VOLUME 8 ISSUE 27
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2023
Happy Labor Day from NSJ the
BRIEF this week
Hurricane Idalia could reach Florida as Category 3 storm Tampa, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging people along a wide stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast to make their final preparations before Hurricane Idalia makes landfall. The hurricane is now forecast to become an extremely dangerous Category 3 storm, pushing a storm surge of up to 12 feet. Residents from Tampa Bay north through the Big Bend area have been loading up on sandbags and evacuated from low-lying areas. The National Hurricane Center projects Idalia could power up to 120 mph and strike hard in a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian. The storm is expected to move through the Carolinas on Thursday.
AP PHOTO
Law enforcement respond to the UNC Chapel Hill campus Monday after the university locked down and warned of an armed person on campus.
Graduate student charged in murder of UNC faculty member
Scalise diagnosed with blood cancer Washington, D.C. The second ranking House Republican says he has been diagnosed with blood cancer. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The 57-year-old says he will continue to serve in the House as he undergoes treatment. He vowed to tackle the treatment with “strength and energy” and described the cancer as “very treatable.” Scalise was among several people wounded in 2017 when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. He was shot in the hip and endured lengthy hospitalizations.
A suspect, Tailei Qi, is accused of killing Zijie Yan
Cooper vetoes two more bills, bringing veto total to 91 The governor’s veto video message was described by top lawmakers as “an audition tape” for the Biden administration By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH —Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed two more bills on Aug. 24, bringing his overall veto total for his two terms in office to 91. The four governors preceding Cooper who had veto power only vetoed 35 bills combined. The two bills vetoed by the governor this time around were Senate Bill 512, Greater Accountability for Boards/Commissions, and Senate Bill 747, Election Law Changes.
Cooper’s veto message of Senate Bill 512 claims the measure will “hurt the effective and efficient use of taxpayer money by impairing the Governor’s constitutionally required duty to execute the laws passed by the legislature.” His veto message of the bill claims it “interrupts the critical work of boards and commissions to protect public health, provide clean air and water, recruit new jobs, lower electric bills and more,” and “Fundamentally it violates the separation of powers enshrined in the state Constitution.” Cooper also called it a “legislative power grab.” In a statement, Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke) refuted CooSee VETOES, page A2
pect in custody gives us an opportunity to figure out the why and even the how, and also helps us to uncover a motive and really just why this hapThe Associated Press pened today. Why today, why at all?” UNC Police Chief BriCHAPEL HILL — Police an James said. “And we want charged a UNC graduate stu- to learn from this incident, dent Tuesday with first-degree and we will certainly work to murder in the fatal shooting of do our best to ensure that this a faculty member that caused never happens again on the a campus lockdown amid a UNC campus.” search for the gunman. Campus police received a Tailei Qi, 34, was due in 911 call reporting shots fired court later Tuesday for an ini- at Caudill Labs just after 1 tial hearing in the Monday p.m. Monday, James said. An killing of Zijie Yan emergency alert was inside a science issued and sirens building on the sounded two minChapel Hill camutes later, starting pus. In addition to “Why today, a lockdown that led the murder count, frightened students he is charged with why at all?” and faculty to barrihaving a gun on edcade themselves inucational property. side dorm rooms, Brian James, Yan is listed on bathrooms, classthe school’s web- UNC Police chief rooms and other site as an associate school facilities. professor in the DeOfficers arriving partment of Applied Physical at the lab building found a facSciences, while Qi is listed as ulty member who had been faa graduate student in Yan’s re- tally shot, James said. Based search group. on witness information, police Qi, who lives in Chapel Hill, took the suspect into custody was arrested during a roughly just after 2:30 p.m., according three-hour lockdown that fol- to the chief. lowed the shooting, authorJones declined to elaboities said at a Monday news rate on the arrest, but TV staconference. “To actually have the sus- See SHOOTING, page A3
Back to college: Do any North Carolina schools still require a COVID-19 shot? Shaw University in Raleigh appears to still be requiring vaccination proof By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The return of long lines of cars packed with the essentials for life headed to dormitories and apartments on college and university campuses in North Carolina signals a return to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic.
While moving in is on most students’ minds, a recent report about Rutgers University in New Jersey still requiring students to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination may be on the minds of parents. A list compiled by the group No College Mandates shows more than 100 colleges nationwide as still requiring students to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination. No College Mandates describes itself as “a group of concerned parents, doctors, nurses, professors, students and other
college stakeholders working towards the common goal of ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” On No College Mandates’ list were three schools in North Carolina: Bennett College in Greensboro, Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, and Shaw University in Raleigh. North State Journal reached out to all three schools to see if the list was accurate or if the schools had changed their position on requiring vaccination proof. Phanalphie F. Rhue, chief
global communications and experience officer for Bennett College wrote in an email response to our inquiry that “Covid 19 vaccinations are no longer required for new or returning students at Bennett College” and that the school’s website “is currently being updated to reflect this.” Similarly, Marion Jones, the director of health and wellness at Johnson C. Smith University, said the shot was no longer reSee VACCINES, page A8
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