VOLUME 3 ISSUE 24
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2018
Inside The latest from North Carolina football camps, B1
LAUREN ROSE | NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Attendees of the agriculture roundtable discussion held by statewide and nationwide representatives of the industry are pictured in the Gov. James G. Martin Building building at the N.C. state fairgrounds on Aug. 3.
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
NC Firefighters help battle to save California communities San Francisco More than 130 members of the N.C. Forest Service are on the ground in California helping to battle the wildfire on track to becoming the largest in the state’s history. Seven people have died in the fires and 32,000 have been displaced. The National Weather Service says temperatures could reach 110 degrees in Northern California over the next few days with 15-mile-per-hour winds fanning the flames.
Dominion does not expect court order to hold up pipeline Richmond A federal appeals court in Virginia threw out two key permits for the Atlantic Coast pipeline Monday. The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, who says construction should stop on the 600-mile natural gas pipeline. Dominion Energy said it will resolve concerns and have the permits reinstated. The company expects to finish the 1.5-billion cubic feet per day pipe by late 2019. One billion cubic feet is enough to fuel about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
National Night Out celebrated in Durham Durham On Tuesday, The Durham Police Department and the Durham Housing authority celebrated the 35th annual National Night Out with rallies at Burton Park and at Cornwallis Community Center. The events nationwide are to draw attention to rising crime rates in some cities. The events were held from 5-7pm and residents were asked to lock their doors and spend the time outside with neighbors. Many neighborhoods held cookouts or block parties.
NORTH
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JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
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As the farmers and their supporters met in Raleigh, the verdict came down awarding millions in another lawsuit against a farm By Donna King North State Journal
Vetoes, overrides and lawsuits November ballot language and party affiliations still hang in balance
By David Larson For the North State Journal RALEIGH — Increasingly, battles between North Carolina Democrats and Republicans are ending up in court, and the fight over 2018’s ballot appears to be headed in the same direction. The current issues involve the wording of six constitutional amendments on the ballot and also whether judicial candidates should be able to switch party affiliations immediately prior to filing their candidacy and have the ballot represent that change. After a special session by legislative Republicans to resolve these issues to their own liking, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed both H.B. 3, dealing with the constitutional amendments, and S.B. 3, dealing with judicial candidates switching party affiliation. This Saturday, the General Assembly returned again to override these vetoes — a move made possible by Republican supermajorities in both chambers. “This is about falsely and unconstitutionally misleading voters and crippling the checks
and balances that are the foundation of our democracy,” Cooper said in a statement responding to his vetoes being undone. “It is shameful that legislators have spent their time deceiving North Carolinians and attempting to rip up our constitution instead of improving public education and growing our economy.” Accompanying his response were lawsuits from his office as well as from the NAACP and N.C. Supreme Court candidate Chris Anglin. Republicans believe these lawsuits could have been filed much earlier but were delayed for strategic reasons. “Partisan Democratic activists, including Gov. Roy Cooper, waited five weeks to file these absurd lawsuits which assume that voters aren’t smart enough to understand the amendments being placed before them,” said Bill D’Elia, a spokesman for Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham). “In doing so they’ve created an ‘emergency’ of their own making, and have taken the shameful step of attempting to get an activist judge to take away the right of North Carolinians to amend their own constitution.” Senate leadership was joined by House Speaker Tim Moore See VETOES, page A2
INSIDE 5
Ag community sows seeds of fighting back
Rep. Ed Hanes (D-Forsyth) announced retirement from NCGA Jones & Blount
RALEIGH — At the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh Friday, big names in N.C. politics and agriculture gathered in an effort to ignite a national conversation on the potentially devastating impact of lawsuits against farmers. More than 300 farmers and pol-
icy-makers from across the country packed the Jim Graham Building. The panel, moderated by Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC 7), included Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Congressman Mike Conaway (R-TX 11), Chair of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. Rouzer and Tillis said they are looking to take action at the federal level to protect a right to farm. “We need to send a very clear message to the trial lawyers; We’re bigger than you when we coordinate,” said Tillis. “We need to make sure we come up with a very specific agenda — legislatively, and in terms See FARMERS, page A2
Charlotte Pipe wins trade case against Chinese producers Trade commission finds China undersold cast iron fittings by up to 360 percent less than fair value NSJ Staff CHARLOTTE — In a trade victory against the People’s Republic of China, North Carolina’s Charlotte Pipe and Foundry won an anti-dumping case Monday when the International Trade Commission (ITC) voted unanimously that China was dumping cast iron fittings on the market at between 22 and 360 percent less than fair market value. Charlotte Pipe and the Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute (CISPI) filed a petition against imports of cast iron soil pipe fittings from the People’s Republic of China in July 2017, launching an investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Investigators determined that Chinese exporters had not only flooded the U.S. market with underpriced cast iron soil pipe fittings, called “dumping,” China provides countervailable subsidies to its producers of cast iron soil pipe fittings at rates ranging from 7 to 134 percent.
According to the ITC, penalties to counteract the trade practices will go into effect immediately. “We are thrilled with winning this case so that we can protect American jobs against unfair trade practices,” said Roddey Dowd, Jr., CEO of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry. “We finally have a presidential administration in Washington that is serious about enforcing existing U.S. trade law. For my entire career at Charlotte Pipe, we have had presidents of both parties ignore the brazen cheating from the Chinese. Those days are over.” Charlotte Pipe and Foundry employs more than 1,400 people and has operated in the Charlotte area for more than 117 years. It is among the manufacturers that have been calling on Washington for years to enforce the unethical trade practices from China. The Trump administration has led the charge recently to impose steep duties in fines on underpriced materials coming from China, the world’s largest producer of metal products. In July, a Chinese aluminum foil maker filed a lawsuit against the U.S. after unsuccessfully filing a “no injury” claim with the ITC Commission last year as Washington probed whether the companies were unfairly subsidized.