North State Journal - Vol 1 Issue 1

THROW DOWN, YOUNG MAN! Brice Johnson throws down an uncontested dunk against Cody Martin during UNC’s 80-68 win over NC State.

The Tar Heels stumbled against Duke but rebounded quickly thanks to Roy Williams’ magic formula and are surging towards the postseason with revenge on their mind.

SPORTS

NORTH

NEWS for SUNDAY

2.28.16

5 tornadoes hit central N.C. Oxford, N.C. Granville and Vance counties are assessing damage after 53 tornadoes touched down Wednesday evening from Virginia to Texas, claiming eight lives.

The National Weather Service issued 25 warnings during the storm; in all of 2015, only five were issued.

N.C. officials here say it is “amazing” no one was hurt.

FBI v. Apple battle moves to Congress Washington, D.C. On Tuesday the battle between the FBI and Apple will go under oath as FBI Director James Comey and Apple Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell will testify at a congressional hearing on encryption issues.

Washington, D.C. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday as Senate Republicans held firm to their vow not to act on any nominee by President Barack Obama for the job.

Europe free travel zones to shut down Brussels, Belgium European Union officials say that Europe’s freetravel zone will shut down unless Turkey acts to cut the number of migrants heading north through Greece by March 7.

INSIDE Sit down with ECU’s new head coach, Scottie Montgomery SPORTS Nine James Beard Award semifinalists call North Carolina their home THE GOOD LIFE

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20177 52016

$2.00

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REDRAWING THE LINES

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Charlotte policy sparks controversy

By Kimberly Johnson North State Journal

SCOTUS pick withdraws

CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

CHARLOTTE ­— Charlotte city leaders’ approval of expanding non-discrimination protections for the city’s gay and transgender community has stoked the ire of state lawmakers who say they intend to fight the new law that they believe puts women and children at risk in public bathrooms.

Members of the Charlotte City Council passed the controversial proposal Feb. 22 that makes discrimination against a person based upon sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression in public accommodations, such as city businesses, taxis and hotels, illegal in the city. The proposal extends to public restrooms, which has drawn sharp criticism from conservative lawmakers and pockets of the community uncomfortable with protections extended to transgender individuals.

Speaker of the House, Rep. Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), promised lawmakers would seek a “legislative intervention” for the new city law.

“The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense and has created a major public safety issue by opening all bathrooms and changing rooms to the

“The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense.”

House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland)

N.C. screens welfare recipients for drug use RALEIGH — Implementation of a new state law screening welfare recipients in North Carolina has flagged drug users and reinvigorated debate about the policy’s efficacy. While policy backers say the inaugural results show that it is working, the findings have renewed controversy over the new law’s cost and implementation.

The law, which was passed in 2013, subjects applicants of North Carolina’s Work First temporary public assistance program to drug screening. As part of the program, Work First offers temporary cash assistance and training for the unemployed. Almost two-thirds of recipients of the benefits are children.

Gov. Pat McCrory initially vetoed the bill when it passed in 2013, calling it fiscally irreTurn to TESTING, Page A3

New congressional district maps face further scrutiny

By Donna King North State Journal

Turn to NEW LAW, Page A3

By Kimberly Johnson North State Journal

Rep. David Lewis, left, and Sen. Bob Rucho confer during the Senate Redistricting Committee for the 2016 Special Session in the Legislative Office Building at the N.C. General Assembly.

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Welfare recipients were tested based on a screening

21

Tested positive for illegal drug use

GREENSBORO — North Carolina’s reconfigured congressional district maps will be back before a federal three-judge panel this week. On Feb. 5, the panel shot down the 2011 maps as unconstitutional and required a re-draw within two weeks. Judge William Osteen served on the panel and has now set a quick turnaround for briefs from the original parties in the lawsuit and decision for court. By March 7 the original plaintiffs in the case, backed by the North Carolina NAACP, must present their case that claims the new district maps are suspect because lawmakers did not consider race at all in defining the lines. The state has until March 9 to respond; the court will return a decision by March 18. That date is after the presidential, gubernatorial, and state legislative primaries, but before the new congressional primary date, now set for June 7.

Lawyers for the voters challenging the district boundaries asked the judges to draw their own map if they do not approve the new one that the General Assembly passed through a fast-paced special session two weeks ago.

District 13 tributes

While the maps make their way through the latest legal hurdles, North Carolina’s new 13th District is expected to draw a number of potential candidates. During the last election cycle North Carolina had to have three runoffs. The state’s newly passed law calls for runoffs to be suspended for 2016, meaning the top vote-getter wins, even without a majority. Political watchers say the winner of the new 13th District will be determined by the handful of voters who turn out. The U.S. Census dictates that each congressional district have about 700,000 constituents, but the average voter turnout for runoffs in 2012 was only slightly more than 25,000 voters. With a low turnout, a potential stampede of candidates and a winner-take-all format, some are calling this a golden opportunity to win a trip to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Federal judges will review maps this week; the new date for the congressional primary election is June 7

Redrawn 13th District will be an open seat and has attracted interest from two state legislators

U.S. Supreme Court denied state leaders’ request for a stay of lower court ruling that ordered new maps drawn

Turn to REDISTRICTING, Page A3

Dem candidates for U.S. Senate debate, primary winner likely faces Burr, on Murphy to Manteo

North State Journal for Sunday, February 28, 2016

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NS J 2.28.16 Volume 1, Edition 1

go to meetings

5pm, Feb. 29 Cape Fear Steam Plant Storm Water Hearing, Central Carolina C.C., Pittsboro, N.C.

9am, Mar. 1 N.C. General Assembly Oversight Committee Meetings at the Legislative building: Education N.C. Health Choice Energy Workforce Development Systems

Mar. 1-2 CED Life Science Convention – Raleigh Convention Center

who we are The North State Journal 209 Fayetteville Street Suite 003 Raleigh, NC 27601 We will ensure that North Carolinians have the facts and resources they need to elevate the conversation, make informed decisions, and broaden their awareness of our remarkable state. comments@nsjonline.com Neal Robbins Publisher Donna King Managing Editor Drew Elliot Opinion Editor Jennifer Wood Features Editor Will Brinson Sports Editor Kevin Martin Photo Editor

the backstory Soundbites

Good news Small towns get grants for downtown facelifts Raleigh FIVE SMALL North Carolina towns will get a portion of $96,000 in state grant money to spend on sprucing up their downtowns.

Dunn, Hendersonville, Kings Mountain, Lincolnton and the town of Pembroke will receive the grants as part of a $1.2 million statewide effort to revitalize small main streets.

“Thriving downtowns are the lifeblood of local economies across North Carolina,” said Gov. Pat McCrory. “These downtown revitalization grants will help transform Main Streets into points of pride that will contribute to the economic success of communities across our state.”

The towns report that they will spend the money on sidewalks restoration, public parking lots, building rehabilitation, among other projects. Kings Mountain, the hometown of House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland County), said it is spending some of the grant money on new signage and an app to promote downtown businesses.

Suzanne Barakat, sister of Chapel Hill shooting victim Deah Barakat, challenged Donald Trump to meet after he commented approvingly of killing Islamic terrorists with bullets dipped in pig’s blood:

“@realDonaldTrump Meet me in person and tell me my brother, Yusor & Razan were deserving of the bullets. #SCPrimary #OurThreeWinners” ­­— @sbarakat210

Republican candidate John Kasich apologized for a comment about women who “left their kitchens” to campaign:

“”

“We just got an army of people who, and many women, who left their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door and to put yard signs up for me.”

“”

“Democrats are going to appeal and appeal and appeal. They can’t win at the ballot box so they are going to try to win in court.”

Rep. Andrew Brock (R-Davie) on redistricting:

Decision 2016: Delegate standings breakdown

By Jill Osborn North State Journal On March 1, known as Super Tuesday, primaries or caucuses will be held in about a dozen states, and they could be turning points in both parties.

The African-American vote, traditionally a key voting bloc in the Democratic primaries, may help propel Hillary Clinton in the all important delegate count. Six of the 11 states up for grabs between Clinton and Bernie Sanders are in the southeast, where the African-American vote is especially strong.

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump looks to continue his path to the nomination on Super Tuesday, where he is dominating the polls. According to Survey USA, the most competitive race may be Texas, where Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are tied in the senator’s home state that has 155 delegates at stake. A total of 655 delegates are allocated on March 1 for Republicans and 865 for Democrats, by far the biggest day of the primary season.

The delegate count needed for the Republican nomination stands at 1,237 and 2,382 for the Democrats. Only the Democrats have superdelegates. Sanders could conceivably win a majority of states and the popular vote and still finish second for the nomination.

What you need to know

Delegates are elected or chosen in each state. In some places, such as Ohio and Florida, the delegate vote is a winner take all system.

DELEGATE TRACKER Caucuses and primaries determine how many delegates each candidate receives. Candidates needs a certain number of delegates to win the official presidential nomination from their respective national committee.

REPUBLICANS need 1,237 to win

DEMOCRATS need 2,383 to win

CLINTON 505*

SANDERS 71 *

TRUMP 82

CRUZ 17

RUBIO 16

KASICH 6

CARSON 4

* INCLUDES SUPERDELEGATES

Iowa

New Hampshire

23

21

7

8

7

1

3

9

15

11

3

2

4

What is the difference between delegates and superdelegates?

0

Nevada South Carolina 20

6

Delegates are bound by vote.

Superdelegates can flip their support for a candidate right up to nominating process, which could create havoc in the event neither Sanders nor Clinton secure the required delegates headed into the convention.

How do parties count delegates?

15 50

14

the Republican Party accounts for almost 3 percent and 2.65 percent for Democrats.

States receive a specific number of delegates based on certain criteria. N.C. received more because the state has a Republican governor, Republican senators, 10 Republican United States Congressmen as well as a Republican state House and Senate. N.C. received more Republican delegates when, in 2012, they selected the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who went on to win the nomination.

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1

1

0

0

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SOURCE: THECECE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PASCUAL | NORTH STATE JOURNAL PHOTOS / REUTERS; INFOGRAPHIC / CECE PASCUAL

But in other states, such as North Carolina, a proportional system is used. Generally, if a candidate gets a high number of votes, they will capture more delegates.

N.C. is a key state.

0

North Carolina moved up its presidential primary last year to March 15 in hopes of playing a more substantial role in selecting the nominees of both parties. The

state will vote on the same day as other crucial general election swing states, Ohio and Florida.

North Carolina is important in the delegate process, especially on the Republican side. N.C. was awarded 72 Republican delegates.

That is the sixth highest delegate count per state in the country.

North Carolina’s delegate count proportion towards the total number needed for nomination in

Republicans: Each state gets three delegates per congressional district and five delegates for each senator. North Carolina has 13 congressional districts and two senators.

Democrats: There is less variation in the delegate process. They have a proportionate system in every state. They also get more delegates if a congressional district has more Democrats.

Each state has its own rules. In fact in past elections, candidates have struggled on how to approach national campaigns because of the minutia that goes along with the deciding factor of delegates.

North State Journal for Sunday, February 28, 2016

REDISTRICTING from Page A1 “Too many candidates might have been a problem on the presidential front but a big number in this primary is going to make 13 a lucky number for someone on June 7,” said political consultant Jonathan Felts.

Some of the lawmakers who have already thrown their name in the mix include state Sen. Andrew Brock (R-Davie County) and state Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford County).

“I’ve been humbled by the number of unsolicited emails, phone calls, and texts I’ve gotten saying ‘I’m behind you.’ Many from people I wouldn’t expect,” said Brock just before making his announcement official earlier this week. “But it’s with the court now and they are going to keep appealing. I just wish they would let us go ahead and have our elections. There are so many people who are already disenfranchised.

People have already voted. This is our most important civic duty and I hope they don’t play politics with it.”

NEW DISTRICT LINES Federal judges declared that two of North Carolina’s congressional districts were unconsitutional, saying that the lines were drawn based predominantly on race. The state was given two weeks to redraw the map.

GREENSBORO RALEIGH ASHEVILLE CHARLOTTE FAYETTEVILLE

KEY:

2016 district lines 2011 district lines

WILMINGTON

SOURCE: NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY INFOGRAPHIC / LIZ MOOMEY AND CECE PASCUAL

Maptitude

If the judges decide to make their own map, they would mostly likely use a program called Maptitude made by Caliper, a Massachusetts-based company that makes a variety of mapping tools including the redistricting software most commonly used by state and local governments.

It uses census data to help users determine congressional lines.

Race and income are not variables available in the software to aid in determining boundaries.

“This is a product for a professional redistricter. It’s so easy even a politician can do it,” said Howard Slaven, Caliper’s president. “We take all the work out of it and software does exactly what people want. It comes preloaded with public domain information

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CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Legislators review information during the House Redistricting Committee for the 2016 Special Session in the Legislative Office Building at the N.C. General Assembly on Thursday.

but users can put in their own data too.”

The total cost for some of Caliper’s mapping tools is less than $700, putting it within reach of advocacy groups, local governments and other organizations.

“A lot of the public commissions that do redistricting are using our software, which is where one hopes this whole thing is headed, in a more nonpartisan direction,” said Slaven.

The General Assembly’s redistricting committee used the software, saying that it helped them redraw the maps to meet the court’s requirements. Still, Republicans maintain that the maps were constitutional in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. The N.C. Supreme Court twice approved the 2011 maps, also saying they were constitutional. Opponents of that map argue that it

Recent legislation directed the Department of Health and Human Services to test welfare recipients to be tested for illegal drugs. If they test positive they are required to attend counseling session before receiving benefits.

NEW LAW from Page A1 general public,” Moore said following the vote. “This ordinance is impossible to regulate as intended, and creates undue regulatory burdens on private businesses.”

The ordinance is a “boneheaded blunder,” said Mecklenburg County’s Rep. Dan Bishop who said the law outlawed gender-specific bathrooms “just as it would be illegal for a business to discriminate by saying ‘whites only.’”

Charlotte City Attorney Robert Hagemann, who has publicly explained that new law does not give a biological male the legal right to expose himself, sent a memo to city leaders Wednesday addressing claims that sex-specific restrooms would effectively become illegal. “[I]t was not the City’s intent to eliminate gender-specific facilities,” he said in the internal memo. The city will not prohibit gender-specific facilities, and police officials will “enforce the public indecency law should a biological male expose his private parts to a woman in a woman’s restroom.”

The proposed ordinance has sparked controversy across North Carolina from those fearful that as Charlotte goes, so will the rest of the state .

Prior to the vote, Charlotte City Mayor Jennifer Roberts said she has learned of more than 140 complaints of discrimination and harassment from Charlotte’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. There is currently no federal or state non-discrimination law that applies to gender expression or sexuality.

Willie Ratchford, executive director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, told council members recently in a briefing that the concerns for the safety of women and children using public restrooms, but said there does not seem to be evidence supporting them. Research into other cities that have recently expanded non-discrimination laws shows there have been no incidents after adopting the public accommodation provisions, Ratchford said.

“The proposed non discrimination ordinance is not a bathroom ordinance,” said Willie Ratchford of the Charlotte community relations committee.

put African-American voters in pockets to minimize their influence across multiple districts.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a stay of the original judges’ order to redraw the maps. N.C. lawmakers say they requested the stay to avoid voter confusion and allow time for an appeal to be heard in court.

The nation’s high court gave no explanation for its decision, although Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was believed to be planning to vote in favor of staying the ruling before his death Saturday, though it was not immediately clear how his death may have affected the court’s decision.

Lawmakers are proceeding with plans to hold primaries on both March 15 and June 7. They are encouraging voters to continue sending in absentee ballots and exercise their right to vote.

TESTING from Page A1

Putting North Carolina on the page LAST SPRING, while in Washington D.C. for a speaking engagement, a curiously timed email popped into my inbox. It was from Neal Robbins, now publisher of the North State Journal, asking if I would be interested in conceiving the design for a new print publication — a newspaper dedicated to the state of North Carolina. Like most visual journalists today, I have made the transition to designing for digital, but my first love remains with the printed page. The following day, when we spoke by phone my excitement about the project grew, “I’d like this newspaper to look and feel like North Carolina, reflect its people, its towns, combined with the graceful aesthetic beauty of this southern state, and to embody both past, present and future. Like 19th century architecture with a flatscreen TV,” said Neal. “Yes, I said, I’d be honored to take on the challenge, I love to create designs with a sense of place!”

