North State Journal — Vol. 2., Issue 47

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 47

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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017

inside Wake, Duke meet with bowls on the line, Sports

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL | FILE

From left, Nicole Zardus, Tayloe Compton, Cameron Sadler and Pam Wagner ride to the kennels before the Moore County Hounds Thanksgiving Day opening meet and Blessing of the Hounds, on Nov.24, 2016, in Southern Pines. The Blessing of the Hounds returns in Southern Pines on Thanksgiving.

the Wednesday

NEWS BRIEFING

Nebraska regulators approve Keystone XL pipeline in win for Trump Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska regulators voted on Monday to approve a route for TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline through the state, lifting the last big regulatory obstacle for the long-delayed project that President Donald Trump wants built. The 3-2 decision by the Nebraska Public Service Commission helps clear the way for the pipeline linking Canada’s Alberta oil sands to refineries in the United States, but is likely to be challenged in court by opponents who say the project is an environmental risk.

Second woman accuses Franken of groping Washington, D.C. A second woman has accused Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) of inappropriately touching her, in 2010 after he had been elected to public office, CNN reported on Monday. Franken was first accused of sexual misconduct last week, when radio broadcaster and model Leann Tweeden said that, in 2006, he had forcibly kissed her and groped her while she was sleeping.

Mass killer, cult leader Charles Manson dies at 83 Bakersfield, Calif.

Charles Manson, the wild-eyed cult leader who orchestrated a string of gruesome killings in Southern California by his “family” of young followers, shattering the peace-and-love ethos of the late 1960s, died on Sunday, prison officials said.

He was 83. Manson died of natural causes Sunday evening at a Kern County hospital, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.

NORTH

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

CBS News’ Charlie Rose fired after harassment allegations PBS and Bloomberg also suspended N.C. native and Duke grad’s signature interview show

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Daniel Trotta Reuters

interview show, distributed on both outlets, citing the allegations in the newspaper story.

“These allegations are extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously,” CBS News said in a statement. Rose is a co-host on the morning show “CBS This Morning” and a correspondent for its long-running Sunday night news magazine “60 Minutes.”

Rose could not immediately be reached to comment on Tuesday, but on Monday apologized for his “inappropriate behavior.” Rose, 75, however, also questioned the accuracy of the allegations in the Washington Post.

“I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” he said in a statement. “I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate.

“I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken,” he added.

Eight women, who worked at Charlie Rose Inc. or aspired to a job there, have accused Rose of making unwanted sexual advances toward them, the Washington Post reported on Monday, the latest in a wave of sexual harassment allegations against prominent men in the entertainment and media industries and American politics.

NEW YORK — CBS News said on Tuesday it had fired Charlie Rose, one of the most prominent American interviewers, the day after the Washington Post reported the television host had sexually harassed eight women.

Rose, a native of Henderson, N.C., who received both his bachelor’s degree in history and juris doctorate from Duke University, was a co-host on the morning show “CBS This Morning” and a correspondent for its long-running Sunday night news magazine “60 Minutes.” The “Charlie Rose” show was broadcast on PBS and Bloomberg TV. “A short time ago we terminated Charlie Rose’s employment with CBS News, effective immediately,” CBS News President David Rhodes said in an internal message that was shared with media. “This followed the revelation yesterday of extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior said to have revolved around his PBS program.”

On Monday, PBS and Bloomberg said in statements they were suspending Rose’s signature See CHARLIE ROSE, page A2

Teaching Fellows program heads back to campus Program was eliminated in 2011 and revived in the 2017 state budget

state’s teaching fellow program,” said Hamilton, adding that the legislature should “return it for the welfare of the children of rural North Carolina.”

The last students from the former

By Donna King program graduated in the Spring of North State Journal 2015.

Under the former program, stuRALEIGH — The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission dents could select from 17 public announced it selected five partner and private N.C. institutions with institutions this week based on leg- teacher preparation programs and islative criteria and an applications received annual forgivable loans process passed into law by the state of up to $6,500 per year. Students legislature. The commission, and participating in the new program the revitalized program, were creat- will receive up to $8,250 per year in forgivable loans if they commit to ed in the 2017 State Budget.

The five partner schools — Elon teach in a STEM or a special educaUniversity, Meredith College, NC tion area and attend one of the five State, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC partner institutions.

“We are thrilled that the state is Charlotte — will take part in a rere-establishing this crititooled Teaching Fellows cally important program program aimed at supand has selected Elon porting students preparing as a partner institution,” for a teaching career in the “The said Ann Bullock, dean fields of science, technol- Teaching of Elon’s School of Eduogy, engineering, math or Fellows cation and a member of special education. the commission. “Alumni The commission, for- program of our Teaching Fellows mally appointed in Sep- is a key program are making an tember, is comprised of addition to impact in the lives of chilfour deans from educator dren across the state and preparation programs, our teacher demonstrating the value teachers, principals, a appreciation of the state’s investment in member from business agenda.” their education.” and industry and a local “Elon began the very school board member. The first Teaching Fellows N.C. Teacher of the Year, — House program at a private inPrincipal of the Year, Su- Speaker Tim perintendent of the Year, Moore (R-Kings stitution in North Carolina and has maintained chair of the State Educaa strong commitment tion Assistance Authority Mountain) to the program for more (SEAA) Board of Directors, and director of the Teaching than two decades,” Deputy House Fellows Program all serve as ex-of- Majority Leader Stephen Ross (R-Alamance), who represents Elon ficio members of the Commission.

In 2011, the N.C. General Assem- University, said in a statement conbly voted to end the NC Teaching gratulating the school.

The five institutions were seFellows Program. Since then, many on both sides of the aisle had called lected based on criteria outlined in for the program to be reinstitut- state law which included educator ed. In 2015, Rep. Susi Hamilton effectiveness, impact of alumni in (D-New Hanover), who now serves STEM and special education, pasas secretary of Natural and Cultural sage rates for required licensure exResources, called for the program ams and internship experiences for to be restored. “Rural areas experienced tremendous benefit from the See FELLOWS, page A2

INSIDE Wilson legislator won’t seek another term in the N.C. House Jones & Blount CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

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20177 52016 $2.00

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PHOTO COURTESY OF NC LEGISLATOR

Rep. D. Craig Horn and Sen. Chad Barefoot speak about a proposal for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program during a press conference at N.C. State’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center on March 9.

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

A2 WEDNESDAY

11.22.17 #103

Trump adds 5 to list of possible SCOTUS picks work, a conservative legal advocacy group.

Three Supreme Court justices are 79 or older

Kennedy is pivotal justice

By James Oliphant and Andrew Chung Reuters

“Elevate the conversation” Visit North State Journal online! nsjonline.com jonesandblount.com nsjsports.com carolinabrewreview.com chickenbonealley.com

We stand corrected To report an error or a suspected error, please email: corrections@nsjonline.com with “Correction request” in the subject line.

North State Journal (USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365) Neal Robbins Publisher Donna King Editor Cory Lavalette Managing/Sports Editor Frank Hill Senior Opinion Editor

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a move certain to please conservatives, President Donald Trump on Friday added five names to his list of candidates for a prospective U.S. Supreme Court vacancy as he presses ahead with a campaign to move the federal judiciary to the right.

Two of them are appellate judges who were nominated by Trump earlier this year and confirmed by the Senate: Amy Coney Barrett and Kevin Newsom. Another, Brett Kavanaugh, sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, long viewed as a stepping-stone to the high court.

The others were Britt Grant, a Georgia Supreme Court justice, and Patrick Wyrick, an Oklahoma Supreme Court justice.

There is no current vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court but three justices — Stephen Breyer (79), Anthony Kennedy (81), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (84) — are 79 or older.

During his presidential campaign last year, Trump identified 20 conservative candidates for the Supreme Court. Upon taking office, he named Neil Gorsuch to the court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, restoring the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate in April and has established himself as one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices.

Speaking at a Federalist Society conference of conservative legal advocates, White House counsel

FELLOWS from page A1 education students. The current legislative mandate will provide for about 160 future teachers each year.

“This new program will help recruit and retain high-quality teachers to areas of critical need in North Carolina,” said Junius Gonzales, UNC System senior vice president for academic affairs.

Teachers have 10 years to pay back the loan, either through cash repayment or loan forgiveness. In order to meet the loan forgiveness requirement, a teacher is required to serve one year in a low-performing school or two years in another public school for every year they were awarded a forgivable loan.

Teachers who elect to work in public charter schools and University of North Carolina laboratory schools are eligible for the loan forgiveness.

Education program enrollment at UNC institutions dropped almost 30 percent from 2010 to 2015. However, from 2015 to 2016, enrollment increased by almost 6 percent with East Carolina — the top institution for total enrollment — growing by almost 600 students from 2015 to 2016.

“We are thrilled to be selected to participate in the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program,” said Mary Ann Danowitz, dean of the NC State College of Education.

FRANZ JANTZEN | COLLECTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Seated, from left to right: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer. Standing, from left to right: Justices Eleana Kagan, Samuel A. Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Neil M. Gorsuch.

Donald McGahn said Trump is “very committed” to appointing judges who are “committed originalists and textualists,” referring to a legal philosophy that relies on the actual wording of laws and the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution.

“They all have paper trails. They all are sitting judges. There is nothing unknown about them. What you see is what you get,” McGahn said.

The five jurists, all with strong conservative credentials, were added to the list with input from conservative leaders, and should another seat on the court open up, Trump will nominate a candidate from the updated list of 25, the White House said.

Leonard Leo, an adviser to the president on Supreme Court nominations, said Trump thought it

“We are North Carolina’s largest producer of STEM educators, and the teachers we graduate are among the most effective in the state.”

The state budget bill, which included the new Teaching Fellows program, was vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, who said at the time of the veto that “this budget neglects our schools and our economy.” Cooper also said the budget failed “to fund promised teacher salary increases in future years, along with funding for early childhood education, community colleges and universities.”

The Republican-led General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto in early summer triggering reforms in teacher pay and kicking off the new Teaching Fellows program.

“The Teaching Fellows program is a key addition to our teacher appreciation agenda,” said Moore, who said the program was part of a broader commitment to education at the General Assembly.

“Thanks to four consecutive pay raises for North Carolina teachers, the statewide average salary is $50,000 while starting teachers earn $35,000. This year, we had the fastest growing teacher pay in the nation since 2014.”

Applications for the program will be available in early December and the first new Teaching Fellows will hit campuses next fall.

was time to refresh the original list.

“When you’re committed to picking from a list you want to make sure it’s as complete as possible,” Leo said in an interview.

Kavanaugh, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2006 by Republican former President George W. Bush, served as a White House counsel under Bush and worked as an assistant to Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Democratic former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Grant and Wyrick both joined state challenges to the Affordable Care Act, Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, and Obama regulations aimed at reducing emissions from coal-burning power plants, said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Net-

CHARLIE ROSE from page A1 “All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives,” Rose said.

Rose routinely landed the biggest names in international politics, entertainment and letters for his interview show “Charlie Rose,” which was broadcast on PBS and Bloomberg TV. An acute listener, Rose employed an engaging yet serious style in contrast to the bitter partisan arguments, cross-talk and raised voices on cable television.

True to the show’s sober tone, the set was simply a table and chairs with an all-black background.

His persona on “CBS This Morning” was a little more whim-

The court currently consists of five conservatives and four liberals, with conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy sometimes joining with the liberals on high-profile issues such as gay rights and abortion.

At 81, Kennedy is the second-oldest justice on the court behind liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 84, and some former Kennedy clerks have said he is considering retirement. Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer is 79.

Should any step down, Trump would get an historic opportunity to shape the court in a more conservative direction for decades to come. Supreme Court appointments are lifetime jobs.

Conservatives criticize the federal judiciary as too liberal, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the same conference lashed out at “activist judges.”

Trump already has taken steps to make the federal judiciary more conservative, with 14 judicial appointees already confirmed by the Senate and more in the pipeline.

Catherine Glenn Foster, president of the anti-abortion advocacy group Americans United for Life, said she was pleased with the new selections. “From their known records they tend to be strong on recognizing the protections for life,” she said in an interview.

On Friday, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she would support her party’s Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by several women of unwanted sexual contact, because of the importance of keeping the Senate under Republican control should another Supreme Court vacancy arise.

sical, given the lighter subject matter of morning news shows in the United States.

The eight women, who were employees or aspired to work for Rose at the “Charlie Rose” show from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011, told the newspaper he made unwanted sexual advances toward them, walked in the nude around them and groped their breasts, buttocks and genital areas.

The Post said it had multiple interviews with the eight women, who ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged encounters and their stories had “striking commonalities.”

Three of the eight women spoke on the record to the newspaper and the other five spoke on condition of anonymity fearing retribution that could affect their careers, the Post said.

TV host Charlie Rose arrives for the Time 100 Gala in Manhattan on April 25.

CARLO ALLEGRI | REUTERS

Want to learn more about North Carolina Agriculture?

The First Furrow www.FirstFurrow.com

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

A3

BUSINESS

JORDAN STEAD | AMAZON

The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it’s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City.

n.c.

