowed.

Slot cornerback: Captain Munnerlyn saw the field first and once again didn’t get targeted on many plays. He had a tackle on the one reception he gave up. Zack Sanchez again struggled with missed tackles, but he had a 47-yard return on an interception and also broke up a pass on the goal line.

Safety depth: After an impressive game last week, L.J. McCray sat out with injury. Colin Jones had two big tackles on punt coverage, including a shoestring tackle on the fake.

Dezmen Southward was consistently one of the first men down on kick and punt coverage, but he didn’t bring down the returner.

WINSTON-SALEM — Roberto Bautista Agut won his second ATP World Tour title of the year and his sixth overall with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Damir Dzumhur in the final of the Winston-Salem Open on Saturday in Winston-Salem.

After reaching the final in the event last year, Bautista Agut changed his fortunes against Dzumhur, a first-time finalist in an ATP World Tour tournament. Dzumhur is also the first player from Bosnia-Herzegovina to play in a final.

Bautista Agut, ranked No. 15 in the world, matched a career best with a second tournament title in one season. His other championship this year came at the Chennai Open in January in India.

Last year, Bautista Agut was beaten by Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in the Winston-Salem final.

"I wanted to make the final and get the title, so it's been a fantastic week for me," Bautista Agut said. "It's been a great year for me. I feel good playing here on this court. It's a great tournament and great preparation for the U.S. Open."

In the final tuneup before the U.S. Open that starts Monday, Bautista Agut established a 4-1 lead in the first set before Dzumhur fought back. But Bautista Agut recovered to break Dzumhur's serve to close out the

opening set.

Bautista Agut jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set before Dzumhur pulled even at 3-3.

The Spaniard went back in front 5-3 and dropped the next game before rebounding to put Dzumhur away and close out the set. Dzumhur, who played 11 matches in the past 12 days, sent a forehand return long on Bautista Agut's first match point.

"After he broke back in both sets I needed to manage the nerves, stay calm and be focused," Bautista Agut said. "I was a bit nervous after losing my serve, but I managed it well."

Bautista Agut was the first player in the seven-year history of the tournament who did not drop a set all week in any of his six matches on the way to the title.

"I'm so happy; It's been a great week. I didn't drop a set and I played very good tennis," Bautista Agut said. "It was a tough final. He's playing very smart, he changes the rhythm and plays very tricky. I was very focused and very solid."

Dzumhur was pleased after a career-best finish on the major tour.

"I fell behind 0-3 in both sets and it's not easy to win sets from there, especially against a player like Roberto, who didn't drop a set all week," Dzumhur said.

"He played the big points so well, especially at 4-all in both sets. I made some good points, but he hit some great passing shots.

"He was a little better today.

My legs were giving up in a few points, but I was trying to fight till the end."

Local college guys Linebacker Jeremy Cash (Duke) is on every first-team special team unit, a good sign for his roster chances. He also had several tackles on defense.

ECU linebacker Zeek Bigger, NC State receiver Trevor Graham and Charlotte receiver Austin Duke all saw their snaps vastly reduced, which could mean bad news on cut day.

Roberto Bautista Agut, pictured at the Rogers Cup, won the Winston-Salem Open without dropping a set.

ERIC BOLTE | USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES

Greenville takes fourth at Little League World Series North State All-Stars lose heartbreaker in national final, drop consolation game to Mexico

“I told them to hold their heads high. They have nothing to be ashamed of.

They have exceeded all my expectations.”

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal Greenville’s magical ride through the Little League World Series ran out of gas just three outs from the finish line Saturday.

Leading by five and seemingly in cruise control, the North State All-Stars saw their championship hopes derailed when Lufkin, Texas, stormed from behind for a 6-5 victory in the U.S. title game in Williamsport, Pa. The decisive runs scored on a two-run homer

by Lufkin’s Mark Requena with nobody out in the top of the sixth.

Instead of taking on Japan for the tournament championship Sunday, Greenville played Mexico in an anticlimactic consolation game at Lamade Stadium, which it lost 14-8 despite home runs from Chase Hardee and Ashton Byars.

“I think they got a little uptight, a little nervous out there,” said North State coach Brian Fields, whose team won its first three games of the Series — including an extra-inning victory against Lufkin three nights earlier before losing the rematch. “A game like that, you’ve got to do the little things and we tried to be a little greedy, I think.

