VOLUME 6 ISSUE 9
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
Cooper pushes Medicaid expansion in address Raleigh Gov. Roy Cooper urged Republicans to cooperate with him on health care, education and infrastructure needs in his third state of the state address to the General Assembly. The governor offered a budget plan last month that would spend $27.3 billion next year and include expanding Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of adults. Cooper’s unwillingness to budge on expansion in 2019 contributed to a budget stalemate that never got fully resolved. “Circumstances about Medicaid expansion have changed dramatically since we debated it in the last budget,” he said. “Let’s make a deal. Let’s get this done.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supreme Court to take up right to carry gun for self-defense Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for selfdefense. The case marks the court’s first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court in October. The justices said they will review a lower-court ruling that upheld New York’s restrictive gun permit law. New York is among eight states that limit who has the right to carry a weapon in public. The others are California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. In June, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, complained that rather than take on the constitutional issue, “the Court simply looks the other way.”
KIICHIRO SATO | AP PHOTO
Apple lands in the Triangle On Monday, April 26, 2021, Apple announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in North Carolina to build the company's first East Coast campus, in a move that is expected to bring at least 3,000 new jobs to the state. Read more on page B5
NORTH
STATE
JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Burr, Tillis reintroduce Lumbee Federal Recognition bill Washington, D.C. N.C.’s U.S. senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, reintroduced the Lumbee Recognition Act, legislation to grant full federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. “The Lumbee Tribe has been fighting for more than a century to gain federal recognition and, as long as I’m in the U.S. Senate, I’m going to continue my work to make sure this happens,” said Sen. Tillis. “I am proud to co-introduce this legislation again and continue my work with Senator Burr to get this legislation across the finish line.” NSJ STAFF
Georgia park with Confederate carvings proposes changes Stone Mountain, Ga. Stone Mountain Memorial Association CEO Bill Stephens presented the proposals that would acknowledge that it was a gathering spot for the Ku Klux Klan, relocate Confederate flags and remove the carving from its logo. The park 15 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta is a popular hiking and tourist destination and also features a sculpture of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on the mountain’s northern face. The celebration of the Confederacy at the park is used to “oppress people,” said Bona Allen, with the grassroots group Stone Mountain Action Coalition. The coalition last year proposed that the association change the names of streets and other park features with Confederate affiliations and refocus the park around “racial justice.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NCGOP leaders cry foul on Democrat treatment of black conservatives Say racial politics has become about power, not justice By David Larson North State Journal
tation list — Clarence Henderson. Henderson, who is one of the four black students seen in the iconic photo of the 1960 sit-in, is a conservative and was a featured speaker for Donald Trump’s reelection at the 2020 Republican National Convention. “He sat at that counter and endured the suffering and pain to make sure that black voices were heard,” Robinson said. “And why was he left out? Because he’s of a different political persuasion. You might ask why this is so, and I’ll tell you plainly. The goal of some individuals in government is not to hear the voices of black Americans at all; it’s to hear the voices that fit their narratives and ultimately help keep power with one group.” He said H.R. 1, the Democrats’ major elections bill, is an example of this thirst for power, calling it “despicable” and simply “a wish list” of everything needed to achieve that power. He closed by saying the country needed to “stop playing all these silly games based on race, and please, let’s stop using me as a black man as your pawn — and yes, I said it — to push your agenda.” Only one day before his speech, another similar fight transpired involving race and voter ID when liberal group Democracy NC commented on an ongoing legal battle over North Carolina’s voter ID law by saying on Twitter, “Yesterday, former NC Sen. [Joel] Ford testified. He was the Black Democratic Sen. who supported the 2018 ID law and the defense is using as a prop for ‘a Black person was involved so that law can’t be racist.’ Which we know is FALSE.” Republicans immediately jumped on this characterization of Ford and his support for the bill. “Anyone other than a blind ideologue would consider labeling
RALEIGH — When North Carolina’s first black lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, spoke at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee meeting on April 22, he made clear he wasn’t happy about how, in his view, black conservatives — and black Americans in general — were being used as “pawns” in racial games that are more about power than justice. Robinson’s chief of staff, Conrad Pogorzelski III, told NSJ that Robinson was invited by Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s office to speak, and North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop introduced Robinson and was yielded time by Republican committee members to ask Robinson some questions. “Am I to believe that black Americans — who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and now sit in the highest levels of this government — could not figure out how to get a free ID to secure their votes?” Robinson said about the Georgia voting law that received pushback and boycotts in part due to its voter ID requirement. “Are you kidding me? The notion that black people must be protected from a free ID to secure their votes is not just insane; it is insulting. And let me tell you something about this. This doesn’t have anything to do with justice, this has everything to do with power.” To drive his point home, Robinson mentioned how Vice President Kamala Harris, when she made a recent visit to his hometown of Greensboro to visit the site of the Woolworth’s sit-ins, had one notable absence on her invi- See NCGOP, page A2
Population growth gives NC a 14th US House seat By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press RALEIGH — North Carolina will gain another seat in Congress for the next 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau announced, the result of a steadily growing population as people arrive for jobs and retirement. The additional U.S. House seat, the 14th for North Carolina, marks the third time in the past four census cycles that the state will have increased the size of its congressional delegation. North Carolina received a 12th seat after the 1990 census and another after
the 2000 release. The Census Bureau said North Carolina’s resident population was 10,439,388 as of April 1, 2020, up 9.5% from the 9,535,483 people counted as living in the state a decade earlier. North Carolina was the ninth largest state, up from 10th a decade ago. The state’s apportionment population, which adds overseas workers and their families who are from North Carolina and is used to distribute U.S. House seats, was slightly higher at 10,453,948. See HOUSE SEAT, page A2
Bill amended to repeal NC’s pistol permit purchase system NC Sheriffs’ Assoc backs bill, says system has ‘outlived its use’
permit law,” general counsel for the NC Sheriffs’ Association Eddie Caldwell told North State See PISTOL PERMIT, page A3
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — A N.C. House bill, which originally sought to loosen pistol permits regulations by allowing North Carolina sheriffs to issue permits to residents of neighboring counties, has been altered to remove the pistol permit requirement entirely. The NC Sheriffs’ Association had previously opposed changes in the state’s permit system, but is on board with the updated version of the bill. The bill’s primary sponsors are Reps. Jay Adams (R-Catawba), George Cleveland (R-Onslow), Edward Goodwin (R-Chowan), and Bobby Hanig (R-Currituck). House Bill 398 originally sought to grant authority to county sheriff offices to issue a pistol purchase permit to “a resident of any contiguous county” if the current permit requirements are met. That original bill also allowed for a sheriff to decline to issue such a permit to a neighboring county resident; however, it would have required written documentation of the reasons for declining. The current version of the bill would repeal the requirement of obtaining a pistol purchase permit before purchasing or transferring a handgun. The changes would also apply to a concealed handgun permit. “The sheriffs have voted to support repeal of the pistol purchase