VOLUME 11 ISSUE 25 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
NSJONLINE.COM
CHUCK BURTON / AP PHOTO
Wyndfall Wake Forest alumnus Michael Brennan kisses the Sam Snead Cup after winning the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro on Sunday. See more in Sports.
DOJ: Duke Law discriminated based on race
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BRIEF this week
Balkcom picked to replace Edwards on 11th District ballot Asheville State Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson) accepted the nomination by Republicans in the state’s 11th Congressional District to replace U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) on the November ballot. Edwards dropped out of his reelection bid in the early hours of Aug. 5, just two days after the House Ethics Committee recommended his censure over inappropriate interactions with two female staffers. Balkcom has served as the District 117 representative for two terms after first winning the seat in 2022. Balkcom will face Democratic candidate Jamie Ager, who has raised more than $3.05 million, according to Federal Election Commission data from the period spanning July 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
Tarboro-born Jones, “Dukes of Hazzard” actor who served in Congress, dead at 84 Washington, Va. Ben Jones, who played the good ol’ boy mechanic in “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV series and parlayed his fame into a political career and two terms in the U.S. House, has died. He was 84. Jones had a heart attack in his home Sunday in Washington, Virginia, his wife said on social media. Jones’ fame came from his role as Cooter Davenport, the mechanic who got the Duke boys out of jams as they tried to do the right thing and fight the corrupt Boss Hogg in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia. Jones was born in Tarboro in Edgecombe County but moved with his family to Virginia as an infant.
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The department’s Civil Rights Division examined the school’s admission record
House Speaker Johnson stumps for Buckhout Rep. Don Davis is running to hold onto his seat in North Carolina’s 1st District By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stumped for retired Army Col. Laurie Buckhout at a campaign stop in Greenville on Aug. 4.
Buckhout is the Republican challenging Rep. Don Davis for the seat. Davis, a Democrat, is in his second term. The previous bid by Buckhout to unseat Davis in 2024 came up short by about 6,700 votes. In 2025, the state legislature redistricted Davis’ seat to have more of a Republican lean. See BUCKHOUT, page A3
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has announced investigative findings showing Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated based on race in granting and denying admission to its 2023, 2024 and 2025 incoming classes. “Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race, and this Department is committed to eliminating it everywhere we find it, including in our nation’s law schools.”
UNC SCiLL report lawsuit remains pending An Orange County judge said he wants to review the report himself before ruling By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — No decision has yet been made in the lawsuit brought by a coalition of media outlets over UNC Chapel Hill’s refusal to release an internal investigation report on one of its schools, the Center for Civic Life and Leadership. During an Aug. 4 hearing, Orange County Superior Court Judge John Morris didn’t issue a ruling but instead said he wants to conduct his own review of UNC Chapel Hill’s re-
port to decide for himself if the case should go to trial or if he will dismiss it. “North Carolina’s public records law provides a broad right of access to records of public agencies,” Morris said. “However, many exceptions in other laws that deal with public records can be found also in other chapters. So it will be an intense, intensive legal inquiry and review.” Morris did not say when he will issue a decision. Morris heard arguments from both sides, with UNC attorney Wes Camden arguing the report is protected in its entirety under the state’s Public Records Act. Camden also See SCiLL, page A2
“It will be an intense, intensive legal review.” John Morris, Orange County Superior Court judge
According to the Civil Rights Division’s press statement, Duke Law’s conduct violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. A letter containing the Civil Rights Division’s findings was issued by Dhillon to Marc Berger, an attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP. The letter outlines how Duke Law emphasized racial diversity in admissions and took deliberate steps to preserve race-based outcomes for its incoming classes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race discrimination in higher education. “Based on its review of Duke Law’s documents and data, the Department finds that Duke Law continues to intentionally discriminate against applicants based on their race after the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA by granting See DUKE, page A10