FAST FACTS Sponsored by

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This Section also manages the State appropriated grants transitioned from the NC Rural Economic Development Center.

In November of 2013, nearly 510 active projects were transferred to the NC Department of Commerce.

Battered GE shares lure some buyers but worst may not be over After near-historic stock tumble last week, investors take wait-and-see approach before assessing up or down value

By Lewis Krauskopf Reuters NEW YORK — General Electric Co shares stabilized after a brutal slide last week sent the stock near six-year lows, but the worst may not be over.

Some investors still do not see enough value to warrant buying the shares, which have lost some of their luster as a blue-chip investment.

"In a sense, the stock is trying to find an investor," said Scott Lawson, vice president of Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, who follows industrial stocks, as the stock was sliding last week.

"That investor is not a growth guy, because they are not growing. It’s not a value guy, because they’re not cheap on the value metrics."

The massive decline for the stock - more than 40 percent this year - suggests that it would pique the interest of value players.

GE shares fell to $17.90, their lowest closing price since December 2011, after dropping 12.6 percent over Monday and Tuesday, their biggest two-day decline since the financial crisis.

The stock edged back up over the rest of the week and closed Friday at $18.21 amid news that Flannery had bought about $1.1 million worth of the stock.

But GE shares have not fallen enough for some investors.

"What we are looking for is a sufficient margin of safety to

reasonable intrinsic value, and at the current stock price, we just don’t think the margin of safety is there," Michael Kon, portfolio manager with Golub Group in San Mateo, California, said as the stock hovered around $18.

Kon said he was looking either for the stock to fall further or for better-than-expected improvement in GE's power-turbine division before any investment.

Investment advisory firm Alan B. Lancz & Associates bought some GE shares last week as the stock dipped into the $17 range, seeing value in the company's assets, which also include remaining major businesses in jet engines and healthcare, said Alan Lancz, president of the Toledo, Ohio-based firm.

But Lancz said he sees GE as an investment with a three- to five-year payoff and acknowledged the stock may fall further before that.

"We don’t see any short-term, intermediate-term catalysts but we think that there is value there," Lancz said. "It’s not high on our list of buys, but it is something that, I think for the long-term, it can be accumulated here."

One question facing investors is how to assess the company against its rivals.

Following the stock's slide this year, including fallout from third-quarter financial results last month that Flannery himself called "unacceptable," GE now trades at a discount to those companies: 16.9 times forward earnings estimates against 17.3 times for United Tech and 19 times for Honeywell.

"It is going to take a long time before you can clear the cloud

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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT Sponsored by

“What we are looking for is a sufficient margin of safety to reasonable intrinsic value, and at the current stock price, we just don’t think the margin of safety is there.”

— Portfolio Manager Michael Kon and maybe get GE back to a comparable valuation level with respect to other similar companies," said Chip Pettengill, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. Pettengill calls GE a "tarnished blue-chip stock."

GE’s earnings power is stronger than the "trough," or bottom, projected for 2018, said Scott Schermerhorn, chief investment officer at Granite Investment Advisors in Concord, New Hampshire, who sees the shares particularly discounted to other industrial companies based on enterprise value to sales comparisons.

His firm has held onto the GE shares purchased earlier this year, and is considering buying more, Schermerhorn said.

"The businesses they have are at least as good as a typical industrial, and therefore we think with proper management you’re going to see earnings accelerate,” Schermerhorn said, while cautioning: "It’s not going to be quick."

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Visit the Tryon Palace for a Royal Christmas Treat The Tryon Palace, North Carolina’s first capitol, officially opens for the holidays this weekend. That means your chance to experience Christmas like old-school North Carolina royalty is here.

The Palace’s “Festive Holiday Kick-Off Weekend” starts Friday and includes holiday tours and movies and the opportunity for discounts when you bring a Toys for Tots donation. Holidaythemed events continue through early January.

A highlight of the Palace’s festivities is “Seasons of Giving: A Candlelight Christmas Celebration,” on Dec. 9 and 16. This site-wide event includes tours of the Governor’s Palace, Stanly House, Dixon House and Commission House, as well as activities on the grounds.

With gorgeous decorations illuminated by candlelight, historic characters in period clothing, and holiday vignettes spanning across three centuries, you’ll be transported to Christmases past. On a walk through the candlelit gardens, you’ll be treated to entertaining circus acts that include acrobatics, magicians, balancing acts, fire-eating and swordswallowing.

Not your typical 21st-century Christmas celebration, we’d venture to guess!

Make plans now for some colonialstyle royal holiday fun. For details and tickets, visit www.tryonpalace.org/holiday.

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Murphy to Manteo Chetola Resort, Blowing Rock

Heritage Bridge,

Pilot Mountain Christmas,

Old Salem

Country Christmas Train,

Lights on the Neuse,

Denton Farmpark Tanglewood Festival of Lights,

Pilot Mountain

Clayton

Clemmons

Lake Myra Christmas Lights, Wendell

Jones & Blount jonesandblount.com @JonesandBlount

Winter Lights at the Elizabethan Gardens,

Rep. Susan Martin will not seek re-election

Manteo

Trail of Lights,

Valdese

Asheville Winter Lights at the N.C. Arboretum,

By NSJ Staff

Asheville

Lights and Luminaries, Dillsboro

Christmas Town USA,

McAdenville

Hometown Holidays, Forest City

Beary Merry Christmas,

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden,

New Bern

Belmont

Speedway Christmas,

Deck the halls!

Charlotte Motor Speedway

Christmas Light & Train Spectacular,

Nothing captures the spirit of the holidays quite like going to see a beautiful array of sparkling lights and ornaments.

Experience the magic of seasonal light displays during boat parades, in gardens,across golf courses, at resorts and in small towns and downtowns across North Carolina. For a complete list of holiday light displays throughout the state, visit the events calendar at visitnc.com

WEST Cherokee may be allowed to harvest traditional plant on park land Swain and Jackson counties Cherokee tribal leaders are seeking permission from the National Park Service to harvest sochan, a kale-like plant that the Cherokee people have gathered for thousands of years. The tradition and vitamin-rich plant is found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where removal of plants is normally prohibited. Recent changes to park rules could allow the tribe to gather sochan for cultural purposes. The tribe will have to foot a $68,000 bill for an outside environmental assessment before permits could be issued.

WLOS

Tweetsie Christmas opens Friday Watauga County Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock will be open Saturdays and Sundays for Tweetsie Christmas starting Nov. 24 through Dec. 30. Visitors can meet Santa in his gingerbread house, take a winter’s night train ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains, pick out a Christmas tree to take home and much more. Tickets are $38, and visitors 2 and younger get in for free. For more information, go to Tweetsie.com.

TWEETSIE RAILROAD

Wilmington

N.C. Holiday Flotilla, Nov. 24-27 Wrightsville Beach

Meadow Lights, Benson

Biltmore owner Mimi Cecil dies Buncombe County Mary “Mimi” Ryan Cecil, who with her husband owned The Biltmore Co. that included Biltmore Estate, died last Friday. She was 85. Her husband, William A.V. Cecil, died Oct. 31 at age 89. The couple was married 60 years and moved to Asheville to raise their family three years after their nuptials. Mimi Cecil had a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College and received a law degeee from the University of Michigan, part of the first class of female graduates from the Ann Arbor law school.

PIEDMONT Lexington SECU robbed Davidson County The State Employees Credit Union on Piedmont Drive in Lexington was robbed last Thursday. According to police reports, two suspects entered the bank with handguns and demanded money. The Lexington Police Department has two suspects in custody and is in search of a third person. Lexington Middle, Lexington High School and South Lexington Elementary were placed on lockdown during the investigation.

LEXINGTON DISPATCH

Seagrove Hardware closes Randolph County Downtown Seagrove has been home to an old-fashioned hardware store for more than 100 years. After Saturday’s auction, Seagrove Hardware — which was founded to provide access to necessary goods to local farmers — will be no more. Store owner Tom Curtis said that inventory complexity and the decline of livestock farming played a role in the store’s demise. The land where the store sits — which covers one corner of downtown of Seagrove — will be sold next year.

ASHEBORO COURIER-TRIBUNE

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES

Whooping cough diagnosed in Henderson County Henderson County A patient tested positive for pertussis, or whooping cough, last week, the Henderson County Department of Public Health said in a statement.

The individual, who is receiving medical treatment, first had symptoms Nov. 8, and the county department and the North Carolina Division of Public Health are investigating the case to see if anyone was exposed to the contagious illness. Symptoms of whooping cough include runny nose, low-grade fever and coughing.

BLUE RIDGE NOW

EAST Kinston elects its first all AfricanAmerican city council Lenoir County This December, Kinston will swear in a history-making all African-American city council. Members of the Lenoir County Board of Elections canvassed the November election last week. After eight years at the helm, incumbent Mayor BJ Murphy lost his re-election bid by 204 votes to political newcomer Don Hardy, which is one more vote than was counted two weeks ago when the Board of Elections recounted the curbside ballots.

KINSTON FREE PRESS

Wake Forest Law School will accept GRE for admissions Forsyth County The Wake Forest School of Law will accept the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), the most widely used graduate school exam, as an alternative to the LSAT for its JD admissions process beginning Fall 2018. Wake Forest is the first law school in North Carolina, and one of the first in the nation, to accept the GRE. Wake Forest Law joins the University of Arizona, Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Northwestern University, the University of Hawaii, Washington University at St. Louis and UCLA in accepting the alternative test.

WFU SCHOOL OF LAW

Queen City hosts League of Cities conference

Harborside Park officially opens

Mecklenburg County The National League of Cities held its annual conference, the City Summit, in Charlotte last week. The annual event featured outgoing Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and retired NBA legend Magic Johnson. Mayor Mark Stodola of Little Rock, Ark., was elected president of the National League of Cities during the conference and will serve a one-year term and lead NLC’s advocacy, education, research and membership activities.

Carteret County The Harborside Park project, a public access point on Taylor’s Creek in historic Beaufort, officially opened last Thursday. The $400,000 project includes a 5,800-square-foot deck that provides a platform for N.C. Maritime Museum educational programs, as well as public access. In 1988, the Friends of the N.C. Maritime Museum bought the property, and for 20 years it was a vacant lot until December 2015 when plans to use the lot came to fruition.

PR NEWSWIRE

CARTERET COUNTY NEWS-TIMES

A5

North Carolina teen wins national dance titles Brunswick County Fifteen-year-old Madison Tony of Leland has won dance competitions and titles in the U.S. and Canada. Most recently, she won the national title of Miss Distinguished Dancer at the Adrenaline Dance Competition in Las Vegas — one of two competitions that make up National Dance Honors — and Miss Teen National Title for OnStage in Hilton Head, S.C. WILMINGTON STAR NEWS

Hertford County to renovate two town offices Hertford County A contract worth nearly a half-million dollars has been approved by the Hertford County Board of Commissioners for renovations to a county-owned building in Ahoskie that will serve as that town’s Nutrition Site as well as the county’s new Board of Elections office. The commissioners awarded the contract to Burney & Burney Construction of Greenville. For a base bid of $484,000 (plus a combined $15,000 for two alternate sub bids minus a $6,000 savings on a third alternate), the firm will perform the renovation work on the building located at 418 Everett St. A year ago, Hertford County local government purchased the property from Scott Edwards for $275,000.

ROANOKE-CHOWAN NEWS-HERALD

RALEIGH — Rep. Susan Martin (R-Wilson) announced on Monday that she will not seek another term in the N.C. House of Representatives. In her announcement, Martin said, “after much prayer and discussion with my family, I’ve decided not to run for re-election in 2018.” Martin was first elected in 2012 and assumed office in 2013. She is currently on the House committees on Finance and Commerce and Job Development and serves as vice chair of the Regulator Reform Committee.

Retired from IBM, Martin said she “decided to run for office to make a difference for families.” She pointed to “Raise the Age” legislation — which reformed juvenile justice laws in the state — and improvements to mental health care as initiatives of which she was proud to have contributed.

Martin noted that she worked to restore the Historic Preservation tax credits for rural downtown development and helped pass legislation that created the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina and eliminated the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency’s debt crisis that had stifled economic develop-

ment in her area.

“Our state is better today because of Susan’s dedication and passion for economic development,” said Majority Leader John Bell (R-Wayne). “Our caucus wishes her the best and she will be missed.”

Martin said she is “confident that there are new opportunities waiting to be discovered, for me and for whoever steps forward to continue the positive momentum we have made in making North Carolina one of the fastest growing economies in the country.” Martin’s announcement comes after a judicially appointed map-maker left Martin’s newly drawn House district intact. She will represent District 8 through the end of her term, but lives in the same district as incumbent Democrat Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield. The new district supported Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton 52-46 percent in the 2016 election.

“Susan is a tireless advocate for eastern North Carolina and especially for our rural communities,” said Speaker of the House Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain).

“I appreciate her selfless service to the people of North Carolina and wish her all the best.”

