VOLUME 9 ISSUE 1
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024
the
BRIEF this week
Trump, Haley, Harris visiting NC this weekend Greensboro Former President Donald Trump announced he will hold a rally at the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday, March 2, ahead of next Tuesday’s North Carolina primary election. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, coming off a 20-point loss in her home state of South Carolina last week, is holding two events in the Tarheel State: a Charlotte rally on March 1 and a Raleigh event the following day at 12:30 p.m. After the two Republican presidential candidates announced their visits, White House officials said Vice President Kamala Harris would make a stop in the state on Friday in Durham. She will be joined by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Gov. Roy Cooper as part of the Biden administration’s “Investing in America” tour. NSJ STAFF
US Army is slashing thousands of jobs in major revamp to prepare for future wars Washington, D.C. The U.S. Army is slashing the size of its force by about 24,000, or almost 5%, and restructuring to be better able to fight the next major war, as the service struggles with recruiting shortfalls that made it impossible to bring in enough soldiers to fill all the jobs. According to an Army document, the service is “significantly overstructured” and there aren’t enough soldiers to fill existing units. The decision reflects the reality that for years the Army hasn’t been able to fill thousands of empty posts. While the Army as it’s currently structured can have up to 494,000 soldiers, the total number of active-duty soldiers right now is about 445,000. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Letter containing white powder sent to Donald Trump Jr.’s home Miami Emergency crews responded Monday after a letter containing an unidentified white powder was sent to the Florida home of Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of former President and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. A person familiar with the matter said that results on the substance were inconclusive, but officials do not believe it was deadly. Trump Jr. opened the letter, which also contained a death threat, and emergency responders wearing hazmat suits responded. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A.P. DILLON | NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Rev. William Barber speaks during a protest in downtown Raleigh at the Leandro hearing at the N.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
NC Supreme Court rehears arguments on Leandro ruling 6th District GOP candidates feud over Petty, other endorsements By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
North State Journal received a statement from the Petty family via Rebecca Petty Moffitt in the evening hours of Feb. 24 refuting any endorsement for the March 5 primary. “Richard Petty has not endorsed any candidate for the 2024 Republican primary,” the Petty family statement says. “Richard is a life-long conservative and has always been heavily involved in Republican politics but he has not made any primary endorsements in this election.” In response to a North State Journal inquiry about Moffitt’s statement, Castelli said in a phone interview that he didn’t think the Petty camp understood the situation. “Well, they don’t know much about politics,” said Castelli. “I’ve been in this primary for a very long time, and when he renewed, I guess they think we’re in the primary window now in the next two weeks, they renewed their endorsement of me months ago. It was like six
RALEIGH — An endorsement by NASCAR legend Richard Petty of a North Carolina 6th District Congressional candidate making the rounds on social media and in campaign mailers is not current: it’s from 2022, according to members of the Petty family. A video of Petty endorsing Christian Castelli was first posted to Castelli’s Facebook campaign page on Aug. 24, 2022. That same video began appearing on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, on the Facebook page of the “First Freedoms Foundation,” a Washington, D.C.based PAC. On Castelli’s official campaign page, the same Petty video is found at the end of his 2024 endorsements list. The same video is also found in the 2022 endorsements list. The campaign itself has also touted the endorsement in direct mail to Republican primary voters in the district. See ENDORSEMENT, page A3
AP PHOTO
Former NASCAR driver Richard Petty, a team owner, walks along pit road during driver introductions before the two Daytona 500 qualifying auto races at Daytona International Speedway, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Fla.
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — At a discretionary review hearing on Feb. 22, the North Carolina Supreme Court again heard oral arguments regarding the long-running Leandro education funding case. The hearing lasted around 80 minutes. A decision by the court is pending and the next date the court is scheduled to issue decisions is March 22. The 2022 ruling upheld a trial court order for three state government entities to transfer $677 million out of the state’s coffers to cov-
er two years of the WestEd-produced “Comprehensive Remedial Plan.” The original plan total called for over $5.4 billion in new additional statewide spending over five years. The previous court, which had a Democratic majority (4-3), issued its ruling just ahead of the November 2022 elections. The ruling bypassed state constitution provisions designating the legislature as the entity with authority to disperse funds. In the November election, Republicans won all of the See LEANDRO, page A2
The 411: How a 50-year old Head Start nonprofit has helped migrant farmworker children By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — A 50-year-old Head Start program has had a multi-generational impact on migrant farmworker families and their children. Maria Garza, the CEO of the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP), shared with North State Journal the impact of what the organization does and how it has made a “big difference” in the lives of migrant farmworker families. ECMHSP is a nonprofit established in 1974 through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The organization has 43 campuses in ten states, including North Carolina, which provide “holistic, high-quality early childhood education services” for approximately 3,500 farmworker children “between 6 weeks to 6 years old.” The organization does not receive state or local dollars but instead is funded mainly by the federal government. Federal grant funding in 2022-23 totaled nearly $80 million and in 2023-24 the group received grants totaling $71 million.
ECMHSP serves multiple counties with offices located in Angier, Bailey, Booneville, Newton Grove, Fountain, Ivanhoe and Rocky Point. The organization will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and Garza said various events are being planned to celebrate. “We are probably one of the very few Head Start agency providers or nonprofits that are exclusively Head Start providers,” Garza said. She added they have not deviated from their original mission since the organization was founded. “We don’t provide housing, we don’t provide health care,” said Garza. “We do cover and provide an array of comprehensive services - holistic services and approaches to the children that we serve - and health is See HEAD START, page A8
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