VOLUME 5 ISSUE 41
|
WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
|
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
State unemployment rate slightly down from previous month MEBANE — Chick-fil-A will locate a major distribution center in Alamance County, investing an estimated $52 million to build the new facility, Gov. Roy Cooper and economic development officials announced Tuesday. The project, part of the company’s new distribution service focused on supplying food and products to its restaurants, will create 160 jobs in Mebane. It is scheduled to open in early 2022. “North Carolina attracts the nation’s most wellknown brands because of our strong workforce and steady leadership,” said Cooper. “Alamance County is the right location with the right infrastructure to make Chickfil-A’s new approach to the restaurant’s supply chain a success.” The company’s facility in Mebane will be its second permanent, full-scale distribution center, joining the first full-scale facility near the company’s headquarters in Georgia. NSJ STAFF
315,979 COVID-19 patients presumed to be recovered RALEIGH — The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said that over 315,000 COVID-19 patients are presumed to have recovered from the virus as of Nov. 30. 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
Pope book backs George Floyd protests, blasts virus skeptic ROME — Pope Francis is supporting demands for racial justice in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and is blasting COVID-19 skeptics and media organizations that spread their conspiracies in a new book penned during the Vatican’s coronavirus lockdown. In “Let Us Dream,” Francis also criticizes populist politicians who whip up rallies in ways reminiscent of the 1930s, and the hypocrisy of “rigid” conservative Catholics who support them. Francis blasted people who protested anti-virus restrictions “as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!” He also accused some in the church and Catholic media of being part of the problem. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mark Walker announces 2020 U.S. Senate campaign RALEIGH — U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, a Greensboro Republican, released a campaign video announcing his run for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Walker, who chose not to run for re-election to Congress in 2020 following a 2019 redistricting session, is the first to formally announce a campaign — 23 months before the 2022 general election. First elected to the U.S. House in 2014, Walker openly pondered a primary challenge to Sen. Thom Tillis in late 2019 before forgoing a campaign. “When I was elected to Congress, I told our team, let’s do more than make an argument; let’s make a difference. That’s exactly what we’ve done, and what we will keep doing as your next Senator,” said Walker. NSJ STAFF
KATHY KMONICEK | AP PHOTOS
College hoops is back Left, North Carolina head coach Roy Williams bumps-fists and talks with UNLV head coach T.J. Otzelberger after an NCAA college basketball game in the Maui Invitational tournament, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020, in Asheville. Right, North Carolina guard R.J. Davis (4) leaps to shoot a basket over UNLV guard Bryce Hamilton (13) in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Maui Invitational tournament.
NORTH
STATE
JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
Are NC School districts following the ‘science and data’? Some districts seem to be ignoring CDC advice in favor of local metrics based on adult community spread By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Some of the larger school districts in North Carolina, who are backpedaling on reopening schools to full-time in-person instruction, appear not to be following the “science and data” and the repeated messages from national experts on keeping schools open. In October, the CDC released data showing that children can spread the virus within schools, but that children ages 10 and under were less likely to do so. The CDC did not find a link between schools reopening and the rise this fall in positive tests. That guidance has not shifted in the past two months. In agreement with the CDC, a report by UNICEF has shown that schools are not driving infection rates and that child-tochild transmission in school was “uncommon and not the primary cause.” UNICEF looked at 191 countries, highlighting the disruption that canceling classes was having on health, mental health and food services involving students. As recently as Nov. 29, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director and White House COVID-19 advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci urged decision makers to “close the bars and keep the schools open.” “If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not very big at all, not like one would have suspected,” said Fauci. “So, let’s try to get the kids back and try to mitigate the things that maintain and push the kind of community spread we are trying to avoid.” Fauci went on to say the “default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school, to get them back to school.”
Guilford County Schools has announced that following the Thanksgiving holiday week, they are reverting back to Plan C, which is complete remote instruction. One reason given was community-spread metrics. In the state’s largest district, Wake County Public Schools, only elementary and special education students will go back full-time in the second semester. In several meetings, the Wake County School Board has indicated they also have used county-level COVID-19 metrics as a reference. The second semester plan in Wake County would include fourth and fifth graders who are currently forced to do weekly cohort rotations that allows for one week at school and two weeks remote instruction. All middle and high schools will still do threeweek cohort rotations in the second semester until further notice. At a Nov. 19 COVID briefing at the White House, CDC Director Robert Redfield restated that children should remain in school. Redfield warned against having an emotional response of saying “lets close the schools.” Redfield’s remarks came on the heels of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo closing New York City Schools again. At the time Cuomo made his announcement, community rate in New York City was 3% but there was less than a .24% infection rate for school staff and only a .13% rate for students. Earlier in November, Cuomo had claimed during a press conference that “schools are not the problem” and in an MSNBC interview, he said that “we are not seeing spread in schools.” “Last spring, CDC did not recommend school closures nor did we recommend their closures today,” said Redfield. “Today, there is extensive data that we have gathered over the last two to three months to confirm that K-12 schools can operate with face-to-face learning and they can do it safely and they can do it See SCHOOLS, page A2
Gov. Cooper’s mask mandate comes with new enforcement Violation is a Class 2 misdemeanor, with a $1,000 fine and jail time up to 60 days By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced an executive order containing a stricter mask mandate, which was accompanied by misdemeanor enforcement measures. Executive Order 180 makes it mandatory to wear a mask or face covering whenever a person is in
contact with people who are not of their household, both indoors and outside. As with the previous mask order, the new order “shall be enforced by state and local law enforcement officers.” The order says that law enforcement can “cite a business or organization that failed to enforce the requirement to wear face coverings.” The order requires police to be called by a business if a person refuses to wear a mask or if that person refuses to leave. That business can be cited and the person can be charged with trespassing and “any other laws that the worker or guest may violate.” See MASK, page A2
Lumbee Recognition Act hangs in balance as congressional term nears end Passed unanimously by House, the act now sits in Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which has no more scheduled meetings for year By David Larson North State Journal RALEIGH — Despite being unanimously passed by the U.S. House on Nov. 16, H.R. 1964, the Lumbee Recognition Act, has not yet been taken up by the U.S. Senate, which only has about a month left with its current members. If the bill is not advanced out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and then passed by the full Senate and signed into law by Jan. 3, 2021, it will need to be reintroduced in the next Congress. The Lumbee Tribe, centered around Robeson County near the South Carolina border, was recognized by the state of North Carolina in 1885. They first petitioned the federal government for full recognition in 1888, with mixed results. The Lumbee Act of 1956 did give recognition to the group as an Indian tribe, but under the condition that they not receive any of the federal benefits that other tribes enjoy. Harvey Godwin Jr, the Lumbee’s tribal chairman, said in a Nov. 25 statement, that the “congressional route is the superior and most effective choice because the reality is, Congress created a statutory ambiguity when it enacted the Lumbee Act of 1956.” Godwin said the bill is meant “to amend the provision in the 1956 act that prohibits the delivery of services and other benefits to our people.” This change would create a relationship with the federal government that mirrors that of other recognized tribes. There is bipartisan support from North Carolina’s congres-
sional delegation for this effort, including from Democrat G.K. Butterfield, a bill sponsor, and Republican Dan Bishop, whose district includes the Lumbee’s territory. “For 64 years, the 66,000-strong Lumbee have existed in a kind of official limbo that reflects the worst of our federal government,” Bishop said while the bill was disSee LUMBEE, page A3