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VOLUME 3 ISSUE 40
Inside
WWW.NSJONLINE.COM | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018
Mack Brown comes home to UNC, B1
AL SEIB | LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA AP
Engineers celebrate as the InSight lander touch downs on Mars in the mission support area of the space flight operation facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. Read more on page A3.
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
NC may raise tax breaks as Apple weighs decision Raleigh North Carolina legislators are considering more than doubling state tax breaks offered to companies that promise to bring lots of high-paying jobs but aren’t quite “transformative.” Legislation introduced Tuesday in the state General Assembly would raise the maximum tax break allowed for those companies by nearly 150 percent to $16,000 per job each year. The change would apply to high-profile projects that aren’t the so-called “transformative” companies eligible for massive state subsidies. That describes companies generating 3,000 jobs and investing at least $1 billion. The proposed tax breaks tweak comes six months after The Associated Press reported tech giant Apple was considering North Carolina for a new corporate campus employing 5,000 jobs and possibly many more.
Board settles state legislator’s probe for $4,500 Raleigh A North Carolina legislator’s political committee will pay $4,500 while ending a campaign finance investigation stemming from a complaint filed by a Democrat political activist against the Republican senator. The state elections board voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the agreement offered by the campaign committee of four-term Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County. The committee must give up $500 and reimburse the board $4,000 for investigation expenses. Greg Flynn of Raleigh filed a complaint last year alleging Hise received $10,000 more from the committee than he had loaned it over the years. Flynn later alleged Hise’s committee failed to report some PAC receipts. Flynn is an activist who regularly studies campaign finance filings in search of issues.
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20177 52016 $2.00
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NORTH
‘Lame duck’ session to address voter ID, hurricane relief
JOURNaL
Legislators return to town, face protests
STATE ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
Holiday shopping season off to a strong start Approximately 89 million Americans shopped online and in stores over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. The average shopper spent $313.29 on gifts or holiday items in that time with the biggest spenders being people aged 3544 years old at $413.05 By Donna King North State Journal NEW YORK — The largest U.S. retail trade group says the holiday shopping season has gotten off to a “very strong” start. The National Retail Federation says consumer spending has been strong, fueled by a better economy and stores’ investments in online services. “Over the last couple of days, what I heard in discussions with retail CEOs across all categories and segments was very positive, driven by macro conditions of low unemployment and rising wages combined with the right mix of merchandise at great prices,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “This is a very strong emotional start to the holiday season and a positive indicator of where we are headed over the next month.” The trade group’s assessment comes even after a survey of more than 3,000 shoppers on Thanksgiving and Black Friday forecast that fewer people would turn out for the five-day weekend that ended Monday compared to a year ago. It attributed the drop to stores spreading out their deals beyond the Black Friday weekend. The most popular day to shop this year was Cyber Monday, cited by 67.4 million shoppers, followed by Black Friday with 65.2 million shoppers. The group now says it expects sales for November and December will be at the high end of its earlier forecast of a 4.3 to 4.8 percent rise. That would be below last year’s 5.3 percent increase. In that mix is a new shopper that many retailers are See SHOPPING, page A2
“This year, Gen Zers and millennials changed the way they shopped over Thanksgiving weekend.” Phil Rist, Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy
By David Larson North State Journal RALEIGH — The Republican supermajority in the N.C House and Senate returned to Raleigh on Tuesday with issues like voter ID and hurricane relief high on the agenda. The voter ID amendment, recently approved by voters, requires legislators to fill in some key details, and Republicans are motivated to complete this before the next legislature is sworn in. House Rules Chairman David Lewis’ office provided press a bill draft titled, “Implementation of Voter ID Const. Amendment.” The bill would require the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement to mail registered voters twice in 2019 and twice in 2020 to educate them on the changes and on the availability of free voter ID cards. Some elements of the draft, worked out in meetings between the chambers, include the no-cost pro-
vision of voter IDs by county boards of election and the requirement for county boards of election to maintain a “secure database containing the photographs of registered voters.” It would also require the acceptance of college IDs (including from community colleges and private colleges), expired IDs of less than one year, expired IDs from those over 65 years of age and employee IDs from state or local government entities. Voters affected by natural disaster would be able to sign an affidavit within 60 days of the disaster at their voting place and use a provisional ballot. Progressive activist organizations, led by the Rev. William Barber, met across the street from the General Assembly before session to voice their opposition to most potential actions by the current legislature. Holding signs saying, “Lame ducks, go home!” they listened to speakers in the windy cold. “Every legislator who believes in equal protection under the law and voting rights should vote against whatever is proposed,” said Barber See VOTER ID, page A2
Congressmen negotiating to keep illegal immigrant from being deported Samuel Oliver-Bruno, who has lived illegally in the U.S. for two decades, pleaded guilty in 2014 to using false documents to try to re-enter the U.S. in Texas By Jonathan Drew The Associated Press RALEIGH — A Mexican illegal immigrant who took refuge in a North Carolina church for 11 months won’t be deported until immigration officials decide his pending request to stay in the U.S., two congressmen said Monday. U.S. Rep. David Price tweeted that he and fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield received assurances from immigration officials that Samuel Oliver-Bruno won’t be removed until his claim
is settled. Price said he was pushing Homeland Security officials to release Oliver-Bruno immediately, saying his arrest Friday at an immigration office was “unacceptable.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox confirmed federal officials have agreed to allow the case to be completed, even though Oliver-Bruno could legally be deported now. Online records list Oliver-Bruno, 47, as being held in a Georgia detention center. Oliver-Bruno stayed in a Durham church for nearly a year, to avoid ICE officials, who generally don’t make arrests in churches and other sensitive locations. However on Friday he was arrested at an immigration office near Raleigh after he left the church to have his fingerprints taken while he applies See IMMIGRATION, page A2