VOLUME 9 ISSUE 14 | THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2024
NSJONLINE.COM
Bell tolls at CMS Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell won the longest race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, picking up his eighth career victory Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Read more in Sports
MATT KELLEY / AP PHOTO
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Lawmakers consider rollback of ‘raise the age’
BRIEF this week
At least 22 dead in Memorial Day weekend storms Cooke County, Texas A series of powerful storms swept over the central and southern U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend, killing at least 22 people and leaving a wide trail of destroyed homes, businesses and power outages. The destructive storms caused deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky and were just north of an oppressive, early-season heat wave setting records from south Texas to Florida. A tornado watch was issued from North Carolina to Maryland. The death toll included seven deaths in Cooke County, Texas, from a Saturday tornado that tore through a mobile home park, officials said, and eight deaths across Arkansas. Two people also died in Mayes County, Oklahoma, authorities said.
N.C. woman again wins cheese rolling competition London NC State graduate Abby Lampe was again the fastest to chase — or fall — down a 7-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese on the near-vertical Cooper’s Hill in southwest England. Few competitors manage to stay on their feet all the way down the 200-yard hill, and this year it was especially slippery and muddy after recent rain. Lambe — who also won in 2022 — still triumphed in the women’s race. “You just have to roll,” she said. “There’s a little bit of pain, but it’s just going to be temporary.”
Libertarians nominate Oliver for president Washington, D.C. The Libertarian Party on Sunday nominated party activist Chase Oliver for president, rejecting former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after they each spoke at the party’s convention. Trump appeared Saturday night in Washington at the convention to give a speech that was repeatedly booed by many in the room. Kennedy got a friendlier reception when he spoke on Friday and attacked both Trump and Biden for how they addressed the COVID-19 pandemic. Oliver previously ran for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House from Georgia. His campaign website calls for major cuts to the federal budget with an eye toward balancing the budget, the abolition of the death penalty, and the closure of all overseas military bases and ending of military support to Israel and Ukraine.
Ten juveniles have been charged with murder in 2024 By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
UNC BOG votes to repeal DEI policies The consent agenda vote was 21-2 and backed by the UNC System president
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The UNC System Board of Governors approved a new policy to repeal and replace its previous diversity, equity and inclusion policies and requirements for the system’s 17 campuses. The repeal and replace vote taken on the consent agenda was 21-2. The only no votes came from members Joel Ford and Sonja Phillips Nichols. The new policy will emphasize equality and nondiscrimination over diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) concepts that critics and members of the UNC Board of Trustees (BOT) and Board of Governor (BOG) say are divisive and counterproductive.
The policy repeal aligns with a national trend to end DEI practices in higher education, most prominently noted in Florida under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The replacement of section 300.8.5 of the UNC Policy Manual was approved during a BOG committee meeting on April 17. The changes include a prohibition on positions, departments or contractors from promoting ideas that do not align with “institutional neutrality,” and requires campuses to report any resulting job cuts or spending reductions to redirect funds to student success initiatives. While the policy’s immediate impact remains unclear pending legal guidance, the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees has already voted to eliminate $2.3 million in annual DEI spending and divert it to campus safety. UNC System President PeSee DEI, page A2
RALEIGH — A bill filed by lawmakers would alter “Raise the Age” legislation by making certain charges and court proceedings criteria for juveniles to be tried in Superior Court instead of juvenile court. House Bill 834, titled “Juvenile Justice Modifications,” passed the Senate on May 15 and is awaiting review in the House Rules, Operations and Calendar Committee. The bill’s primary sponsors are Reps. Ted Davis (R-New Hanover) and Neal Jackson (R-Randolph). The key change proposed in Section 1 of the bill modifies the definition of “delinquent juvenile,” specifically for 16- and 17-year-olds. Currently, juveniles in that age range who commit acts that would be crimi-
PJ WARD-BROWN / NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Four monuments were moved at a cost of more than $500,000 By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
The Confederate Monument at the state Capitol grounds was partially torn down by protesters in June 2020 before being relocated to an unknown location.
See RAISE, page A8 Rep. Neal Jackson (R-Randolph) has proposed a bill that will route 16- and 17-year-olds who commit serious felonies back into the Superior Court system.
Answers on removal of Capitol monuments surface after 4 years
IZZY LAVALETTE FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL
nal offenses for adults have their cases start in juvenile court. However, Section 1 would exclude certain felony offenses from that “delinquent juvenile” definition for 16- and 17-yearolds, excluding any offense that would be classified as a Class A, B1, B2, C, D or E felony if committed by an adult. The bill would make it so a 16or 17-year-old charged with any such felony-level offense would no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court system. Instead, their cases would originate and be handled entirely in the adult criminal court (Superior Court) system. Jackson told North State Journal the only criticism of the bill was that the shift for serious juvenile offenses going directly to Superior Court would be detrimental to minority teens. “If you do the crime, you have to do the time, and these kids are committing serious offenses,” said Jackson. “And it doesn’t
RALEIGH — After four years of records requests, North State Journal has received some answers about the monuments removed in 2020 from the Capitol grounds in Raleigh. North State Journal originally asked for details about the statue and monument removals from the Capitol grounds in late June 2020. The monuments and statues removed included the Confederate Monument, the monument to the Women of the Confederacy and a figure of Henry Lawson Wyatt. NSJ’s 2020 public records request asked the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for all records of the removals, including costs, man-hours, resources employed and what vendors might
have been used. NSJ also asked for any related emails sent between the NCDOT and Gov. Roy Cooper’s Office. NCDOT refused to produce the documents for more than a year, and NSJ decided not to pursue legal means to compel document production. In January 2024, NSJ filed a new public records request, asking simplified but comparable questions, such as how many statues were removed from the Capitol grounds, where were they sent, where are they now and how much it cost. “Four statues were removed June 19-21,” and the “entire removal and relocation costs were $550,026.11,” NCDOT responded this month. NCDOT added, “Contractors for the state of North Carolina removed four statues and some granite from a tall monument on the Capitol Grounds and transported them initially to the North Carolina National See MONUMENTS, page A3
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