When presenting news, typography and information architecture won’t achieve all of the above on their own. The written content and visual storytelling — photographs and illustrations that are compelling, informative, and beautiful — deliver the story. As newspapers began struggling to hold onto their print audiences, and more content moved online, budget cuts came down and paper sizes narrowed, telling a story through images found itself without a place on the page. At the NSJ, we’re giving photojournalism a louder

voice again. As well as hand-picked typography which is both vintage and modern; larger body text for easy readability; a flexible design grid that takes its cues from mobile devices, and a homegrown colour palette created to reflect colors found in North Carolina’s natural world.

I find North Carolina a particularly art-directed state, where history and modern merge behind graceful columns. It’s that aesthetic that I wanted to capture in the overall design of the NSJ. Making a connection with readers is the most important and rewarding job you can do. I look forward to getting to know you. The paper you are holding today is just the first one, we are cutting our teeth and each one will become more interesting, useful, enjoyable and visually compelling as the issues roll out. And I hope you will roll with us, until we feel like — home.

By Deborah Withey

In 2012, Deb was the recipient of the Society of Newspaper Design’s highest honor, The Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in visual journalism education, art direction, and for her design and illustration work in publications in USA, Latin American and Europe.

In addition to journalism, Deb exhibits widely and runs a design studio in Wales, United Kingdom. Read more at deborah-withey. com. You can reach her at deb@nsjonline.com.

sponsible. “Drug testing Work First applicants as directed in this bill could lead to inconsistent application across the state’s 100 counties,” McCrory said in a statement at the time.

“That’s a recipe for government overreach and unnecessary government intrusion.”

Lawmakers overruled the veto and the law went into effect in August 2015.

Between August and late December of 2015, about 7,600 welfare applicants underwent initial drug screening through a 10-question survey, according to Alexandra Lefebvre, spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. “This number represents about a third of all Work First households in which the parent is included in the payment,” Lefebvre said. Applicants with a prior drug arrest within the last three years were automatically required to undergo drug testing.

“Of that, approximately 2 percent, or 150 people, were referred for drug testing as a result of either the score on the screening tool or criminal history,” she said. Of those flagged for further drug testing, 70 applicants did not take the test. Of the 89 applicants who did take the test, 21 tested positive.

“The total of 21 individuals that tested positive represents 0.3 percent of the approximate 7,600 applicants and recipients screened for drug abuse,” Lefebvre said.

The drug tests screen for use of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, opiates and phencyclidine. Those testing positive may attempt a retest after 30 days, but must pay the $55 testing fee themselves. The state has spent about $5,000 on testing, Lefebvre added.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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BUSINESS& ECONOMY “We are fierce competitors in the retail world, but we are together to combat this.”

Steve Walker, Walgreens Asset Protection Direction, on tackling retail crime

Michael Waldon Economic Growth

North Carolina’s economic recovery continues

N

ORTH Carolina’s economy continued its recovery from the Great Recession in 2015. The total value of goods and services produced in the state increased a robust 3.2 percent during the year, surpassing the national growth rate of 2.4 percent.

There was a gain of almost 90,000 jobs and a job growth rate almost double that in the nation. And hourly pay increased 3.3 percent in North Carolina in 2015, 20 percent better than in the nation.

Still, the state jobless rate remained higher than the national rate. There are two reasons for this. Many regions of the state have still not adjusted to the new economy the way the big metro areas like the Triangle and Charlotte have. As a result, the unemployment rate in those regions remains relatively high – some being near 10 percent.

Second, North Carolina continues to be a magnet for attracting households from other states. One recent survey ranked the state No. 1 in households moving to another state in 2015. While some households came to retire, a large number also arrived looking for work. And until they find work, they are added to the unemployment rolls.

Although 2016 began with some sputters, most economists anticipate a year of economic growth.

I predict the state will add another 90,000 payroll jobs, and the state unemployment rate will drop from 5.6 percent to near 5 percent.

But three “divides” challenge the state. The first is the aforementioned geographic divide. Ever since the decline in the state’s traditional “big three” industries of textiles, furniture, and tobacco, the economies of rural and small town areas have lagged growth in the state’s large metro centers. The metro areas are where the state’s new industries of technology, pharmaceuticals, and finance have been built, and they are where young college educated workers want to live.

A related divide is based on education. In the last several decades, only college-educated workers have benefited from rising standards of living. This is a result of our changing economy putting more value on “brain power” than “brawn power.”

Last, modern technology is being developed to perform more of the tasks done by humans. Some futurists forecast technology will eventually replace almost half of today’s occupations. Retraining workers for new occupations will become an emerging necessity.

So, brighter economic skies are here, but not for everyone and everywhere.

Walden is a Reynolds Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University.

CRIME

Police, retailers unite to combat theft 97%

of retailers believe they have been the victim of ORC activity in 2015

88%

of retailers in 2014 said they were a victim of ORC

63%

of retailers believe their top management understands the complexity and severity of ORC on the business.

79%

of retailers said a federal ORC law is needed to combat this issue.

By Liz Moomey North State Journal RALEIGH — In 2015, organized retail crime surpassed internal theft as the biggest amount of loss to companies.

Together, law enforcement and retailers formed the Carolinas Organized Retail Crime Alliance to better communicate retail thefts to combat the rise of organized retail crime.

“Organized retail crime was a whole new piece to the pie, and now it is the biggest piece,” Alan Buck, Bed, Bath & Beyond’s area loss prevention manager, said.

According to the 2015 National Retail Federation study, 97 percent of retailers were a victim of ORC activity in the past 12 months.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Detective Shawn Blee and Buck created retail theft database CORCA.org for 510 law enforcement agencies and retailers to share information.

“We want the criminals to know law enforcement aren’t just looking at them,” Blee said.

The alliance emphasized the thieves are stealing from multiple stores statewide and are stealing the same item.

“The biggest thing we look at is the quantity of items,” Raleigh Police Department detective Scott Womack said. “The average person isn’t going to need 20 pairs of pants the same size.”

CORCA members voiced their concerns about the cost and safety of organized retail crime.

According to the NC Retail Merchants Association President Andy Ellen, organized retail crime costs the retail industry nearly $30 billion

PHOTOS BY EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A variety of brushes hang as a customer shops at the Seaboard Ace Hardware store in Raleigh Feb. 24. As of 2015, organized retail crime surpassed internal theft as the biggest loss to companies. annually, causing retailers to increase prices. Households will pay an extra $400 a year as a result.

Walgreens Asset Protection Director Steve Walker explained medicines and baby formula are often stolen, which have storage instructions. Retailers have stringent rules to ensure the quality of these products that resellers don’t.

CORCA aims to use these driving points to encourage law enforcement and competing retailers to band together to tackle organized retail crime.

“We are fierce competitors in the retail world, but we are together to combat this,” Walker said.

A security camera looks over an aisle at the Seaboard Ace Hardware store in Raleigh Feb. 24.

HOMETOWN

Repairing and recharging downtown Kinston’s heart

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What can we do? What can we do to help foster a community around downtown to make these small businesses successful?’”

Tony Sears, Kinston City Manager

KINSTON — Following the loss of tobacco and textile industries, rural communities in the East have turned their attention to reenergizing their downtowns in an effort to revitalize their community.

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What can we do? What can we do to help foster a community around downtown to make these small business successful?’” said Kinston City Manager Tony Sears.

Queen Street and Heritage Street, two streets that run parallel through the center of the city, have become Kinston’s focal point for helping the community redevelop.

Queen Street has its share of vacant buildings as the spaces of 3,000 square feet plus are too large for small businesses.

“We’re helping put small businesses on Heritage Street rather than Queen Street. Our focus is to start smaller and generate momentum that will work its way to Queen Street,” said Sears.

“We want business owners to find their niche in our market. As a city, we offer small grants and economic incentives so when people invest their own money, we in turn are working together to build this community,” he added.

Jessica Dawson, 29, is a Kinston native and she returned to her hometown to start her own small business, Middle Grounds Coffeehouse, with her husband, James, 26.

“Kinston needed a coffeehouse. The downtown was packed with people and businesses. I stood in front of this store, looked around, and I thought this is the perfect spot for me to help bring everybody together,” added Dawson.

“When people invest in themselves, it becomes our investment as a city, too. A healthy coffeehouse allows more people to see and visit; for the healthier you are the healthier you make your neighbor,” said Sears.

In the meantime, the side streets between Heritage and Queen Streets are filled with other restaurants, a brewery, a hotel and a hair salon.

Joe Kavanagh, 35, opened Olvera Street, an authentic California taqueria on a side street off of Heritage Street nine months ago.

LAURA ASHLEY LAMM | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A building is seen ready for rent on Heritage Street in Downtown Kinston.

Small businesses have steadily moved into the area to create a new hub of culture and activity. Officials are hoping this energy and momentum will help a declining population turn around.

“This neighborhood is up and coming and I saw this as a ground floor opportunity,” said Kavanagh.

“We try our best to support local businesses and to help bring the focal point to downtown. Music, art, food and beer are all a draw to downtown as well as a draw for the younger population,” he added.

The community began working together to redevelop downtown more than a decade ago when entrepreneurs began looking for a space for where their ideas could flourish.

“Heritage Street has been under this revitalization spirt for well over a dozen years, but it’s the anchors of the Chef and the Farmer restaurant and Mother Earth Brewing that have added stability to downtown and created a constant retail traffic,” said Mayor B.J. Murphy.

“All businesses in downtown Kinston feed off of one another. Some may come here for a beer and tour, but then

will walk down the street for dinner. We all have to work together to bring people, tourism and life to downtown,” said R.J. Smith, public relations manager for Mother Earth Brewing.

“Kinston has lost population over the last two decades, but the city leadership believes the next two decades will be quite the opposite,” said Murphy.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the City of Kinston’s population peaked at more than 25,000 in the 1980s and 1990s while the early 2000s saw a declining trend with the population dropping to a little more than 21,000.

“People want to live in a place with things to do, attractions, restaurants, and places to relax, unwind and socialize,” said Sears. “This is for any city, not just Kinston. We can capitalize on that with the restaurants and businesses we have already thriving and continue to grow.”

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

the DASHBOARD

the

26 N.C. counties had

71 N.C. counties had

3 N.C. counties had

510,000 acres of 2016 Winter

12,791,000 bushels of Soybean off farm grain

unemployment rates at 5% or below

unemployment rates between 5% and 10%

rates of 10% or above

Wheat seedlings

stocks on Dec. 1, 2015

Wall Street: U.S. durable goods see increase

Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million

AS WALL STREET continues to watch oil prices decrease, orders for U.S. durable goods increased more than expected in January.

Movement in crude prices have greatly influenced stock markets this year as investors see weak energy demand as a sign of sluggish global growth.

Some analysts, however, said the two could soon break step as investors focus on data and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen has hinted at sticking with the plan to raise rates gradually this year, while other policymakers have warned against a hike amid the turmoil in global markets.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON was ordered by a Missouri state jury to pay $72 million of damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades.

In a verdict announced Feb. 22, jurors in the circuit court of St. Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox $10 million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages, according to the family’s lawyers and court records.

The verdict is the first by a U.S. jury to award damages over the claims, the lawyers said.

Johnson & Johnson faces claims that it, in an effort to boost sales, failed for decades to warn consumers that its talcbased products could cause cancer. About 1,000 cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey.

Big box retail taking a hit in fourth quarter sales DESPITE LOWER gas prices and increasing average wages, big brick and mortar stores are posting lower than expected sales this week and some have recently announced store closings. Best Buy, Kohl’s and Sears all reported drops in sales for fourth quarter on Thursday.

Kohl’s announced that it would be closing 18 under performing stores, while Sears announced earlier this month that it will be closing 50 stores.

Despite efforts to draw customers back through the doors, Macy’s announced that it will be closing stores as well. J.C. Penney expects to close seven more stores after shuttering 74 over the past two years. Even Gap, which also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic, warned earlier this week that it expects to post

LUCY NICHOLSON | FOR REUTERS

People gather at a rally to support Apple’s refusal to help the FBI access the cell phone of a gunman involved in the killings of 14 people in San Bernardino, in Santa Monica, California, Feb. 23.

Apple opposes court order to unlock phone

A

A5

PPLE opposes a federal court order demanding that it unlock a smartphone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook.

Apple chief Tim Cook on Feb. 24 said complying would be “bad for America,” and set a legal precedent that would offend many Americans.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 46 percent of respondents said they agreed with Apple’s position. The poll also determined that the majority

of Americans do not want the government to have access to their phones and internet communications, even if it is to protect against terrorist threats.

Cook also added Apple is prepared to fight this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If Apple loses the court case, the legal precedent could give the U.S. government broad authority to order companies to assist in breaking into encrypted products.

Hugo Boss CEO to step down after weak sales HUGO BOSS CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs is stepping down after eight years at the helm of the German fashion house after the share price tumbled following a profit warning on weak sales in China and the United States.

Hugo Boss shares fell to their lowest level in five years on Tuesday and Wednesday after the firm said it expects sales to grow more slowly than its long-term forecast in 2016 and adjusted operating profit to fall.

The stock rose after Lahrs’ departure was announced to trade up 2.5 percent, but is still down 31 percent this year.

— From staff and wire reports

Jones & Blount

NORTH STATE NETWORK Carolina Brew Review From the boardroom to the taproom, we know craft beer. carolinabrewreview.com

BRIEF Pinetop officials will not rebuild Hardee’s Boddie-Noell Enterprises, the largest Hardee’s franchise owner in the United States with 330 restaurants, has decided not to rebuild the Hardee’s in Pinetops that was destroyed by a fire on Feb. 7. Pinetops officials note this was a significant loss as it was the only fast food restaurant in town. A new Hardee’s in nearby Tarboro opened this week.

Publix to be Market Place’s anchor Planning documents submitted to the City of Wilmington list Publix as the anchor for the new Ogden Market Place shopping center. Halpen Development Co. of Atlanta plans to construct the 45,600 square feet grocery store along with 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space in the Market Place.

Asheville to unveil Smart Parking meters Paying your $1.25 an hour for parking will soon be easier in Asheville thanks to new meters that accept debit and credit cards. The Smart Parking meters will launch with a trial run next month, city officials say.

And for those old-school coin enthusiasts, never fear. They will also accept change.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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MURPHY

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

to

MANTEO

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Jones& Blount jonesandblount.com @JonesandBlount

North Carolina in 1808 The map, at right, was designed by surveyors Jon Price of Pasquotank County and John Strother of Buncombe County. It is the first to show the westward surge of settlements past the Catawba River and across the Blue Ridge. It also shows an attempt to draw western boundaries in mountainous areas that were very difficult to survey. In 1792, the N.C. House of Assembly granted Price a three-year loan of 500 pounds to construct the map.

Price and Strother didn’t copyright the map until 1796, saying they ran out of money for the project. It was finally ready for publication in 1808, when N.C. Gov. David Stone and local lawyer Peter Browne financially backed the project and sent it to Philadelphia for engraving.

GERRY BROOME | AP PHOTO POOL

North Carolina Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Kevin Griffin, from left, Ernest Reeves, Chris Rey and Deborah Ross wait prior to a live televised debate at WRAL-TV studios in Raleigh Feb. 25.

MOUNTAIN

Blue Ridge Heritage Trail goes mobile Polk County Mountain tourists can now use their cell phones for more than taking snapshots. The interactive Blue Ridge Heritage Trail allows visitors to use their phones to learn more about 70 historical and cultural sites throughout 27 North Carolina counties.

INFORMATION FROM: NORTH CAROLINA IN MAPS BY WILLIAM P. CUMMINGS DIVISION OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORYNORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES

THE TIMES-NEWS

Public school enrollment down Haywood County Public district school enrollment is down in Haywood County, which has led school officials to close one elementary school.

The school system has 745 fewer students today than a decade ago. That loss of students, which some blame on the advent of charter school choices and a declining local economy, will likely lead to even more restructuring, officials say.

THE CITIZEN-TIMES

Firearms maker reports drop in sales Mayodan Ruger Firearms continues to feel the fickle cycle of gun sales, reporting a $62 million profit in fiscal year 2015. While more than its net income the year before, it is almost half the profit the gun maker reported from buying sprees following President Obama’s re-election in 2013.

“I and my family are praying for the recovery of Rep. Ralph Johnson,” said Amos Quick, Democratic Candidate for N.C. Dist. 58

Morganton drivers make safest in America list

Five tornadoes touched down on Wednesday

Morganton Drivers in Morganton, N.C., are among the safest in the country, according to Consumer Affairs.

Using Federal highway data, the consumer advocacy group said the city was in the top 20 of North Carolina cities when it came to distracted driving and speeding incidents.

