North State Journal Vol. 4, Issue 16

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VOLUME 4 ISSUE 16

Inside

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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019

Big Rock tournament underway, B1

ALESSANDRA TARANTINO | AP PHOTO

Samantha Mewis, center, and her teammates celebrate a goal during the United States’ 13-0 win Tuesday over Thailand in the opener of the Women’s World Cup in Reims, France. Mewis and Crystal Dunn, second from left, both also play for the Carolina Courage. Read more about Dunn, who also played at the University of North Carolina, on page B4.

the Wednesday

NEWS BRIEFING

House to restart hurricane recovery committee Raleigh The state House is reconstituting an oversight committee that will keep monitoring challenges state government has had in distributing federal long-term housing grants to hurricane victims in eastern North Carolina. House Speaker Tim Moore announced Tuesday that the House Select Committee on Disaster Relief has been authorized to meet again.

Environmentalists sue over offshore drilling rules New Orleans National groups including Earthjustice and the Sierra Club and groups on the Gulf and Carolina coasts filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday in San Francisco. They say the federal agency created to oversee offshore drilling safety acted before some rules took effect. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in March that the changes would eliminate unnecessary regulation while keeping safety and environmental protection.

Record week of overdoses has city running low on naloxone Elizabeth City First responders say a record number of heroin overdoses in Elizabeth City is depleting the supply of a drug used to revive patients. As of Monday, 12 people had overdosed in a week in the Elizabeth City area, including two people who died. Pasquotank-Camden Emergency Medical Services Chief Jerry Newell says crews delivered doses of naloxone in each case. Naloxone is a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose. It costs emergency agencies about $60 to buy one dose of naloxone.

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NORTH

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

North Carolina Republican Party hits ‘reset,’ elects new chairman By A.P. Dillon North State Journal CONCORD — Michael Whatley’s “Reset in Raleigh” campaign slogan resonated with North Carolina Republican Party members at their annual conventions this past weekend, electing him to be their new chairman. “This is victory for all our North Carolina Republican activists this weekend,” Chairman-Elect Michael Whatley said in a statement. “As we enter the most important election cycle in our lifetime,” said Whatley. “We’ll hit the ground running building the Party infrastructure, fundraising, and training volunteers in order to re-elect President Trump and deliver for all of our candidates up and down the ballot.” In the week leading up to the vote, Whatley picked up high-profile national level endorsements from U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Whatley hails from Gaston County and is an energy consultant with HBW Resources LLC, an oil and energy consulting firm with multiple locations, including one in Charlotte. Whatley is also the executive director of the Consumer Energy Alliance, an energy policy advocacy group headquartered in Houston, Texas. The journey into politics for Whatley began in 1984 as a vol-

unteer for U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms’ campaign. He later served President Bush as a senior official at the Department of Energy and was chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. In 2016, Whatley helped organize Trump rallies across the state. Whatley’s “reset” campaign theme was like that of Jim Womack, who campaigned to “revive” and reunify the party. It had been a three-way race between Whatley, Jim Womack and John Lewis, but the vote count revealed a two-way race between Whatley and Womack. When it came down to voting, Whatley came in ahead with over 50% of the vote to Womack’s 45%. Lewis was a distant third with around 4.24% of the vote. Womack, a former Lee County commissioner, ran against Robin Hayes in 2017. A West Point graduate and an Army veteran with 20 years of service, Womack worked in state government in the Information Technology department before joining a private IT company. Lewis had been serving as the assistant legal counsel to the State Board of Elections but left to take the role of General Counsel for the NC GOP after the party’s long-time legal counsel, Tom Stark, passed away suddenly in December of 2018. Lewis ran on a platform that included a bigger focus on Senate and judicial contests in 2020. Whatley succeeds Robin See NCGOP, page A2

Hurricane fund distribution broke law By Amanda Morris TheAssociated Press RALEIGH — The N.C. Department of Public Safety broke the law and didn’t follow legislative directives when distributing $9 million of state money after Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016, according to a report Monday from the General Assembly’s government watchdog agency. The report — the second in three weeks by the Program Evaluation Division questioning how Matthew recovery funds have been handled — determined a lump-sum, upfront $5.35 million payment to one grant recipient violated state law, which says funds must be distributed in

smaller incremental payments. The grant recipient in question, the nonprofit North Carolina Community Development Initiative, then used money intended for emergency shelter and short-term housing to fund new construction projects, buy land for future development and fund mixed-use development, the report says. Instead of going directly to help hurricane survivors, the report says, some state money allocated by the nonprofit benefited private developers and landlords. North Carolina Emergency Management Director Michael Sprayberry told legislators the violation See HURRICANE, page A2

Cooper’s veto of ‘born alive’ bill stands By David Larson North State Journal RALEIGH — Republicans in the N.C. House were unable to achieve the three-fifths vote necessary to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of S.B. 359, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The override vote, at 67-53, fell five votes short of the 72 required, handing abortion advocates a victory after a series of recent national setbacks in states like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Republicans argued the bill was not about abortion, but only about protecting those already alive outside the womb. “Regardless of whether someone considers themselves pro-choice or pro-life, this is something we should all be behind,” Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said in a statement. “Any civilized society should make sure that a child that is born deserves the same medical care as any other human being.” To make this point, GOP leaders invited two women who survived abortions, Gianna Jensen and Claire Culwell, to speak in a press conference the day of the final override vote. “I was born in an abortion clinic in Los Angeles at 6 o’clock in the morning and my medical records do state ‘born during a saline abortion, April 6, 1977, 2½ pounds, 29½ weeks, no resuscitation required upon arrival at the hospital,’” Jensen said. “The only reason I was not strangled or suffocated or left to die was because the abortionist wasn’t at work yet.” The other woman, Culwell, lives with disabilities after being born at just three pounds, following an abortion attempt that was only fully successful on her twin. Democrats rejected this line of reasoning, saying N.C. doctors are already regulated by See BORN ALIVE, page A2


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