“At times we had some base running errors, we threw a ball away at third. When you’re playing a good team like Texas, you can’t do that. But I’m proud of those boys.”

Greenville seemed to be cruising to the U.S. title and the date with Japan after scoring twice in the second and three more times in the third.

— Brian Fields, coach of Greenville’s North State All-Stars

EVAN HABEEB | USA TODAY SPORTS

Greenville North State All-Stars outfielder Drew Fields congratulates Lufkin, Texas, players after the game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium. Lufkin topped Greenville, 6-5.

North State All-Stars LLWS results Aug. 18: Greenville 6, South Dakota 0 Aug. 20: Greenville 16, California 0 Aug. 23: Greenville 2, Texas 1, 7 inn.

Aug: 26: Texas 6, Greenville 5 Aug. 27: Mexico 14, Greenville 8

Bryce Jackson drove in the first two runs with a single to left after Cameron Greenway and JoeJoe Byrne started the rally with hits.

But North State might have done

even more damage had Will Casey not gotten caught too far off second base on the scoring play.

Byrne drove in two of his own with a solid single to left. He advanced all the way to third on the play when the Texas outfielder overran the ball, then scored on a ground out by Chase Anderson.

The five runs figured to be more than enough for a Greenville pitching staff that had only allowed one run and one hit through its first three games. But the momentum changed abruptly in the top of the fourth when starter Hardee allowed a single to Requena and a home run to center by pinch hitter Clayton Wigley.

Lufkin added two more runs in the fifth, aided by three wild pitches and a throwing error by catcher Jackson, before going ahead for the first time in the game in its final at-bat. Collin Ross started the inning by getting hit by a pitch before Requena unloaded his goahead homer off Anderson, who was on in relief.

Requena went 3 for 3 in the game and was responsible for four of the seven hits Greenville allowed in its first four games in Williamsport.

“He did a great job hitting,” Fields said of the thorn in his team’s side. “We were throwing him out, then we tried to come in

on him and he did a great job of hitting it to left field. He’s one of the best hitters we’ve faced. You’ve got to give him credit.”

Greenville, representing the Southeast Region, got off to a blazing start in the tournament by becoming the first U.S. team in history to record back-to-back no-hitters. Anderson, Matthew Matthijs and Hardee combined for a perfect game in a 6-0 win against Sioux Falls, S.D., before allowing only two walks in a 16-0 pounding of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

“You talk about peaking at the right time,” Fields said afterward.

“We had everything working.”

As it turns out, Fields’ team may have peaked a little too soon.

North State finally gave up a hit, to Requena, and its first run of the tournament, but still survived for a 2-1 win against Lufkin last Thursday in a game decided when Cash Daniels-Moye slid home before the tag on a grounder to first

by Thomas Barrett in the bottom of the seventh..

It’s the last time the boys from Greenville were able to celebrate in Williamsport.

“I told them to hold their heads high,” Fields said. “They have nothing to be ashamed of. They have exceeded all my expectations.”

WEDNESDAY

08.30.17

NORTH

Grill out some burgers for the unoffical last weekend of summer, Page 7

STATE

JOURNaL

the good life

play list

Sept. 1-4 North Carolina Apple Festival Hendersonville This Labor Day Weekend festival has been celebrating the most important agricultural product in Henderson County for more than 60 years. Local growers will have thousands of North Carolina apples on site for you to pick from and enjoy.

IN A NORTH STATE OF MIND

timeless | dresses of a princess

Sept. 2 28th Annual Oak Island Art Guild Arts & Crafts Festival Oak Island The Oak Island Art Guild Arts & Crafts Festival will host more than 100 artists and craft vendors to showcase their talents.

Fine art, pottery, stained glass, needlecraft, Christmas ornaments, woodcarvings, basket weaving, photography, books, posters, jewelry, toys, lawn and garden items will be on sale. Food vendors will also be onsite.

Piggin' and Grinnin': Celebrating BBQ and Bluegrass New Bern

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHARI GRAHAM

Diana wears a long dinner dress of cream and pink silk to the opening night of “Swan Lake” at the London Coliseum in 1989. This Catherine Walker designed dress was sold at a 1997 auction to Shari and Bill Graham of Salisbury.