Piedmont Three tornadoes touched down in central North Carolina on Wednesday evening. The National Weather Service confirmed that one hit in Durham County; a second in Granville County destroyed seven homes and a family farm; and another went through Cumberland, Sampson and Wayne counties. Two others touched down in Duplin County in eastern North Carolina.

THE NEWS HERALD

PIEDMONT

State Rep. Ralph Johnson suffers mild stroke

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

Greensboro Democratic Rep. Ralph Johnson of House District 58 is in the hospital after suffering a mild stroke. Johnson is in the middle of a primary race, but his campaign staff said that he has been alert and they are waiting for more information as his condition is evaluated by doctors.

State blacksmith’s work featured in The Revenant

WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL

NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Seagrove The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film, features the ironwork of Moore County blacksmith Jerry Darnell.

Darnell hand-forged dozens of iron chandeliers, beam lights, and sconces in his Mill Creek Forge and Blacksmith Shop at the request of set designers on the film.

“If someone would have told me that you would be making something for a movie that maybe would get an Academy Award, you would have never dreamed it,” Darnell said.

“You don’t ever set out to do that.”

Man caught in robberies of firefighters’ cars

Greenville officials want feedback on budget

Carteret charges EMS to bring paramedic services

Charlotte Police have arrested a man for more than 25 break-ins to firefighters’ cars at five Charlotte and Guilford County fire stations. A statement issued Thursday said Johnny Bing, 26, faces multiple charges and is currently free on bond. Police identified a vehicle connected to the breakins and found Bing driving the car, the search turned up a firearm that was stolen from one of the cars.

Greenville Town officials with the City of Greenville are making their budgeting process more transparent to the public. Officials are hosting three workshops for residents to provide input on the city’s budget. Revenue for fiscal year 2016-2017 is projected to surpass expenses by more than $1.3 million.

Pine Knoll Shores Carteret County Commissioners have charged emergency medical departments in Harkers Island, Pine Knoll Shores, Otway, and Broad and Gales Creek to bring paramedic level services to their units by July 2017. This charge could cause a rescue tax increase for some areas.

Solar farm to open in coming weeks

Brunswick County vies for tire plant

Roduco Situated on 66 acres of land, the O2emc solar farm is preparing to go online in the coming weeks.

O2emc offers a solar site for use by local livestock farmers. A partnership with a local farmer means that grass growth at the facility will be maintained by sheep.

Leland Brunswick County is hoping to bring an international aviation and vehicle tire company’s manufacturing plant to the area. If the county is selected as the plant’s destination, reports note the addition of more than 1,000 jobs and a $458 million investment.

CMPD

COAST

State awards loans for water projects Goldsboro Wayne County, Mount Olive and the Fork Township Sanitary District were recently awarded a total of more than $6.1 million in state zero-interest loans for drinking water and wastewater improvement projects.

GOLDSBORO NEWS-ARGUS

Yo u r h o m e i s o u r w o r l d .

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

CARTERET COUNTY NEWS-TIMES

THE DAILY REFLECTOR

ROANOKE-CHOWAN NEWS HERALD

WILMINGTON STAR NEWS

Democrat candidates for Senate debate

State water infrastructure board meets March 4

THE FOUR DEMOCRATS vying for U.S. Senator Richard Burr’s (R-NC) seat in November’s general election debated live on Raleigh's WRAL Thursday night. Deborah Ross, Chris Rey, Kevin Griffin and Ernest Reeves had 30 minutes to make a case to North Carolina's voters that they were the ones who could defeat the two-term senator and likely Republican nominee.

All the candidates openly supported the Affordable Care Act and raising the minimum wage, but differed on immigration. Ross and Rey said they would give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, while Griffin and Reeves said they would not. Rey, the mayor of Spring Lake, N.C., also said that he would focus on a strategy for improving rural economies.

“There are a lot of people in rural North Carolina who are hurting,” he said.

Ross, a former five-term member of the N.C. House and ACLU lobbyist said she would focus on large-scale repair projects across the nation to put people to work. “This country has a problem with its infrastructure – it’s crumbling. These are jobs that you just can’t outsource,” she said.

Reeves, a 20-year military veteran, said that he would work to improve mental health services for veterans. “I won’t let you down,” he said in a closing statement.

Griffin, a Durham businessman with a background in staffing, also gave a closing statement in which he criticized Rep. Deborah Ross’ 240 unanswered Facebook comments, saying it indicates that she is not engaged with North Carolina’s voters.

Ross answered the attack, saying she has personally called thousands of voters asking for their support.

Ross declined to participate in a second debate scheduled for next week at High Point University. No Republican debates are scheduled before the March 15 primary.

THE STATE WATER Infrastructure Authority will meet at 9 a.m. March 4 in room 1210 of the Green Square building located at 217 W. Jones St. in Raleigh.

The meeting is open to the public.

According to state officials, agenda items include an affordability criteria update, state project grant priority system update, an asset inventory and assessment grant update, a merger/ regionalization feasibility grant update, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan priority approval modification, and the master plan committee report.

A full meeting agenda can be found on the N.C. Division of Water Infrastructure’s website.

SWIA is an independent body with primary responsibility for awarding federal and state funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

Other responsibilities include developing a state water infrastructure master plan, recommending ways to maximize the use of available loan and grant funding resources, and examining best and emerging practices.

The authority is housed in the state Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure, led

by Director Kim Colson. The General Assembly created the new division in 2013, consolidating water infrastructure programs from two divisions in DEQ and the Department of Commerce.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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north STATEment Neal Robbins, publisher | Drew Elliot, opinion editor | Ray Nothstine, deputy opinion editor

LETTERS

EDITORIAL

A new statement for North Carolina North Statement will value results over intentions and recognize the responsibilities of a free press in a democratic society.

NORTH CAROLINA IS an important state, and we are becoming more important each year. While we have always been on the leading edge – self-government in Mecklenburg County, public higher education in Orange County, flight in Dare County – we also have embraced the reputation of the “vale of humility,” an acknowledgement that it is more important to be something than to seem to be something.

But the state’s rapid growth means North Carolina is becoming a national player whether we like it or not. The state is now home to 10 million souls, and a statewide newspaper is the perfect place to host discussions of where our state is headed and what the best means are to ensure security and a rising quality of life.

Here in North Statement, the North State Journal’s opinion page, we want to give our readers the whole story when it comes to the major topics of the day and to let them share their ideas to improve our state and nation as well.

Whether it is the viewpoint of our opinion staff, a guest commentary from an established leader, or letters from our readers, we promise to elevate the conversation by widening the views that drive the public policy and cultural debates of our time, whether the issue is business, policy, politics — or barbecue.

North Statement will value results over intentions and recognize the responsibilities of a free press in a democratic society.

One of those responsibilities is transparency. That is why you will never read an opinion piece in North Statement and wonder who wrote it. While almost all newspapers publish unsigned editorials written by a member of the editorial board, you will never see an unsigned piece of any kind here.

This idea grew from discussions the publisher and I had around the state, during which we learned that some newspaper readers do not understand what a board editorial is, who writes them, and the bright line between opinion writers and news staff. One way to remove any chance of confusion is to have every piece carry the name of its author displayed prominently for the reader.

As our publisher has said, if you have an opinion worth sharing then you owe it to the reader to stand behind it unambiguously.

From the publisher

I

WISH to address this letter to all the editors of the newspaper. I am very pleased to see the first issue of the North State Journal. I believe this publication has the potential to bring North Carolina together in a shared format and a shared place. For my entire life, I have been fortunate to call North Carolina home. I have also been fortunate to travel across this great state, this country, and the globe. From Beijing to the Bahamas and from San Francisco to Stonehenge, no place is better than Murphy to Manteo in the Old North State. I know that each of you has chosen to make your home and raise your children in our remarkable state, as I have.

Your challenge is formidable. I have witnessed firsthand the disparity of information available to our citizens. What is common knowledge in one place is unknown in others. What is accepted as fact in one circle is debunked in another.

My hope is that you and all the contributors to this publication will persistently strive to elevate the conversation and embrace the entire state.

When you do this, the great towns and teams, people and places, and hearts and

minds of North Carolina will come alive through the truth and beauty of these pages, and all will be able to appreciate our home state as much as we do.

Neal Robbins, Publisher Asheboro, N.C.

To our readers WE AT North Statement want to hear from you about issues of statewide, national, or international importance.

(Or even whether you like the “Oxford comma” in the preceding sentence.)

Please send your letters to letters@ NSJonline.com or 209 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC. Letters must be from a per-

son or persons, not an organization. In case you’re wondering, you won’t get your actual signature printed until your work appears thrice. We also welcome op-ed and column ideas, which may be sent to opinion@NSJonline.com.

COLUMN MICHAEL MUNGER

Race to the bottom

N.C. and U.S. economies diverge While the state is headed in the right direction, more needs to be done.

GOVERNMENT IS BROKEN in the nation’s capital and that gives North Carolinians a greater opportunity to lead. Washington shows no ability to reign in runaway spending. The debt, now over $19 trillion, has increased $8 and a half trillion under President Obama According to the Index of Economic Freedom published this year by the Heritage Foundation, the United States is mired in a historic economic decline. It is no longer a top ten country for economic freedom. Terms like “the new normal” point to the long-term meager economic forecast and low expectations for growth.

The rise of the regulatory state and crippling debt has given way to a shift in thinking for reformers. The battle is now at the state level. North Carolina should realize too that the federal government, as a pacesetter for economic reform, is a lost cause.

Fortunately, North Carolina has seen a steady increase for its ratings on economic freedom. The state was listed as No. 2 in the nation for its business friendly climate by Forbes magazine. CNBC ranks North Carolina ninth nationally for business.

While the state is headed in the right direction, more needs to be done. New political leadership in North Carolina is reform minded but it’s up to the people to secure a culture and political climate that looks beyond federal control.

Repealing some of the archaic occupational licensure laws for employment, ending the state’s monopoly on liquor distribution and sales, and deregulating the certificate-of-need mandates in healthcare would be a boon to employment and consumer choice.

BE IN TOUCH Letters addressed to the editor may be sent to letters@NSJonline.com or 209 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC. Letters must be signed; include the writer’s phone number, city and state; and be no longer than 300 words.

Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@NSJonline.com.

W So this “apartheid” was created with the active complicity of the Democrats and the Justice Department.

HAT DID THEY THINK was going to happen?

North Carolina’s 12th Congressional district, famously called “political pornography” by the Wall Street Journal, is gone.

It was an electoral gerrymander, a word that comes to us from an imagined resemblance of a Massachusetts legislative district — drawn by Eldridge Gerry and his allies in 1812 — to a salamander.

The 12th district extended from Durham to the Virginia border, then along I-85 all the way to Charlotte. The most obvious explanation for that shape was the intention to collect a large number of African-American neighborhoods in one district. This smacked of “separate but equal,” and William Barber, head of the state’s NAACP chapter, called it an example of “apartheid” for disenfranchising African-Americans.

Pretty offensive... except that the district was originally drawn back in 1992. The Democrats controlled both the state House and Senate, and drew the district in its bizarre form for a minority-majority district. It was the Republicans who fought against the creation of that monster, while Democrats (with some exceptions) pushed it through. The U.S. Justice Department precleared it; a legal requirement.

So, if this was “apartheid,” how come the Democrats and the Justice Department were so gung-ho to get it done? The federal court’s decision in Pope v. Blue (yes, that was Art Pope, arguing against an unjust gerrymander!) gives an indication of the logic: Since North Carolina added a district because of population growth, district boundaries needed to be redrawn. The original 1991 version had been rejected by the Feds because, the court said, “the state had not shown that its failure to create a second minority district did not impermissibly dilute minority voting strength.” That double negative is hard to parse, but the point was that the court forced the legislature to draw a racially motivated gerrymander, one that was likely to create a “minority district.”

A “minority district” is one that has a majority, or close to it, of African-American voters. The reason these might be attractive is what is called “substantive representation”: if African-Americans are scattered across many districts, their votes are “diluted” (the word the Feds used). But if African-Americans are gathered into fewer districts, their votes are concentrated, increasing the likelihood of black representation in Congress.

So this “apartheid” was created with the active complicity of the Democrats and the Justice Department. The 12th District had exactly the effect the Democrats intended, with Alma Adams now occupying the seat vacated by Mel Watt — both African-Americans.

The court decision required Republicans to break the deal that they had fought against from the beginning. Judge Roger Gregory, writing for the 4th Circuit, admonished the Republicans, saying that the General Assembly had “failed to establish that its race-based redistricting satisfies strict scrutiny.” The 12th (and 1st) Districts would need to be redrawn in ways that did not depend so much on race.

The Republicans were only too happy to oblige. The districts were swiftly redrawn, expanding the partisan gerrymander (which is perfectly constitutional) but dividing African-American voters. Minority members of Congress may still be chosen, but the new districts make that much less likely.

The Democrats’ reaction was priceless. In effect, they said, “Wait! We didn’t mean to ignore race completely!” David Lewis, Republican and co-chair of the redistricting committee, rather gleefully responded, “The only way to make sure race is not predominant is to make sure it is not a factor.”

What did the Democrats think was going to happen?

Michael Munger is a professor and director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

A9 The sun peeks through at Raven Rock State Park in Harnett County, a site that would add $1.5 million in improvements through the bond, including family camping.

LIZ CONDO | FOR THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Connect NC critical for our state’s future GUEST OPINION ROBERT ORR

T

WENTY YEARS FROM NOW, leaders across North Carolina will be looking at this moment in our state’s history as a key turning point for the Old North State. The statewide referendum on the $2 billion Connect NC bond is a pivotal moment for our state.

What type of future do we want for North Carolina?

That’s the critical question voters will face as they decide the fate of the Connect NC bond on Tuesday, March 15.

Are we going to be a state that invests in our community colleges and state universities? Are we going to provide for our National Guard so they can stand ready to protect us?

Are we going to build out our local economies by helping municipal governments expand their water and sewer systems? Are we willing to enhance our quality of life by improving our state parks and state zoo?

Are we going to dedicate ourselves to a modern future in agriculture and agribusiness?

The Connect NC bond plan is fiscally accountable and responsible.

The bonds will be paid with current state tax revenue and will not require a tax increase.

The bond provides critical funding for our community colleges and state universities. It provides funding for three readiness centers for our state National Guard units so they can deploy during natural disasters and national emergencies.

The bond provides funding for local and county governments to improve their water systems. There is major funding to ensure that our state is on the cutting edge when it comes to research and technology in plant sciences, helping promote our agricultural economy. This bond will focus on science, technology and research — ­ all major engines that will

VISUAL VOICES

The bond plan proposed by McCrory and passed by the General Assembly with a bipartisan vote has been endorsed by local leaders and organizations in every corner of North Carolina.

drive our economy in the 21st century.

We can do all this without raising taxes. The bond plan proposed by McCrory and passed by the General Assembly with a bipartisan vote has been endorsed by local leaders and organizations in every corner of North Carolina. Even State Treasurer Janet Cowell has endorsed the bond, saying it will protect our state’s AAA credit rating.

For the first time in 16 years, voters across the state will decide on a bond plan. Since 2000, North Carolina has grown by more than 2 million residents. This bond will take us a long way in meeting the critical needs facing our community colleges, state universities, state parks, local governments, and our National Guard.

Throughout our history, North Carolina has prided itself on setting the agenda; not following one. We have been a regional leader and a

national player when it comes to innovation, job creating and economic growth. It is essential that we set a path forward for a new generation, who will benefit from the investments we make in our state today.

I urge my fellow North Carolinians to help us lift up our state. Supporting the Connect NC bond will point us in the right direction. It will set the stage for a better North Carolina and will be done with a fiscally responsible plan led by our governor and state legislature.

This bipartisan bond is a bold plan that brings together all the things that make our state great.

I ask you to join me in making our state’s future a part of your plan to vote on Tuesday, March 15.

Robert Orr is Chairman of the Connect NC Bond Committee and a retired Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

COLUMN CLARENCE PAGE

Trump taps white ‘victimhood’ D Such a loss, Bartlett hopes, would enable the GOP establishment and its donor elites to say “We told you so” to the farright.

ONALD Trump has achieved an important milestone. Winning big in the New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primaries has given him “big mo,” as President George H.W. Bush used to call big momentum.

At this rate, Trump could well be the Grand Old Party’s next presidential nominee unless he does something devastatingly offensive to his supporters, such as saying something nice about President Barack Obama.

