VOLUME 6 ISSUE 36 | WWW.NSJONLINE.COM | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2021
Legislators send letter to UNC officials over forced ‘equity, diversity and inclusion’ training Raleigh State Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) issued a letter of inquiry to UNC Chapel Hill and UNC System officials following “equity, diversity and inclusion” training that students within the Greek system were forced to attend. Reactions from students reported by Carolina Review included criticism of the university funding such a program, that students were “uncomfortable,” and that the speaker was “was projecting her identity politics onto us.” The letter also asks if the administration will be addressing concerns related to “politically motivated indoctrination,” both in classes and in university-sanctioned organizations. A.P. DILLON
LAUREN ROSE | AP PHOTO
Looking at the leaves Colorful leaves in the Blue Ridge are seen in this Oct. 31, file photo, of mountains taken on the Blueridge Parkway. The fall leaf season is still going strong in western North Carolina following prolonged warm weather.
Americans sour on economy amid inflation woes Washington, D.C. Americans’ opinions on the U.S. economy have soured noticeably in the past month, a new poll finds, with nearly half expecting economic conditions to worsen in the next year. Just 35% of Americans now call the national economy good, while 65% call it poor, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The deterioration in Americans’ economic sentiments comes as the cost of goods is rising nationwide, particularly gas prices, and bottlenecks in the global supply chain have made purchasing everything from furniture to automobiles more difficult. The Labor Department reported earlier this month that consumer prices in September rose 5.4% from a year earlier, the largest one-year increase since 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rubio takes Big Business to task a year before election Orlando, Fla. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is taking Big Business to task. In an op-ed published Monday, the Republican from Florida called corporate America “the instrument of anti-American ideologies.” Rubio said changes to economic policies in recent decades have left many feeling divorced from the American Dream of obtaining good jobs and raising their families in safe neighborhoods. He added, “that has to be addressed, because that dream is at the core of our national identity.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Biden: Pope told me that I should ‘keep receiving Communion’ Rome Face to face at the Vatican, President Joe Biden held extended talks with Pope Francis and came away saying the pontiff told him he was a “good Catholic” and should keep receiving Communion, although some have called for him to be denied the sacrament because of his support for abortion rights. Biden said abortion did not come up in the meeting. “We just talked about the fact he was happy that I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion,” Biden said. The president’s support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage has put him at odds with many U.S. bishops. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Gov Roy Cooper vetoes Emergency Powers Act 65th veto rejects measure to include Council of State, General Assembly By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
How Big Tech censorship of Parler, Trump birthed a ‘2nd internet’ RightForge providing web services for Trump’s TRUTH Social By David Larson North State Journal
Tech and a lot of its excesses, a lot of its censorship. And that was even used as a defense of its censoring of a president of the United States, a democratically elected president of a free country being taken off the internet. They’d say, ‘Oh, well if you don’t like it, you can build your own.’ Well, Parler showed that was false because Amazon Web Services, which controls over 90% plus of web hosting in the country, combined with the Apple store and the Google Play store, said, ‘You’re not allowed on here.’” Avila and Wagner wanted to create solid ground for alternative thinkers to build their companies so Big Tech couldn’t just erase all their work with the push of a button. “They’re their own judge, jury and executioner,” Bedford opined, saying that Big Tech killed Parler “under completely false pretenses,” since he said that later reporting showed little organizing for the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol was done on Parler. “If anything, Facebook was [where the organizing happened],” he said. “And they took it off the internet at a point when it was succeeding and it was the top downloaded app in those stores. They took it down and destroyed it.” Wagner is a former Army Ranger, and Avila is a technologist who had worked in the California corporate world. They began pulling together clients who had been “canceled” from Big Tech’s platforms and other clients who simply wanted to know they wouldn’t be. Their biggest client to date, announced in late October, is former President Donald Trump and his “TRUTH Social” social media project. “It’s a great honor to be working with the president and Trump Media Group on this,” Bedford said. Asked if they are ready to scale their operations if TRUTH Social grows rapidly, he said, “We have everything we need to keep everything online. But we are actively scaling up every day, acquiring more and more servers, because
RALEIGH — Christopher Bedford, chief communications officer for RightForge, recently spoke with NSJ, describing the company’s North Carolina roots, partnership with former President Donald Trump and plans for a “second internet” to push back against what they see as bias and censorship against conservatives by a Big Tech monopoly. Bedford, who is also a senior editor at the popular conservative site The Federalist, says their company began the day alternative social media platform Parler was blacklisted by Amazon, Apple, Google and other Big Tech players. “The next morning, bright and early, [Martin Avila, the CEO of RightForge] started his car and drove down to Raleigh to meet up with Aaron Wagner,” Bedford said. “And the two of them and their friends, who were former Silicon Valley guys, got together and started meeting down in North Carolina to try to figure out how we’re going to do this, how we’re going to set up the servers. We need to get the second internet rolling. We have the intelligence; we have the skills; now it’s time to do the work and get the money.” Bedford and those at RightForge use the term “second internet” to describe a separate infrastructure that can connect people to the internet but does not rely on the Big Tech companies. He said the banning of Parler was the moment many on the right fully realized that their speech was not protected online and that views that were mainstream to them were considered violations that could get them erased from the digital public square overnight. “There was this whole idea that if you don’t like something you could just go and build your own,” Bedford said. “And that was constantly used as a defense for Big See BIG TECH, page A2
RALEIGH — On Monday, Nov. 1, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed House Bill 26, the Emergency Powers Act, which would have required the governor to obtain Council of State approval on future state of an emergency orders lasting more than seven days and legislative approval to extend an order beyond 45 days. “North Carolina is emerging from a global pandemic with lives
saved and a strong economy because of effective statewide measures to protect public health under the Emergency Management Act,” Cooper wrote in his veto of the bill. “Critical decisions about stopping deadly diseases, or responding to any other emergency, should stay with experts in public health and safety, not a committee of partisan politicians. We must be able to act quickly and thoroughly when deadly diseases, hurricanes, or any other dangers threaten people’s lives and jobs. An emergency needs decisive, quick and comprehensive action, not bureaucracy and politics.” See VETO, page A2
FDA approves Pfizer emergency-use shot for 5-11-year-olds By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The Food and Drug Administration approved a kid-sized emergency use (EUA) COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech on Oct. 29. The Biden administration said it plans to distribute enough doses for the nation’s 28 million 5- to 11-yearolds as soon as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives its final decision anticipated to come as early as Nov. 2. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval comes after the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 17 to zero to approve child doses on Oct. 27. One member abstained, Michael Kurilla, the director of the Division of Clinical Innovation at the National Institutes of Health. “A vote ‘no’ would have been interpreted as a vote against the vaccine itself rather than the administration of the vaccine,” Kurilla said of his abstention. “There clearly are children with risk factors who could potentially benefit from a vaccine, but I don’t see the need for ‘emergency use’ of this vaccine across the entire age group and would have preferred a more nuanced approach.” Prior to the meeting, the advisory committee was supplied with an 82-page briefing document outlining the Pfizer pediatric age doses and related study information. Kids will get two doses three weeks apart. The dose size is a third of the amount of a teen and adult dose. Pfizer’s study found the smaller doses had a more “favorable safety and tolerability profile,” and that side effects for kids aged 5-11 is “generally comparable to those observed in participants 16 to 25 years of age.” During the meeting, multiple
members of the FDA advisory panel expressed concern about rushing to approve a vaccine for children, who represent the lowest COVID risk group. Kim Witczak, the consumer representative on the FDA’s PsySee VACCINE, page A2