Princess Diana captivates the world 20 years after death

Sept. 2-3

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal KINSTON — A seemingly quiet and shy Diana, with eye-catching fashion and a strong devotion to her children and charity work, is long-remembered 20 years after her death.

In the time since her passing, millions still remember the “People’s Princess.” Her sons, princes William and Harry, have shared memories of their mother with the public, Kensington Palace is preparing to erect a stature in her honor, recent television documentaries talk of her life and legacy, and comparisons between Diana and Kate Middleton are constant.

"There'll never be anyone else like Diana," said Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine and author of "Diana: The Last Word."

Since her wedding and subsequent dissolution of her marriage to Prince Charles, heir-to-the-throne, Diana had become the most photographed woman in the world. On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana was killed at age 36 along with her companion Dodi al-Fayed when a limousine carrying them crashed in a Paris tunnel as it sped away from paparazzi.

Her death spawned worldwide mourning with an estimated 33 million Americans tuning in to watch her funeral in September 1997.

Diana was well-known for her crusades to bring light to those suffering with AIDS, victims of landmines and the homeless.

Shari and Bill Graham of Salisbury admired her work with landmine victims since their son was born without his lower left arm.

Held on the picturesque Tryon Palace South Lawn, Piggin’ and Grinnin’ offers a full lineup of bands, including the Steep Canyon Rangers, Sierra Hull, Chatham County Line, Mountain Faith, Balsam Range, Blind Boy Paxton, Merchant’s Road, and Strung Together. Enjoy the tunes and the views with cold drinks, craft vendors and a food truck rodeo.

“We love to share the dresses with other people and in using those to help fundraise for charities.”

— Shari Graham

For Diana, the idea of auctioning off her dresses for charity came from a young Prince William. In response, Diana handwrote a note to each buyer of one of her dresses. This note belongs to the Grahams.

“My parents are Canadian and my grandfather was British.

When I was very young it was important that we knew and understood British history,” said Shari. “It spurred my interest in British history. I was particularly drawn to Princess Diana because of our son. I became interested in what she was doing with landmine victims, prosthetics and helping those people

and charities.”

Supporting charities Diana did, indeed. A young Prince William encouraged his mother to support landmine and AIDS charities by selling several of her dresses at auction in the summer of 1997. Christie’s held the famous auction a month before Diana’s death and it would be the Grahams who would purchase two of her dresses.

“The news was covering the fact Diana was auctioning the dresses with the proceeds going to charity,” said Shari. “I said to Bill, ‘Wouldn’t it be great just to go. I don’t need to have a dress, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to support this cause and go see them?’”

“I tried to get us to the auction, but I couldn’t,” said Bill.

“Instead, I gave my wife two catalogs of the dresses in auction and secretly bid over the telephone for the dresses.”

“Bless my husband, he took my request to heart,” said Shari.

“He brought home bid books (catalogs) and asked me which dresses I would have bid on. I picked one dress that I loved and he picked one dress.”

Shari watched the auction on television while, unbeknownst to her, Bill was bidding on the dresses in the other room.

“He came in and said, ‘Congratulations, you have your dress.’ I about fell on the floor,” said Shari.

Bill purchased two dresses by British fashion designer Catherine Walker, Diana’s personal couturier and close friend for 16 years.

The first, a long dinner dress of cream and pink silk, which was worn by Diana to the opening night of “Swan Lake” at the London Coliseum in 1989. The See DIANA, page B6

John Coltrane Jazz & Blues Festival High Point The 7th Annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival is a two-day event held at the Oak Hollow Festival Park in High Point. The festival brings together worldrenowned jazz and blues artists to perform over the course of two days.

On Saturday, the lineup is Gerald Albright, Jonathan Butler, Eddie Palmieri, Robert Randolph and Alexis Morrast. Performances on Sunday include Special EFX featuring Chieli Minucci, Spyro Gyra, Branford Marsalis & Joey Calderazzo, and Matthew Whitaker.

Sept. 3-4 111th Canton Labor Day Celebration Canton Celebrate Canton’s unique manufacturing legacy and all things made in Western North Carolina by attending the oldest Labor Day festival in the south. The weekend festivities include a handcraft expo, kids village, parade, car show and live entertainment with concerts

by Sam Bush and Ricky Skaggs.