N.C. Public Safety hires legislative and policy staffers

By NSJ Staff RALEIGH — The N.C. Department of Public Safety announced the addition of three new staff members who will serve on Secretary Erik A. Hooks’ leadership team. Susanna Davis will serve as legislative affairs director for the department, Alicia Davis will serve as legislative counsel and Mike Daniska was named director of policy and planning.

“All three of these professionals have proven track records as knowledgeable and dedicated public servants,” said Hooks. “Their combined experience and knowledge of state government and legislative operations and policy matters are tremendous assets for the department given the plethora and volume of issues that public safety encompasses. We look forward to working with each of them.”

Susanna Davis previously worked in the Cooper administration as the legislative liaison for the Office of State Human Resources and prior to that worked for Williams Mullen law firm and the Office

of Gov. Beverly Perdue. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Alicia Davis previously worked as a document review specialist for the company Hire Counsel. Prior to pursuing a legal career, she worked in the office of former State Treasurer Janet Cowell as a communications specialist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from NC State and a juris doctorate from N.C. Central University School of Law where she graduated in 2016.

Mike Daniska has spent the past 11 years working in various positions within the department’s Emergency Management division as a grants manager, homeland security planner, and coordinator for policy and legislative efforts.

Since 2014, he has served as the assistant director for Homeland Security and Planning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from East Carolina University.

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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north STATEment Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor | Troy Kickler, deputy opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

EDITORIAL | FRANK HILL

‘Odd Tax Facts for $2000, Alex!’

SINCE ALL THE ATTENTION is on the U.S. Senate now to see if they can pass a tax bill and get it to conference and to the president’s desk before the Alabama special Senate election on Dec. 12, consider the following facts about the US tax code in the following couplets:

Almost all taxpayers — 99.2 percent — each year will not be audited by the IRS.

1. 45 percent of all taxpaying household units in America pay no federal income tax in the progressive tax structure.

2. 100 percent of all taxpaying household units that reported earned income paid federal payroll taxes in what is essentially a “flat tax” on everyone.

3. 70 percent of all taxpayers choose to use the standard deduction instead of itemizing deductions.

4. Roughly 2.2 million people who use the standard deduction “overpay” their tax liability by not itemizing which leads to an overpayment of approximately $1 billion in federal taxes.

5. The average annual “tax gap”— or the difference between collected taxes and potential tax revenues — is about $450 billion per year due to underreporting of income or flat-out fraud.

6. 0.86 percent of all 136 million tax returns were audited by the IRS in 2016.

7. The income tax was made constitutional by ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913.

8. Mandatory withholding of federal income and payroll taxes started in 1943 during World War II. 9. There is more tax revenue sheltered by deductions, exemptions and credits, roughly $2.2 trillion and not paid to the U.S. Treasury, than the amount of income taxes collected each year, $1.8 trillion from individuals and $355 billion from corporations.

10. Corporate income taxes amount to 10 percent of all tax collection, all of which is paid for by customers in the form of higher prices.

Other than winning bar games or perhaps beating Ken Jennings on “Jeopardy!” with “Odd Tax Facts,” what does all of this tax trivia mean today?

There is a vast amount of disinformation out in the public about our tax system.

We have a progressive tax system that really doesn’t “gouge” the rich since the uber-wealthy can afford so many tax shelters unavailable to most taxpayers.

We have a second “flat tax” system that is completely regressive since it takes 15 percent (half from the employee/ half from the employer; 100 percent from self-employed) from each dollar earned by each and every salary wage-earner in the country, from the poorest laborer to an NBA star, up to $127,500 for Social Security and unlimited in Medicare.

About 2.2 million people don’t know they are paying too much in taxes by choosing the standard deduction instead of itemizing deductions such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.

Millions of taxpayers who do use the standard deduction are getting a good deal if they A) rent and don’t have a mortgage on which to pay interest; B) don’t contribute a lot of money to charity; or C) live in a state without an income tax. With the standard deduction going up to $24,000 for married couples and $12,000 for individuals, millions of taxpayers will get the benefit of tax deductions even if they don’t do anything specifically to earn them.

Almost all taxpayers — 99.2 percent — each year will not be audited by the IRS. The IRS does not have the time, resources or manpower to go after all but the largest discrepancies in the higher income categories. If every person had to pay one huge check on April 15 each year, we would have the largest tax revolution since 1776.

We are leaving at least $400 billion per year on the table in uncollected tax revenues. When you factor in the black market and illegal trade in America, it might be triple that number.

This tax reform package needs to be passed this year. But it should not be the last tax reform package we ever see.

EDITORIAL | TROY KICKLER

The Jefferson of North Carolina

Jones was instrumental in ensuring that the U.S. Constitution included an important addendum: the Bill of Rights.

AFTER THE CONSTITUTION was drafted and then submitted for approval, nine state ratification conventions quickly adopted a more “energetic” government, with enumerated powers.

There were four holdouts, though.

Among them was North Carolina.

Thomas Jefferson actually encouraged this result. Nine states’ approval was needed to keep a union, but a few stalling states were needed so that “there might be certainty of obtaining amendments.”

The “Jefferson of North Carolina,” Willie Jones (pronounced Wiley), helped ensure that a Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution. Some snidely remarked that the former member of His Majesty’s Council for North Carolina had a curious “St. Paul’s conversion” regarding politics. Was it, they asked, a matter of convenience or genuine belief?

The Halifax Countian may have been on the road to a political Damascus.

Nevertheless, he ended up being instrumental to North Carolina’s and the United States’ founding.

Jones was absent from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, however. He had declined his appointment to be a member of North Carolina’s delegation. Hugh Williamson took his place, and the Edentonian became one of the most vocal delegates at the Constitutional Convention.

Did Jones, like Patrick Henry of Virginia, “smell a rat?” With a

reactionary impulse, had he refused to attend the convention? Or was he more calculating than supposed?

Jones believed he could be of greater benefit in North Carolina. While constitutional delegates opined in Philadelphia, Jones disseminated anti-Federal principles. Much like he did in 1776 when helping craft the North Carolina Constitution and incorporating a declaration of rights into the document, Jones worked to reveal the need of a declaration of rights for the proposed U.S. Constitution.

Rarely one to seek attention in print or in the halls of the assembly, Jones nevertheless was a leader among leaders. As historian John Moore points out, Jones was “a leader in the [provincial] assembly and yet rarely joined the debates and then only to utter a few pungent and pointed sentences.

After the House had adjourned after an exciting debate, his real strength manifested itself. No man could be so insinuating and convincing at the fireside.” One historian remarked that this was a lifelong practice. Jones was “never conspicuous on the hustings or in the debates of deliberative bodies.”

During the 1788 North Carolina ratification convention, as usual, Jones rarely spoke. He did so at the beginning to call for a vote; he wished to avoid a lengthy debate that would unnecessarily cost the taxpayer. A debate did ensue.

A reticent Jones, however, waited for Federalists, such as James Iredell, to

mention any published objections to their proposed Constitution and await for their lengthy commentary.

Convention delegates, however, were well aware of Jones’ presence. Despite Federalists’ erudite oratory, Jones had rallied his troops and knew their personalities and proclivities: “his nod was the approval of the highest authority, his sneer the refutation of the most perfect logic; his uplifted finger the token of caution or silence.”

As the convention neared an end, Jones once again called for a declaration of rights. “I would rather be 18 years out of the Union than adopt it in its present defective form,” he said.

With a vote of 184-83, North Carolina voted in Hillsborough to “neither reject nor ratify” the Constitution in 1788. By 1789, North Carolinians were confident enough that a declaration of rights, similar to the one in their state constitution, was to be added to the Constitution (and it was). Out of the new union for a little over a year, North Carolina finally approved the U.S. Constitution.

Jones was instrumental in ensuring that the U.S. Constitution included an important addendum: the Bill of Rights, those first 10 amendments that Americans of all political stripes hold (or should hold) dear.

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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COLUMN | WALTER E. WILLIAMS

Diversity obsession The fact is that when college presidents and their diversity coterie talk about diversity, they’re talking mostly about pleasing mixtures of race.

A COMMON FEATURE of our time is the extent to which many in our nation have become preoccupied with diversity. But true diversity obsession, almost a mania, is found at our institutions of higher learning. Rather than have a knee-jerk response for or against diversity, I think we should ask just what is diversity and whether it’s a good thing. How do we tell whether a college, a department or another unit within a college is diverse or not? What exemptions from diversity are permitted?

Seeing as college presidents and provosts are the main diversity pushers, we might start with their vision of diversity. Ask your average college president or provost whether he even bothers promoting political diversity among faculty.

I’ll guarantee that if he is honest — and even bothers to answer the question — he will say no.

According to a recent study, professors who are registered Democrats outnumber their Republican counterparts by a 12-1 ratio. In some departments, such as history, Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts by a 33-1 ratio.

The fact is that when college presidents and their diversity coterie talk about diversity, they’re talking mostly about pleasing mixtures of race. Years ago, they called their agenda affirmative action, racial preferences or racial quotas. Not only did these terms fall out of favor but also voters approved initiatives banning choosing by race. Courts found some of the choosing by race unconstitutional.

That meant that the race people had to repackage their agenda. That repackaging became known as diversity. Some race people were bold enough to argue that “diversity” produces educational benefits to all students, including white students. Nobody has bothered to scientifically establish what those benefits are. For example, does a racially diverse student body lead to higher scores on graduate admissions tests, such as the GRE, LSAT and MCAT? By the way, Israel, Japan and South Korea are among the world’s least racially diverse nations.

In terms of academic achievement, their students run circles around diversity-crazed Americans.

There is one area of college life where

administrators demonstrate utter contempt for diversity, and that’s in sports. It is by no means unusual to watch a Saturday afternoon college basketball game and see that the starting five on both teams are black. White players, not to mention Asian players, are underrepresented.

Similar underrepresentation is practiced in college football. Where you find whites overrepresented in both sports is on the cheerleading squads, which are mostly composed of white women. If you were to explore this lack of racial diversity in sports with a college president, he might answer, “We look for the best players, and it so happens that blacks dominate.” I would totally agree but ask him whether the same policy of choosing the best applies to the college’s admissions policy. Of course, the honest answer would be a flat-out no.

The most important issue related to college diversity obsession is what happens to black students. Black parents should not allow their sons and daughters to fall victim to the diversity hustle, even if the diversity hustler is a black official of the college. Black parents should not allow their sons and daughters to attend a college where they would not be admitted if they were white. A good rule of thumb is not to allow your children to attend a college where their SAT score is 200 or more points below the average of that college.

Keep in mind that students are not qualified or unqualified in any absolute sense. There are more than 4,800 colleges — a college for most anybody.

The bottom-line question for black parents and black people in general is: Which is better, a black student’s being admitted to an elite college and winding up in the bottom of his class or flunking out, or being admitted to a less prestigious college and performing just as well as his white peers and graduating? I would opt for the latter. You might ask, “Williams, but how will the nation’s elite colleges fulfill their racial diversity needs?” My answer is that’s their problem.

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

COLUMN | MICHAEL BARONE

Will political setbacks unite the Republican Party?

Just about all the erstwhile rebels are suddenly supporting Speaker Ryan’s tax bill, even though it’s easy to find complex provisions to which purists could object.

THE INEXORABLE WORKINGS of the political marketplace seem to be enforcing some discipline over hitherto fissiparous Republican politicians. The question is whether this is happening too late to save the party’s declining prospects in the 2018 midterm elections.

You can see this in Republicans’ reactions to the tax bills Congress is currently considering. Last spring, when the party’s congressional leadership teed up its health care bills, purportedly repealing and replacing Obamacare, they faced rebellions from practically every corner of their party’s caucuses.

In the House, the Freedom Caucus trotted out one criticism after another. This is in line with standard practice, going back at least to October 2013, when Freedom Caucus types, heeding newly elected Sen. Ted Cruz’s calls to defund Obamacare, produced a government shutdown that sent the party, predictably, plummeting in the polls.

House Republican rebels made purist arguments, cited pledges never to vote for government expansion, called for constitutional conservatism.

They chided Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for insufficient boldness, seemingly forgetting that the Constitution gave President Barack Obama a veto.

Now things look different.

With Republicans holding the White House and majorities in both houses of Congress, the purism that resulted in defeat of the House’s first attempt at Obamacare revision, followed by the defeat of a second in the Senate, leaves Republicans double-digits behind Democrats on the generic which-partywould-you-back question.

Democrats’ big victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races also struck a chord. These states, dominated by high-education suburbs in major metro areas, tilt more Democratic than the nation. But Republicans have been losing legislative special elections even in red-state Trump districts.

So just about all the erstwhile rebels are suddenly supporting Speaker Ryan’s tax bill, even though it’s easy to find complex provisions to which purists could object. They’ve discovered that in the American political marketplace, whose rules usually limit competition to two parties, a majority party that

The silent backlash to beware of WANT to see the next name in the headlines for sexual misconduct.

II DON’T know too many of them. I believe the

women. Some companies are conducting internal checks, and some are not, because they don’t want to get caught up in all this. And because while it’s true that sexual harassment is a real problem, there are also questions of degree. An 89-year-old President George H.W. Bush, in a wheelchair, accused of sexual assault?

