VOLUME 7 ISSUE 37
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2022
View 2022 election results at nsjonline.com
US flu season off to a fast start as other viruses spread Raleigh The U.S. flu season is off to an unusually fast start, adding to an autumn mix of viruses that have been filling hospitals and doctor waiting rooms. Reports of flu are already high in 17 states, and the hospitalization rate hasn’t been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, there have been an estimated 730 flu deaths, including at least two children. “We are seeing more cases than we would expect at this time,” the CDC’s Dr. José Romero said. So far this season, there have been an estimated 1.6 million flu illnesses and 13,000 hospitalizations.
Postcard from the parkway A view of the Blue Ridge Mountains can be seen at a stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way to Craggy Gardens, in Nov. 2022. LAUREN ROSE | NORTH STATE JOURNAL
SCOTUS questions continued use of race in college admissions
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump says he’ll make ‘big announcement’ Nov. 15 in Florida Vandalia, Ohio Former President Donald Trump said Monday he will be making a “big announcement” next week as he teased a third presidential run while campaigning on the eve of the final day of voting in this year’s midterm elections. “I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Mar-aLago,” Trump said before a cheering crowd in Vandalia, Ohio, Monday night, where he was holding his final rally of the midterm season. Trump has been increasingly explicit about his plans to seek another term, saying in recent days that he would “very, very, very probably” run again and would be formalizing his intentions “very, very soon.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Apple says iPhone supplies hurt by antivirus curbs in China Beijing Apple is warning customers they’ll have to wait longer to get its latest iPhone models after anti-virus restrictions were imposed on a contractor’s factory in central China. “We now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated,” the company said. “Customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.” Foxconn Technology Group said earlier it imposed antivirus measures on the factory in Zhengzhou following virus outbreaks. The lockdown is expected to cause further disruptions to the plant, which in recent weeks has seen a spate of coronavirus infections and an exodus of workers, some of whom fled the factory on foot. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Treaty against fossil fuels floated at UN climate summit Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt The world should confront climate change the way it does nuclear weapons, by agreeing to a nonproliferation treaty that stops further production of fossil fuels, a small island nation leader proposed Tuesday. “We all know that the leading cause of climate crisis is fossil fuels,” Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano told his fellow leaders. So his country has “joined Vanuatu and other nations calling for a fossil fuels non-proliferation treaty. ... It’s getting too hot and there is very (little) time to slow and reverse the increasing temperature.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
AP PHOTO
In this Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016, file photo, a truck drives through floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew, in Lumberton.
HUD audit: NC not able to assure $2.5M in hurricane relief was properly spent By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General issued an audit report last month that says North Carolina’s disaster recovery program was not able to provide a “reasonable assurance” that it had property spent $2.5 million in Hurricane Matthew federal disaster relief funds. U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General’s audit (HUD OIG) reviewed North Carolina’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds. “Because the State did not follow its disbursement procedure and did not fully understand procurement requirements, it could not support that it obtained adequate invoice documentation for issuing payments and prepared independent cost estimates before the bidding process, properly assessed the cost reasonableness of contracts, and assessed contractor eligibility in a timely manner,” the HUD OIG report states in its conclusion. “As a result, the State could not provide reasonable assurance to HUD that more than $2.5 million in CDBG-DR funds was spent properly.” Hurricane Matthew struck North Carolina on Oct. 8, 2016. HUD appropriated more than $236.5 million in CDBG-DR funding to North Carolina for drawdown based on an Aug. 17, 2017, grant agreement between the state and HUD. Per the HUD OIG report, North Carolina has drawn down $91 million of those funds as of Mar. 22, 2022. When the grant agreement was put in place in 2017, the CDBG-DR funds were administered by the N.C. Department of Commerce which in turn entered into an agreement with the N.C. Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management to administer the grant funds in late April 2018.
In October 2018, Gov. Roy Cooper approved legislation creating a new entity to administer the funds; the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR). Housed under the State’s Department of Public Safety, NCORR started work in January 2019 and began administering the CDBG-DR funds. The HUD OIG audit report found the state “generally had capacity” in terms of staffing and “mostly followed disbursement requirements.” In terms of staff capacity, the audit report states that when they conducted their review, “the internal auditor position was maintained on a part-time basis. However, after we communicated the initial results of our review on January 14, 2020, two internal auditors were assigned specifically to review the disaster recovery funds.” Auditors looked at a sample of 25 disbursements and found that 3, or roughly 12%, did not have adequate support documentation. The 25 expenditures totaled nearly $5.5 million (27%) out of 143 expenditures at the time of review totaling more than $20.5 million. Of the three procurements reviewed that lacked or were missing adequate documentation, the audit report states, “These conditions occurred because the State did not follow its disbursement procedure and did not fully understand the procurement requirements.” The HUD OIG report also says the state’s procurement policy “did not clearly address the procurement process for its staff to follow.” “As a result, the State could not provide reasonable assurance to HUD that more than $2.5 million of $5.4 million in CDBG-DR funds reviewed was spent properly,” the HUG OIG audit report concluded. Findings also highlighted that the North Carolina procurement process “needs improvement.” “Specifically, the State did not follow procurement requirements See HUD AUDIT, page A3
RALEIGH — Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court questioned the continued use of race-based college admissions practices involving two such cases during oral arguments heard on Oct. 31. The justices were in no rush, taking five hours to hear oral arguments - around three of which were spent on the case involving the challenge to UNC Chapel Hill’s admissions policies. The cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill were initiated by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a Virginia-based group founded by Edward Blum, who serves as the group’s president. SFFA has contended that Asian students are penalized in admissions whereas Black and Hispanic students are awarded “massive preferences.”
The Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger was prevalent during oral arguments, but both sides also touched on a related earlier case, University of California v. Bakke (1977), as well as Brown vs. the Board of Education. Grutter held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit “narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the education benefits that flow from a diverse student body.” “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today,” former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in the majority opinion in Grutter. O’Connor’s 25 years would See SCOTUS, page A2
North Carolina high court backs move forcing school spending By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press RALEIGH — A local North Carolina judge had the power to transfer large amounts of taxpayer dollars from government coffers to state agencies to carry out a plan to address longstanding education inequities, a divided state Supreme Court ruled on Friday. In another landmark decision from school funding litigation that began three decades ago, the court’s Democratic majority declared it was legitimate for Superior Court Judge David Lee last year to order the movement of $1.75 billion from state coffers to agencies to implement an education remedial plan he approved earlier. The transfer had been blocked on appeal. Friday’s majority instructed another trial judge to order state officials to move those funds once he recalculates further how much money is needed to fulfill two years of that eight-year plan. Republican legislative leaders argued that only the General Assembly has authority to appropriate money, citing the language within the North Carolina Constitution. But in a 4-3 decision, justices agreed with Lee — who died last month — that previous Supreme Court decisions in the case, along with the constitution’s declaration addressing See SCHOOLS, page A2
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