B6

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

NeCessities! history marked Aug. 30, 1983 Astronaut William Thornton and the Space Shuttle Challenger take off History was made on Aug. 30, 1983, as Faison native William Thornton barreled into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the shuttle Challenger. Born in Duplin County, Thornton received bachelor’s and medical degrees from UNC Chapel Hill and worked as an electronics engineer before entering the Air Force. It was during his two-year tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force that he became involved in space medicine research and subsequently applied for astronaut training. Thornton holds more than 35 patents that range in subject from military weapons systems to the first real-time EKG computer analysis.

Among other things, he developed a treadmill for in-flight exercise and designed the first mass measuring devices for space, which remain in use today. A veteran of two space flights, Thornton logged more than 313 hours in space. After serving as a mission specialist on the shuttle Challenger in 1983, he held the same role on Challenger’s 1985 mission. He retired from NASA in 1994. In 2010, Thornton donated his priceless collection of documents and photos from his work in medical research, physics, electronics, the military and space to the State Archives.

Aug. 31, 1823 Jesse Franklin, governor from Surry County, dies

Sept. 2, 1890 Elon University’s beginnings date to 19th century

Sept. 2, 1952 Mile-High Swinging Bridge dedicated

Former North Carolina Gov. Jesse Franklin died at his home in Surry County on this day at age 63. Born in 1760 in Orange County, Va., Franklin moved to North Carolina in 1776. He fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on the patriot side and rose to the rank of major. After the Revolution, Franklin served in the state legislature, representing both Wilkes and Surry counties before serving a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms in the Senate. In 1816, Franklin became part of a commission, with David Meriwether and Andrew Jackson, to negotiate settlements with the Cherokee and Chickasaw. By the time he was elected governor in 1820, Franklin was 60 years old. Despite his health issues, Franklin carried out his duties conscientiously and with his characteristic simplicity and practicality. He is perhaps best known for reforming the state’s penal code and advocating the settlement of the state’s borders.

Elon College opened as a four-year liberal arts college in Alamance County.

Plans for the school had been underway since 1872, when what is now the United Church of Christ decided to open a college. The institution was first called Graham College, but when the trustees were unable to acquire land in that small Alamance County town, a different location for the campus was selected west of Burlington. When the land, filled with old oak trees, was being cleared, the name Elon seemed like a natural fit, since “elon” is the Hebrew word for oak. The community around the school grew quickly and was incorporated in 1893 as Elon College. The town’s streets were given names commemorating important figures in the development of the Christian Church and of the college.

In January 1923, the main campus building was destroyed by fire. During the reconstruction, which took about three years, the campus was expanded with five new buildings. Elon College added graduate degree programs in the 1980s. To reflect the school’s diverse programs and growing student body, the college changed its name to Elon University in 2000. The surrounding town also changed its name — from Elon College to Elon.

On this day, Gubernatorial candidate William B. Umstead dedicated Grandfather Mountain’s Mile-High Swinging Bridge near Linville and became the first person to cross it.

Earlier that year entrepreneur Hugh Morton inherited Grandfather Mountain, whose craggy features and high vistas made it a popular tourist attraction since the 1890s. Morton envisioned building a bridge between Grandfather’s Convention Table Rock and Linville Peak to improve visitors’ access to the best scenic overlooks. Designed

by Greensboro architect Charles

SOURCE: NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Hartmann Jr. and fabricated by Truitt Manufacturing Company in Greensboro, the 228-foot suspension bridge was reassembled in three weeks at Grandfather Mountain by Craven Steel Erecting Company. The total cost was $15,000. In 1999, the mostly wooden bridge was rebuilt using galvanized steel at a cost of $300,000. Former state tourism director Charles J. Parker coined the name “Mile-High Swinging Bridge” at the 1952 dedication. While the bridge’s elevation is slightly more than a mile above sea level, it actually hangs only 80 feet above the ground.

While suspension bridges can swing, especially in high winds, thick cables anchor Grandfather Mountain’s bridge to the ground, limiting its movement.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADOBE STOCK

flawless

There she goes...

MADELINE GRAY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Victoria Huggins, of Greater Sampson County, is crowned Miss North Carolina 2017 on June 24.