The reason I write this is not to discredit women. I write all this because if people I’m talking to feel this way then other people — people who would never talk to a feminist such as myself — must feel it even more strongly.

So beware. Amidst the apologies, amidst the corporate commitments, amidst the sense of empowerment that many women rightly feel — the kind that comes with standing up and going beyond being a victim — pause to observe that the ingredients for a real backlash are all lined up.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that men are out there ready to harass women as vengeance, or to punish those who spoke out. Not at all. The power dynamic has shifted. Everyone felt the shaking, as we say in California. Duck, cover and hope the glass won’t hit you. That’s what it’s been like, figuratively speaking. No one wants to be next. “Am I allowed to say a woman is attractive?” a male friend asked me, seriously and respectfully.

“Is the woman a co-worker?” I asked.

She was. (Whom else do most of us see during the day?) I suggested he not do that, not right now. Ridiculous, I agree, but good advice, you have to admit.

It’s the silent backlash I worry about: It’s not what people are going to do, but what they aren’t going to do.

JONATHAN ERNST | REUTERS

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talks to reporters as he arrives for the weekly Republican party caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on October.

can’t perform is liable to severe punishment.

But for some — notably former White House adviser Steve Bannon — the point is not to win, but to oust the current Republican leadership. Just as California billionaire Tom Steyer conditions contributions on pledges to vote for impeachment, so former Goldman Sachs exec Bannon requires pledges to vote for ouster of McConnell.

That left him endorsing, apparently with no visible effect, Roy Moore in the special election Republican runoff for the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moore, a dim bulb, was twice ousted from the state Supreme Court for disobeying a federal court order (banning his Ten Commandments courthouse statue) and the Supreme Court decision proclaiming a right to same-sex marriage.

His stands proved popular with many evangelical voters.

But his argument, that the order and decision were wrong, shows either ignorance of the supremacy clause in Article VI of the United States Constitution or a commitment to lawlessness that is the opposite of conservatism.

But all that has been pushed to the side after last week’s Washington Post story that as a 30-something lawyer, Moore had at least one sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl and pursued four other teens; this week came charges of sexual harassment by another.

Moore’s quasi-denials, even to the sympathetic Sean Hannity, have been unconvincing. Polls have shown him losing ground

SUSAN ESTRICH

and even trailing against a respectable Democratic candidate in a state that Donald Trump carried 62 to 34 percent.

Republican senators, including McConnell and Alabama’s Richard Shelby, have responded by saying he should withdraw from the race. His name can’t legally be removed from the Dec. 12 ballot, but there is speculation about a write-in campaign for Luther Strange, the appointee he beat in the runoff, or even Sessions.

Cory Gardner, head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee, has gone father.

“If he refuses to withdraw and wins, the Senate should vote to expel him,” Gardner said. Under the Supreme Court Powell v.

McCormack decision, the Senate must seat him, but could expel him by a two-thirds vote.

Contrary to claims that there is no precedent for this or that a senator can’t be expelled based on conduct prior to election, a move by senators to expel Michigan Sen. Truman Newberry was frustrated only when Newberry resigned in 1922.

No possible outcome looks helpful for beleaguered Republicans now. Unless, perhaps, Republican politicians — and voters — heed the signals in the political marketplace and reject Bannon’s burn-the-barndown strategy.

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.

So I’m not worried about workplace revenge, at least not in that obvious way.

I think most workplaces are in for some changes: more timeouts for reflecting; a little more care about the jokes people tell; about the asides; about physical contact. None of that is necessarily a bad thing. That’s what happened, at least for 10 minutes or so, after Anita Hill captivated the nation.

It’s the silent backlash I worry about: It’s not what people are going to do, but what they aren’t going to do.

Who wants to mentor the attractive young women associates? Who wants to travel with the junior “girl”? Who wants to spend weeks in hotels on business trips with the blonde millennials?

There was a time when you had too many men volunteering for those assignments, some of them for all the wrong reasons. But I worry that going forward, you’re not going to find as many volunteers as are needed. Because as much as Anita Hill captivated the nation and spurred many women to speak out, her testimony did not fundamentally change the structure of power in this country. There is a reason — not simply our superior judgment — that every single one of those accused in the current round of accusations has been a man.

Every one. It is not simply about gender differences. It is, at its core, about who has power. It is the reason that these problems are so stubborn: Challenging the powerful to behave differently is difficult, convincing them to share power even more so.

Every study comes to the same conclusion about what women need to do, what we need to have. We need mentors. We need people with more power than we have to promote and advise us. That is what men have had for centuries. It is what the “old boys’ network” is all about.

And where will young women find them? First, of course, from the ranks of successful women, but there aren’t enough powerful women to go around; that’s the problem. (And that’s not to mention those women headed to a special place in the afterworld for not recognizing any responsibility to help other women.) The second place we women find mentors is from the ranks of successful men who are willing to have meals with us and travel with us and have confidential conversations with us; who trust us to learn and not to destroy.

There is only one way to make sure that this moment does not lead to a silent backlash that takes opportunities from women rather than opening doors.

Count. Count how many women are hired and how many are promoted and how many leave. Do it on a regular basis.

No quotas. Just a mirror. Sometimes seeing is all you need.

A8

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Nation & WORLD Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), walks through the Reichstag building before the beginning of exploratory talks about forming a new coalition government in Berlin, on Nov. 7.

HANNIBAL HANSCHKE | REUTERS

Merkel fourth term in doubt as German coalition talks fail Chancellor could not form coalition; president could call new election

By Andreas Rinke and Joseph Nasr Reuters BERLIN — Efforts to form a three-way coalition government have failed, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday, pitching Germany into its worst political crisis in decades, raising the prospect of new elections and casting doubt over her future.

The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) withdrew from talks after more than four weeks of fruitless negotiations with Merkel’s conservative bloc and the environmentalist Greens, saying there was not enough common ground.

With German leadership seen as crucial for a European Union grappling with governance reform and Britain’s impending exit, FDP leader Christian Lindner’s announcement that he was pulling out spooked investors and sent the euro falling.

Merkel said she would stay on as acting chancellor and consult President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on how to move forward. A deal had been within reach, she said.

With the Social Democrats (SPD) sticking on Monday to their pledge after losses in a September election not to go back into a Merkel-led “grand coalition” of center-left and center-right, the most likely option looked to be new elections.

“It is a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany,” Merkel told reporters. “As chancellor, I will do everything to ensure that this country is well managed in the difficult weeks to come.”

The failure of coalition talks is unprecedented in Germany’s post-war history, and was likened by newsmagazine Der Spiegel to the shock election of President Donald Trump or Britain’s

referendum vote to leave the EU — moments when countries cast aside reputations for stability built up over decades.

The collapse came as a surprise since the main sticking points — immigration and climate change policy — were not seen as FDP signature issues.

Green politician Michael Kellner accused Lindner of “bad theatrics,” one of many who suggested the liberal, pro-business party had never been serious about negotiating.

“It is better not to rule than to rule the wrong way. Goodbye!”

Lindner said, announcing his withdrawal in the small hours, blaming the breakdown on a lack of progress on education and tax policy — areas that had been seen as less contentious.

“Christian ‘Better no deal than a bad deal’ Lindner — Germany’s Boris Johnson,” wrote political commentator Max Steinbeis on Facebook, comparing Lindner to the British foreign minister and Brexit campaigner who is widely seen by Germany’s political class as a dangerous and heedless loose cannon.

Unappealing options Germany now faces unappealing options not experienced in Germany’s post-World War II era: Merkel forms a minority government, or the president calls a new election if no government is formed.

The main parties fear that another election so soon would let the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party add to the 13 percent of votes it secured in September, when it entered parliament for the first time. Polls suggest repeat elections would return a similarly fragmented parliament.

The SPD, which came second in the Sept. 24 election, said on Monday it had no wish to rejoin Merkel in a grand coalition and that voters should be given a say.

“We are not afraid of repeat elections. In such a situation, the ... voters must reassess what

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is going on,” SPD leader Martin Schulz told a news conference.

He added that a minority government was not a practical option in Germany.

Schulz also said he would meet Steinmeier and that Merkel had yet to contact him.

Some still believe that the SPD could change its mind, perhaps under pressure from Steinmeier, himself a former SPD foreign minister who served under Merkel.

Others felt the FDP could yet be prevailed upon to return to the negotiating table. The price for either party to change its mind could be the departure of Merkel, who for 12 years has been a symbol of German stability, leading Europe through the euro zone crisis.

Greens leader Kathrin Goering-Eckardt said she expected fresh elections.

Merkel was weakened by the September election as voters angry with her decision in 2015 to open the borders to more than a million asylum seekers punished her conservatives by voting for the AfD. AfD politician Beatrix von Storch called the coalition talks collapse a success for her party, saying other parties’ “fear of the AfD” had forced them to drive a hard bargain with the left-leaning Greens, who are dovish on immigration.

AfD leader Alexander Gauland demanded Merkel’s resignation.

The inability to form a government caused disquiet elsewhere in Europe, not least because of the implications for the euro zone reforms championed by French President Emmanuel Macron and the negotiations over Britain’s departure from the EU. “It’s not in our interests that the process freezes up,” Macron told reporters in Paris, adding that he had spoken with Merkel shortly after the failure of talks.

In Brussels, Dutch foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra described the collapse as “bad news for Europe.”

Mexico, Canada shun NAFTA autos counteroffers Canadian union president says “talks are really not going anywhere”

By Anthony Esposito and David Lawder Reuters MEXICO CITY — Divisions over updating the NAFTA trade deal showed no sign of easing on Sunday as Mexico and Canada signaled they would not offer counterproposals to U.S. demands for far stronger automotive content rules, people with knowledge of the talks said.

The lack of movement on major issues such as autos rules of origin could put the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations in danger of grinding to a stalemate as an early 2018 deadline for revising the pact approaches.

A source close to the negotiations said Mexico had serious problems with a number of U.S. proposals, including Washington’s demand that regional content for autos be raised to 85 percent from 62.5 percent, with 50 percent coming from the United States.

The source also said that Mexico could not accept a U.S. proposal that would restrict imports of some Mexican produce at certain times to protect growers.

Mexico does not plan to make counterproposals in those areas, the source said, adding that the U.S. autos proposal was “unviable” and would “make the region less competitive.”

A Canadian source with knowledge of the negotiations said Canada also intended to refrain from offering an autos counterproposal and instead make a presentation on Monday arguing that the U.S. demands would cause serious damage to both U.S. and North American automotive manufacturing.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are holding the fifth of

seven planned rounds of talks to modernize NAFTA, which President Donald Trump blames for job losses and big trade deficits for the United States.

“The talks are really not going anywhere,” Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the largest Canadian private-sector union, told reporters after meeting with Canada’s chief negotiator on Sunday.

“As long as the United States is taking the position they are, this is a colossal waste of time,” said Dias, who is advising the government and regularly meets the Canadian team.

‘No signs of flexibility’ Hanging over the negotiations is the threat that Trump could make good on a threat to scrap NAFTA. Canada and Mexico object to a number of demands the U.S. side unveiled during the fourth round last month, including for a fiveyear sunset clause that would force frequent renegotiation of the trade pact, and major changes to dispute- settlement mechanisms.

“Our internal view as of this morning is that if any progress is to be made, the United States needs to show some flexibility and a willingness to do a deal,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks.

“We are seeing no signs of flexibility now,” added the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

U.S. officials declined to comment.

Mexico is expected to offer an alternative to the U.S. sunset clause proposal that would offer periodic reviews of the trade pact but without an automatic expiration.

U.S. negotiating objectives that were updated on Friday appeared to accommodate the Mexican proposal, saying the revised NAFTA should “provide a mechanism for ensuring that the parties assess the benefits of the agreement on a periodic basis.”

CARLOS JASSO | REUTERS

Canada’s NAFTA negotiator Steve Verheul talks to the media where the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada is taking place in Mexico City, on Nov. 17.

Helping farmers grow with technology www.vantagesouthatlantic.com

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017

JASEN VINLOVE | USA TODAY SPORTS

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates winning the NASCAR Cup Championship after taking the checkered flag at the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

the Wednesday SIDELINE REPORT

SPORTS

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Duke still No. 1, UNC holds steady at No. 9 in rankings

Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver, and former champion Matt Kenseth both retire following season finale

Duke strengthened its hold on the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press college basketball poll after beating then-No. 2 Michigan State last week. The Blue Devils received 54 of the 65 first-place votes, with the other 11 going to Arizona, which moved up one spot to No. 2.

Duke picked up 20 more firstplace selections than last week.

Michigan State, which lost 88-81 to the Blue Devils at the Champions Classic in Chicago last Tuesday, dropped to No. 4, one spot behind Kansas.

Villanova stayed put at No. 5.

North Carolina remained at No. 9 in the poll.

