VOLUME 8 ISSUE 25
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2023
the
BRIEF this week
Bishop raises over $900k since launching attorney general campaign Waxhaw Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop’s (R-NC-08) campaign for North Carolina Attorney General released its 10-day organizational fundraising report on Monday. Bishop reported raising over $900,000 during the 10-day period, which the campaign said it believes is the most ever raised for a statewide campaign during an organizational reporting period. “North Carolinians are as determined as I am to end the 128-year Democrat stranglehold on the attorney general’s office. Voters want our state’s chief law enforcement officer to restore law and order by safeguarding the public, keeping criminals behind bars and relentlessly backing our great prosecutors and law enforcement officers,” Bishop said in a statement. NSJ STAFF
AP PHOTOS
Trump indicted a fourth time Top right, Manhattan, N.Y. District Attorney Alvin Bragg, top left, Special Counsel Jack Smith, bottom right, former President Donald Trump, bottom right, Fulton County, Ga. district attorney Fani Willis. On Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, Trump and 18 others were indicted over the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia. Trump now faces four separate criminal cases as he continues to lead polls in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
Tickets for the 2023 NC State Fair now available Raleigh Tickets for the upcoming 2023 NC State Fair are now available for purchase through Oct. 12. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for youth ages 6-12. One-day unlimited ride wristbands are also available for purchase online at a cost of $30 each. Ride ticket credits will be $10 for 18 ticket credits during the advance sale timeframe. Ride ticket credits for this year’s fair will be on a “chipped card” that will automatically debit the ticket count for that ride. Additionally, hang on to those cards because ride credits will now carry over from year-toyear. Special themed ticket packages offered this year include: Dizzy Pass – One gate admission ticket and one unlimited ride wristband for $38 Kegs & Cork Pass – One gate admission ticket, one NC Public House beer + wine ticket for $17 State Fair Flyer Package – Two gate admission tickets and two round-trip State Fair Flyer tickets for $34 State Fair SkyGazer – One gate admission ticket and one State Fair SkyGazer ticket for $14 More information on this year’s NC State Fair can be found at their website: https:// www.ncstatefair.org/2023/ index.htm NSJ STAFF
Concealed carry instructors push back on proposed rules at public hearing National Retail Federation: 2023 school supplies will be costliest ever By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Fueled by continued inflation, school supplies for the 2023-24 school year will be the costliest ever, according to a press release by the National Retail Federation (NRF). Inflation had been decreasing over the last year but spiked again by 3.5% in July according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Consumer Price Index report. “Back-to-school spending is expected to reach an unparalleled $41.5 billion, up from $36.9 billion last year and the previous high of $37.1 billion in 2021,” the NRF press release says of its annual survey. “Backto-college spending is expected to hit $94 billion, about $20 billion more than last year’s re-
cord.” The overall spending this year is a 12% increase over the previous year. According to NRF’s survey, families with kids in K-12 should plan to spend “an average of $890.07 on back-toschool items this year,” which the group says is “approximately $25 more than last year’s record of $864.35 and a new high.” The survey this year included 7,843 consumers and was administered from June 30 to July 6. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.1 percentage points. Last year’s back-to-school spending for K-12 gave many families sticker shock with parents estimated to spend an average of $864, which was $15 See SUPPLIES, page A2
Action on proposed changes put on hold By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — More than a hundred concealed carry firearms instructors filled the meeting room to oppose three proposed rules by the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission at the commission’s Aug. 9 meeting. Commission Chair Leslie Desmukes noted the unusually large attendance in her opening remarks to the meeting. In addition to chairing the commission, Desmukes is the criminal bureau chief at the N.C. Department of Justice and was featured in a March 2023 tweet by N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein highlighting Women’s History Month. According to the original public notice on the NC DOJ’s Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards website, the amendments were being proposed for “Subchapter 09F-Section .0100 of the NC Administrative Code” which governs concealed carry training. The public notice included three
forms, a “pre-delivery report” and a “post-delivery report” of the training and a “concealed carry handgun student roster” form. Under the administrative code for CHP training, instructors are already required to file a copy of the proposed firearms “course description, outline, and proof of instructor certification,” making the NCDOJ’s proposed forms seem duplicative. The proposed changes were supposed to occur in the second half of the meeting, but the schedule was changed by Desmukes after an attendee asked the rule changes to be dealt with at the beginning of the meeting due to many people having driven hours and hundreds of miles to be there. Desmukes told the attendees “some revisions” to the proposed rules had been made since first being posted online. She said the revisions made had “been based on discussions with the field, taking feedback from instructors,” and as the result of “negotiations” at a meeting with Grassroots NC and Republican legislator Rep. Keith Kidwell. The changes included reducing the 30-day window to file the preand post-delivery reports down to See FIREARMS, page A2
UNCW professor garners international attention for UFO research By Griffin Daughtry North State Journal WILMINGTON — Is the truth out there? Even if it is, the study of UFOs was long considered a professional risk until Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean’s coverage of the Pentagon’s black-budget research program brought unprecedented legitimacy to the topic in December 2017. And yet, that didn’t stop Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka — a professor of religious studies at the Universi-
ty of North Carolina Wilmington — from exploring the subject for herself as early as 2012. Well before there were headlines about UFO whistleblowers or congressional hearings, Pasulka was cataloging reports of unexplained aerial phenomena, not from the remote areas of New Mexico but rather in the skies over medieval and Renaissance Europe. At the time, she was researching for what would later become “Heaven Can See PASULKA, page A8
COURTESY PHOTO
Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
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