VOLUME 5 ISSUE 13
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine to protect against virus Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump told reporters he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half” after two White House staffers tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump said his doctor did not recommend hydroxychloroquine to him, but that he requested it from the White House physician. Amid concerns from some public health experts that Trump’s example could send more people to misuse the drug, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that “tens of millions of people around the world have used this drug for other purposes,” including malaria prophylaxis. She emphasized that “any use of hydroxychloroquine has to be in consultation with your doctor.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
NCDHHS expands COVID-19 measures in long-term care facilities Raleigh The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced all long-term care facilities in the state will receive personal protective equipment packs of needed supplies, and facilities will receive a limited increased rate for some Medicaid services to support infection prevention and management. “We have a team dedicated to supporting our long-term care facilities as they protect our aging family members and loved ones who require roundthe-clock care and the staff who care for them,” said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen. “We want to help them do all that they can because once an outbreak occurs in a congregate living setting, it can be difficult to prevent the spread of the virus.” PPE packs will go to more than 3,000 state-licensed longterm care facilities and include a 14-day supply of face shields, procedure masks, gloves and shoe covers. NSJ STAFF
US on track to pull troops from Afghanistan despite turmoil Washington, D.C. The United States is on track to meet its commitment to withdraw several thousand troops from Afghanistan by summer, even as violence flares, the peace process is stalled, and Kabul struggles in political deadlock. U.S. officials say they will reduce to 8,600 troops by July 15 and leave five bases. And by next spring all foreign forces are supposed to withdraw, ending America’s longest war. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has said that getting out of Afghanistan would advance his aim of devoting more forces to the Asia-Pacific region to counter China, which he sees as the No. 1 long-term threat to the United States. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Study: World carbon pollution falls 17% during pandemic peak Kensington, Maryland The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found. In their study of carbon dioxide emissions during the coronavirus pandemic, an international team of scientists calculated that pollution levels are heading back up — and for the year will end up between 4% and 7% lower than 2019 levels. That’s still the biggest annual drop in carbon emissions since World War II. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ROBERT CLARK | NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Rep. Phil Shepard (R-Onslow) speaks at the Return America rally in front of the General Assembly on Thursday, May 14. Return America was one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against Gov. Roy Cooper.
NORTH
STATE
JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
Legislative session begins in Raleigh Impact of pandemic on NC budget, unemployment in focus By David Larson North State Journal RALEIGH — The North Carolina legislature’s “short session,” which takes place on even-numbered years, has begun in earnest. Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) held a press conference Monday to offer press and the public an idea of what his chamber’s Republican majority would be pursuing in the following weeks. Berger said the legislature needed Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration to provide more information on several areas so the legislature can proceed with an accurate picture — highlighting specifically COVID-19 testing data from the Department of Health and Human Services, data on unemployment claims from the Department of Commerce, and information on overspending by the Department of Transportation. “I think all of those things are things that are ripe for legislation and are ripe for the legislature to call on the executive branch to provide us and the people of N.C. with answers,” Berger said. While he said he’s “got some ideas” for fixes in these areas, Berger said they are at a preliminary stage and haven’t been fleshed out fully into legislation. “The most important thing is that we get answers from the Department of Commerce as to what they’re doing to move things along,” Berger said on the reports of chaos in the process of getting unemployment checks out to the historic numbers of North Carolinians now unemployed. “We keep hearing that they’re hiring additional people, but that doesn’t seem to be moving the needle.” A priority of the session will be to make adjustments to the biennial budget. After the last budget was vetoed by Cooper, the state has been operating with funding levels from the previous biennium. With the pandemic crippling tax revenue, Berger suggested this likely would not
be the time to consider an expansion of Medicaid or providing additional raises for teachers. “Before COVID-19 hit our state, we were looking at a significant surplus. Now, our nonpartisan fiscal staff is estimating a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall,” Berger said. A question was posed to Berger on whether, despite these cratering revenues, a court case in progress could force the legislature to raise education funding based on the 1997 Leandro decision, which ruled that a child has a “right to a sound basic education.” “We can’t spend money that we don’t have,” Berger responded. “Our constitution does not provide for judges to appropriate dollars. We’ve said on multiple occasions that if judges want to get into the field of appropriating, they need to run for the legislature. We’ll see what the order is, but again, we cannot spend money we do not have.” Berger did say the Republican majority would try to avoid the level of cuts that Democrats made to education during the Great Recession more than a decade earlier. In a sign that the session could also feature a battle with Cooper over the pace of reopening the economy, Berger called for restaurants and other businesses that have been shut down or forced to limit activity to be permitted to open again to the public. One reporter asked why Berger was calling for restaurants to reopen when her newspaper had spoken with many restaurant owners who said they were not yet ready to welcome back customers. “So, I’m not saying they’d be required to reopen,” Berger responded. “And I’m not sure how many ‘many’ is. I’m sure there are a large number that want to reopen even under reduced capacity. I think the fact that some don’t want to means that people will have to make their own decisions about what’s safe and what’s not safe.” Berger said the session, which traditionally tries to wrap up before the Fourth of July holiday, would only take four to six weeks and be out before the end of June.
Indoor worship services return as executive orders challenged Hair salons, other groups push for loosening of restrictions By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Thanks to a federal court ruling, over this past weekend churches across North Carolina held indoor services for the first time since Gov. Roy Cooper imposed a stay-at-home order on the state, which included restricting gatherings to 10 people or fewer. U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever heard arguments on Friday, May 15 from plaintiffs challenging Cooper’s authority to restrict religious activities. The plaintiffs, a group of pastors and churches, alleged Cooper’s orders violate the U.S. and N.C. constitutions with regard to religious worship. The following day, Dever granted a temporary restraining order preventing the enforcement of Cooper’s orders restricting worship “There is no pandemic excep-
“There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution of the United States or the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.” U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever tion to the Constitution of the United States or the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” said Dever in his ruling. Dever delivered a stark criticism in the order, stating that “The Governor appears to trust citizens to perform non-religious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandise) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship indoors together.” There are “glaring inconsistenSee CHURCH page A2
When North Carolina schools will open is the ‘million-dollar question’ General Assembly workgroup discusses school reopening, nutrition and ‘homework gap’ By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The education workgroup of the North Carolina House Select Committee on COVID-19 heard from technology, education and health officials on topics including the reopening of schools, as well as school connectivity and continuing food service issues. The committee heard from Jeff Sural, director of the Broadband Infrastructure Office at the state’s Department of Information Technology about school connectivity issues and “homework gap” concerns. The homework gap is when students are assigned homework requiring access to the internet but don’t have home access. In January of this year, Sural testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology at a digital inclusion hearing. North Carolina was the only state requested to testify at that hearing. According to the maps provided by Sural, which uses data from the Federal Communications Commission, counties considered to have a “homework gap” map are See SCHOOLS page A2