Manute Bol’s son Bol Bol commits to Oregon Bol Bol, the 7-foot-2 son of former NBA center Manute Bol, committed to the University of Oregon on Monday, picking the Ducks over Kentucky. The addition of the younger Bol, a consensus top-five player in the class of 2018, gives Oregon coach Dana Altman four top100 players coming to Eugene next season. Manute Bol, the tallest player in NBA history at 7-foot-7, died of kidney failure in 2010 at age 47. He played for four NBA teams over 10 seasons, averaging 3.3 blocks per game. “I’m tall (obviously), but I’m not my dad,” Bol Bol said in an article Monday on The Players’ Tribune website announcing his decision to commit to the Ducks. “He was a true big man, a guy who played in the paint and blocked shots.

But I like to work from the perimeter. I like to put the ball on the floor.”

By Amanda Vincent The Sports Xchange

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTS

Duke will need to slow Wake Forest senior quarterback John Wolford if it wants to win in Winston-Salem and ensure bowl eligibility.

Wake Forest, Duke both have plenty to play for in final game Bowl bids will depend on Saturday’s result

By Shawn Krest North State Journal DUKE AND WAKE FOREST both began playing football in 1888. In the 130 seasons since, the two teams have never gone to a bowl in the same year.

That could change this season, as the Blue Devils head to Winston-Salem for a regular season

finale that has a great deal at stake for both teams.

Riding its record-breaking offense, Wake has already qualified for a bowl game. At 7-4, the Demon Deacons need to win to improve their chance of getting a Tier One bowl bid. Most prognosticators predict that the Deacs are on track to head to Charlotte for the Belk Bowl.

Wake last appeared in that bowl in 2007, when it was known as the See DUKE, page B4

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Martin Truex Jr. claimed his eighth win of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Series season Sunday in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With the win, Truex also won his first Cup Series championship.

“It’s just overwhelming,” Truex said. “To think about all the rough days and bad days, the days that couldn’t run 20th, to be here, I never thought this day would come, and to be here is so unbelievable.”

Truex had to battle another championship candidate, Kyle Busch, in the closing laps. Busch took runner-up honors.

Kyle Larson finished third. The other two Championship Four drivers, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, finished fourth and seventh, respectively. Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

“We just got really loose, and then, got a hole in the nose, and it started to get tight in,” Harvick said.

“We got that fixed. We were pretty good on the nextto-last run, and we were just really loose on the last run.”

“I told my guys we were going to dig deeper than we ever have today ... they were all better than me on the long run all day long. I just found a way.”

— Martin Truex Jr.

See NASCAR, page B4

MARK J. REBILAS | USA TODAY SPORTS

Dale Earnhardt Jr., having just completed his final race, congratulates Martin Truex Jr. on winning the NASCAR Cup title.

INSIDE

Wingate shut out

by Western Florida in playoff opener Visiting Western Florida, led by redshirt freshman quarterback Mike Beaudry’s three touchdown passes, ended Wingate’s season Saturday with a 31-0 win at Irwin Belk Stadium to eliminate the Bulldogs for the Division II football playoffs. Wingate had four turnovers in the game, including an interception returned for a West Florida touchdown to open the scoring, and finished the season 9-2.

Truex claims EcoBoost 400, Cup Series title

The Carolina Hurricanes have won three of four, and they can thank the reunited TSA line for it.

Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho piled up points over the last week, with Teravainen being named the NHL’s First Star of the week after accumulating five goals and five assists over the four games. That included Teravainen’s first career hat trick last Tuesday at home against the Dallas Stars. In all, the trio totaled nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points. Aho — who had not scored in the first 15 games — got goals in all four games, while Staal produced six assists. B4 TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG | USA TODAY SPORTS

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

B2 WEDNESDAY

11.22.17

TRENDING

Terry Glenn: The former NFL wide receiver died early Monday morning after being involved in a car crash in Irving, Texas.

He was 43. Glenn was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died shortly after midnight, the Dallas County medical examiner’s office said. The accident reportedly was a single rollover crash.

Glenn, selected seventh overall by New England out of Ohio State in 1996, played parts of 12 seasons in the NFL with the Patriots, Packers and Cowboys.

Mike McCoy: The Broncos’ offensive coordinator was fired Monday, replaced by quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave. McCoy was a longtime Panthers assistant, holding various offensive positions from 2000 until 2009. He joined the Broncos as offensive coordinator in 2009 and was in Denver until he was named head coach of the San Diego Chargers in 2013.

He returned to Denver as offensive coordinator this year after being fired by the Chargers following last season.

Mugrave was also on the Panthers’ coaching staff in 1999 and 2000.

Rey Maualuga: The linebacker-thin Miami Dolphins waived Maualuga Saturday, hours after he was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge.

Court records reveal that Maualuga was arrested after an early morning incident at a downtown Miami nightclub, allegedly involving a dispute over a bar bill.

Police said Maualuga, 30, became upset and refused to pay a $40 bar tab before grabbing an unidentified person by the throat and shoving him at Club E11even, the Miami Herald reported.

beyond the box score POTENT QUOTABLES

NFL

The Georgia Dome, old home to the Atlanta Falcons, was imploded Monday.

The 25-year-old downtown Atlanta facility was replaced by the $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the new home to the Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC. About 5,000 pounds of explosives were used to take down the 71,250‑seat Georgia Dome at 7:30 a.m.

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTS

“i’m so sorry wolf pack nation.”

NC State freshman receiver Emeka Emezie, in a tweet Saturday night less than an hour after fumbling just shy of the goal line in the fourth quarter of the Pack’s sixpoint loss at Wake Forest.

DALE ZANIN | USA TODAY SPORTS

JOHN DAVID MERCER | USA TODAY SPORTS

NBA

TENNIS

“The truth is, my family is already here.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., referring to the rest of the drivers and teams who travel city to city during the nine‑month NASCAR Monster Energy Cup series schedule, on why he had just six family members flown in to Homestead‑Miami Speedway for his final race before retirement.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

13 Consecutive 50-plus-yard field goals made by Buffalo Bills kicker Stephen Hauschka, setting a new NFL record. Hauschka, who played a gradutate season at NC State in 2007 after kicking for Vermont’s Middlebury College, is with his seventh NFL team, having won a Super Bowl with the Seahawks in 2014. He signed a threeyear, $8.85 million deal — $4 million guaranteed — with the Bills in the offseason.

BRIAN SNYDER | REUTERS

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI | USA TODAY SPORTS

Czech tennis player Jana Novotna, who won the 1998 Wimbledon championship after falling short in two previous finals, died Sunday at the age of 49 after a long battle with cancer. The Women’s Tennis Association on Monday said Novotna died surrounded by her family in the Czech Republic.

The Charlotte Hornets, who were 14‑27 on the road last season, have struggled even more away from Spectrum Center in 2017-18. The Hornets were an Eastern Conferenceworst 1-9 on road through the weekend, offsetting their success at home and placing them near the bottom of the Southeast Division.

NFL

Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor, part of the Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” secondary, is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a neck injury. The news comes after the team lost star cornerback Richard Sherman to a torn Achilles tendon in last week’s “Thursday Night Game” win against the Arizona Cardinals. Sherman was placed on injured reserve and had surgery to repair his Achilles on Wednesday.

KIRBY LEE | USA TODAY SPORTS

Always Dry. Always Comfortable.

w w w . a l b e m a r l e b o at s . c o m

Find us on

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

B3

UNC, Duke featured in Nike showcase PK80 event honors sneaker mogul Phil Knight

8

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Nyheim Hines and the Wolfpack knocked off the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill last season, and UNC is looking to return the favor Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.

Records unimportant in NC State-UNC rivalry The Tar Heels are playing their best football, while the Pack looks to regain footing

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal RALEIGH — A season that stood on the verge of being special is now teetering on the brink of becoming a disappointment for the NC State football team. A season that was once headed for disaster now has a chance to finish on a positive note for rival North Carolina.

That contrast has only added to the intensity surrounding the annual battle between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack.

Not that either side needs any extra motivation when they meet Saturday afternoon in their regular season finale at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“Honestly, I don’t sit there and drum up the series, I don’t really have to do that,” Doeren said Monday at his regular weekly press conference. “What I told the team yesterday is that it’s Senior Day. I had those seniors stand up and I said, ‘Do you need a better reason to play your best football?’ Everyone in the room knew where I was coming from.

“The fact that it’s UNC adds to that, but our preparation is going to be that no matter who we play, we want to win.”

The same can be said for the Tar Heels, who after losing eight of their first nine games have finally begun to pick up confidence — along with wins — after back-toback victories against Pittsburgh and Western Carolina.

Although UNC is still more than a two-touchdown underdog to the Wolfpack at 3-8 overall (1-6 ACC), its chances of winning and adding to its rival’s unexpected late-season woes have improved exponentially since State was riding high at 6-1 and ranked No. 14 in the nation just four weeks ago.

The Wolfpack has lost three of its last four, including Saturday’s 30-24 heartbreaker to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

“I think what our team has done under the circumstances is that they have played extremely hard,” coach Larry Fedora said. “We are starting to make fewer mistakes.

We are playing better as a football team right now. I do like the way we are playing at this point going into this last game.”

Fedora’s Tar Heels have been bolstered by a number of factors, including the emergence of quarterback Nathan Elliott, the improvement of its defense and the unexpected return of injured playmaker Austin Proehl.

Another thing they have going for them is the recent history of this series. In the five years since Fedora arrived at UNC in 2012 and Doeren took over at State a

UNC at NC State When Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

Where Carter-Finley Stadium Watch ESPNU

year later, the underdog has won the annual showdown between the two more often than not.

“Anything can happen in a rivalry game,” Fedora said. “That’s one of the great things about rivalry games, you can throw records out the door. Guys are going to battle and it’s always going to be a heck of a game.”

It was last year when the Wolfpack held on to win 28-21 in Chapel Hill to earn bowl eligibility and put a damper on the Tar Heels’ once promising season. The roles are reversed this year, with UNC looking to play the role of spoiler while State tries add an eighth victory and strengthen its sagging bowl resume.

“I don’t really think it matters what their record is in this game,” Doeren said. “I know it didn’t for us when we played them last year.

We didn’t care how many wins they had.”

Sun Belt madness kicks off with App State-Georgia State game Four teams are tied for first in the conference with two games to play

By Shawn Krest North State Journal IF YOU HAVEN’T been following Sun Belt football, now is as good a time as any, because you haven’t missed a thing.

Eleven weeks into the season, absolutely nothing has been settled. The standings are a complete mess, with four teams tied atop the league with identical 5-1 records.

The MAC is the only other conference that has as many of two teams tied for first.

With two weeks left to play, nearly half the conference — five of 12 teams — still have a chance to get a share of the league title.

Two of those teams—Georgia State and Appalachian State— meet this weekend. Both teams are already bowl eligible: The Panthers are 6-3 overall, while App is 6-4.

It’s just the second time since App State moved to FBS that the Mountaineers will play a regular season game in which both teams are bowl eligible. A then 7-2 App State played at 7-1 Troy last November.

The other two teams tied for the lead — Arkansas State and Troy — will play each other next week.

The two clashes of first-place teams should go a long way toward sorting

out the league, although there are still scenarios where chaos reigns at the end of the regular season.

In addition to Georgia State, App has a game left against Louisiana, which is just a game out of first place at 4-2. With a combined overall record of 11-8, App State’s remaining strength of schedule is second-toughest among the contenders. Arkansas State faces teams with a 12-8 mark.

Louisiana has the easiest road, with a remaining 7-13 strength of schedule. Troy (8-12) and Georgia State (9-11) are next.

Here’s the Sun Belt’s doomsday scenario, starting with this weekend: App State beats Georgia State Troy beats Texas State Arkansas State loses to ULM Louisiana beats Georgia Southern Next weekend: Louisiana beats App State Arkansas State beats Troy Georgia State beats Idaho That would leave five teams tied for the league title with identical 6-2 records. The same thing could happen if Troy wins its showdown with Arkansas State but loses to Texas State the week before, while Arkansas State beats ULM. Clearly, the key to taking home the Sun Belt is to win out. Two wins would guarantee Appalachian State of, at worst, tying one other

App State at Georgia State When Saturday, 2 p.m.

Where Georgia State Stadium

Half of the 16 teams in the tournament have reached the NCAA title game since 2007

NORTH CAROLINA and Duke will spend Thanksgiving week at one of the most exciting holiday basketball tournaments in recent memory.

The two ACC powers are among 16 teams converging on Portland, Ore., in a celebration of Nike’s influence on the sport. The event, titled the PK80, is a basketball celebration to honor Nike founder Phil Knight for his 80th birthday.

“What a thrill for North Carolina basketball to be playing in such a special event to honor a truly special man,” UNC coach Roy Williams said at the time the event was announced.

“Mr. Knight has a wonderful ability to touch people’s lives and do great things, both in and out of the sports world. I’ll always cherish my friendship with him.”

Knight and Nike are among the few things that can bring UNC and Duke together in agreement. Both schools switched to Nike in the early ’90s — UNC from Converse and Duke from Adidas — and both have won multiple national titles while wearing the Swoosh.

“Phil and I are great friends,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I love Adidas. I think they’re great. But I wanted to make a change.

