VOLUME 8 ISSUE 13
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2023
Remembering all who served this Memorial Day
Racing remarkably returns to North Wilkesboro A pack of cars take a green flag restart during the NASCAR All-Star Cup Series auto race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Sunday, May 21, 2023, in North Wilkesboro. Read about the week-long celebration of the venerable racetrack and how Sunday’s race unfolded with Kyle Larson winning the $1 million prize see page B1. AP PHOTO
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BRIEF this week
Biden campaign says NC will be a priority in 2024 election Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden ‘s reelection campaign is vowing to hold the states that won him the White House in 2020 but also compete in places it lost like North Carolina and increasingly Republicandominated Florida, providing what it says are “a number of viable pathways to the 270 electoral votes” needed to clinch four more years. Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo the campaign is planning early investments to try to retain battleground states Biden won in 2020 including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire, and to hold Georgia and Arizona, which hadn’t voted Democratic in a presidential race in decades prior to three years ago. But the campaign will also “look to expand the map even further in states like North Carolina and Florida” and Rodriguez said both would be included in a “7-figure” advertising buy that encompassed investments in a string of swing states. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Longtime Angus Barn chef dies at 67 Raleigh The longtime executive chef for the Angus Barn, Walter Royal, has died at the age of 67. Royal was hired at the Angus Barn in 1997. He would spend the rest of his life leading one of the most respected restaurants in North Carolina and appeared on the cooking competition Iron Chef America in 2006. Remembrances and condolences from North Carolina restaurant and political luminaries immediately began pouring in Monday night on social media. State Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham County wrote on Twitter, “With Walter Royal’s sudden passing, North Carolina has lost a true treasure. I bet he prepared more #ncpol meals than any other chef. Rest in peace, Chef.” Royal was only one of three chefs in the Angus Barn’s storied history and the only one to ever be granted the title of executive chef. NSJ STAFF
Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
AP PHOTO
COVID emergency orders are among ‘greatest intrusions on civil liberties,’ Justice Gorsuch says Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court got rid of a pandemic-related immigration case with a single sentence. Justice Neil Gorsuch had a lot more to say, leveling harsh criticism of how governments, from small towns to the nation’s capital, responded to the gravest public health threat in a century. The justice, a 55-year-old conservative who was President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, called emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis that killed more than 1 million Americans perhaps “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” He pointed to orders closing schools, restricting church services, mandating vaccines
Cooper declares ‘state of emergency’ over Republican education policies By Matt Mercer North State Journal
and prohibiting evictions. His broadside was aimed at local, state and federal officials — even his colleagues. “Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale,” Gorsuch wrote in an eightpage statement Thursday that accompanied an expected Supreme Court order formally dismissing a case involving the use of the Title 42 policy to prevent asylum seekers from entering the United States. The policy was ended last week with the expiration of the public health emergency first declared more than three years ago because of the coronavirus pandemic. From the start of his Supreme Court tenure in 2017, Gorsuch, a Colorado native who
RALEIGH — Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday said a ‘state of emergency’ exists over the future of North Carolina’s public education. “It’s time to declare a state of emergency for public education in North Carolina. There’s no Executive Order like with a hurricane or the pandemic, but it’s no less important,” said Cooper in a six-minute statement. “It’s clear that the Republican legislature is aiming to choke the life out of public education. I’m declaring this state of emergency because you need to know what’s happening. If you care about public schools in North Carolina, it’s time to take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation,” he continued. The governor and his team highlighted three areas they claim are threatened. First, Cooper launched an attack on a universal school choice bill expected to be sent to him with a veto-proof margin. That bill, HB 823, would allow the state’s popular Opportunity Scholarship program to be extended on an income-based scale to all families in the state. It passed the N.C. House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 17 and is awaiting action in the N.C. Senate. Derisively calling the program a “voucher scheme,” Cooper says tax dollars would be poured into private schools “that are unaccountable to the public and can decide which students they want to keep out.” He also complained that “even millionaires” could get taxpayer money for their children’s tuition. A summary of the bill includes a provision stating that no student is awarded more than the required
See COVID, page A2
See EDUCATION, page A8
“The governor is advocating for systems rather than students themselves. Education is not one-sizefits-all and NC families should have the freedom to determine what kind of education is best for them.” State Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg)
US Supreme Court ruling on pork products may have ramifications for NC By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court involving California’s Proposition 12 may have ramifications for North Carolina pork producers. The case, brought by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation (the plaintiffs) against the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, challenged the California law forbidding the instate sale of whole pork meat from pigs raised in a “confined in a cruel manner.” Proposition 12 was passed in 2018 and among its requirements is that sows should have at least 24 square feet of living space.
The plaintiffs in the case had argued that “Proposition 12 violates the U. S. Constitution by impermissibly burdening interstate commerce,” per the Supreme Court’s ruling. They also alleged estimated costs of compliance would make production costs rise – a cost borne by producers outside of California. According to the plaintiff’s filing, “California consumes 13% of U.S. pork, but produces only 0.1% of what it consumes,” and that the requirements would “disrupt the $26-billion-a-year market in pork, force California’s preferred production methods on farmers everywhere, and impose the high costs of those methods on out-of-state farmers and consumers.” The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Ninth Circuit
which had upheld the district court’s ruling. The district court had ruled the petitioners’ complaint failed to state a claim as a matter of law and had dismissed the case. “We are very disappointed with the Supreme Court’s opinion,” National Pork Producers Council President and Missouri pork producer Scott Hays said in a press release. “Allowing state overreach will increase prices for consumers and drive small farms out of business, leading to more consolidation. We are still evaluating the Court’s full opinion to understand all the implications. NPPC will continue to fight for our nation’s pork farmers and American families against misguided regulations.” See SCOTUS, page A2
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