Miss North Carolina Victoria Huggins departed Tuesday for Atlantic City, N.J., where she will compete for Miss America. Huggins, of St. Pauls, is the 80th Miss North Carolina to compete for Miss America. Only one "Queen of the Tarheel State" has traded in her state crown for the Miss America crown — Maria Fletcher of Asheville, who was Miss America 1962. Huggins aims to be the second. The competition begins in earnest with preliminary competitions in talent, swimsuit, evening gown and interview on Sept. 6. The famous "Show Us Your Shoes Parade" will take place Saturday, Sept. 9, rain or shine, on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Miss America will be crowned Sept. 10 live on ABC starting at 9 p.m.

A Labor Day tradition N.C. is the seventh-largest producer of apples in the U.S. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHARI GRAHAM

Each year on Labor Day weekend, the N.C. Apple Festival takes place in Hendersonville with arts and crafts vendors, live music, and North Carolina-grown apples. The King Apple Parade is an annual tradition and one of the highlights of the festival — drawing more than 60,000 people. 2017 marks the 71st year of the Apple Festival. More information is available at http://www. ncapplefestival.org/.

North Carolina is a major producer of apples, ranking seventh in production in the U.S. with 200 commercial apple operations and more than 9,000 acres of orchards. Our state's peak apple season is mid-August through October.

Forty percent of the state’s crop is marketed as fresh apples through packing operations and direct marketing outlets while the remaining 60 percent is utilized in the processing industry, mainly as

Worn at the film premiere of “Accidental Hero” in 1993 and later to official dinners, this eau-de-nil green and cream silk crepe dress is one of several dresses of Diana’s sold a Christie’s auction a month before her death.

DIANA from page B5

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN ROSE

applesauce and juice. Apples are primarily in Henderson, Haywood, Wilkes and Cleveland counties. The four major varieties, which make up the bulk of N.C.’s production, are Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty and Galas.

second dress, a dinner dress of eau-de-nil green and cream silk crepe, was worn at the film premiere of “Accidental Hero” in 1993 and to official dinners.

Diana sent a handwritten note to the Grahams following the purchase of the dresses acknowledging her son William as the inspiration for the sale. Since the purchasing of the dresses 20 years ago, the Grahams have lent them for fundraising and educational purposes from breast cancer charities to middle school projects. The dresses are currently on the Queen Mary ship as part of the “Diana: Legacy of a Princess” exhibition alongside other dresses purchased during the Christie’s auction.

“We love to share the dresses with other people and in using those to help fundraise for charities,” said Shari.

The Grahams have declined offers to sell the dresses over the years, and no, Shari has never worn them (her most commonly asked question).

For 20 years, those dresses have carried on Diana’s work in assisting charities in need. Her passing prompted the biggest public outpouring of grief seen in Britain in recent times, and few since have captivated the world like she did.

As the princes have grown older, they have also been increasingly willing to speak about the trauma of her death and its lasting emotional impact.

William, 35, said the shock of losing his mother still lingered, while Harry, 32, revealed he sought counseling in his late 20s to help deal with the grief.

"She still is our mum," Harry said in an intimate TV documentary entitled "Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy."

"Of course, as a son I would say

this, she was the best mum in the world. She smothered us with love, that's for sure."

The days after her death were some of the darkest in Queen Elizabeth's 65-year reign.

Many Britons were angered at how Diana was ostracized by the royal family after her 1996 divorce from Charles, with Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles' lover who later became his wife, a particular focus of enmity.

With renewed focus on the popular Diana, an ICM poll for Britain’s The Sun newspaper this month found that just 22 percent of respondents wanted Charles, 68, to be the next king while more than half wanted the next monarch to be his son William.

It also showed that 36 percent of the 2,000 people questioned felt Camilla, 70, should be Princess Consort and not queen. Only 27 percent backed her having the regal title.

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

B7

dig in | Labor Day Weekend

Taking a burger from boring to blazin’

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal KINSTON — Labor Day — the unofficial last weekend of summer for many in the Tarheel State — is upon us. As citizens across the state gather to mark the transition from the summer calendar to the school calendar, backyard grilling will be a priority and burgers will be on the menu for many.