I felt our product wasn’t out anywhere. So that was one of the reasons we went with Nike. One, we thought they would be better, but we also felt our product and their creativity with our program and what we were trying to do, that they would be a great partner. I was wrong.

They were even better.”

Carolina and Duke won’t play each other.

Each in is a separate eight-team bracket which will crown two separate winners. The field includes teams that have won 10 of the last 14 NCAA title winners, three of the teams in last season’s Final Four, and four teams currently ranked in the Top 10.

North Carolina seems to have a slightly easier road in the eight-team Victory Bracket. The Heels will need to get past Portland, then play the winner of Arkansas-Oklahoma, both of whom received votes in the AP poll. Assuming they advance to the championship game, the Heels will likely get No. 4 Michigan State, who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country this season.

Over in the Motion Bracket, Duke will open with Portland State, then get the winner of Butler-Texas, two teams that have received votes this week in at least one of the two polls. The other half of the bracket features two ranked teams, No. 7 Florida and No. 17 Gonzaga.

The two local teams are taking different approaches to the week. North Carolina flew to the West Coast early and played a game at Stanford late Monday night to get accustomed to the time difference. Duke played at home on Monday night and planned to leave after practice on Tuesday.

TEAM PREVIEWS

East Carolina at Memphis Liberty Bowl Stadium Saturday, noon ESPNU

Preview: The Pirates (3-8, 2-5 AAC) close out their regular season on the road against No. 17 Memphis, which is 9-1 (6-1) and is ranked fourth nationally in scoring at 44.7 points per game.

Players to watch: ECU WR Trevon Brown is coming off a game in which he set a school and AAC record with 270 receiving yards. Among his nine catches was a 95-yard TD grab from QB Gardner Minshew. Memphis QB Riley Ferguson has thrown for 3,201 yards and 29 TDs this season with only eight interceptions.

Fast fact: In addition to their 11 games against the Tigers, the Pirates have also played in the Liberty Bowl four times — beating Stanford in 1995 while losing to Illinois in 1994, Arkansas in 2009 and Kentucky in 2010.

What to expect: ECU is playing its best football of the year with a win and overtime loss in its last two games, but it will have its hands full against the high-powered Tigers.

— Brett Friedlander

Watch ESPN3

Charlotte vs. Florida Atlantic team for the title.

The Mountaineers never lost to Georgia State, which is coached by Shawn Elliott, a defensive lineman and teammate of App coach Scott Satterfield when both played at App State. The two actually roomed together.

The teams have plenty of offensive star power. App’s Taylor Lamb is the top-rated quarterback in the Sun Belt and is one of just four quarterbacks in FBS with at least 20 touchdowns and a 5-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Georgia State’s Penny Hart is the top receiver in the conference.

App State’s defense could be the difference in the contest. Led

by Sun Belt sack leader Ja’Von Rolland-Jones and co-interception leaders Clifton Duck and Tae Hayes, the Mountaineers have allowed just 23.9 points per game this year.

Jerry Richardson Stadium Saturday, 2 p.m.

CUSA.tv

Preview: Charlotte (1-10, 1-6 C-USA) seeks its second win of the year against an FAU team that has already clinched the C-USA East. Despite having nothing to play for, FAU coach Lane Kiffin promises to play his starters the whole way.

Players to watch: FAU running back Devin “Motor” Singletary had his streak of two straight 200-yard rushing games snapped when he got only 164 against FIU. Charlotte linebacker Jeff Gemmell had 13 tackles against Southern Miss last week, his third straight double-digit tackle game.

Fast fact: Florida Atlantic (8-3, 7-0) received four votes in the coaches poll Top 25 this week, the first time in program history the school has received a vote in either poll. There are 20 current FBS teams remaining who have never gotten a poll vote, including Charlotte.

What to expect: Charlotte lost to Southern Miss 66-21 last week and could have another rough day to close out its season.

— Shawn Krest

B4

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

NC A&T headed to Celebration Bowl

TRUEX from page B1

since — except in his matter-offact demeanor off the ice.

“I think we all can make some plays and we try to play fast, and that’s it,” he said of the TSA line after the Dallas win.

In the middle is Staal, the prototypical shutdown center who has anchored the line by helping the Hurricanes not only shut down the opposition’s best, but also put pucks in the net.

“Our line has to be there to play

solid both ways but contribute offensively,” the co-captain said, channeling coach Bill Peters’ creed to “play the right way.”

It’s what Carolina envisioned when it committed to Staal — who had six assists last week — for 10 years, and also when it traded for Teravainen from the cap-strapped Blackhawks.

Teravainen has been one of the league’s most dangerous evenstrength players, ranking in the top 10 in the league in points per 60 minutes at 5 on 5. He’s also sparked Carolina’s struggling power play with man-advantage points in three of the last four.

And with Aho nearly as hot as Teravainen, Peters and the coaching staff can focus on figuring out the struggles of Victor Rask (a healthy scratch Sunday) and experiment more with Elias Lindholm (a goal at home agains the Isles) at center.

After the Dallas win, Peters sensed his team was turning a corner.

“It’s coming, for sure.”

The key will be keeping it going until April and beyond.

Truex was the first off pit to start the final stage of the race just past lap 160. Busch, though, inherited the lead through a planned pit strategy of splitting the final stage of the race into halves, making only one additional pit stop, while many teams, including those of the other three championship contenders planned on two additional stops. Truex retook the lead when Busch made his stop.

“We just never gave up all day long,” Truex said. “We didn’t have the best car. I don’t know how we won that thing. Never give up. Dig deep. I told my guys we were going to dig deeper than we ever have today, and 20 to go, I thought I was done; they were all better than me on the long run all day long. I just found a way.”

The one-stop strategy blew out the window when the yellow flag waved for the fifth and final time for an incident involving Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones with 37 laps remaining and everyone pitted. Truex restarted with the lead and Busch in third, with Harvick next to Truex on the front row in third.

Larson won both of the first two 80-lap stages and dominated the first 160 laps of the race after a call to pit for tires during the first caution of the race that came as a result of a Joey Gase wreck on lap five.

After Denny Hamlin started on the pole and Truex led the opening laps, Larson, Keselowski and a few others opted to pit during the first caution. Larson was able to take the lead one lap after the race restarted on Lap 13, despite restarting 12th, running 4 mph faster than the previous frontrunners who stayed out.

Keselowski followed Larson through traffic and got up to second and was still running second to Larson at the end of the first stage. By the end of the opening stage, Larson had a lead of more than 10 seconds on Keselowski.

“I feel like I left it all out there and ran a damn near perfect race, but we just didn’t have enough speed,” Keselowski said.

Harvick and Kyle Busch both got by Keselowski early in the second stage to take second and third and traded those positions back-and-forth several times.

Truex got up to second on a restart with 10 laps remaining in the second stage to finish the stage second to Larson and the highest among the four championship contenders.

All four of the Championship Four drivers ran inside the top five through most of the first two stages of the race and occupied the other top-five positions in the running order behind Larson at the end of stage two at Lap 160.

It was also the final race for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth.

Earnhardt Jr., who took the mantle as American racing’s most popular driver following the death of his father, Dale Sr., at the 2001 Daytona 500, was never able to win a title, but embraced his role as the face of Cup racing and beyond.

The 43-year-old Kannapolis native announced in April the 2017 season would be his last, having missed half of the previous season with postconcussion symptoms.

He finished 25th at Homestead.

Kenseth’s career was more understated, but he did manage to win a title in 2003, the last year before the series implemented a playoff-style championship format. The Wisconsin native raced for Roush Fenway and Joe Gibbs Racing during 18 fulltime seasons. He finished eighth in his final race.

App State on Dec. 2.

Georgia Tech lost a scheduled game with Central Florida due to hurricane-related reschedulings early in the season. The Yellow Jackets could petition the NCAA for a waiver if they don’t win their sixth. They were granted one in 2012, so that could also take a spot from a five-win Duke team.

There are also a pair of four-win teams that could make Duke’s life difficult. Vanderbilt, which plays Tennessee, has the same APR as Duke, and Air Force (Utah State) has a higher APR. In other words, Duke’s best bet is to beat Wake Forest on Saturday and remove all doubt.

“This game is the most important thing in our life right now,” said center Austin Davis. “We want to win for each other, go out on top and earn that game in December — that bowl game.”

Wake quarterback John Wolford makes that task more difficult. Having a breakout senior year, Wolford is now second on Wake’s all-time passing list and the second-best quarterback rusher in school history as well.

For a Duke team coming off back-to-back games against triple option teams, defending both threats will be a challenge.

“Their RPO (run-pass option) — that’s how they’ve been getting teams a lot,” said safety Alonxo Saxton II. “We can’t bank on them running it or passing it. We’ve got to play disciplined and sound.”

Duke has given up long passes to both Army and Georgia Tech in the last two games, on the rare occasions that the two run-based attacks threw the ball. That’s not a good sign when facing Wolford.

“He can kill you in the run game and the passing game,” Sax-

ton said. “But playing in the ACC, you always have to account for dual-threat quarterbacks. This is what we signed up for. This is what we’ve been preparing for.”

If Duke wants to begin preparing for a bowl game, the Blue Devils need to find a solution for Wake’s offense.

“Obviously, there’s always an importance and urgency in every game,” Davis said. “As seniors, we don’t want this to be the last game.

We want to spend more time with this team. We love these guys.”

Davis also knows that, as the Blue Devils showed against Georgia Tech last week, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

“We have to help the defense out,” he said. “We need to keep from going three-and-out. The best way to make sure they’re not scoring points is to make sure we have the ball.”

Third-year bowl pits MEAC and SWAC champions in HBCU championship game

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal GREENSBORO — The NC A&T student section relocated itself from the stands to the running track behind one of the end zones at Aggie Stadium on Saturday, as the final seconds of its team’s rivalry victory against NC Central ticked off the clock.

When the game was finally over and the Aggies’ undefeated regular season was secured, the crowd rushed onto the field with a burst of excitement and joy.

It was a celebration fit for a Celebration.

Literally.

Because even while the party surrounding them was still picking up steam, coach Rod Broadway and the newly crowned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions were being extended an invitation to play in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 16.

The game, in its third year of existence, matches the MEAC winner against the champion of the rival Southwestern Athletic Conference in a contest billed as a battle for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities national championship.

It’s an invitation the Aggies gleefully accepted, even though it meant giving up a shot at playing for the mainstream national championship sanctioned by the NCAA. “Our conference is committed and we stand behind what our conference decided to do years ago,” Broadway said of the MEAC’s contractual agreement to waive its automatic FCS playoff bid and send its top team to Atlanta. “As a competitor, I think we can get into that (playoff) and make a little noise.

“But that’s not our path. We’re going to the Celebration Bowl and hopefully we can make some noise there.”

A&T will have to wait until Dec. 2 to find out who it will be playing at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That’s when the SWAC Championship Game between Alcorn State and either Grambling or Southern is played.

It will be the third Celebration Bowl, with A&T having beaten Alcorn 41-34 in the inaugural event in 2015 and NC Central dropping a 10-9 heartbreaker to Grambling on a missed extra point last December.

KEVIN L. DORSEY PHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY OF NC A&T

NC A&T sophomore wide receiver Elijah Bell makes a one-handed catch while being defended

by NC Central senior defensive back Alphonso Carter. The Aggies beat the Eagles 24-10 to earn a spot in the Celebration Bowl.

“If you take a poll from our guys that played in both, I’d bet you 100 percent would select to go back to the Celebration Bowl.”

— Rod Broadway, NC A&T coach In a release announcing the creation of the bowl, MEAC commissioner Dennis Thomas said that the game was designed to “increase the exposure on a national platform” of the nation’s two premier HBCU conferences.

To this point, it has turned out to be just that. And more.

Last year’s game, which was televised by ESPN, had an average viewership of more than 2.71 million and was seen by servicemen and servicewomen stationed in more than 140 countries around the world on the Armed Forces Network. Each conference will also bank more than $1 million for their participation.

The exposure and the money, however, are only part of the reason why the Celebration Bowl is so popular with those that have participated in it — especially when compared to the much-less festive playoff.

Broadway and his players have a unique perspective on the comparison, having played in both over the past two seasons.

The Aggies received an at-large bid to last year’s NCAA tournament after going 9-2 and finishing second to Central in the MEAC. They were sent on the road, where they suffered a first-round 39-10 setback to Richmond.

A&T is currently ranked seventh in the final regular season STATS FCS Top 25 and, according to the website’s senior editor Craig Haley, could legitimately have earned one of the eight first-round byes in this year’s playoff. If nothing else, it at least would have played its opening game at home.

But even that wouldn’t matter, as far as Broadway is concerned.

“If you take a poll from our guys that played in both,” he said, “I’d bet you 100 percent would select to go back to the Celebration Bowl.”

Hurricanes find top line in ‘TSA’ Teravainen, Staal, Aho give Carolina a scoring boost

By Cory Lavalette North State Journal RALEIGH — A year after it first emerged as the top-flight scoring trio the Carolina Hurricanes have so desperately needed, the TSA Line — Jordan Staal centering Finns Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho — is back with a vengeance.

