North State Journal — Vol. 1., Issue 55

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VOLUME 1 ISSUE 55

www.NSJONLINE.com |

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

savor & style A bit of paint, design and imagination Emotional night for Capel family at Duke, Sports Walking through the Senate Chamber, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, left, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, right, exit a session where an amendment is proposed on House Bill 39 in the Legislative Building in Raleigh. The bill — which is the first to make it to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk — cuts down the University of North Carolina Board of Governors from the current 32 members to 24.

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

the Wednesday

News BRIEFing

AG Stein requests dismissal of SCOTUS petition on 2013 voting law Washington, D.C. N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein requested a dismissal on Tuesday of N.C. lawmakers’ Voter ID appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Calling it a “desperate politically motivated stunt,” Republicans say Stein is following former Attorney General Roy Cooper in refusing to defend the Voter ID law supported by 70 percent of N.C. voters. Stein argued that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals already struck down the law, and that attorneys for both sides have agreed to waive $12 million in legal fees.

Passengers walk through JFK checkpoint without being screened New York Eleven passengers walked through a security checkpoint without being screened before apparently boarding planes at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday. The breaches occurred at about 6 a.m. at a checkpoint lane that was not fully staffed. TSA said the passengers’ carry-on bags were screened and cleared by a security team with sniffer dogs. Three of the passengers set off metal detectors but were permitted to continue to their boarding gates without being body searched by staff. The Port Authority said three passengers were screened after they got off their flight when it landed in California. It did not give information about the identities or flight schedules of the other eight passengers.

‘Blind sheik’ convicted in 1993 World Trade bombing dies in N.C. prison

NORTH

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

Outspoken general named Trump’s top security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who holds two degrees from UNC Chapel Hill, is a highly regarded military tactician By Donna King North State Journal WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Monday named Lt. Gen. Herbert Raymond McMaster as his new national security adviser, choosing a military officer known for speaking his mind and challenging his superiors. How he would handle a Trump White House is being debated, but those who’ve worked closely to the president say he often favors advisers who have an opposing viewpoint to his own. “He is highly respected by everybody in the military and we’re very honored to have him,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach where he spent the weekend. “He’s a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.” One subject on which Trump and McMaster could soon differ is Russia. McMaster shares the consensus view among the U.S. national

Lieutenant General Herbert Raymond McMaster 1984 West Point graduate 1991 Awarded a Silver Star 1997 Doctorate in U.S. history from the UNC Chapel Hill 2014 One of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people

See TRUMP, page A2

KEVIN LAMARQUE | REUTERS

20177 52016 $2.00

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Republican-sponsored H.B. 39 would reduce the membership of the UNC Board of Governors and could face veto amid Democrat opposition By Jeff Moore North State Journal RALEIGH — Having technically convened the 2017 legislative session weeks ago, revving engines gave way to traction as the North Carolina General Assembly passed its first bill of the year Monday evening with the N.C. Senate voting to send University of North Carolina system Board of Governors reform legislation to Gov. Roy Cooper. House Bill 39 would reduce the membership of the board from 32 to 24 members by 2019. Republicans are seeking to reduce the number of board seats with the support of UNC System President Margaret Spellings in an effort they say reflects modern corporate governance and efficiency needs. “It reduces the board down to a manageable number and it’s being done all across this country,” said Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Southport). “Any nonprofit, any business you can think of, most of the success stories talk about how lowering the size of their board created success, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do here.” Several Democratic senators opposed to the bill feared it reduced diversity, offering an amendment that would give the General Assembly authority to fill select seats on the new board structure to satisfy specifically designated cate-

U.S. President Donald Trump and his newly appointed National Security Adviser Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, left, speak during the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

University of North Carolina System is approximately $2.7 billion part of state budget.

See NCGA, page A8

NC shrimp industry could face changes following petition North Carolina Wildlife Federation requests would limit times, rules for trawling By Cory Lavalette North State Journal

Butner, N.C. Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim cleric known as “the blind sheik” who was convicted of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and of planning a broader “war of urban terrorism” in the U.S., died last weekend of natural causes at a federal prison in Butner, N.C., according to a spokesman. He was 78.

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General Assembly sends first 2017 bill to governor

RALEIGH — A 5-3 vote last week by the North Carolina Marines Fisheries Commission in favor of a petition by an environmental group could change the way local shrimp are harvested in state waters. The North Carolina Wildlife Federation’s petition calls for changes to shrimp trawling that the group calls “a path forward for positive resource conservation,” the group’s CEO, Tim Gestwicki, said in an emailed statement. The petition requests: limiting shrimp trawling to three days

a week in the estuaries and four days a week in the ocean; limiting trawling to the daytime only; reducing the maximum trawl head rope length to 90 feet in estuarine waters and 110 feet in ocean; limiting tow times to 45 minutes; opening shrimp season once the shrimp count in Pamlico Sound reaches 60 shrimp per pound, heads on; implementing an 8-inch size limit for spot and a 10-inch size limit for Atlantic croaker; requiring all fishermen to use two N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries-certified by catch reduction devices when trawling in state waters. NC Catch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and promotion of the state’s seafood economy, said the new rules could cripple not just shrimpers, but also the state’s entire seafood industry. See FISHERIES, page A3


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