Burgers are moving up on the culinary ladder according to Amy Nedwell, director of marketing for Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, a full-service gourmet burger chain which traces its beginnings to Charlotte.

“An upscale burger is the fastest-growing category in casual dining in the world,” said Nedwell. “We want you to have a great burger with great ingredients. We highlight local craft beers and support the communities around us so you have a place to feel comfortable bringing your family, meeting your friends or grabbing a beer after work.

“You’re enjoying darn good food,” she added.

As a burger bar, Bad Daddy’s encourages customers to create their own burger. So, if you added all 51 toppings to their Create Your Own Burger menu item, you would have a $52 burger that included peanut butter, butter-

Labor Day weekend marks one of the last weekends of summer and a chance to grill out burgers.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADOBE STOCK

milk fried bacon and 12 layers of cheese. (And yes, two customers have actually tried this.)

Since Bad Daddy’s allows you to create your own burger, it’s only fitting they helped us in creating awesome recipes for you to try at home.

We know that many of you will be serving up the classic Carolina-style burger over the Labor Day weekend. But the pros at Bad Daddy’s tested a plethora of gar-

nishes and dubbed the list below as some of the best creative collaborations if you want to venture into exotic burger territory.

• Peanut butter, pimento cheese, bacon bourbon jam and potato chips: The smoothness of the peanut butter, pimento cheese and jam is contradicted by the crunchy chips to create a burst of flavor.

• Peach relish and goat cheese: Take the best of summer’s fruit

and pair it with salty, crumbled goat cheese to create a light sweet and savory blend.

• Brie cheese, applewood smoked bacon and grilled apples: Perfect for a regular burger or a turkey burger, create a French-inspired flavor with slices of brie cheese, bacon and grilled apples.

• Cream cheese and jalapeño: The mix of spicy jalapeño with the cool creaminess of cream cheese will add a refreshing kick to your

patty.

Step away from a classic patty and bun combination by utilizing some of the following tips on creating a more unique burger: • Press in a panini: Flatten the burger in a panini press for a different taste focused more on the inside of the burger and less on the bready-bun.

• Veggies as a bun: Cut down on carbs and create a different flavor by using veggies like lettuce or mushrooms as the bun of the burger.

Or if you want to forgo cooking yourself and instead step into the burger joint, Bad Daddy’s locations in North Carolina include Charlotte, Raleigh, Cary, Winston-Salem and the soon-to-open spot in Greenville.

Grillers in need Labor Day is the last official grilling holiday of the summer, and LongHorn Steakhouse’s expert Grill Masters will be on hand to help backyard chefs prepare for cookouts. On Sunday, Sept. 3, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., grillers in need can dial the LongHorn Grilling Hotline at 1-855-LH-GRILL (1-855-544-7455) for immediate help from a tried-and-true grilling expert. The steakhouse also offers tips and tricks on its website, expertgriller.com.

ENTERTAINMENT Fitbit takes aim at Apple with new smartwatch launch

Judge blocks new movie about Lynyrd Skynyrd

Former market leader looks to compete with Apple Watch

Defendant was former drummer for the band who survived 1977 plane crash

By Supantha Mukherjee Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel Reuters

NEW YORK — Wearable device maker Fitbit on Monday launched its newest device, the Ionic smartwatch, with features ranging from fitness tracking to contactless payment, as it gears up to compete with rivals such as Apple.

Once the market leader in wearables, Fitbit has recently struggled due to fierce competition and had earlier blamed a shift among consumers toward feature-rich devices and smartwatches for its revenue decline.

Ionic smartwatches will feature GPS, heart rate tracking, water resistance up to 50 meters, Fitbit Pay, on-board music, multiple clock faces and a battery that will last more than four days, the company said in a statement.

"Over the coming months you will be able to add eligible American Express cards, as well as Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards from top issuing banks in over 10 markets across the globe," Fitbit said.

The watch also has a new sensor technology — relative SpO2

NEW YORK — Surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd won a permanent injunction blocking the production and distribution of a movie depicting the 1977 plane crash that killed the rock band's lead singer, Ronnie Van Zant.

In a decision made public on Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan said "Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash," based on recollections of former drummer Artimus Pyle, violated a 1988 consent order governing the use of the Lynyrd Skynyrd name.

