VOLUME 5 ISSUE 18
|
WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2020
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
36,921 COVID-19 patients presumed to be recovered Raleigh The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said that nearly 37,000 COVID-19 patients are presumed to have recovered from the virus as of June 22. NCDHHS estimates a median time to recovery of 14 days for non-fatal COVID-19 cases who were not hospitalized and 28 days for hospitalized cases. Estimates are used since patient-specific data on the actual recovery time to resolution of symptoms are not available for all COVID-19 cases. NSJ STAFF
2nd presidential debate moves from Michigan to Florida Washington, D.C. The nonpartisan commission that sponsors the formal election-year presidential debates announced Tuesday that an October debate that had been set for Michigan will now take place in Florida. The change comes after the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, determined it was no longer “feasible” to host the Oct. 15 debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates said. The debate will instead be held in Miami. In a letter, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel suggested the decision was influenced by the work needed to prepare the campus for the fall semester during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The presidential debates are scheduled to be held at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and Belmont University in Tennessee. THEASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. Thom Tillis holds 50th telephone town hall during pandemic Charlotte Sen. Thom Tillis earlier this week held his 50th telephone town hall since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tillis says these regular discussions have kept North Carolinians informed on the federal response to the ongoing pandemic. “Telephone town halls have also been a valuable source of opening up casework, with my office serving as a resource for North Carolinians in need of assistance. In the weeks and months ahead, my top priority will be to continue to work across the aisle to protect the physical health and jobs of North Carolinians and get our economy back on track” said Tillis. According to Tillis’ office, over 487,000 North Carolinians have dialed into one of the town halls. NSJ STAFF
U.S. Department of Justice reviews section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Justice announced they completed an analysis of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content and removal of content in certain circumstances. The department said in a statement, “The combination of significant technological changes since 1996 and the expansive interpretation that courts have given Section 230 has left online platforms both immune for a wide array of illicit activity on their services and free to moderate content with little transparency or accountability.” The department concluded that the scope of Section 230 in four areas, including promoting competition and transparency, was needed within the realities of the modern internet. NSJ STAFF
A.P. DILLON | NORTH STATE JOURNAL
The weekend of June 19–21, protesters tore down parts of Confederate monuments from the state capitol in downtown Raleigh during Juneteenth gatherings. The remainders of the statues were ordered to be removed from the grounds by Gov. Roy Cooper.
NORTH
STATE
JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
‘Second Chance Act’ passed unanimously by NC legislature Bill allows certain crimes to be expunged from records
mother attending NC State University in 1988 when she was arrested for writing bad checks, totaling $800, which led to a 2-year stint in prison. Burke said David Larson her mother had passed away two North State Journal months before and she was desRALEIGH — After being perate to find a way to get money passed 119-0 in the House and to support her children. “I didn’t have any help, and I 47-0 in the Senate, S.B. 562, “The Second Chance Act,” has just started doing stupid stuff,” been sent to Gov. Roy Cooper’s she told NSJ. Once her prison term was desk. The bill gives some who have criminal convictions an op- over, Burke said it was difficult portunity to have these crimes to find work because of employers learning about her past. But expunged from their records. S.B. 562 allows expungement after delivering flowers using of misdemeanors, as well as a friend’s van for 13 years, she eventually went back Class H and I felonies, to school, graduatfor those who coming with a law degree mitted the acts prifrom N.C. Central or to turning 18 years University in 2010. old but after turning For those like Her legal past con16. Driving while in- Lynn Burke, a tinued to haunt her toxicated charges and though as the state sexual assault charges Raleigh lawyer refused to grant her do not qualify for ex- involved in a law license. She appungement. pealed the case to the The bill also auto- advocating N.C. Supreme Court, matically expunges for the bill, where then-Attorney cases from one’s rehaving some General Roy Cooper cord if the charges represented the state, were dismissed or the convictions but the court affirmed defendant was found on her record the Board of Law Exnot guilty, and it alaminers’ decision. lows those convicted expunged Burke admitted to of nonviolent misde- represents NSJ that she had othmeanors to petition er arrests since leavfor expunction after that “second seven years. chance” in S.B. ing prison in 1990, including more check “North Caroli562’s name. fraud and driving vina has followed the olations. The court President’s lead to endocuments from her act balanced crimi2015 appeal mention nal justice reform that “forty incidents beoffers nonviolent oftween 1983 and 2004 fenders a true second chance to advance in our econo- in which she had been accused my, to benefit their families, and of criminal offenses” and conto find a new future in our state cluded she had failed to divulge alongside their fellow citizens,” many of them in her law school N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore application and her law license (R-Kings Mountain) said in a applications in North Carolistatement after the bill passed na and Washington, D.C. Without her N.C. law license, she inhis chamber. For those like Lynn Burke, a stead practices immigration law, Raleigh lawyer involved in advo- which her D.C. license allows her cating for the bill, having some to do. Burke said she was involved convictions on her record expunged represents that “second in early discussions with Bill chance” in S.B. 562’s name. She was a 23-year-old single See SECOND CHANCE page A2
Cooper says statue removal fault of General Assembly The Confederate Monument Study Committee was headed up by a Cooper appointee whose ancestor is a noted Confederate figure By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Over the weekend, Gov. Roy Cooper said his decision to remove certain Confederate monuments from the Capitol area grounds was due to a 2015 law passed by the state’s legislature. “I have ordered the Confeder-
ate monuments on the Capitol grounds be moved to protect public safety,” Cooper tweeted on Saturday. The accompanying press release also pointed to an almost three-year-old article he published on Medium about removal of the monuments. The 2015 law, the Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act, was passed unanimously by the N.C. Senate and by a wide, but mainly partisan, margin in the N.C. House. Two Democrats voted for the bill: Reps. Bill Brisson (Bladen) and Ken Waddell (CoSee STATUE page A2
Chinese influence in U.S. education isn’t just at the university level The number of Confucius Classrooms in K-12 have surpassed Confucius Institutes By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — What kind of influence are programs tied to the Chinese government having in North Carolina K-12 education? Our previous article looked at the “Confucius Institutes” and zeroed in on UNC Charlotte — the one school in the state which still operates one. These institutes offer Chinese language and culture lessons; however, they are typically funded and operated on some level by the Hanban, which is an arm of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Education. The Hanban in most instances pays and screens who teaches the institute’s courses. In our previous article on C.I.’s, the 2017 report produced by the National Association of Scholars characterized C.I.’s as weapons of soft power which adhere to Chinese law, avoid mention of Chinese political history and human rights abuses, enact China’s censorious speech preferences, and “portray Taiwan and Tibet as undisputed territories of China.” A more recent 2019 staff report to the Subcommittee on Investigations for the U.S. Senate, titled China’s Impact on the U.S. Education System, picks up where NAS left off, noting that the Chinese government is dropping large amounts of money into K-12 classrooms in the United States. “Since 2006, the Subcommittee determined China directly provided over $158 million in funding to U.S. schools for Confucius Institutes,” the report states. The report also says that the Hanban has “spent more than $2 billion on Confucius Institutes worldwide from 2008 to 2016” and that start-
ing in 2017, “it no longer reports spending on the program.” That drop in reporting coincides with Confucius Classrooms around the world, surpassing the number of Confucius Institutes. The report says that by 2017, the Hanban had established 1,113 such classrooms. The subcommittee’s report discusses a document that lays out plans to expand Confucius Classrooms by seeking the “topdown policy support from the state government, legislative and educational institutions, with a particular emphasis on access to the See CONFUCIUS page A2