Barring that, Bruce Bartlett may well get his wish for a Trump nomination, whether he really wants to or not.

Bartlett, 64, is an author, historian, economist and veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations who describes himself as a “moderate Republican.”

So why does he want Trump to win? Because Bartlett wants to see Trump face the presumptive Democratic nominee, frontrunner Hillary Clinton – and lose.

As Bartlett spelled out in an essay in Politico magazine, a Trump nomination should be welcomed by moderate Republicans because, “It is only after a landslide loss by Trump that the GOP can win the White House again.”

Such a loss, Bartlett hopes, would enable the GOP establishment and its donor elites to say “We told you so” to the farright and move the party back toward the sensible political center.

I’d like to see that happen, if only to wipe Trump’s forever-smug, self-satisfied grin off his face. Yet as I told Bartlett, be careful what you wish for. I remember how many liberals were convinced in early 1980 that Ronald Reagan would set back the conservative cause by losing.

He didn’t. He won. Twice.

Now I watch Trump’s supporters stampede ahead, turning out in record numbers

with an air of excitement that I have not seen since, well, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

But the very real possibility that Trump could pull off a White House win is enough reason, says Bartlett, to take a closer, more serious look at who is turning out to vote for him.

His quest has resulted in a new paper on Trump and “Reverse Racism.”

“Recent research suggests that many more whites believe they suffer from reverse racism than one might imagine,” says Bartlett. I don’t have to imagine it. I hear it quite regularly from some of my conservative readers.

The view is echoed in studies that show that blacks are more likely to see such racism as a continuing problem while whites tend to see it as a problem that has been more or less “solved,” except when it is bias against whites.

In fact, Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School wrote in a New York Times essay that many whites now believe anti-white bias is even more prevalent than anti-black bias – a sentiment not shared by blacks – and “are now using their sense of marginalization as a rallying cry toward action.”

The result, writes Norton, has been a “jockeying for stigma” among various identity groups, a competition for victimhood into which Trump has tapped.

From my African-American perspective – and that of Bartlett, who happens to be white – it is preposterous to see whites as marginalized and powerless in America after centuries of advantages.

Yet is neither wise nor fair to dismiss Trump’s voters as racists. Many see themselves as victims of a system that deliberately has overlooked their concerns about immigration, trade, education costs and other issues.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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NATION& WORLD NEWS IN IMAGES

MIKE STONE | REUTERS

JONATHAN ERNST | REUTERS

Donald Trump speaks next to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at a campaign rally where Christie endorsed Trump in Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 26.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rallies with supporters at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., Feb. 26.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie endorses Trump

Senate Minority Leader endorses Clinton

WASHINGTON, D.C. — New Jersey Governor and former Republican presidential nominee Chris Christie endorsed GOP candidate Donald Trump on Friday.

Christie said the billionaire frontrunner has the best chance of beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

“The best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November on that stage last night is undoubtedly Donald Trump,” Christie told a news conference on Friday.

However, Clinton has not secured her party’s nomination.

Christie, who was once Trump’s rival,

dropped out of the race Feb. 10 after the New Hampshire primary.

Trump also gained his first presidential primary endorsements from members of Congress this week. Republican representatives Chris Collins of New York and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois endorsed Trump Feb. 24. Collins previously backed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Trump has won three straight nominating contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Polls show he is likely to win big in key primaries on March 1.

Reuters/Ipsos polling data on Friday showed Trump ahead nationally in the Republican race with support at 44.2

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) extended his support to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination for the November election.

Reid said in a CNN interview on Feb. 25 Clinton would better serve the middle class than rival Bernie Sanders.

He also said he approved of her work while she was first lady.

“I think that my work with her over the years has been something that I have looked upon with awe. She was the first lady. She started the trend toward looking to do something about health care. She understood the issue well, she

was the front on the health care during that administration,” he said.

Reid added, “I also think she’s the woman to be the first president of the United States that’s a female.”

Clinton tweeted “proud to have Senator Reid on this team.” Reid’s endorsement makes him the highestranking Democrat to endorse Clinton.

Clinton also won the Nevada caucus on Feb. 25, and gained 20 delegates compared to Sanders’ 15.

As of Friday, Clinton has picked up the support from 154 representatives, 40 senators, and 12 governors.

Sanders has been endorsed by three representatives.

$120 million Aug. 5-21 $5 billion 9 U.S. appeals court overturned a $120 million Olympics summer games scheduled in Rio de Venezuela is in advanced talks for a $5 billion people were killed when fighters from Somali jury verdict against Samsung, handing a win in its patent feud with Apple

Janeiro. The Centers for Disease Control have advised pregnant women not to travel to the games citing the mosquito-borne Zika virus

loan from international banks and investment funds to provide an influx of cash for the OPEC member country, which faces heavy debt payments this year

Islamist group al Shabaab set off a car bomb at the gate of a popular park and near a hotel in the capital

The Whole State.

The Whole Story.

5 COLUMNS X 6 INCHES

Catch up with North Carolina’s Only Statewide Newspaper.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

Jason Dalton

The victims “appear to be chosen at random, because they were available,” Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting said.

“They were shot multiple times, multiple — nine, 10, 11 shell casings at each of these scenes.”

Uber driver charged with fatally shooting 6

5 dead after Washington State shooting

Kalamazoo, Michigan Uber driver Jason Dalton was charged with killing six people in a five-hour shooting rampage.

Dalton, 45, was arrested and denied bail Feb. 22. Two others were also wounded.

Seattle, Washington Five people are dead, including a suspected gunman, following a shooting and standoff with police at a home in Washington state on Friday, but a 12-year-old girl safely escaped, Mason County authorities said.

Circumstances of the gun violence were not immediately clear. But the suspect “apparently came outside the home and shot himself,” Mason County Sheriff Casey Salisbury told the Seattle Times. “It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Republican lawmakers respond to Guantanamo Washington, D.C. Sen. Richard Burr and Republican lawmakers introduced a bill this week to bar President Barack Obama’s bid to close the Guantanamo detention center. The legislation would force the Obama administration to publicize plans for transfers from Guantanamo.

U.S. and Russia agree on cease-fire date Istanbul, Turkey The United States and Russia announced plans for a cease-fire in Syria for Feb. 27. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have expressed concerns about the proposal.

Study: Pregnant travelers raises Zika worries Chicago, Illinois A study of nine pregnant U.S. women who traveled to countries where the Zika virus was circulating shows a greater-than-expected number of fetal infections and brain abnormalities, U.S. health officials said on Friday.

Two of the women had miscarriages, two had abortions, two had apparently healthy children, and one child was born with severe microcephaly.

A11

Gunman kills 4 in Kansas workplace, shot to death Hesston, Kansas A gunman killed four people on Thursday at a manufacturing plant in central Kansas where he worked, and wounded 14 others, in a shooting spree spanning several miles that ended when a lone officer killed the suspect, authorities said.

CHAIWAT SUBPRASOM | REUTERS

A tiger jumps while being trained at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 25.

Greece seeks to stem migrant flow Athens, Greece Greece moved to slow the flow of migrants from its islands to the mainland on Friday as thousands of homeless refugees were trapped in the country by border limits imposed along a Balkan route to richer nations in northern Europe.

From its northern frontier with Macedonia to its port of Piraeus in the south, Greece was inundated with refugees and migrants after border shutdowns cascaded through the Balkans, stranding at least 20,000 in the country.

KAY NIETFELD | REUTERS

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, middle, and guests use Gear VR virtual reality headsets during the awards ceremony of the newly established Axel Springer Award in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 25. Zuckerberg is the first to receive the award at a ceremony on Thursday.

Euro zone economy hits wall of worry, deflation concern “The euro zone currently resembles a 50-year-old overweight smoker: there are a lot of downside risks, but the base case for the short term remains fairly decent.”

Bert Colijn, economist at ING

LONDON — A wall of consumer and business angst is standing in the way of euro zone economic recovery and there are renewed signs of deflation in the bloc’s biggest countries to worry the European Central Bank.

Data from across the 19-member currency bloc on Friday will put pressure on the ECB to take strong additional policy actions at its meeting in March on top of the unprecedented stimulus it is already giving.

Reports of falling prices in Germany, France and Spain along with an array of weak sentiment surveys for the bloc as a whole will also provide ammunition to those arguing that governments must now loosen their budgets to stimulate growth.

The data contrasted with some recent, tentative signs of revival and boosts from cheap energy and a competitive euro.

“The euro zone currently resembles a 50-year-old overweight smoker: there are a lot of downside risks, but the base case for the short term remains fairly decent,” said Bert Colijn, economist at ING. Even this modest confidence

does not appear to be shared by businesses and consumers.

The European Commission reported that overall euro zone economic sentiment deteriorated by far more than expected in February, falling to 103.8 in February, just above the longterm average, from a slightly upwardly revised 105.1 in January.

Business sentiment — not numerically comparable — came in at 0.07 from 0.29 in January, below even the most bearish projection in a Reuters poll and barely in positive territory.

The consumer confidence index, meanwhile, dropped to -8.8 from -6.3 in January, down from — 5.7 in December — a poor harbinger for future spending, last year’s bright spot.

Sarah Hewin, chief economist at Standard Chartered, said some of the decline may have come from a belief that improvements to growth and employment may be waning.

But she also cited falling stock markets and broader concerns about how the European Union manages the hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entering its borders.

LASZLO BALOGH | REUTERS

A worker stands next to a car on the assembly line at the Audi plant in Gyor, west of Budapest.

President Barack Obama talks to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval as he arrives at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Aug. 24, 2015.

CARLOS BARRIA | REUTERS

SCOTUS nominee list grows 2 days Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval was on President Barack Obama’s short-list for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House said on Friday that more candidates could be added to its list of potential nominees to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

“We are still in a position where the list is not closed at this point,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a briefing. “There are still people being considered for inclusion on the list of people that the president may consider for filling a Supreme Court vacancy.”

The White House has yet to officially reveal any potential picks to replace Scalia. Earnest said he did not expect a nominee would be named before President Barack Obama meets with congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday as Senate Republicans dug in on their vow not to act on any nominee by President Barack Obama.

Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandoval’s decision, Earnest told reporters, “He’s obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career."

Sandoval's name surfaced as a possible nominee on Wednesday, but Senate Republicans quickly said they still would not hold

hearings or vote on any Obama nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama’s appointee could pivot the court to the left for the first time in decades.

Sandoval, a Mexican-American who was Nevada’s first Hispanic governor, did not offer a reason for his withdrawal.

“Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said in a statement.

“The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned.”

Earlier on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed concern about Sandoval, urging Obama to pick a “true progressive.” But Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, called it a “good idea” for Obama to consider Republicans as well as Democrats.

Obama will convene a meeting next Tuesday with Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and its Judiciary Committee to discuss a court nominee, Earnest said. The Republican-led Senate must confirm any nominee.

A12

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

From Murphy to Manteo, North Carolina is a state full of remarkable stories. We’re here to track down those stories and share them with you. The North State Journal is North Carolina’s only statewide newspaper.

Our charge: to help North Carolinians elevate the conversation, find common ground, and deepen their appreciation of our great state.

Our reporters will bring you a fresh perspective each day: from national and world news to North Carolina news and sports you care about – plus business, opinions, features, and more.

The Whole State.

The Whole Story.

Enjoy stories from North Carolina’s only statewide newspaper.

Call toll free to Subscribe 866.458.7184 Or online at www.nsjonline.com

the WEEKEND LEDE 02.28.16

HEELS HOT AGAIN

1. NFL and NFLPA reportedly sets 2016 salary cap just above a whopping $155M, nearly $12M more than 2015 2. Gianni Infantino replaces Sepp Blatter as FIFA president with 2nd ballot win 3. Bears planning to put franchise tag on wide receiver Alshon Jeffery 4. MLB changes base path slide rule to eliminate dirty plays into second base 5. John Elway says he will not rush Peyton Manning on retirement decision

CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams huddles with the Tar Heels during a time out in the game against Miami on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. North Carolina defeated Miami, 96-71.

@SportsCenter Steph Curry has 4 career games of 50+ points while making 10+ 3-pointers.

The rest of the NBA — EVER — has 3. @DukeBasketball Tip-off time for the DukeUNC game at Cameron Indoor Stadium has been announced as 6:30 p.m. on March 5.

SPORTS PANTHERS OFFSEASON

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

@BruceFeldmanCFB Bama DL A’Shawn Robinson asked if he shaves his head & grows beard for intimidation. “I was going bald.”

Chapel Hill, NC

T

DUKE

ACC reprimands Grayson Allen

The conference announced Friday night the Duke guard was reprimanded for tripping Xavier Rathan-Mayes at the end of Duke’s 80-65 win over Florida State. A light punishment for two trips in a month from one player.

REDSKINS

Tag coming for Kirk Cousins?

Conflicting reports from ESPN and NBC debate whether Washington will use the franchise tag on their quarterback to keep him in town. They have until March 1 to officially announce it and July 15 to work out a new contract. Read more on his situation (B7).

NFL COMBINE

Former NC high school star blazes in 40 Former Raleigh high school (Millbrook) and University of Georgia star Keith Marshall tore it up in Indianapolis on Friday of the combine, running a 4.31 40 time and putting up 25 reps in the bench press.

NBA

Curry continues destroying NBA

Steph Curry went bananas Thursday night, scoring 51 points and hitting 10 three pointers. Curry also finished with eight assists and seven rebounds. Oh and he missed seven shots. Please be prepared to see him win the MVP.

MLB

Vegas sets win totals The Atlantis Casino released its list of over/under win totals for every MLB team next season. The Giants (90) and Cubs (89) top the list, while the Phillies (66.5) and Braves (65) are on the bottom, setting low expectations for the NL East.

Roy’s old recipe has Carolina cooking again

MATTHEW EMMONS FOR USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

The Carolina Panthers’ Josh Norman reacts during Super Bowl 50 against the Broncos at Levi’s Stadium.

Panthers’ options for Norman deal

By R. Cory Smith North State Journal

T

HE NFL offers no rest for the weary. Mere days after the Super Bowl — win or lose — a new year begins. For the Panthers, a crippling and deflating 24-10 Super Bowl 50 loss still lingers, but management is figuring out how to get back next season.

That means bolstering the roster through free agency and the NFL draft, and retaining top talent from a 17-2 team.

The biggest necessity for the Panthers this offseason? Making sure breakout cornerback Josh Norman remains on the roster.

Carolina’s lockdown corner gambled on himself when he turned down a deal reportedly worth more than $7 million per year last offseason.

“I bet on myself my whole life.

Ever since I was a little boy I bet on myself,” Norman said in training camp, via the Charlotte Observer. “Until now, I’m still betting on myself. Nothing’s going to change about that.”

2

Interceptions returned for touchdowns by Norman during the 2015 NFL season

13

Million dollars Norman gets guaranteed on a 1-year deal if the Panthers use franchise tag.

Pretty good gamble. It paid off big time, with Norman vaulting into the spotlight and being named a first-team All Pro. Now it’s time for Carolina to pay up.

The NFL’s free-agency system affords the Panthers a few freedoms when it comes to negotiations. They’re not forced to simply give Norman what he wants or watch him walk.

So what are the options for the Panthers this offseason with Norman? Before the deadline to designate a franchise tag on March 1, here’s what is on the table for Carolina in negotiations with Norman.

HE NORTH CAROLINA head coach took the loss to the Tar Heels’ rival hard. He fought back tears in the postgame, and, a week later, was still smarting over it.

“What’s the opposite of pep?” Williams asked. “Because that’s what I had in my step after that.”

It may not roll off the tongue like going to the mattresses, but Williams made like the mob, going full “Godfather” and holing up in his office.

“I got our stats,” Williams said. “I got the ACC stuff. I’ve got all this stuff lying on the floor beside my desk, and I lived the glamorous life: I had Wendy’s chili brought in, so I “I got our stats. I could look at all of it.” got the ACC stuff.

Carolina is atop the ACC standings, but just barely, with just two losses sep- I’ve got all this arating the top six teams in the ACC as stuff lying on the of Feb. 25. That makes every game cru- floor beside my cial down the stretch.

“I like the fact that we’re playing four desk, and I lived games [including the win at NC State] the glamorous and they all mean something,” Williams life: I had Wendy’s said. “You’re more fired up. You’re more anxious to get to practice. You want chili brought in, so to stay out there a little bit longer. You I could look at all want to watch a little more tape.”

Williams certainly doesn’t sound of it.” like someone with one foot out the door, despite the controversial report on the Roy Williams CBS pregame show prior to Carolina’s win over Miami last weekend.