It was rewarded Monday when Teuvo Teravainen, with 10 points last week as Carolina won three of four, was named the NHL’s First Star for the week ending Nov. 19.

Teravainen opened the week with a hat trick and four points against Dallas on Nov. 13 and ended it was a two-goal, one-assist effort in Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Islanders, collecting three assists in the team’s other two games.

“It’s all about confidence, I

DUKE from page B1 Meineke Car Care Bowl, beating UConn 24-10 to cap a 9-4 year.

Helping Wake’s cause is the fact that its main competition for a Tier One bowl slot — Louisville, NC State and Virginia Tech — have appeared in the game the last three years.

For Duke, a bowl bid might depend on upsetting the Deacs. The Blue Devils won their first four, then suffered through a six-game losing streak before getting their fifth win of the year last week, against Georgia Tech.

As one of the leaders in APR, Duke would be one of the first five-win teams selected, if there aren’t enough six-win teams to fill the slots for all 78 bowls slots. The math doesn’t look promising for that, however.

Currently, 70 teams have

think,” Teravainen said. “We feel good about ourselves, and it’s always more fun to play with a smile and have some fun out there.”

It’s not happenstance that Teravainen’s big week came just as Aho busted out of his scoring funk.

The sophomore star had gone the first 15 games of the season without registering a goal, but scored in each of the past four starting with his goal against Dallas en route to accumulating nine points of his own during the week.

“I think everybody got pretty excited when he got his first, and now he’s scoring every game,” Teravainen said of his countryman.

“So I think he’s not even changing anything. He didn’t get any goals in the first 15 or something, but he played the same way, he just didn’t get any luck.”

Aho let out a roar when he got the first goal and hasn’t quieted

reached the six-win plateau. Of the 18 teams that have five wins, eight will play each other, guaranteeing someone a sixth win.

That leaves, at most, four spots for a five-win team.

In addition to Duke, the teams vying for those spots are: Temple (who plays Tulsa) Tulane (SMU) Minnesota (Wisconsin) Texas Tech (Texas) Louisiana Tech (UT San Antonio) Buffalo (Ohio) UNLV (Nevada) Louisiana (Georgia Southern) Georgia Tech (Georgia) The latter two are of particular concern. Louisiana has five wins, but it has two games remaining. If they lose this week, the Ragin’ Cajuns can clinch a sixth win against

“We feel good about ourselves, and it’s always more fun to play with a smile and have some fun out there.”

— Teuvo Teravainen, Hurricanes winger

His players confirmed that opinion following their emotional victory in Saturday’s Aggie-Eagle Classic.

“It’s nice,” senior left tackle Brandon Parker said. “You get down there on Wednesday and you may have practice on Thursday. But other than that, you’re going to museums, you have banquets here and there, they feed you good. So it’s a good time for everybody.”

In other words, it feels like a reward rather than just another game — especially one with the pressure of a “win or go home” mentality attached to it.

And speaking of rewards.

“They’ve got some kind of suite where you get gifts,” Parker said. “I could use some more Beats (headphones), myself. It’s awesome.”

Although the Celebration Bowl actually is a celebration, the players involved haven’t lost sight of the stakes involved in the game itself — specifically, conference pride and the ability to call themselves a national champion.

“It’s for the HBCU,” linebacker Jeremy Taylor said. “That’s very special.”

WEDNESDAY

11.22.17

NORTH

STATE

A new universe expands for DC, Page 7

JOURNaL

the good life IN A NORTH STATE OF MIND

“You don’t have to know that much about a turkey to cook it, but you need to do so safely.”

Marianne Gravely, Meat and Poultry Hotline

play list

Nov. 23 Blessing of the Hounds Hobby Field, Youngs Road, Southern Pines The annual opening hunt of the Moore County Hounds is always held on Thanksgiving Day and the community is invited to attend the Blessing of the Hounds ceremony. This kicks off the start of formal season in fox hunting.

Nov. 24-Dec. 22 Enchanted Airlie Wrightsville Beach Stroll the beautiful grounds of Airlie Gardens featuring more than 1 million sparkling lights with festive displays, holiday flowers and musical entertainment. Tickets must be purchased in advance and they sell out early, so secure your tickets as soon as possible.

Nov. 24 “A Dickens Holiday” Fayetteville Historic Downtown Fayetteville is again being transformed into a Victorianera experience with horsedrawn carriages down Hay Street, the smells of cider and gingerbread permeate the chilly air, and Ebenezer Scrooge himself is being pursued by the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Nov. 24-Dec. 30 MADELINE GRAY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

The table is set for Thanksgiving at Coles Jones’s house in Raleigh.

How to tackle Thanksgiving with confidence Take the right steps to make your turkey perfect, then turn your leftovers into new creations

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal WILSON — The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us, which means an opportunity to give thanks, gather with family and friends around the table, roast a turkey, and dine on an abundance of side dishes. When the holiday concludes, there are days filled with leftovers.

To help our readers prepare for time spent in the kitchen this holiday, we spoke with experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on ways to safety prepare, cook and store your turkey, as well as a North Carolina chef on ways to revamp the standard leftover known as the turkey sandwich.

With more than 45 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving Day, this meal can often become one of the largest and most stressful gatherings for many, but it doesn’t have to be.

“Cooking a turkey is not that hard and one shouldn’t panic,” said Marianne Gravely, senior technical information specialist on the Meat and Poultry Hotline. “People always get nervous with people coming to visit and stress rises, but don’t panic.

When you put a turkey in the oven, it cooks. You don’t have to know that much about a turkey to cook it, but you need to do so safely.”

One of the most important facts to know about preparing a turkey, is that a back porch or garage is not the equivalent of a refrigerator.

“Keep the turkey cold,” said Gravely. “No matter where in the country you live, it is not cold enough on your back porch or in your garage. It needs to be stored in a refrigerator. If you are buying a frozen turkey, you want to thaw in in the refrigerator.”

In the few days remaining until Thanksgiving, all turkeys should be in the refrigerator.

“It takes about one day for every 5 pounds of weight to thaw, and then it is safe for about another two days,”

said Gravely. “When deciding on what type of turkey to buy, use the rule of one pound per person which includes some for leftovers.”

When preparing the turkey, wash your hands, but not your turkey.

You might not realize that while washing your hands before cooking is the simplest way to stop the spread of bacteria, washing your turkey is the easiest way to spread bacteria all over your kitchen.

“Cooking the turkey will kill any bacteria on the turkey’s skin,” said Gravely. “The bacteria on a turkey is different than bacteria on hands or dirt of fruit and vegetables.”

According to the 2016 Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Survey, 68 percent of consumers wash poultry in the kitchen sink, which is not recommended by the USDA. Research shows that washing meat or poultry can splash bacteria around your kitchen by up to three feet, contaminating countertops, towels and other food.

The exception to this rule is brining. When rinsing brine off of a turkey, be sure to remove all other food or objects from the sink, layer the area with paper towels and use a slow stream of water to avoid splashing.

Once the turkey is placed in the oven, it is important to check the temperature with a food thermometer.

“Check the temperature in three areas, the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the wing and the innermost part of the thigh.

Each area should reach 165 degrees Fahrenehit,” said Gravely.

Gravely also recommends following the “two-hour rule.”

“Put food away in the refrigerator within two-hours of serving, and placing the whole turkey on a platter inside the refrigerator isn’t safe either,” she said.

After two hours, food falls into what’s known as the danger zone of temperatures between 40-140 F, where bacteria can rapidly multiply.

If food is eaten at those temperatures,

your guests could get sick. Turkey should be cut into smaller slices and refrigerated along with other perishable items, such as potatoes, gravy and vegetables. Leftovers should stay safe in the refrigerator for four days.

If you’ve served a traditional Thanksgiving turkey, sweet potatoes, ham, pecan pie and more, you are likely to have plenty of leftovers. How can those be remade into something different to avoid a turkey sandwich for four days or the same dinner three days in a row?

Chef Adam Pettigrew of Pups Steakhouse in Wilson offers his interpretations on ways to spice up and redefine ordinary leftovers.

“Sweet potatoes, turkey, ham, green beans and pecan pie are all traditional Thanksgiving menu items in the South,” said Pettigrew. “If you plan ahead, you can have a menu for Thanksgiving and create a new menu of options from your leftover items.”

If you have plenty of turkey left over, try a new twist on an old favorite.

“Make a turkey salad as you would a traditional chicken salad,” said Pettigrew. “Chop the turkey as you would the chicken. In addition to celery, onions and mayonnaise, use leftover cranberries or pecans as an add-in.”

Another option for the leftover turkey is to create a turkey soup, similar to that of your traditional chicken soup. Or make a turkey curry over rice or turkey tacos. Use those leftover sweet potatoes to create a tasty breakfast dish.

“Create sweet potato pancakes.

Mash the sweet potatoes, add flour, sugar, eggs and create a batter-like consistency to toss on the griddle,” said Pettigrew.

“Use leftover ham to create ham and eggs in the skillet for breakfast,” he continued. “Thanksgiving food and the leftovers after are your food and your choosing. It’s a time to get the family together and share a meal over food, so be creative and enjoy the holiday.”

Carowinds WinterFest Charlotte WinterFest transforms the park into a winter wonderland adorned with more than 5 million holiday lights, a 70-foot Christmas tree and festive décor displayed throughout the park.

WinterFest activities include a tree lighting nightly, live holiday shows and strolling performers, ice skating, up to 16 family rides, a special holiday menu and falling snow.

Nov. 24-26 The Christmas Carousel Raleigh The NC State Fairgrounds will host a holiday gift market. The 30th annual market has one of the largest collections of arts, crafts and holiday gifts.

More than 250 exhibitors across the southeast will showcase one-of-a-kind gifts.

Santa will also be making appearances all weekend.

Nov. 25 2nd Annual Crystal Coast Oyster Festival Morehead City The festival will take place at the Big Rock “Jib” Landing site in downtown Morehead City. There will be live music, local vendors with arts, crafts, jewelry and more.

Oyster farmers will talk about the preparation, selling and serving of oysters.

Small Business Saturday North Carolina cities Support your city’s small businesses on Saturday and pick up a unique locally crafted gift for a discounted price and other goodies.

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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NeCessities! history marked Nov. 22, 1718

Nov. 23, 1963

Blackbeard’s Death: Off with his head

Raleigh connection to JFK assassination

The infamous pirate Blackbeard was killed. Reported to have been a privateer during Queen Anne’s War, Blackbeard is said to have turned to piracy afterward.

He is one of the most famous figures associated with the “Golden Age of Piracy,” which flourished briefly along the North Carolina coast in the early 1700s. In 1717, Blackbeard and his fellow pirates captured the French slaveship La Concorde in the eastern Caribbean. With his new ship, which he renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard cruised the Caribbean taking ships along the way. Arriving off the coast of Charleston, S.C., in May 1718, Blackbeard blockaded the port for nearly a week in what was perhaps the most brazen act of his piratical career.

Blackbeard lived in the town of Bath briefly during the summer of 1718, and soon after attempted to enter what is now Beaufort Inlet with his fleet. The vessels grounded on the ocean floor and were abandoned. Six months later, at Ocracoke Inlet, Blackbeard encountered ships sent by the governor of Virginia, led by Lt. Robert Maynard. In a desperate battle, Blackbeard and several of his crew were killed. Maynard returned to Virginia with the surviving pirates and the grim trophy of Blackbeard’s severed head.

As the clock neared midnight in Raleigh, an attempt was allegedly made at the Dallas County jail on behalf of Lee Harvey Oswald to contact one or two phone numbers in the 919 area code. It was the day after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. What has come to be dubbed the “Raleigh Call” went unrecorded in the Warren Commission investigation. Later in the 1960s, one of the Dallas County switchboard operators on duty that night shared a story about the call with authorities.

The story goes that the operator reported that she had been asked to call two numbers in Raleigh, although without success, and then threw away the memo slip from the fruitless calls. Apparently, she later recreated a slip, as a souvenir, that included two phone numbers along with the name “John Hurt.” Little has come of the story, and mysteries surrounding the call have contributed to assassination conspiracy theories. In July 1980, both the Raleigh Spectator and the News & Observer printed articles attempting to expose details about the call, its related personalities and chain of events. The “Raleigh Call” and an Oswald connection to Raleigh still remain an unsolved mystery.

