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VOLUME 4 ISSUE 19
WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019
Inside Hornets rebuild looming after departures, page B1
SUSAN WALSH | AP PHOTO
President Donald Trump, left, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, walk together at the border village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Sunday, June 30, 2019.
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
House committee files lawsuit for Trump tax returns Washington, D.C. A House committee sued the Trump administration in federal court Tuesday for access to President Donald Trump’s tax returns, setting up a legal showdown over the records. The House Ways and Means Committee said it needs the documents for an investigation into tax law compliance by the president, among other things. The lawsuit is the culmination of a long-running fight between Democrats and Trump over the returns, dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Trump claimed that he could not release them due to an IRS audit. The records hold the promise of information about Trump’s business entanglements, relationships with foreign creditors and governments, and the value of his assets.
Report: Nike pulls flag sneaker after Kaepernick complaint New York Nike is pulling a flag-themed tennis shoe after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick complained to the shoemaker. The shoe’s heel has a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle on it, known as the Betsy Ross flag. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Journal said that Kaepernick, a Nike endorser, told the company he and others found the flag symbol offensive because of its connection to slavery. The Air Max 1 USA shoe had already been sent to retailers to go on sale this week for the July Fourth holiday, the Journal reports. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey lashed out at Nike’s decision to yank the sneaker, tweeting that he is asking the state’s Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentives for the company to locate there. “Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history,” he wrote.
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JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
Redistricting fight could turn to state courts after ruling By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press RALEIGH — Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled federal courts aren’t the place to settle partisan gerrymandering disputes, opponents of North Carolina’s district maps are putting their hopes in state courts. An election reform group, the state Democratic Party and voters will go to court in two weeks to try to persuade state judges that Republican-drawn General Assembly districts discriminate against Democrats based on their political beliefs and voting history. What’s different in this case is that the plaintiffs — some of whom sued in federal court over the state’s congressional map, which ended with Thursday’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision against them — argue the House and Senate boundaries violate the state constitution, not the U.S. Constitution. “We are confident that justice will prevail in the North Carolina courts,” said Bob Phillips with the North Carolina office of Common Cause, which is a plaintiff in both matters. “And we will continue to work with state lawmakers to reform our broken redistricting system that has left far too many without a voice in Raleigh.” Voting-rights advocates across the country have vowed to turn to state litigation after Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion addressing North Car-
South Korea’s Moon calls Trump-Kim summit end of hostility By Hyung-Jin Kim The Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president on Tuesday called a recent U.S.-North Korean summit at the Korean border an end of mutual hostility between the countries, despite skepticism by many experts that it was a just made-for-TV moment that lacked any substance. During their impromptu third summit at the Korean Demilitarized Zone on Sunday, Trump and Kim reaffirmed their friendships and agreed to resume nuclear talks. Trump briefly crossed the border
into North Korea making him the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the North’s soil. But neither side has indicated they are any closer to resolving sticking points that collapsed their previous summit. On Tuesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a Cabinet meeting that the summit in the DMZ meant the two countries declared “an end of hostile relations” and the “start of an era of peace.” Moon, who briefly chatted with Trump and Kim on a DMZ village before the U.S. and North KoreSee TRUMP, page A2
Bill addressing absentee ballot mischief advances in Senate
olina and Maryland cases that federal courts have no authority to determine whether partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. Addressing complaints of partisan gerrymandering in state courts has already succeeded in Pennsylvania, where last year the state Supreme Court struck down congressional districts based on language in the Pennsylvania constitution that is similar to North Carolina’s. That ruling led to the court redrawing congressional lines. Democrats picked up four additional seats in 2018. The pending partisan gerrymandering case filed in Wake County court marks at least the eighth lawsuit challenging North Carolina maps on the basis of racial and partisan bias since the current round of redistricting began in 2011. The lawsuits resulted in redrawing congressional lines in 2016 and legislative districts in 2017 — both to address racial bias. The state has spent millions of taxpayer dollars defending the maps. Unlike the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court that would hear the appeal of the trial court’s decision has six registered Democrats and one Republican. “My guess is that the North Carolina court — given its composition — will think differently than the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Guy-Uriel Charles, a Duke
RALEIGH — The procedure for requesting North Carolina mail-in absentee ballots would change and records of those requests would become confidential under legislation advancing after an investigation into a congressional race last fall led to a new election. The Senate’s elections committee voted Monday for the measure, which would eliminate a statewide absentee ballot request form that can be mass copied, filled out and turned in to local county boards. Instead, individual voters would have to write personal requests, as they used to do, to receive a ballot. The person fills out the ballot, gets witness signatures and sends it in an envelope. Rolls of the absentee ballot requesters and their identifying information, which are already collected on logs and are available for public inspection, would stay private until the election day if the legislation became law. The measure responds to recent investigations and accusations of absentee ballot irregularities, particularly within the south-central 9th Congressional District. Allegations initially led the state elections board to decline to certify last November’s 9th District election results. Following a hearing in February, the board ordered a new election, now set for September.
See REDISTRICTING, page A2
See BALLOTS, page A2
By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press