Citing “several people in college basketball,” CBS commentator Doug Gottlieb claimed Williams may choose to retire following the season, going out on top, if the Tar Heels win the NCAA Tournament. Williams angrily refuted the claim during his postgame press conference, calling the report “sinful” and “not journalism.”

A few days later, Williams expanded on the topic,

See WILLIAMS, Page B5

Franchise tag options While the term “franchise tag” typically means just one thing to most fans, there are actually three different types.

• If a player is hit with the exclusive tag, no one else can even negotiate with him for at least one year.

See NORMAN, Page B8

58

Passer rating Norman allowed for the entire 2015 season (per Pro Football Focus).

513

Yards allowed in coverage during entire season

by Norman per Pro Football Focus.

KEVIN MARTIN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

READY, SET, DO(NUT)!

Raleigh boasts a marathon like no other: 5 miles split by a dozen donuts. 2.5 miles out, 12 donuts and 2.5 miles back. It’s a pressure-packed situation for competitive runners and eaters only, but it’s not too serious. The Krispy Kreme Challenge is notoriously an entertaining time in the Oak City for those who enjoy a Saturday of mirth and girth all designed to benefit a good cause.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B2

NS J beyond the box score

02.28.16

Trent Richardson: Ravens reportedly willing to give all-time bust of a running back one more shot in NFL. Jared Goff: California quarterback and top-rated QB prospect has “only” 9-inch hands at combine measurement.

Jose Reyes: Rockies put shortstop on paid leave from spring training until domestic violence case is resolved.

Derrick Henry: Heisman winning Alabama running back shows up to NFL combine weighing 247 pounds.

Marc Gasol: Memphis Grizzlies center undergoes season-ending surgery on foot.

Johnny Manziel: Dallas Police confused on timing of investigation into Manziel’s domestic violence case. Browns not confused about cutting him ASAP. Yeonis Cespedes: Mets outfielder brings a different (and insane) car to spring training every day, draws heat from manager over backward hat.

Antonio Brown: Steelers wide receiver could join “Dancing With the Stars” during its next season.

POTENT QUOTABLES

CASH CATS

The Carolina Panthers aren’t the richest team in the NFL when it comes to the salary cap, but Dave Gettleman’s team is in a much better spot than ever before. Carolina carried over $3.7 million in cap space (the Jaguars were tops at $32.7 million!) from 2015 into 2016.

“That’s sinful.

Sinful. This is a guy that couldn’t put his damn pants on the right way.”

UNC coach Roy Williams fired back at CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb over retirement comments.

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

ON TV

North Carolina at Duke (Men’s BB) Saturday March 5, 6:30 p.m. EST After a stunning Duke upset in the Dean Dome, Roy Williams and the Tar Heels will look to exact some revenge on the Blue Devils in the second game of the nation’s best basketball rivalry.

SCORCHING SEAHAWKS

UNC Wilmington’s basketball team has just three losses in the entire 2016 calendar year. The Seahawks are surging toward the Colonial Athletic Association title and tournament, not to mention the big dance.

BEAT ‘EM DOWN

JUST NOT THEIR YEAR

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

Not the greatest year in the world for coach Danny Manning and Wake Forest, but they’re making strides on the court and crushed Boston College by 26 points to snap an 11-game ACC losing streak. Wake allowed just 14 points in the first half.

Thursday brought another brutal blow for the NC State men’s basketball team — fresh off a loss to rival UNC, the Wolfpack learned Lennard Freeman has a stress fracture in his leg. Freeman will continue to play but be “very limited.”

TALE OF THE TAPE

Two of the ACC’s best offensive lineman tested at the 2016 NFL Combine. Here’s how it shook out.

LANDON TURNER vs. JOE THUNEY 6’4” — Height — 6’5” 330 lbs — Weight — 304 lbs 32 7/8” — Arm Length — 32 1/4” 10 3/8” — Hand Size — 9 5/8” 30 — Bench Press Reps ­— 28

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B3

PIRATES’ PLUNDER

ECU MEDIA RELATIONS

New ECU coach Scottie Montgomery is introduced at his press conference.

Everything you need to know about ECU’s Scottie Montgomery

By Sean Labar North State Journal

E

Scottie Montgomery Age: 37 Hometown: Shelby, N.C. Previous Gig: Duke OC/Asst HC Played: Duke (96-99), Panthers (00), Broncos (01-02), Raiders (03) Coached: Duke (06-09, 13-15), Steelers (10-12) Favorite Food: Barbecue Favorite Movie: “Coming to America” Favorite Hobby: Bass fishing Twitter: @ScottieMo_Coach

VERY OFFSEASON brings coaching surprises in college football.

Maybe no bigger surprise was the change at East Carolina when Ruffin McNeill was relieved of his duties as Pirates coach in early December.

After a 10-day search process a surprising name emerged: Duke offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery, a passionate young coach who loves football and spent most of his formative years in North Carolina. He played for Burns High School in Lawndale, Duke University and had a cup of coffee as a rookie free agent with the Carolina Panthers. The energetic 37-year-old from Shelby managed to land 11 instate recruits for his 2016 recruiting class, despite having just a month to recruit. He sat down with the North State Journal to discuss his whirlwind arrival in Greenville.

What does it mean to take over as the ECU head coach?

Being able to come to Greenville and take over here is just an unbelievable feeling. Now I am connected to the culture, and this city. The culture around the football program makes this place very attractive. Our staff was easy to put together because they knew what it was like when you cross I-95.

A lot of current players were upset when Ruffin McNeill was fired. Have you talked to your team about that?

We addressed it in the beginning.

We don’t look back. We look through the front window as opposed to looking through the rearview mirror as a staff and as a team. We told them that we don’t compare them to anyone else, so we hope that they wouldn’t compare the coaches to the ones they had before.

We also addressed it early with our fan base and with our donors.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach McNeill. As a young coach growing up in the business I have seen the success that he has had at several places he has been. We addressed it and moved on. The people that are further away from the program probably have more to say about it than we do.

You have an offensive background. What are your plans on the defensive side of the ball?

When you’re an offensive coordinator you’ve coached the quarterback position and been around a lot of offense in general. What people don’t realize is you’re basically trying to defeat defenses. Sometimes offensive coaches know a little bit more about defense than they do about offense. You’re working every week to perfect your offense against several, and multiple defenses. I think my open-mindedness from that standpoint will really help us. But Kenwick Thompson was a guy we targeted a long time ago. I’ve heard wonderful things about him and had the opportunity to know people that knew him 10 years ago when he was young in this business. We knew what we wanted.

We are very happy about having him call our defenses and leading our men.

What coaches have helped mentor you along the way?

Coach [David] Cutcliffe [Duke] has mentored me for a very long time.

[Steelers coach] Mike Tomlin and [Cardinals coach] Bruce Arians as well. Those are probably the three people that are directly responsible for my education and maturation in the process of becoming a head football coach, but also, a mentor of young men.

Do you have any idea of the kind of offense you want to run?

We want to continue the excitement of playing great football, whether we were in Durham, or whether we are in Greenville. We want to implement a high-powered offense, and throw it, no question. But we also know that you have to run the football to win games.

What was one of the first things you did when you got to Greenville?

I’ve made sure to meet with every player individually. Some guys I have seen two times already. When I got the job, and they weren’t here, we talked to them on the phone. But meeting with them one-on-one shows them that its not lip service. We’re not just getting in front of the camera and saying we are doing this, we are doing that. It’s not just football. We are trying to teach them how to manager their checkbook, trying to teach them the importance of brotherhood and education. And then we are working our butt off at 5:45 in the morning.

“We’re not just getting in front of the camera and saying we are doing this, we are doing that.

It’s not just football. We are trying to teach them how to manage their checkbook, trying to teach them the importance of brotherhood and education.”

What’s your favorite sport to watch other than football?

Basketball. It’s hard to see college basketball a lot even though I love it.

But I can catch the West Coast NBA games, so I’m pretty locked into that right now.

Do you have a pregame routine?

Really no. Outside of just getting up like I do every day with the goal of winning the day, my pregame routine is probably more connected to what we do Monday through Friday.

Best vacation you’ve ever been on?

Oh man, my wife and I, for one of our anniversaries, went on a 10-day trip to Paris, Rome, and Greece. It was fantastic. We’ve had young children a lot of the time so we don’t get to go far too often. That helped me out with the wife for about two, maybe three weeks at least.

Who is your biggest influence?

My dad, there’s no question about it. James Montgomery. He’s so hard on me, but so fair. He made me understand that sometimes your best isn’t good enough. So prepare next time, to give better than you did the first time.

At the end of the day, he always pushed me to be my best self, no one else.

Do you have any quirky or funny hobbies that people might not know about?

About four times a year, I go bass fishing. I love it. There are so many great places all across the state, from Lake Gaston to spots closer to here. I love being on the front of a small bass boat, throwing a red worm on the end of a spruce pine, and hopefully by the time it hits the water, I’m setting the hook.

If you pick up your iPod right now, what will it play?

That’s a tough one. I listen to HipHop, I listen to Gospel, I listen to R&B. I have to listen to what my players are listening to so I know what they are talking about. Right now, it would be one of the young rappers that I know very little about. But if I just picked it up and played something that I like, it would probably be Jay Z or something like that.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B4 DUKE’S TURNAROUND

How Coach K’s fight club turned Duke back into a tournament contender

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

Duke guard Grayson Allen (3) reacts as he collides with North Carolina forward Kennedy Meeks.

T

HE DUKE Blue Devils don’t mind breaking the first rule of fight club. They talk about it all the time.

“Just keep on fighting,” Derryck Thornton said. “Fighting, fighting, fighting. That’s Coach’s main thing: Just to fight.”

“We’ve battled hard,” Luke Kennard said. “We fought together, and we’re becoming a tougher team.”

“We have a lot of guys who are fighters,” Marshall Plumlee said.

“Even if they miss shots, even if they get tired, even if they get banged and bruised.”

Too much maybe. Except toughness and fighting are pretty regular themes for coach Mike Krzyzewski throughout his coaching career.

Few Duke teams have embraced the concepts like this season’s Blue Devils. Of course, few Duke teams have had as much to fight through.

In early December, Duke lost Amile Jefferson, one of the team’s three captains and the player with the most career playing time on the inexperienced Blue Devils’ roster. Expected to be a force inside, Jefferson suffered a foot injury and has yet to play in an ACC game. He’s just now beginning to participate in practice again.

“Amile was such a huge part of our team, with everything he brought on and especially off the floor, with his intangibles,” Plumlee said.

Without their leader, Duke struggled. Three-straight conferences losses including four-of-five in mid-January. Back-to-back home losses at Cameron Indoor.

An unheard of fall from the AP Top 25.

A trip to the NCAA Tournament was legitimately in doubt for the defending national champions. Uncharted waters for sure.

Duke survived the losing streak and righted the ship for a win in Raleigh against NC State.

But the adversity kept coming.

The Devils were forced on the road without their coach when Mike Krzyzewski was hospitalized following the team meal the night before a trip to Georgia Tech.

Already down to a six-man rotation, tri-captain Matt Jones suffered a badly sprained ankle at UNC, stretching an already-thin roster to the brink and forcing Duke to play with five guys the rest of the way. In the next game, point guard Derryck Thornton left with a shoulder injury.

At a certain point, when the obstacles mount up to comical levels, injuries and fatigue become pedestrian problems, easy opponents. As Krzyzewski said several times over the last month, Duke “learned to fight through tired.”

The Blue Devils withstood a 13-0 Louisville rally to beat the Cardinals at home. In the following game, Duke knocked off Virginia on a controversial Grayson Allen buzzer beater. The five Blue Devils left standing promptly pulled off an improbable win at

nsjonline.com

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

North Carolina, coming back to win 74-73 late in the Dean Dome and running Duke’s streak of wins over ranked opponents to three.

That streak over ranked teams came to an end when Duke couldn’t hold on in the rematch at Louisville, but the Blue Devils have evolved into a tournament team, a possibly underseeded squad that opposing coaches won’t be happy to see in the same region.

How did Duke go from reeling also-ran to dangerous sleeper?

The seeds of the transformation were planted as soon as trouble began.

Trial by fire “Coach has been doing this a long time,” Plumlee said. “So he knew right after our first loss: the season is capable of going any which way.”

After the Notre Dame loss — Duke’s second straight — Krzyzewski made his concerns public.

“I’ve said this since Amile went down,” Krzyzewski said. “The margin between us winning and losing is narrow. We are a good team, but we’re not that good.

We’re called Duke, and we’re coached by me, but we need to realize who we are in our attention to detail at little things. We have to get better. We have no margin.”

“I think collectively, as a team, we’ve been surprised,” Allen agreed. “Our coaches have been telling us and telling us that we’re going to be in tough games every night. We’re shorthanded, and we are going to have to fight. Nothing is going to be easy. We cannot just come out expecting, ‘Ok, we lost a tough one, but the next one is going to be easy.’ That’s not how it works in the ACC. We need

everyone, every single person to be ready.”

The lessons weren’t over. Duke lost its next game to Syracuse on a controversial no-call at the end.

Three-straight losses by a total of 11 points. There was speculation Duke could be headed for bubble talk in March, but Krzyzewski was encouraged by what he saw.

“We are playing our hearts out, and that has not been rewarded,” Krzyzewski said at the time.

“They are doing something with all of their heart. The game is tremendous. It can be incredibly great to you, and it can be incredibly cruel. Right now it is a cruel time, it’s a tough one. It’s different if it is attitude or whatever, but they are busting their butts.”

Looking back, Plumlee said the three-game stretch helped forge the toughness Duke exhibits now.

“I think you grow as a team over the course of a season, and I don’t think you really take a step forward in terms of toughness until you go through some tough battles together,” Plumlee said.

“When you go into a crucible like that, you come out a lot more together.”

Turning point Duke sandwiched two tough wins over NC State around a loss at Miami, but the first time the team was truly rewarded for its hard work came against Louisville, with Duke holding off Rick Pitino’s squad in a physical and grueling game.

“Somehow, our group just showed incredible toughness while they were tired and won,” Krzyzewski said. “No X’s and O’s.

A couple weeks ago, there’s no way. I think we lose that game by 15 points, because we wouldn’t be

“They’re going to play hard.

They’re going to fight for the time that they’re in. They’re going to do whatever they can to help us win.”

Luke Kennard, Duke guard

able to get there. They keep growing up, and they keep playing hard. They earned it. Marshall got hurt and played, Matt [Jones] got hurt, Grayson was all over the floor a bunch of times.”

The hard truth was ingrained— the only way the undermanned Blue Devils would win over top teams in the league would be fighting until nothing was left.

“Whoever comes into the game is going to give us tough minutes,” Kennard said. “They’re going to play hard. They’re going to fight for the time that they’re in. They’re going to do whatever they can to help us win.”

The game started Duke’s week for the ages, as the Blue Devils demonstrated an other-worldly toughness.

“My immediate reaction was I know how tough they are so in my head, I’m going ‘He’s not hurt.

He’s going to get up. He’s going to be great, no matter how bad he looks,” Plumlee said of the injuries to Jones and Thornton. “It would take something very serious to knock one of our players down for the count.”

“Whenever I have bumps and bruises, Matt will catch me rubbing my knee or my ankle,” Plumlee continued. “He’ll look at me and say, ‘Marshall suck it up.

Suck it up right now. It’s kind of a collective toughness that we’ve built.”

In an era of advanced metrics and complex offensive and defensive innovations, the Blue Devils’ recipe for success is something so simple you might see it on a motivational poster.

“There are certain portions of the game where I don’t care how you draw up your offense or defense,” Krzyzewski said after the Virginia win.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B5

NBA TRADE DEADLINE

Hornets land Lee, wrap up quality but quiet trade deadline

By Brian Geisinger North State Journal

T

HE 2016 NBA trade deadline lacked the excitement, enthusiasm and general activity of last year’s market, but give the Charlotte Hornets credit for actively participating this season. Charlotte swung a deal for Courtney Lee and spent time lingering in the rumor market (read: potentially/maybe/possibly discussed trading) for Houston center Dwight Howard.

The All-Star Game and trade deadline are theoretically a midseason split, but the reality is the NBA’s home stretch awaits. As the season enters its back nine, here is a look at the five biggest things to know about the Hornets following the trade deadline.

1. Who they got/ who they gave Two days before the deadline, the Hornets were involved in a three-team deal along with the Memphis Grizzlies and Miami Heat, sending a native son packing and acquiring a veteran shooting guard.