Nov. 23, 1902

Nov. 26, 1744

Walter Reed died

Alexander Mebane born in Orange County

Walter Reed, head of U.S. Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, died. During his time in Cuba, Reed conclusively demonstrated that mosquitoes transmitted the deadly disease. Reed called Hertford County home for much of his life before medical school. Reed graduated from medical school at the University of Virginia at 17 and continued his education at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in Manhattan. He joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1875, eventually becoming curator of the Army Medical Museum in Washington and a professor at the Army medical school. By the outbreak of the SpanishAmerican War, Reed was considered a pioneer in the field of bacteriology. His interest in the cause of yellow fever was timely, as epidemics broke out in camps in Cuba and elsewhere. In 1900, Reed led the fourth U. S. Army Yellow Fever Commission. Reed was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. An Army hospital completed in 1909 in Washington, D.C., was named in his honor. The museum of which he was curator is now the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Alexander Mebane was born at Hawfields in Orange County. An ardent patriot, Mebane played an active role in the Revolutionary War. In December 1776, he served as a delegate to the Provincial Congress in Halifax and, the following year, became sheriff of Orange County, a post he held until 1780. Mebane also served as an officer in the Orange County militia. At the war’s conclusion, Mebane was elected as an Orange County representative to the General Assembly and served as brigadier general of Hillsborough District militia. He also served as auditor of the Hillsborough Constitutional Convention of 1788 and the Fayetteville Convention of 1789. An Anti-Federalist, Mebane voted against ratification unless a bill of rights was included. That same year, Mebane joined the first board of trustees of the University of North Carolina. In 1792, he served on the committee that chose New Hope Chapel Hill as the site for the new school. He even helped lay the cornerstone of Old East, the first building erected on campus. In 1793, Mebane was elected to Congress. The Alamance County town of Mebane is named in his honor.

PHOTO COURTESY OF N.C. STATE ARCHIVES

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks and signs autographs at a vote rally at St. Mark AME Church in Durham, N.C.

Nov. 27, 1962

Martin Luther King Jr.’s rehearsal speech in Rocky Mount Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a speech in Rocky Mount. Before a crowd of nearly 2,000 in the gymnasium at Booker T. Washington High School, King used a number of expressions that made their way into his landmark “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, which was part of the March on Washington in August 1963. Near the close he built toward these lines: “I have a dream that one day right here in Rocky Mount, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will meet at the table of brotherhood, knowing that one God brought man to the face of the Earth. I have a dream tonight that one day my little daughter and my two sons will grow up in a world not conscious of the color of their skin, but only conscious of the fact that they are members of the human race…” Clayborne Carson, editor of the King Papers, notes that while this was not the first use of the “I have a dream” phrase, it “appears to be an important new rhetorical formulation.” By the spring and summer of 1963 the words were among the most frequent of King’s refrains.

Courtesy of N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Peace, harmony, tranquility and union On Oct. 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, as an official holiday of “sincere and humble thanks.” The nation then celebrated its first Thanksgiving under its new Constitution. On Oct. 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made the traditional Thanksgiving celebration a nationwide holiday to be commemorated each year on the fourth Thursday of November. In the midst of a bloody Civil War, Lincoln issued a Presidential Proclamation in which he enumerated the blessings of the American people and called upon his countrymen to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy, which was still recovering from the Depression. This move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed, and Roosevelt approved, a joint house resolution establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving proclamation is reprinted below in its entirety:

Proclamation 106—Thanksgiving Day, 1863 BRENDAN MCDERMID | REUTERS

Travelers wait in line at a security checkpoint at La Guardia Airport in New York on Nov. 25, 2015.

Americans will travel more this year for Thanksgiving AAA projects that 50.9 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving

By Jarrett Renshaw Reuters NEW YORK — Travelers will hit the roads, rails and skies this Thanksgiving holiday in their largest numbers in more than a decade, lured by cheap plane tickets and a growing economy, the nation’s largest motor advocacy group said.

Roughly 50.9 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home Nov. 22-26, a 3.3 percent increase over last year and the most since 2005, Florida-based AAA said in a report released on Thursday.

“A strong economy and labor market are generating rising incomes and higher consumer confidence, fueling a strong year for the travel industry, which will continue into the holiday season,” Bill Sutherland, AAA senior vice president, said.

The largest share of travel, roughly 89 percent, will be on U.S. roads.

U.S. motorists will take 45.5 million trips this holiday, a 1.5 percent increase over last year and also the most since 2005, even though gas prices are at their highest since 2014, AAA said. Those holiday travelers will encounter obstacles and

accidents along the way, as AAA expects to rescue more than 330,000 motorists this Thanksgiving weekend, with the primary reasons being lockouts, flat tires and battery-related issues.

Air travel is expected to grow by 5 percent to 3.95 million trips, buoyed by the cheapest tickets since 2013, AAA said.

It is the sixth consecutive year air travel has grown during the holiday, and now accounts now for 7.8 percent of all travel, its highest share since 2010, AAA said.

U.S. motor travel accounts for 10 percent of global demand, and is closely watched by global oil traders.

Overall, motorists are on pace this year to break the record for most vehicle miles driven on U.S. roads, helping spur potential record demand for gasoline.

U.S. gasoline demand and vehicle miles traveled both set records in 2016.

Gas prices jumped more than 10 percent after hurricanes Harvey and Irma, peaking on Sept. 8 at an average of $2.67 a gallon. Prices were at $2.56 a gallon on Wednesday, about 10 percent above last year, AAA said.

Many travelers will seek theme park and warm-weather destinations this Thanksgiving. Both Orlando, Fla., and Anaheim, Calif., top this year’s top-10 holiday destinations based on AAA.com bookings. Compared to previous years, New York City, Las Vegas and San Francisco are gaining popularity as holiday spots.

Oct. 3, 1863 The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And

I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans. mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Source: U.S. National Archives

North State Journal for Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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ENTERTAINMENT FILM REVIEW: ‘JUSTICE LEAGUE’

‘The Partridge Family’ star and singer David Cassidy hospitalized Singer and actor David Cassidy, a 1970s teen heartthrob who starred in “The Partridge Family” television show, entered a hospital this week for treatment of liver failure, his spokeswoman said on Saturday. Cassidy’s family was with him, and the 67-yearold hoped to receive a liver transplant, his publicist JoAnn Geffen said.

Netflix’s Marvel antihero ‘The Punisher’ explores the toll of violence

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

By Owen Gleiberman Variety LOS ANGELES — In superhero movies, sheer lively deliver-the-goods competence can be a quality you’re grateful for — or one that seems awesomely innocuous.

In “Justice League,” it’s a little of both. The film is the definition of an adequate high-spirited studio lark: no more, no less. If fans get excited about it, that may mostly be because they’re excited about getting excited. Yet the movie is no cheat. It’s a tasty franchise delivery system that kicks a certain series back into gear.

A year and a half ago, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” wasn’t just a disappointing superhero movie. It became a meme, the new symbol of everything that could go wrong in a Hollywood comic book spectacle. It was ponderous and inflated, its logic didn’t parse, it had a Batman whose husky glower made him seem a stand-in for other (better) Batmans, it had a villain who was a jittery basket-case cliché — and more than that, it oozed the kind of solemnly overripe “darkness” that was meant to signify integrity but was, in fact, laid on with a corporate trowel. Kiss of death: The movie underperformed at the box office.

It should be noted that the meme was overstated. “Batman v Superman” was written off as a commercial disappointment when, in fact, it did just fine. (Ditto for “Suicide Squad,” the lousy superhero movie that saved August.) And some of us believed that the crucifying of “B v S” was a bit extreme; I liked the film’s first half (before it went off the rails), and thought that the malevolent-Superman plot resulted in Henry Cavill giving his first wideawake screen performance. The meme, however, became a myth, and you’d better believe that the studio gods paid attention.

“Justice League” gathers up half a dozen comic-book immortals and lets them butt heads on their way to kicking ass while never getting messy or bombastic. It’s light and clean and simple (at times almost too simple), with razory repartee and combat duels that make a point of not going on for too long.

The villain, far from being one of those hammy Method crackpots, is a sternly old-school CGI medieval warrior with devil-ram horns and an electro-bass Vader voice (provided by Ciaran Hinds) whose name is Steppenwolf. He made his first appearance in the comics in 1972 but could just as well have been dreamed up by a slumming video game designer after a night of no sleep.

The director, once again, is Zack Snyder, though Snyder parted ways with the project in March following the tragic suicide of his daughter. About four-fifths of principal photography had been completed, and the post-production process (including the rest of shooting) was overseen by Joss Whedon — a perfect choice, though a rather ironic one given that Whedon’s “Avengers” series competes directly with this one.

“Justice League” is seamless enough that it’s hard to say where one filmmaker leaves off and the other begins. But the film’s flavor tilts more toward Whedon than Snyder, whose pop grandiosity is radically played down. Every moment feels like it’s been test-driven for our pleasure. As a piece of product, “Justice League” is “superior” to “Batman v Superman,” but it’s also about as close to generic as a sharp-witted, high-octane comic book movie can get. There’s hardly a trope in it you haven’t seen before.

Ben Affleck surely approached this film knowing that a lot of people hated his debut as the Caped Crusader, which placed him in a

tough spot. And so — like almost everything else in “Justice League” — he treads a careful middle ground.

He plays Bruce/Batman with a restrained version of the Gruff Whisper and goes through the paces of bruiser antihero flippancy in a way that’s just understated enough to get by. It helps that he gets to engage in flirtatious sparring with Gal Gadot, who builds on her star-making performance in “Wonder Woman” by giving Diana Prince a glow of molten fury that burns even more brightly than before.

Snyder, as always, does tasty opening credits, setting a tableau of criminal hijinks to a soft-rock rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows,” all as a way of dramatizing how badly America has been doing since Superman was killed.

From there, it’s on to Batman fighting off a winged hissy alien metallic beastie — it turns out to be one of Steppenwolf’s army of Parademons — and Wonder Woman foiling a terrorist attack by slowing herself down to bullet time to knock away dozens of shots, as Gadot maintains her rock-steady killer gaze.

Now that Superman is no longer around, it’s fallen to these two to assemble a league of superheroes, even if, by now, we’ve been through these ritual assemblages once too often — in the “Avengers” and “X-Men” films, in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Thor: Ragnarok,” you name it. My own bias is that there tends to be a more-is-less quality to movies about superhero teams. It’s almost a law of physics: If any one of these folks is so amaze-worthy, then why do we need six? (They slice up the pie chart of invincibility.) That said, “Justice League” lets each of its characters carve out a crafty FX space in which to nurture his or her own ultimate ability.

There’s Cyborg (Ray Fisher), the haunted man-machine, a former athlete who was rebuilt by his father

(Joe Morton) after an accident into a cybernetic weapon with a glowing red computer eye. But is he still at all human? There’s Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the tattooed Neptune with attitude who’s an amphibious master of the oceans, as well as the group’s token rock ’n’ roll roughneck bro. And there’s The Flash, who can move at lightning speed, and I’m not just talking about the jaw-dropping timing of Ezra Miller’s snappy rejoinders. “Justice League” throws off steady sparks of insult comedy (Aquaman: “You really are out of your mind.” Batman: “I’m not the one who brought a pitchfork”), kicking the movie along even when nothing of overwhelming import is happening.

The movie also features ... how, exactly, should I put this? ... the name of Henry Cavill up front in the opening credits. That might, of course, be an indication that Superman, who’s officially deceased, appears in prominent flashback.

But the nudged casket at the end of “Batman v Superman” suggested an alternate scenario, and by the end of “Justice League” you’ll be grateful, indeed, that Cavill is in the movie.

It needs every inch of his squarejawed stud-demigod command.

Steppenwolf, who threatens to achieve total dominion over everyplace and everyone, has gathered three ancient boxes of pulsating energy known as Mother Boxes, and I will spare you their complicated and meaningful backstory to just say: They are boxes. Bursting with light. And great power. It all plays as more than a bit arbitrary, given that their power, like Steppenwolf’s, is metaphysical, while the climactic battle is rooted in the corporeal — lots of gut punches and swinging broadswords. How does one defeat the other? The same way that everything else happens in a movie like “Justice League”: by looking fierce and staying with the program.

Frank Castle, the vigilante sniper assassin at the center of Netflix’s new Marvel series “The Punisher,” is neither a hero nor a villain. He is a man in pain. In “The Punisher,” launching all episodes last Friday, Castle is fixed on getting revenge on the criminals that killed his wife and two young children.

Teen angst plus super powers collide in ‘Runaways’ When Brian K. Vaughan was approached by Marvel Comics to write a comic book to bring in new readers, he hit on the idea of “Runaways,” the story of a diverse group of teenage friends whose bond grows stronger when they make a gruesome discovery. Launched in 2003, the comic book soon became a fan favorite. Now streaming service Hulu has turned them into a television series, which was released Tuesday.

Films about migration, terrorism win German Bambi awards Films about terrorism, migration and the struggle for women’s rights swept Germany’s Bambi awards on Thursday evening, with Chinese dissident and filmmaker Ai Weiwei urging the star-studded audience to keep faith in humanity.

“Courage not only belongs to the people who accept the refugees, but also the 65 million people who have lost their homes, who keep some hope in their minds,” said Weiwei, a refugee himself who has lived in Berlin since 2015.

NOT ALL VODKA IS MADE FROM POTATOES SWEET POTATOES ARE VEGETABLES VEGETABLES 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, November 22, 2017

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Center Rural Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, Inc. will hold its Annual Meeting Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, at 7 p.m., at the Center Rural Fire Dept. located at 141 Blalock St., Norwood, N.C. 28128.

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