VOLUME 7 ISSUE 33 |
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2022
NC-based Texas Pete maker facing lawsuit over name Winston-Salem A California man is suing North Carolina-based hot sauce manufacturer T.W. Garner Food Co. for false advertising. As first reported by USA Today, California resident Philip White bought a bottle of Texas Pete in September 2021 but now says he would not have done so had it not led him to believe it was created in Texas. Texas Pete is a hot sauce created back in 1929 in Winston-Salem. The sauce’s creator came up with the name because Texas had a reputation for spicy cuisine and his son’s nickname was Pete. White and his lawyers say the company “has cheated its way to a market-leading position” in the hot sauce industry by fooling customers into buying an inauthentic Texas sauce.
AP PHOTO
Panthers punt Rhule after 1-4 start The Carolina Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule five games into his third season leading the team. Defensive backs coach Steve Wilks was named the interim head coach. Read more in B1.
NSJ STAFF
Polls show Republicans hold lead in top judicial races ahead of midterms
Ada Fisher, influential black Republican in NC, dies at 74 Salisbury Dr. Ada Fisher, a retired physician who was one of North Carolina’s members on the Republican National Committee for over a decade, has died at age 74. Fisher also was known for her no-nonsense conservative views and her early support for former President Donald Trump. A Durham native who earned advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University, Fisher entered politics after a career as a practicing physician in both family practice and corporate settings. State GOP activists elected Fisher as an RNC committeewoman in 2008 and she remained in the position until 2020. “Dr. Ada Fisher was an incredible woman and an NCGOP institution who fought harder than anyone to support the party and advance conservative principles,” U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said of the news. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former U.S. Rep., presidential candidate Gabbard leaves Democratic Party Honolulu Tulsi Gabbard, a former four-term congresswoman from Hawaii and 2020 presidential candidate, announced she left the Democratic Party on Tuesday. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, demonize the police, believe in open borders, and weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents,” Gabbard wrote on Twitter.
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
Annual College Free Speech Rankings show majority of students hesitant to speak up Only 3 NC schools made the top 25 By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The College Pulse and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) have released the latest College Free Speech rankings for institutions across the United States. College Pulse describes itself as a survey research and analytics company dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences and behaviors of today’s college students. FIRE is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that does work “defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought.” “More than three in five students (63%) expressed worry about damaging their reputation because of someone misunderstanding what they have said or done, and just over one in five (21%) reported that they feel a lot of pressure to avoid discussing controversial topics in their classes. Twenty-two percent reported
that they often self-censor,” according to the report’s highlights. Additionally, roughly threein-five students reported they wouldn’t feel comfortable publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial topic or expressing an unpopular opinion to their peers on a social media account using their real name. In its conclusion, the report noted that “at least 40% of students identified important societal topics — including abortion, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and mask mandates, gun control, police misconduct, racial inequality, and transgender issues — as difficult topics to have an open and honest conversation about.” According to this year’s report, for the second time in three years, the University of Chicago was the top-ranked school. Kansas State University, Purdue University, Mississippi State University and Oklahoma State University rounded out the top five. Columbia University was the lowest-scoring school with a Speech Climate rating of “Abysmal.” The University of Pennsylvania, Rensselaer Polytechnic See FREE SPEECH, page A2
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Seller exploits gun buyback loophole with help of 3D printer Albany, N.Y. New York’s attorney general has changed the rules of a state gun buyback program after a participant exploited the system by using a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then turned in for $21,000 in gift cards. The seller, who identified himself by a pseudonym, said he traveled from West Virginia to a gun buyback Aug. 27 in Utica, New York, to take advantage of a loophole in the program — and to demonstrate that buybacks are futile in an era of printable weapons. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE PHOTO
The logo for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is shown in this file photo.
RALEIGH — Recent opinion polls in North Carolina show voters are more likely to vote for Republican candidates than Democrats for two state Supreme Court seats this year. A poll of likely voters from Sept. 24-26 was conducted by the national polling group Cygnal on behalf of the Civitas Institute and John Locke Foundation. Republican Richard Dietz leads Democrat Lucy Inman 44.5% to 40.5%. Both Dietz and Inman currently sit on the N.C. Court of Appeals and are running for Seat 3 on the state’s high court. That seat is being vacated by Associate Justice Robin Hudson, who faces mandatory retirement. Inman — along with former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is now running for U.S. Sen-
ate — was criticized for filming campaign ads in judicial chambers while courts around the state were shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Beasley in 2020. Similarly, 38.9% said they’d vote for Seat 5 incumbent Democrat Sam Ervin IV while 46% would vote for Republican Trey Allen. Allen is the general counsel for the Administrative Office of the Courts. Ervin was elected in 2014 and previously served as a state appellate judge. A SurveyUSA poll of North Carolina registered voters conducted on behalf of WRAL News also shows the Republicans with leads over Democrats in the N.C. Supreme Court races. That poll has Dietz up 37% to Inman’s 32%, and Allen with 39% to Ervin’s 37%. See POLLS, page A2
Third-party absentee ballot mailers hit NC ahead of midterms 808,220 vote-by-mail applications and 607,931 voter registration applications have gone out to N.C. citizens
vestigative journalist and founder of Seven Oaks Media Group. Seven Oaks Media Group describes itself as “a select group of former reporters and producSee BALLOT, page A2
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Mailings related to obtaining absentee ballots from third-party organizations have been showing up again in North Carolina ahead of the November midterm elections. The mailings come from the Voter Participation Center (VPC), a sister group of the Center for Voter Information (CVI). According to its website, the “Center for Voter Information is a nonprofit, non-partisan partner organization to Voter Participation Center, both founded to provide resources and tools to help voting-eligible citizens register and vote in upcoming elections.” The VPC mailings appear in some cases to be targeting individuals who are either no longer on North Carolina voter rolls or have inactive voter registration. One citizen who shared a mailing they received said it was addressed to a family member who hasn’t lived in the state for almost a decade. North State Journal reached out to VPC to see how many mailers went out in North Carolina and to which counties. A response was received from Jim Popkin, a former NBC News in-
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