Charlotte sent point guard Brian Roberts to Miami and jettisoned P.J. Hairston to Memphis along with a pair of second-round draft picks in 2018 and 2019, respectively. (Of note: Charlotte already declined the third-year option on Hairston’s rookie contract, so it’s not as if they necessarily considered him a tremendous asset moving forward.)

In return the Hornets picked up 30-year-old shooting guard Courtney Lee, not coincidentally on the same day forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was declared done for the season following surgery on his shoulder.

Kidd-Gilchrist has become one of the premier defensive players in the NBA, and his absence will once again be felt: after missing the first 46 games of the season (22-24), Charlotte went 5-2 with the fourth-year pro in the lineup. In his seven games back, MKG averaged 12.7 points per game (third-highest on the team), 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He’ll be missed.

Lee, who started his career in 2008 with the Magic when Hornets coach Steve Clifford was an assistant with Orlando, provides a very important skill: threepoint shooting. The Hornets have put a greater emphasis on launching from deep this year, and they currently rank third in the league in attempts from beyond the arc.

Through the first 55 games of the season, Charlotte has launched 1,616 threes, which is already more than they attempted all of last season (1,566). Lee — a career 38 percent three-point shooter — will play out the final few months of his current contract with Charlotte before hitting unrestricted free agenc .

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

Courtney Lee drives to the hoop for his new team.

IN

Courtney Lee

OUT

Brian Roberts P.J. Hairston

HURT

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

HEARD Dwight Howard

WILLIAMS from Page B1

“I don’t ever want to leave when things [are uncertain],” Williams said. “When I leave, I want it to be in good shape. For me, this would have been a hard time to leave.”

pointing to the NCAA’s continuing investigation of the program as a reason he would stay. “I don’t ever want to leave when things [are uncertain],” Williams said. “When I leave, I want it to be in good shape. For me, this would have been a hard time to leave.”

In CBS’s defense, Seth Davis, who was also on the pregame show, countered Gottlieb’s rumor by making the same point.

The nationally televised rumors came at the end of a long week for Williams. His coaching at the end of the Duke game drew heavy criticism— from the Carolina offense moving away from Brice Johnson down the stretch to the lack of a timeout call to set up the final play of the game.

Williams was quick to take the blame for the coaching decisions, going as far as admitting he apologized to the team for not calling a timeout.

It’s possible, however, that Williams was once again borrowing from the playbook of his mentor, Dean Smith, with his postgame comments. Smith frequently took the blame after losses, shielding his players from criticism.

Williams, who said that the decision not to take a timeout was something he learned from Smith, may have been playing a little bit of “they win games.

I lose them,” not unlike his mentor.

Consider what happened in the

Memphis is one of the most offensively challenged teams in the NBA, but they were better with Lee on the floor — an important note. Adjusting for pace, with Lee in the game, Memphis scored 103 points per 100 possessions; with Lee on the bench, however, Memphis scored 100.8 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. Lee is a ball-mover and a shooter, and he should pair nicely with Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum.

It’s a pleasant marriage of a need for a team, potential touches for a player and someone looking to get hot before hitting the open market.

This move also means Jeremy Lin and Jeremy Lamb can continue to come off the bench as a dangerous combination of scoring guards.

Howard is in year three of his max contract with Houston; he’s being paid $22.4 million this season, and he’s scheduled to make better than $23 million next year.

His name value and abilities require a certain amount in return despite the hefty price tag.

However, Howard’s contract is a touch tricky — he has a player option on the fourth and final year of the deal. It is anticipated that Howard will opt out of the deal and search for another max contract during the cap explosion this offseason (more on that in a moment).

Charlotte wisely held its future assets instead of shipping out first-round draft picks and quality young players in what would, in all likelihood, end up being a two-month rental of Howard.

2. Rumors du jour

The Hornets also added another player to their rotation last week without swinging a deal: big man Al Jefferson returned to action for the first time since he underwent surgery on his right knee at the end of December.

Jefferson, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season, has played in only 21 games so far, but in those contests Charlotte has gone 147. Clearly not the same player as two seasons ago — when he was selected third-team All-NBA — Jefferson is now playing just 25 minutes per game and rebounding at a career-low rate.

Contemporary NBA offenses are centered around high ball screens and spread pick and roll

Houston’s Dwight Howard was perhaps the biggest name bandied about as a potential trade chip at the deadline. Howard is still a force when he’s locked in, but at 30 years of age, injuries and an atrophying physical presence have reduced his value. He remains a gifted rebounder — ranking sixth in the league in total rebound percentage — but Howard is nowhere near the defensive force he was during his prime.

The Hornets were one of myriad teams mentioned in the perennial — and mostly filled with piping-hot air — Dwight Howard trade winds. In the end, as usual, nothing came to fruition.

waning moments of the Duke game, and the moves he’s made in the two wins since that heartbreak.

With 2:54 remaining and the Tar Heels clinging to a two-point lead, point guard Joel Berry II dribbled at the top of the key, with the shot clock counting down the final seconds before a violation. Berry jerked his head around — ­ unsure of what to do — before launching up an airball from just inside the 3-point line.

With nine seconds remaining, Berry dribbled over to the bench, expecting a timeout. Williams waved his arm, exhorting Berry to “go.” Again, the sophomore point looked uncertain driving to the free throw line. His off-balance shot was partially blocked, and the game ended.

Three days later in the game against Miami, senior Marcus Paige ran the point, the first time he’s had extensive time at the position all season. It’s a move Williams said he’d planned all season, but the time was never right.

“Things didn’t go according to plan,” Williams said. “He got hurt, and when he came back we were doing so well. We didn’t do it as much as we wanted. Is it going to be a priority?

Yes. Is it going to be my main priority?

No.” While Berry has done an admirable job running the point all season and has developed into the team’s sec-

3. Big Al is back

ond-most reliable scorer, behind Brice Johnson, the two shaky moments at the end of the Duke game showed that the Tar Heels need an experienced hand guiding the ship when times get tough.

Williams made sure to defend Berry publicly, saying the promising sophomore would still get the majority of time running the offense.

However, look for Paige to be Williams’ man when it gets down to winning time. “You don’t have to be the point guard to be the guy that the coach wants to handle the ball,” Williams said.

Williams pointed out that, even though Berry was the point guard at the end of the Duke game, Paige got the ball on two of the final three possessions. Which leads to the other coaching move Williams made, one lost in the post-Duke shuffle.

On consecutive possessions in the final 80 seconds against Duke, Paige played a two-man game with Brice Johnson — the player Williams supposedly couldn’t keep involved in the offense. Both times, the move resulted in a mismatch, with Paige guarded by seven-footer Marshall Plumlee.

Paige immediately drove into the lane and dished the ball in the direction of Kennedy Meeks. Once, Duke was able to break up the play and come away with a steal. The other time, Meeks got the ball by the bas-

action. The league has become far more reliant on playing fast and shooting the ball earlier in the shot clock. The Hornets’ possessions per game average of 95.5 is below average (16th overall) in the league. But it’s also up from the first two seasons under Clifford when the team ranked in the bottom third of the league.

Jefferson’s game isn’t dissimilar from Howard’s (albeit with less points, rebounds and blocks) and the same theory holds true for him as it does the Rockets’ big man. Traditional back-to-thebasket bulldozers have become marginalized to some extent in the modern day NBA. The concerns with Big Al’s fit are obvious, but he’s still averaging better than 12 points per game. The days of Jefferson being an offensive hub who commands a double team every night are over, but he can contribute in a role where he comes off the bench and props up the second unit offense, like he did Sunday with 24 points against Brooklyn.

4. Mo’ money, fewer trades In October 2014, the NBA announced a new television deal with ESPN and Turner Sports, beginning with the 2016-17 season.

The numbers are staggering: the new deal will last nine years and is valued at $24 billion. (Yes, that is a “b.”) These two networks will combine to line the league’s coffers with nearly $2.7 billion in See HORNETS, Page B8

ket but his layup was stuffed by Duke shooting guard Luke Kennard.

The play has become something of a pattern for Meeks. He’s been less aggressive around the basket since returning from a knee injury that kept him out for eight games.

Meeks’ two free throws Wednesday at NC State were his first in five games—115 minutes of playing time.

The 6-10 Meeks also hasn’t dunked since the first game against NC State, a span of 10 games and 207 minutes of playing time.

Williams benched Meeks to start the Miami game, with Isaiah Hicks replacing him in the lineup. He got his starting spot back against NC State but had a short leash. Williams pulled him after 75 seconds for he failing to box out.

“We need Kennedy,” Williams said, again downplaying a move to protect his player. “Just like, when Kennedy was starting, we needed Isaiah.”

It doesn’t fit the “Roy lost the game” narrative, but Williams got two mismatches on the final three possessions of the Duke game. He also made significant lineup and role changes to address the problems exposed in the loss.

The results are clear: a 25-point win over Miami followed by a 12-point road win at NC State.

It’s the type of thing that happens when you go to the chili, instead of planning for retirement.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B6 STATE STRUGGLES

NHL TRADE DEADLINE

Even Cat’s strong year can’t salvage season for Wolfpack

Final links to ’06 Cup could move

By R. Cory Smith North State Journal

O

UTSTANDING players for NC State don’t come around often. Since the turn of the century, the Wolfpack has just two ACC Player of the Year winners — Julius Hodge and T.J. Warren — and nary an ACC Championship to its name.

Both those players concluded impressive tenures at NC State with late runs in the NCAA tournament. For Cat Barber, his season to shine unfortunately is taking place during a year where the supporting cast simply isn’t there.

That doesn’t mean Barber isn’t doing everything imaginable to put the Pack on his back and try to win some games. In fact, Barber’s season is in rarified air when it comes to ACC production. Only one other player in ACC history, Georgia Tech’s Kenny Anderson, averaged 23 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in a season.

Barber’s been electric for most of the year, but even the Energizer Bunny needs rest. Fortunately Mark Gottfried has a line on how to light his fire.

Against Wake Forest earlier this season, Gottfried plugged his point guard back in after a sluggish first half. At the break, Gottfried simply said, “Get going.”

Barber responded with 30 points — in the second half alone — to finish with a career-high 38.

He’s made a habit of 30-point games this season, registering eight already. The last player to post those numbers was Warren, who finished with nine on the entire season. The last player to score 30 points in three straight games? David Thompson.

When your name is tied with the Skywalker, you’re doing something right in Raleigh.

Despite his best efforts, this Wolfpack team is still falling well short of initial expectations.

Whether it’s losing Terry Hen-

derson to start the season or depth issues after Trevor Lacey and Kyle Washington departed, or Lennard Freeman suffering a stress fracture or struggles in late games, this Wolfpack team feels snakebit.

Barber is simply the only consistent threat in nearly every game.

On Wednesday night against rival North Carolina, Barber finished with 32 points, six rebounds and three assists. It looked like a typical showing for the Wolfpack’s leader considering the season he’s put together — but it wasn’t.

Barber was coming off arguably his worst game of the season after Clemson held the junior point guard in check with eight points and five assists.

The only other team to hold Barber to less than 10 points this year? UNC in the first matchup.

Even in a lost season for the Pack, Gottfried has gotten the most out of his roster. Outside of one matchup against Georgia Tech — ­ a game where he called out his team — NC State has shown energy and competed all season.

Unfortunately energy is only going to take Barber, one blossoming big man, a 19-year-old streaky outside shooter, and a handful of other ancillary pieces so far. In one of the deepest conferences in the country, it’s difficult to compete without multiple players capable of carrying the team.

There are certainly players to build around for the future, but this isn’t a fully developed cast by any stretch. It just happens that comes during a season that will likely be Barber’s last. Heading into the ACC tournament, NC State needs a Kemba Walker-like effort from Barber for a Hail Mary shot at the NCAA Tournament. And even that might not be enough.

By Cory Lavalette North State Journal

T

WO weeks ago, the Carolina Hurricanes spent a weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary of the franchise’s greatest moment, winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Now, with the Feb. 29 NHL trade deadline looming, general manager Ron Francis — who retired as a player just prior to that Cup-winning campaign — is charged with setting the team’s course for the immediate future and beyond.

That starts with the only two remaining players from the championship team a decade ago: captain Eric Staal and goaltender Cam Ward. Both are on expiring contracts but also hold no-trade clauses that give them ultimate say in whether they will be dealt.

The prospects of a Ward trade are slim: while he performed better this season, his contract ($6.3 million cap hit, $6.8 million in actual cash) will likely scare away teams interested in acquiring him as a postseason insurance policy.

While Staal’s salary cap hit is even steeper ($8.25 million), it’s likely several Cup contenders will — or already have — contacted Francis to find out the asking price for the 6-4, 205-pound center.

Since taking over prior to the 2014-15 season, Francis has preached he would rebuild the Hurricanes “the right way” — establishing depth throughout the organization by stockpiling draft picks and younger players.

Last year’s trade that sent veteran defenseman Andrej Sekera to Los Angeles in exchange for defensive prospect Roland McKeown (a second-round pick in 2014) and a conditional first-round pick (Carolina holds the Kings’ pick this June) was the initial sign Francis would make good on his promise.

The youth movement is already in full swing, with three first-year pros (last summer’s fifth-overall pick, Noah Hanifin, along with straight-from-college rookies Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin) making up half of Carolina’s defense corps. Toss in more playing time for some of the Hurricanes’ greener forwards, and Francis is already icing one of the NHL’s youngest teams.

But something happened along the way to expediting the rebuild: the Hurri-

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

Long-time Hurricanes star Eric Staal could be on the move at the trade deadline.

“My focus and everything is with this group and this team and winning games and enjoying coming to the rink with this group.”

Eric Staal on rumors of being traded

canes started winning. In December and January, Carolina went 15-8-4 to vault into the cluttered Eastern Conference playoff race and have remained in the mix with the deadline approaching. Both Staal and Ward contributed, but neither has regained the form that made them so good a decade ago en route to the Stanley Cup. Francis seems committed to building for the long haul, even if that means dealing his captain and potentially hindering any chance the Hurricanes have of reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

But it’s hard to get a read on the second-year general manager — he has already earned the nickname “Fort Knox Francis” for the lack of leaks surrounding the organization — and what he plans to do.

When asked by TSN 1200 Ottawa ahead of Carolina’s Feb. 18 loss against the Senators if he could give any update on his discussions with Staal, Francis said that he was keeping conversations with his captain in-house.

“I think I would stick to my standard answers,” Francis said. “We’ve had disSee STAAL, Page B8

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B7

REDSKINS OFFSEASON

Should the Redskins pay Kirk Cousins franchise quarterback money?

By Sean Labar North State Journal

A

MAJOR, franchise-altering decision looms for the Washington Redskins. No secret who it involves: Kirk Cousins, a surprising franchise-quarterback candidate. Cousins is coming off a season where he led the NFL in completion percentage and miraculously took the Redskins to the playoffs for just the fifth time since 1999.

Everything about Washington’s offseason revolves around Cousins’ future.

Jay Gruden, Sean McVay and the Washington coaching staff took a leap of faith at the end of the 2015 training camp. During last season’s combine, Gruden named Robert Griffin III the starter. It was understood higher powers (read: owner Daniel Snyder) were glued to the idea RG3 would recapture the magic of his stellar 2012 season. Griffin won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year out of the gate, took the ’Skins to the playoffs and looked poised to become the face of the franchise for years to come.

Gruden and Co. felt differently and decided to take a gamble.

Like an unproven player in a high stakes poker game, Gruden put his chips in the middle on a straight draw, announcing Cousins as the starter for 2015.

Some fans scoffed. Others rejoiced. Half the major media outlets thought this was brilliant.

The other half ridiculed it — Griffin was, and always will be, the guy.

Just about everyone agreed Cousins wouldn’t last a full season. This was the Washington Redskins, a franchise riddled with instability and turnover.

The recent historical depth chart is littered with guys like Cousins, from Gus Frerotte to Jason Campbell.

No one — history included — could have predicted 2015’s outcome. Cousins hit some speed bumps, particularly early on.

An ugly, prime-time road loss to the Giants stands out. Cousins also threw eight interceptions in Washington’s first six games.

But he led the ’Skins to a 9-7 record and was clearly the best option at quarterback for Washington in a very long time.

Just how long?

Heading into the 2015 campaign, the Redskins had started 16 quarterbacks in as many seasons. There was hope for guys like Campbell (20-32) and Rex Grossman (6-10). There were

big-name splashes like Donovan McNabb (5-8) and Griffin (14-19).

