North State Journal Vol. 4, Issue 15

Page 1

|

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 15

Inside

WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019

UNC, ECU, Duke baseball advance, B1

ALASTAIR GRANT | AP PHOTO

From left, US President Donald Trump, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, first lady Melania Trump, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall pose for the media ahead of the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace in London, Monday, June 3, 2019. Trump is on a three-day state visit to Britain.

the Wednesday

NEWS BRIEFING

Warrant: N Carolina campus suspect may have recorded carnage Charlotte The attacker who killed two students and wounded four others in a North Carolina university classroom may have recorded video of the classroom carnage on his cellphone, a Charlotte television station reported Saturday. A new arrest warrant described former student Trystan Andrew Terrell telling police he recorded video at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on April 30, WSOC reported. Two students were killed and four were wounded. AP

Marines’ deployment training spreads across North Carolina

AP

20177 52016 $2.00

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

8

By Jonathan Lemire The Associated Press LONDON — Making nice at the end, President Donald Trump eased up Tuesday on his frequent criticisms of outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May over her handling of the tortured Brexit deal, declaring that history will remember her fondly if the United Kingdom can successfully leave the European Union.

The latest chapter in the allies’ storied “special relationship” played out as anti-Trump protesters — with the infamous Trump baby balloon bobbing overhead — thronged the streets of nearby central London. The president’s unexpected compliments for May come just days before she was set to resign the leadership of her party af-

Vidant Health, General Assembly battle over Hemp industry appointments, funding is focus of farm bill By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

Elizabethtown Marine Corps troops gearing up for an overseas deployment are seeing some variety as they train on terrain around North Carolina. Marines are training their urban assault, movement and other techniques Tuesday on Bladen County property in Elizabethtown. It’s part of two weeks of work that about 1,500 members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejeune are putting in before shipping out. The Marines say people in Ashe, Avery, Bladen and Duplin counties could expect to see military aircraft overhead, military vehicles on the roads and role-playing troops dressed in Middle Eastern dress. Some overnight activities could include Marines on the ground at isolated areas and sounds of blank gunfire.

5

NORTH

Trump celebrates US-UK ties in state visit

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Senate voted 30-16 to cut $35 million in funding to Vidant Medical Center (VMC) on the same day a lawsuit was filed by the UNC System accusing Vidant and Pitt County of a breach of contract. The VMC cuts would go into effect July 1 and would be on top of an estimated $38 million cut related to state health plan changes that involve a new pricing model using Medicare rates to reimburse providers for their services set to take effect next year. Vidant currently has more than 12,500 employees and operates eight hospitals that serve 29 counties. One of the hospitals Vidant has operated for decades is a teaching hospital associated with the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine. Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted that “The ECU medical school and rural health care are too important to get caught up in political vendettas.” But Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) is focused less on politics and more on the potential breach of contract. “Vidant had a contractual relationship with ECU in which Vidant received the taxpayer-funded benefits of being classified as a teaching hospital and

Senate seeks to balance industry needs, law enforcement concerns

the UNC System received nine appointments to Vidant’s Board of Trustees,” said Hise in a press release. “Vidant ended that contract. Now, Vidant is upset that it is not still receiving the taxpayer-funded benefits afforded from the contract that Vidant ended. “Without the affiliation agreement in place, Vidant is just like any other hospital,” added Hise. “The Senate budget therefore treats Vidant the same way as other private hospitals, as is only fair. Otherwise, Vidant would be receiving public benefits that other hospitals do not receive even though Vidant now has the same relationship with the public university system as other private hospitals have.” Since 1975, the UNC System and Vidant have had a contractual agreement which gives the UNC Board of Governors the power to appoint members to the hospital’s board of trustees. In exchange for board members appointments, UNC agreed not to build another teaching hospital in the area. The updated 2013 agreement between UNC and Vidant stipulates a 20-member board of trustees, 11 of which are appointed by Pitt County commissioners, nine by the UNC Board of Governors and one board member appointee must be a physician. The agree-

RALEIGH — Members of North Carolina’s hemp industry believe hemp could be the next cash crop for the state, but concerns from law enforcement are bringing a major part of the industry, smokable products, under scrutiny. Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson), who co-chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, sees hemp as important enough to the state’s farmers to make it the focus of the 2019 Farm Act. But he told North State Journal it was a difficult task to strike the right balance between the hemp industry and the state’s law enforcement, who are concerned there isn’t a good way to differentiate between “smokable hemp,” which is legal, and marijuana, which is not. Cannabis with 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive element known as THC, or lower is considered industrial hemp and is legal to grow and distribute in North Carolina. Marijuana, another variety of the cannabis plant, appears virtually identical but has

See VIDANT, page A2

See HEMP, page A2

By David Larson North State Journal

See TRUMP, page A2


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.