The lawsuit had been brought against Pyle and co-defendant Cleopatra Records by lead guitarist Gary Rossington, lead singer and Van Zant's brother, Johnny Van Zant, and heirs of Ronnie Van Zant and the late guitarists Steve Gaines and Allen Collins.

Sweet issued his 64-page decision after a nonjury trial on July 11-12.

Lawyers for Cleopatra and the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Pyle could not be reached for

PHOTO COURTESTY OF ADOBE STOCK

A young woman monitors her progress on her smartwatch.

sensor — for estimating oxygen levels in the blood that have the potential to track sleep apnea among other things.

With a price tag of $299.95, Ionic is priced above Apple Watch's starting price of $269.

"Fitbit can take some market share from Apple by appealing to those who are more focused on fitness, however, we do not ex-

Kendrick Lamar wins big, but absent Taylor Swift steals VMA show Kendrick Lamar and Ed Sheeran won the top prizes at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Sunday, but an absent Taylor Swift and lifetime achievement honoree Pink dominated the show. An angry Swift took on her critics in the world premiere of the music video for her first solo single in three years, “Look What You Made Me Do.”

MARIO ANZUONI | REUTERS

Kendrick Lamar performs at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.

pect this to be a significant share of Apple's overall smartwatch sales," Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese said.

Ionic went on presale Monday on Fitbit's website and at some online retailers Tuesday, the company said in a statement.

The company on Monday also launched Aria 2 smart scale and Flyer wireless headphones.

Box office disaster: Lackluster releases, Mayweather-McGregor, Hurricane Harvey create slowest weekend There’s no getting around it: last weekend’s domestic box office was a catastrophe. In the grand scheme, it can seem like a small issue when compared with Hurricane Harvey — the deadly natural disaster that tore through the Gulf Coast of Texas on Friday, dumping more than 20 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.

But Harvey also had at least some impact on the business, forcing theater closures in South Texas. Still, the degree to which the storm hurt the bottom line of moviegoing is up for debate.

Zombies, romance and revenge drive record ‘Game of Thrones’ ratings A zombie dragon, an illicit romance and satisfying revenge helped drive the season finale of “Game of Thrones” to a viewership high, HBO said Monday, as the seventh season drew record ratings. A total of 12.1 million viewers watched Sunday’s seventh season finale, titled “The Dragon and the Wolf,” up 36 percent from the 8.9 million viewers who watched the season six finale. Viewership from replays and streams on HBO’s on-demand apps boosted the overall Sunday ratings to 16.5 million viewers.

comment and, according to court records, did not hire a lawyer.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is known for such songs as "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird," which were recorded before its touring plane crashed in Mississippi on Oct. 20, 1977.

The crash killed Ronnie Van Zant, Gaines and four others.

Twenty people, including Pyle, survived.

According to the lawsuit, surviving band members agreed that Pyle, who left the band in 1991, could tell his own life story, but that the movie would cause irreparable harm by destroying their right to use the Lynyrd Skynyrd name and history.

Sweet, who oversaw the 1988 consent order, said Pyle and Cleopatra were bound by it, and that there was "no doubt" the proposed movie was about the entire band.

"None of the defendants received the requisite authorization under the terms of the consent order in depiction of (Ronnie) Van Zant or Gaines or in the use of the Lynyrd Skynyrd name, and therefore all have violated the consent order," the judge wrote.

He also said the plaintiffs showed irreparable harm, and that the consent order reflected "a desire to preserve and protect the memory of deceased husbands and friends."

U.S. indie band Brand New tops Billboard 200 Indie rock band Brand New took the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart with “Science Fiction,” according to data on Monday from Nielsen SoundScan. The New York-based band sold some 57,000 units of “Science Fiction,” its first studio album since 2009, while rapper Kodak Black took second place with new release “Project Baby Two” and sales of 49,000 units.

North State Journal for Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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North Carolina Arts, History & Nature

Fall in One Place Autumn is a perfect time to celebrate everything North Carolina has to offer, from the gorgeous weather to local foods to traditional music. From the annual tradition of the North Carolina State Fair to Wide Open Bluegrass to local county fairs and festivals, North Carolina has it all, all in one place.

Explore our complete list of Fall Festivals and Fairs across the state.

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NC DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES

dncr.nc.gov/allinoneplace