And then there were guys that just made Skins’ fan base shake its collective head. Patrick Ramsey (10-14), Shane Matthews (34), Jeff George (1-7), John Beck (0-3) and Tony Banks (8-6) are not confidence-inspiring names.

Brad Johnson is probably the one exception. And he went 17-10 in Washington, and was benched in 2000 for George.

What makes Cousins stand out from the rest of these also-rans?

After just one full season, is there a big enough sample size to say that the former Michigan State product is the best option since 1999?

The numbers don’t lie. Cousins finished sixth in the NFL in total QBR. He finished the year with 29 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and 4,166 yards. He was top-10 for NFL quarterbacks in passes completed (7th), yards per passing attempt (7th), and overall passer rating (5th). Cousins was also top-10 among NFL quarterbacks in game-winning drives (8th) and comebacks (10th), according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.

He was named NFC Offensive Player Of The Week twice last season. Cousins’ 117.0 passer rating in home games was better than any Redskins QB since at least 1950. He had six regular season games with more than 300 yards, topping Sonny Jurgensen (1967), Jay Schroeder (1986), and Mark Rypien (1989), who all held the previous record of five.

It is obvious Cousins has a long way to go. Naysayers argue he didn’t beat a team with a winning record. But the “scoreboard” argument leans in Cousins’ favor.

It is imperative Cousins continues to display growth and maturation, but last season was clearly a step in the right direction.

There is no commodity more valuable than a starting-caliber quarterback in the NFL. A dominant pass rusher is great, a shutdown corner is huge, a blind-side protector is fantastic, but a capable signal caller remains at the forefront.

An in-depth look at NFL rosters will quickly show that average quarterbacks are a dime a dozen. No offense to Brian Hoyer and Blaine Gabbert, but mediocre, below-average play at the position is far too commonplace.

This leads to the next major factor in keeping Cousins on board in Washington. His camp understands they have the upper hand, and are negotiating accordingly. There haven’t been

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

Jay Gruden discusses Kirk Cousins’ future with the Redskins at the 2016 NFL Combine.

“Good quarterbacks only come every once in a blue moon.

If you don’t have a good one, you’re dead in the water.” ­Joel Corry, former professional sports agent

abundant suitors rumored to be aggressively pursuing Cousins ahead of free agency. But there is no doubt he will be the best freeagent quarterback prospect available if he hits the open market.

Former professional sports agent Joel Corry, now at CBS ports, believes the Redskins’ front office has its hands tied and will ultimately apply the franchise tag to Cousins.

“They don’t have another option,” Corry told the North State Journal. “Good quarterbacks only come every once in a blue moon. If you don’t have one, you’re dead in the water.”

The franchise tag would keep Cousins in Washington for the 2016 season on a one-year contract guaranteeing him somewhere around $19.75 million for the year. Corry believes this would give the Redskins some flexibility in deciding whether or not Cousins is the long-term option.

“It would buy them another year to see if he is a consistent winner,” Corry said. “If he produces, it’s better for them. RG3 can’t be fully guaranteed and will be released. Colt McCoy is a backup. They may not have a choice.”

Washington using the tag on Cousins would set up an interesting scenario: the Redskins would have until July 15 to negotiate a long-term deal with Cousins and then be prohibited from doing so (by Collective Bargaining Agreement rules) until next offseason if no deal was reached.

Redskins’ GM Scot McCloughan admitted the deal was a possibility but hopes for a longterm deal with Cousins.

“You’d rather get a long-term deal done, but we have a lot of options we’re dealing with right now and that’s one of them,” McCloughan told Redskins.com recently.

If Cousins were to get the tag and produce on a one-year deal, Corry thinks he would be primed for a long-term contract earning more than $22 million per year after 2016. For context, Aaron Rodgers, the highest paid quarterback in the NFL, makes $22 million a year.

There is also a possibility Redskins owner Daniel Snyder meddles in the decision-making, and Cousins hits the open market.

Corry isn’t fully convinced the man drafted to be Griffin’s backup would hold any allegiance to Washington.

“I had situations where players were invested, and they could get sensitive,” Corry said. “The team dragged its feet and guys got other offers.”

In the end, a few things are abundantly clear.

One, Cousins is a good fit in Gruden’s system. No one produces those statistics in a bad system.

Continuity is beneficial for both sides.

Two, Cousins did enough to earn a nice chunk of money in the near future. The only questions are who pays him and how much will they dish out.

Three, if Snyder truly gave McCloughan ultimate authority on football decisions, it isn’t likely Cousins will ever hit the market.

Washington doesn’t have another option and quarterbacks are the ultimate currency in the NFL.

Comparing 10 prospects to NFL players DE Joey Bosa, left, has the game and the style to compare with the recently retired Jared Allen, right.

E

VERYONE wants to see the “next so and so” when talking about predraft prospects. The Sports Xchange breaks down 10 prospects and their best NFL comps.

1. DE Joey Bosa, Ohio State: Jared Allen (retired).

The former Chiefs, Vikings, Bears and Panthers pass rusher was relentless, played with a chip on his shoulder and retired this month ninth on the all-time sacks list. Bosa is a good athlete who consistently wins at the line of scrimmage.

2. OT Laremy Tunsil, Ole Miss: Trent Williams, Redskins.

An impressive athlete who looked more like a power forward here Thursday, Tunsil’s easy flexibility and agility add up to a 10-year career at left tackle.

3. FS Jalen Ramsey, Florida State: Tyrann Mathieu, Cardinals.

Is he a safety? Cornerback? Yes. Much like Mathieu, Ramsey has the versatility and range to start and star at either spot. FSU used him in both roles.

4. QB Jared Goff, Cal: Matt Ryan, Falcons.

Worries about Ryan’s durability and lack of size were not entirely unfounded. Goff does not have the pure pro-style background but appears

USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES | REUTERS

naturally suited to be the face of a franchise given a strong enough supporting cast.

5. LB Myles Jack, UCLA: NaVorro Bowman, 49ers.

Pre-injury, Jack could make a claim to being the best athlete in the draft.

Not as physical or rugged as Bowman (dinged coming out of Penn State with a 4.7 40 and character questions), but Jack flies around the field and does have the big-play flair to be an instant star.

6. WR Laquon Treadwell, Ole Miss: Michael Crabtree, Raiders.

Crabtree came out of Texas Tech with questions about his injury history (foot surgery), and Treadwell had a leg injury in 2014 many believed would be career-ending. Big, physical

receivers who attack the ball without blinding speed or a second gear.

7. OT Ronnie Stanley, Notre Dame: D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Jets.

Ferguson (6-6, 312) had almost the exact same body type and massive wingspan in 2006 and is the only player in that draft to play in every game of his NFL career. Stanley needs technique work, but could be a stable pillar in the pros.

8. DE DeForest Buckner, Oregon: Calais Campbell, Cardinals.

He’s 6-7, 290, a hair shy of Campbell when he entered the NFL in 2008 at 6-8, 290. Naturally, questions about leverage will be persistent until Buckner shows he can unglue from blockers with a massive wingspan and fluid movements.

9. DT A’Shawn Robinson, Alabama: Michael Brockers, Rams.

Robinson’s mother carried his birth certificate to junior football games because Robinson dwarfed his peers.

He’s still standing out because of his versatility and can be a three-down NFL defender in any scheme.

10. QB Carson Wentz, North Dakota State: Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers.

The 11th overall pick in the 2004 draft, Roethlisberger and Wentz took very similar paths to the NFL from lower-level programs after being passed over on the recruiting trail.

Wentz is lighter at 6-5, 237, but mobility inside and out of the pocket and solid arm strength and velocity keep him in the top-10 conversation.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

B8 HORNETS from Page B5 annual broadcast fees — a massive increase over the current deal, which nets the NBA “only” $930 million per year.

The influx of new TV money is about to treat the league’s salary cap like a little brother on the trampoline, double-bouncing the cap number into orbit beginning this coming offseason.

The salary cap is currently set at $70 million for the 2015-16 season. There is no concrete proof of where the cap number for next season will land, but current projections estimate it coming in between $89-92 million. This is a colossal jump — around $20 million per team — and the effects cannot be overstated.

Almost every franchise will magically own the type of cap space needed to sign a max contract player. This is uncharted

NORMAN from Page B1 • The non-exclusive tag means other teams can sign a player to an offer sheet, but must forfeit a pair of first-round picks if the player’s team doesn’t match.

Teams in today’s NFL are highly unlikely to give up a pair of draft picks (cheap, young labor) to sign a single, veteran player to a big contract.

Saints tight end Jimmy Graham was given the non-exclusive tag before the 2014 season and never got a whiff of an offer, even though he was dealt after a new contract a year later.

• Lastly, the transitional tag is a non-exclusive tag that includes an offer sheet but doesn’t include draft picks.

Twice in the last two years the transition tag has come into play, with both Alex Mack of the Browns and Charles Clay of the Dolphins receiving offer sheets.

The Browns matched the Jaguars’ offer sheet, while the Dolphins let Clay leave for Buffalo.

The cost of the contract drops with each designation, making it

territory for the league, especially as it relates to the recently passed trade deadline.

Expiring contracts —usually highly valuable commodities in greasing the wheels of trades — saw their value sink ahead of 2015’s deadline because everyone will already be getting a bump in cap space thanks to the television deals. Teams typically want to unload players (particularly those with onerous contracts) for additional room under the cap.

This year the value of these expiring contracts as a trade asset declined during the season.

The good news is June and July could be even more intense for free-agency rumors run amok.

5. Playoff Push The Hornets entered the season dead set on making the playoffs. The Eastern Conference has

a complicated and potentially expensive game of chicken.

Not shy about the tag Will general manager Dave Gettleman use the tag? You bet he would.

“We’ve got to look at [the tag].

I’ve used it before. I’m not shy, I’m not afraid of it, and we’re going to do what we think after we evaluate everything,” Gettleman said following the Super Bowl. “We’re going to do what we think is in the best interest of the Carolina Panthers. We’ve used the tag before, so it’s possible to use it again.”

Gettleman previously used the tag on controversial pass rusher Greg Hardy, who quickly signed his tender and almost just as quickly found himself afoul of the law. The dynamic there is interesting: Carolina lost $13 million guaranteed with Hardy spending the season on the Commissioner’s Exempt List but did not suffer the long-term repercussions of giving Hardy a large contract.

proven to be surprisingly competitive, but Charlotte has positioned themselves squarely in the race.

After some midseason doldrums, Charlotte has won five straight, and seven of their last eight games. At 29-27 (prior to Friday night’s game against the Pacers) the Hornets would have the eighth seed and a first round matchup with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on the docket if the playoffs started today.

Charlotte has two more games left on their road trip — both against likely playoff teams in the Pacers and Hawks.

Once the calendar flips to March, the Hornets will return home to play 10 of their next 13 games at Time Warner Cable Arena. Survive the road, thrive in the Hive and the Hornets can absolutely make a run to the postseason.

Long-term deal potential Regardless of whether or not he’s tagged, the Panthers are still afforded two windows to sign Norman to a long-term deal.

Leading up to the tag deadline of March 1, the two sides can negotiate on a long-term offer.

If no progress is made on a deal and the Panthers place the tag on Norman, Carolina gets a few months to hammer out a contract, with July 15 serving as the deadline for signing franchise-tagged players to long-term deals. After the July deadline passes, no negotiations can take place until next offseason. Last year four of five franchise-tagged players signed long-term deals with their respective teams. Only Jason Pierre-Paul — he of the hand-mangling Fourth of July fireworks accident — did not strike a long-term deal with his team.

Thanks to the franchise tag, the Panthers get a shot to build the roster through free agency and the draft in April, then evaluate their position with respect

STAAL from Page B6

Survive the road, thrive in the Hive and the Hornets can absolutely make a run to the postseason.

cussions. No decisions have been made yet. We’ll continue to talk and move forward in that regard.

We’ve really kept it between us and we’ll continue to do that.”

Staal made a media misstep the same day, telling the Ottawa press horde he was “not going to be crushed if a decision is made and I’m moving on for a different opportunity.” It was the kind of soundbite that cranks the trade machine volume to 11, and Staal walked back on the comment following the Feb. 19 home win over San Jose.

“In hindsight I shouldn’t have answered some of the questions hypothetically like they twisted me to do so, but that happens,” Staal later said.

“My focus and everything is with this group and this team and winning games and enjoying coming to the rink with this group.”

Ultimately, the decision will fall to Staal, who can veto any deal thanks to the no-trade clause — and $57.75 million — given to him by former GM Jim Rutherford.

The same is true for Ward: even if Francis finds a taker for the long-time starting goalie, Ward would hold final approval.

to the cap and depth chart ahead of potential negotiations. If the team feels the pressure to seal the deal with Norman at that point before heading to camp, July 15 is the latest it can do so.

What will the Panthers do?

Expect the Panthers to slap that franchise tag on Norman right before the deadline to continue working on a deal. More than likely it will be an exclusive or non-exclusive tag. After Norman finished the year with four interceptions — two returned for touchdowns — and three forced fumbles to earn a Pro Bowl and All-Pro nod, the Panthers are forced to pay him.

But will they give him the exclusive tag? Of the four players the Panthers have tagged in the past, only one — Greg Hardy in 2014 — was exclusive. Norman is a great player, but the notion that a team would pay him and give up two first-round picks is a stretch.

What’s the franchise-tag price for a cornerback in 2016? The exact number won’t be determined

until the 2016 salary cap is set, but cap expert Joel Corry of CBS Sports reports the cornerback franchise tag cost will be somewhere in the range of $13.8 million. Pricey but not prohibitive if the salary cap goes as high as $155 million.

The Panthers will almost certainly sign Norman to a longterm deal too, right? Not so fast.

Leading up to the 2015 season, Gettleman told BlackAndBlueReview.com the notion of a “shutdown corner is a misnomer.”

Norman proved he’s worthy of the shutdown corner title, but the pass rush was equally as important to the run to an NFC Championship.

So will the Panthers spend big on Norman for the future?

“I don’t believe in drafting [and] developing players for other teams,” Gettleman said at the 2016 NFL Combine. “For some reason it doesn’t make sense. So yes, we’re going to have the conversation and do the best we can.

We’re going to try to get a deal done. And if not, there are options and maybe the tag gets used.”

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NS J SUNDAY

“The Natural Sciences Museum has been the most valuable resource for me, it has fostered my interest in birds and nature, my volunteer work has shown me I can turn my passion into a career.”

2.28.16

EWARD LANDI | VOLUNTEER A behind the scenes lens into the world and work of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Continued on page 4

the good life PHOTO BY EAMON QUEENEY/THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

IN A NORTH STATE OF MIND

in the frame

Windsor’s own Fen Rascoe

Between the rolling water and the open fields – Northeastern North Carolina provides an unrivaled landscape in which talented artists produce remarkable work

By Dan Reeves For the North State Journal

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HE Albemarle Sound, the architecture among the isolation, swamps and barns, boats and farmhouses, may not grab the attention of some people. But to artists, the region is a tapestry of endless inspiration. Northeastern North Carolina, home of The Albemarle School of Artists, has produced first-class creators who claim a strong heritage harkening back to the famous Francis Speight — and today, guidance and inspiration from mentor, 83-year-old Dr. Fred Saunders.

By proxy, or some confluence of artist’s osmosis, painters in this band of brothers and sisters of the Bertie County wing of The Albemarle School feel fortunate they can rely on the support and friendship they found in one another. Together, they set up on the beach, on the banks of the Chowan River, or in a field.

Whether the sun shines or not, they paint — ven plein air, peinture sur le motif — in the open air, what the eye actually sees.

Like Francis Speight, Fen Rascoe sees painting as a privilege. He speaks passionate-

See RASCOE, Page C6

EAMON QUEENEY/NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Inside

COLORING — it’s not just

for kids anymore. On page 7, you will find an intricate coloring piece of our great state designed by illustrator and North Carolina resident, Amy Richards. Enjoy!

Painter Fen Rascoe poses for a photograph with his 8-year-old Jack Russell and Mountain Feist mix, Gus, and a recently completed plein air painting of a farm near Mount Gould off the banks of the Chowan River. Rascoe, who calls Windsor in Bertie County home, has been painting steady for six years in which he refers to jokingly as his mid-life crisis. His work is mostly contemporary impressionism with a focus on plein air painting. Gus whom he calls his “de facto assistant,” accompanies the artist on all his paintings in the countryside.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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reach for the Charlotte Adventure Map You might think you know your way around the Queen City but EDIA maps has created a guide to take you to Charlotte’s undiscovered treasures.

By Kimberly Johnson North State Journal

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OR those wondering where to find a giant spinning metal head statue or a MoonPie burger while in Charlotte (and really, who isn’t?) a new adventure map for the Queen City has you covered.

The Charlotte Adventure Map, created by the same mapmakers who designed the N.C. BBQ Map and the N.C. Beer Map, provides a cheat sheet of 140 interesting, off-the-wall and tasty places to visit in the Charlotte metro area. The hand-lettered watercolor map also breaks up the points of interests into 26 suggested itineraries and a dozen day trips located less than two hours outside of the city.

It is a map that is as beautiful as it is unique.

“This isn’t really something that people are doing,” said Amanda Fisher, creative director and co-founder of Charlotte-based Every Day Is An Adventure (EDIA) map makers. The map, which took about a year to research and design, was a labor of love for Fisher and her partner, cartographer Paul Bright, who are both avid travelers and map collectors.

“People love the nostalgia I think that’s associated with physical road maps, the fact that it’s a cool object you can hold in your hands,” Fisher said.

Travel north of the city to Davis General Store, 8940 Old Statesville Rd., Charlotte, a homesteading mercantile that has served Mecklenburg County for more than a century. The store was built of bricks made from the clay ground that surrounded it and is run by the grandson of one of the original co-founders.

Motor over to Victory Lane Karting, 2330 Tipton Drive for a few hot laps and a MoonPie

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EAMON QUEENEY/NORTH STATE JOURNAL

burger, or visit the oldest Dairy Queen, 2620 Wilkinson Blvd. in the state. Clean out cerebral carbon by meditating at the Avondale Labyrinth 2821 Park Rd., or join a conversation in a foreign language at the International House, 817 Central Avenue. Reevaluate your impressions of industrial parks by visiting the giant Metalmorphosis head sculpture in South Charlotte, Arco Corporate Drive and Whitehall Park Drive.

Founders of EDIA Maps, Paul Bright, left, and Amanda Fisher, right, pose for a photograph with a copy of the brand new Charlotte Adventure Map at Main Street Books in Davidson.

5 WITH 5 OF NORTH CAROLINA’S FINEST

KATIE BAILEY/FOR THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Singer-songwriter Jeanne Jolly rides the train at Pullen Park in Raleigh. Jolly, a North Carolina native, said her music and work is more honest now. "In L.A., I said yes to every show," she said, adding she felt pulled in every direction. Now back home, Jolly said she feels she's able to focus on her style and her own unique music.

NORTH CAROLINA is full of fine folks doing worthy work. In this series, we kick back for conversation with homegrown doers, makers, shakers, and artisans.

If you don’t know Jeanne Jolly, listen up. You can hear the sense of place on Jolly’s sophomore outing, “A Place To Run,” both in her lyrics and robust firstrate rhythms.

Every region has a little N.C. in it.

People are always receptive here in N.C. — from Elizabeth City down to Wilmington and over to Blowing Rock — people come to the shows and then they c ome back again and bring two friends with them, it’s touching.

Take us through your musical timeline.

Is there a particular song or lyric that never fails to move you?

My musical history started before I could talk. My parents tell me I would sing dddddahhhh into my rattle in the car to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Singing into a rattle progressed to a hairbrush and then a microphone. I saw songwriters as people to look up to. I graduated from Western Carolina and then went away for graduate school, which led to my master’s in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. When I later went out to California I got a ukulele, took guitar lessons, and reconnected to Americana.

After my mother died, I wrote my way through my pain, and the result was “Falling in Carolina.” On “A Place to Run,” I’m home, I’m free here, and my creativity has room to breathe.

What’s the most distinct thing about playing in North Carolina?

The last verse of Leonard Cohen’s, “Hallelujah,” though lately in my newlywed state I find myself digging Greg Brown’s, “Hey Baby, Hey.” How did where you are from shape the artist you’ve become?

We went camping a lot as kids to the beach or the mountains, that fostored my love of nature. I write a lot on porches or outside; there’s a lot of N.C. in my heart.

Tell us a song that causes you to turn it up and roll the windows down.

Easy. The Allman Brother’s “Blue Sky.”

Jennifer Wood, The North State Journal

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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the plate Kindred, Davidson Chef Joe Kindred is committed to gratitude when it comes to his patrons. “The milk bread is like a first-bump to customers to say thank you for coming in.”

EAMON QUEENEY/NORTH STATE JOURNAL

By Kimberly Johnson North State Journal

IDWAY through Friday lunch rush, Chef Joe Kindred stands vigilant at the center of his compact kitchen, commanding a quiet army. Van Morrison is playing in the background, and each of the six kitchen workers are focused on their cook stations, kneading, plating, or grilling.

Kindred inspects every plate before it heads up out of the basement kitchen to the dining rooms above. “That salad looks good,” he says to a new kitchen employee in training.

It has been two days since the James Beard Foundation nominated him for “Best Chef: Southeast,” and his phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

He and his wife welcomed their third child just a few days before that. It is the restaurant’s first anniversary. “It’s been pretty hectic the last couple of days for sure,” Kindred said.

Kindred, a native of North Carolina, was one of eight chefs throughout the state nominated in the Best Chef Southeast category. It is not, however, his first experience with the highly coveted award. Prior to opening his namesake restaurant, Kindred, on Main Street in Davidson, Kindred worked in the kitchens of Tru in Chicago and Delfina in San Francisco, when their top chefs won James Beard awards.

“I’m shocked we were able to do that in our first year,” Kindred said. “Normally it takes a couple of years to get the [James Beard] Foundation to recognize you and see what you’re doing.”

Joining the award ranks with his former bosses would be an amazing accomplishment, one that he said would be impossible without the assist from his kitchen team.

“It would mean the world to me,” he said.

After tours in Chicago and San Francisco, Kindred returned home to North Carolina to work for Chef Jim Noble as his chef for Rooster’s Uptown in Charlotte. While there, he and his wife, Katy, began to put together their plan for their own chef-driven restaurant, which opened in February 2015.

By August, only six months after opening, Bon Appetit magazine named Kindred as one of the top ten best new restaurants in the country. The magazine highlighted the restaurant’s signature milk bread, which customers go crazy for.

“We didn’t want to just do bread service. We wanted to do amazing bread service,” he said. The restaurant makes about 100 loaves of milk bread, served in a speckled robin’s egg blue enamel bowl, for its dinner service each night, and up to 200 milk bread rolls for sandwiches at lunch.

The milk bread is “like a first-bump to customers to say thank you for coming in,” he said. The Southern yeast roll recipe can relax customers, and maybe even make them nostalgic.

Kindred’s menu reflects a worldly palate with southern flair. The pork loin saltimbocca — a traditional Italian dish served with polenta, prosciutto, and a sauce — is served with grits, country ham, and red-eye gravy. He is making the most of the relationships he has forged over the years with regional farmers, whether it be for honey or beef for the Wagyu tartare.

“North Carolina has such beautiful agriculture. I think it’s just now getting tapped,” Kindred said.

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North Carolina Restaurant & Chef Award Semifinalists for the 2016 James Beard Awards Best New Restaurant

Death & Taxes, Raleigh Outstanding Baker

Phoebe Lawless, Scratch Bakery, Durham Lionel Vatinet, La Farm Bakery, Cary Outstanding Chef

Ashley Christensen, Poole’s Downtown Diner, Raleigh In the top photo Chef Joe Kindred, center, and his kitchen staff work the dinner service at Kindred in Davidson, on the restaurant’s one-year anniversary.

Joe and Katy Kindred recently celebrated the successful restaurant’s first birthday while riding the media storm of a James Beard semifinalist nomination all on top of welcoming their third child, a healthy baby boy.

Named one of Bon Appétit magazine’s top ten new restaurants in 2015, Kindred focuses on casual yet thoughtful Southern fare in a small-town setting.

Outstanding Pastry Chef

Cynthia Wong, Rhubarb, Asheville Best Chef: Southeast

Nate Allen, Knife and Fork, Spruce Pine Brian Canipelli, Cucina 24, Asheville Scott Crawford, Standard Foods, Raleigh Steven Devereaux Greene, Herons in the Umstead Hotel, Cary Vivian Howard, Chef & the Farmer, Kinston Matthew Kelly, Mateo, Durham Joe Kindred, Kindred, Davidson Aaron Vandemark, Panciuto, Hillsborough

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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dig in North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Photographer Eamon Queeney spent an afternoon at the Museum of Natural Sciences chronicling the work of detailed ornithology curators and volunteers.

The collection boasts more than 20,000 specimens, making it one of the three largest of its kind in the Southeast and the only grouping of significant size in the state.

The spread wing specimens create a striking collection of colors and textures. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is one of the few museums in the Southeast to boast more than 1,500 spread wing specimens.

Pictured above left to right, a Purple Gallinule, a Sunbittern, and Scarlet Ibis.

At more than 20,000 specimens, the ornithology collection is one of the three largest collections of its kind in the Southeast and the only collection of significant size in the state. Volunteers and ornithologists work behind the scenes to collect, curate and conserve the variety of species in their care.

Gray wolves sit under plastic next to a True’s Beaked Whale patiently waiting their turn at exhibition. Under wraps and all around are animals that would never be seen roaming the wild together.

You can almost hear the Great Shearwater’s low, nasal call.

The museum is known for a notable collection of seabirds containing over 2,000 skins, hundreds of skeletons, and an extensive number of fluidpreserved birds.

The room is full of surprises inside every chamber. Open a freezer and you may find mounted a Hooded Merganser kept there to preserve and protect them from insects and pests.

North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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I reckon . . .

Your North Carolina guide to what’s what, where, why and how to say it.

CONTINUED from Page C1 ly of not only his own work and its processes, but also the ideals and work of those most influential to him as a budding, young artist in the sparse and isolated surroundings of Bertie County, N.C. When asked which artists inspire him, Rascoe mentions the French impressionists, but emphasizes greater admiration for the the work of contemporary plein air painter and mentor, Joshua Been. Like, Rascoe, Been captures the time, feel, and environment of a piece, not just the picture. Comparing the brushwork of Been’s mountainous landscapes and Rascoe’s boats on water, one can easily see what ties the two together. They each identify undeniable truths within any object, inanimate or not, and a portal to an experience. By finding a focal point and making all else abstract, the viewer is left to his or her own senses and imagination to be taken to that time and place.

“Dust in the Blues,” Rascoe’s painting of a man playing “Folsom Prison Blues” on a park bench in downtown Edenton speaks volumes to what catches not just his eye, but all of his senses. The very essence of a moment in time, in which something as simple as a familiar Johnny Cash song on a sunny October day in Eastern N.C. creates an unforgettable experience. Rascoe takes in and puts out on canvas not only the visual poignancy of a piece, but the olfactory and sonic per-

Conetoe Phonetically speaking, this Edgecombe County town is pronounced ka-NEE-tuh. You’ll see signage for this 4 square mile humble hamlet on your way to the Outer Banks, and now you can pronounce it correctly instead of mistaking the town name for a misshapen digit.

The Hudson River School

Based on a penchant for romanticism and taking inspiration from the natural beauty of the Catskill, White, and Adirondack mountain ranges, The Hudson River School formed in the mid-19th century. The Albemarle School, aware or not, has organically formed over time and continues to thrive today. Like The Hudson River School, those in Northeastern N.C. absorb the sights and sounds of what surrounds them-waves crashin, wild wetlands, and wide open spaces.

This is the first in a three-part series focusing on the plethora of talent concentrated in and around North Carolina’s Albemarle Sound.

ceptions to boot, thus creating a sensory completeness.

Rascoe often uses the phrase “no doubt,” almost as if in art and in life, it is his mantra. He says with conviction, “There are no rules in painting.”

As an artist, he sees it as his job to create a transformative experience to those looking at a piece.

Whether spending a day alone in a tobacco field, on the sound, at an abandoned peanut farm, or on a trip with fellow plein air painters, he brings what is not alive or what normally flickers by, both to the foreground and to life.

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EAMON QUEENEY/NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Paintings by Fen Rascoe hang throughout his 103-year-old home. Fen Rascoe never lets a Bertie County Main Street inspiration slip by, translating Sir Ralph Clark, pictured above, and his pink long coat and matching boots into a piece entitled “Not Too Old School.”

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ING SINC RAT E

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North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

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Read to me

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The Winter Leaf

By B.P. Morrison EDITOR’S NOTE

Stories have power. They amuse, enchant, delight, and transport us to another time and place outside of our own. Each week, we invite you to read with us, and with the people you love, to let your imagination run wild and free.

There once was something small and green A leaf upon a tree, I mean Its name was Francis, Frank to some And it knew not what days would come.

As Francis grew and grew and grew He met some friends, and they grew too A couple blossomed, here and there, And soon, they blossomed everywhere.

But Francis didn’t bloom at all.

He simply stayed as green and small As all his friends had been before.

His life was sad; he wanted more.

When summer came, and with it, fruits, Poor Francis looked as wee and cute As any would imagine so.

But, it was time for friends to go.

They dropped, a few, the others picked Away by giants climbing sticks So, Francis cried, a drop or two, Though not as hard as rain will do.

His father, Tree, spoke not to him, But simply danced upon a whim.

And while his friends, the leaves, were there, They didn’t speak and didn’t care.

ILLUSTRATION FOR THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL/ AMY RICHARDS

One day, a monkey found its way To Francis; what a joyous day The monkey didn’t speak at all, But she could laugh, and she was tall.

He still was small and young and green, So different from his friends, it seemed.

He felt alone, unlike the rest, Like maybe he was not the best.

“We make some friends, and lose them, too, “So trust that life will start anew.”

With that, he spoke no more at all, And Francis felt so very small.

When Francis tried to speak to her, The monkey’s words were but a blur.

She picked the fruit that wasn’t gone And stayed around till night was dawn.

They all got ready. Then, they fell.

First one and two, as time will tell.

And then they all just dropped one day.

Poor Francis really tried to play.

He suffered through a winter’s cold; His tears were frozen, new and old.

But then, one day, when hope was gone, The birds began to sing a song.

Poor Francis, he had found a friend, Whose wonder seemed to never end; But then the monkey came around, And stared at him without a sound.

He screamed at Tree, “Just let me go!”

But then came rain and ice and snow.

When Francis couldn’t take the chill, He hugged his father, staying still.

He hadn’t heard such music, no.

These birds had come so long ago, Before the spring was even sprung, And when our friend was very young.

“Hello,” he said, a little squeak.

He hoped his monkey friend would speak, But she did not; and so it went.

His friend was gone; his hope was spent.

“It’s just not fair!” he said to Tree, Who simply grumbled, “You’re with me.”

He’d never spoken, Tree, to him.

But when he did, the day was dim.

The tree was full of life again, To start a year of joy’s refrain.

His friends were back; their buds were new; And Francis knew not what to do.

When autumn came, and colors too, His older friends were rather new.

They changed a lot; they’d all grown up But Francis, dear, was still a pup.

“But why can’t I be like the rest?

“But why can’t I just be the best?”

“Because,” said Tree, in deep a voice, “Sometimes our lives are not a choice.

They looked to him; he gave them names.

Then, soon, his life was just the same.

And though he knew the end was near, The end did not an end appear.

NEXT WEEKEND in The Good Life Stir crazy

Grab your shaker and stir things up with a North Carolina cocktail recipe featuring Pittsboro’s own Fairgame Beverage, Apple Brandy.

Antique Roadtrip

North Carolina antiques are worth hunting for, so come along with us on a statewide antique road trip starting in the Piedmont.

Resolution reboot

How are your 2016 New Year’s resolutions going?

We’ll help you learn how to make those resolutions a reality with our guide for resetting your workout.

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North State Journal Sunday, February 28, 2016

pen& Paper pursuits COLORING CAROLINA Ever stop to think about what makes this state so great? Is it the lighthouses or the sweet potatoes or the bluegrass music — or simply all of the above? You may find that this opportunity to color North Carolina, and all of the things that make it unique, will not only be therapeutic but also worthy of a frame when you are finished.

SUDOKU

about the artist

Amy Richards

Amy has lived in Raleigh since 2004 and considers North Carolina her forever home. Between pen and ink, watercolor, and embroidery she creates everything from coloring books to greeting cards and prints. She recently wrote and illustrated her first children’s book titled, “Buddy Worried.” To see more of her work visit amyrichardsillustration.com.

SOLUTIONS TO BOTH PUZZLES IN NEXT WEEK’S PAPER