TCB March 29, 2018 — Sweepstakes sheriff by Triad City Beat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point March 29 - April 4, 2018 triad-city-beat.com

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Sweepstakes

MONEY in sheriff’s race PAGE8

Stormy weather PAGE 6 Dark Web PAGE 12 Data dives PAGE 10

INSIDE THIS WEEK: TRIAD CIT Y BITES, THE TRIAD’S FINEST DINING GUIDE

March 29 - April 4, 2018

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Guilford Green, in the light It is a rare thing, in Greensboro, for my wife and me to feel underdressed. But that’s what happened Saturday night at the Guilford by Brian Clarey Green Gala, held this year at the Cadillac Garage in downtown Greensboro. Blame it on the weather. Blame it on the hour. Blame it on me. The gala attracted hundreds of revelers decked in black-tie and variations on the Moulin Rouge theme — top hats and starched coats and bustiers and thighhighs and all of that sexy stuff. Drag queen Jean Jacket and her crew worked “Lady Marmalade” on a corner stage, where local faves Evan Olson and Jessica Mashburn conducted ceremonies amid the fanciest of cocktails and the tastiest of small plates. It’s true that Guilford Green — the organization that charges itself with promoting LGBT inclusion throughout the county — has limitations in scope and size, as any nonprofit does. But its bona fides are in order. It began in 1995, a group of Greensboroans who got together to raise money for the Triad Health Project, where

their friends were battling AIDS. More than 20 years later, its main fundraiser attracted no fewer than three sitting Greensboro councilmembers, including Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who is outgoing executive director of the organization. And at least four aspirants for office made sure to be there — Kathy Manning and Adam Coker, who will face off in a May Democratic primary to oppose Rep. Ted Budd in US Congressional District 13 in November, bumped into each other at the bar. “We actually get along pretty well,” Coker said. Also in attendance were Jennifer Mangrum, the teacher who is running against NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger in District 26, and Martha Shafer, who is running against state Rep. John Faircloth in state House District 62. And so out of a plague, a political force has been born. As the evening built to a crescendo, a friend remarked on how their community had emerged from the shadows as part of the plurality, and how a super-gay gala made its way onto the political circuit, how amazing it all was. “I think this party used to be a lot more wild though,” they said.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK Personally, I could care less about internet sweepstakes. My family and so many friends have been impacted by opioid addiction. We recruited, begged Bobby to run for sheriff. It’s very personal for him, too. It’s very personal for me and for my brother and other people who have donated to the campaign. — Cynthia Hagie, in the News, page 8

BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

robert@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

SALES KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price

EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

SALES EXECUTIVE Andrew Lazare

STAFF WRITER Lauren Barber

CONTRIBUTORS

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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 ART Cover design by Robert ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette Paquette

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Carolyn de Berry, Spencer KM Brown, Matt Jones

March 29 - April 4, 2018

CITY LIFE March 29 - April 4 by Lauren Barber

THURSDAY

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

Driving Miss Daisy @ Hanesbrands Theatre (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY

Spartan Jazz Collective @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), 8 p.m.

Sarah Potenza and Emily Musolino @ Muddy Creek Café & Music Hall (W-S), 8 p.m.

UNCG’s faculty and student septet presents a complete performance of Wynton Marsalis’ 13-movement masterpiece “The Marciac Suite,” a tribute to the city of Marciac, France and its international jazz festival. The Jazz Collective is the first ensemble granted permission to perform the currently unpublished work in its entirety with support from Marsalis himself. Learn more at vpa.uncg.edu.

She Started It @ Flywheel Coworking (W-S), 6 p.m. Hustle Winston-Salem screens a new documentary that features the stories of five young women entrepreneurs. A networking reception with light refreshments begins at 5 p.m. and the film screens at 6 p.m. with a short group discussion to follow. Students and families are welcome to attend. Find the event on Facebook.

Creative Infusion night @ the Artist Bloc (GSO), 9 p.m.

Catch our local thespians’ take on Alfred Uhry’s classic play about the relationship between an elderly Southern Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur through March 31. Learn more at rhodesartscenter.org. Franklin Vagnone @ Wake Forest University (W-S), 5 p.m. The president of Old Salem discusses how professional practices of public history, preservation, museum and environmental studies merge to inform our evolving concept of preserved memory and critiques established best practices for preservation in his talk, “Narratives of Disappearance: The Curation of Death and Decay,” on the fourth floor of ZSR Library. Learn more at events.wfu.edu.

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Staring Down Fate @ High Point Theatre (HP), 7 p.m.

Durham-based jazz and acoustic blues songwriter Emily Musolino opens for Sarah Potenza. According to Rolling Stone, “Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop.” Find the event on Facebook.

Arrive as early as 6 p.m. to meet High Point filmmaker Jeffrey Mittelstadt for the North Carolina premiere of his award-winning documentary film about red wolf biologist Chris Lucash and his relationship with nature as he grapples with an ALS diagnoses. Learn more at highpointtheatre.com.

Special guest DC Carter makes an appearance as Bloody Molly entertains from the Artist Bloc stage and Dwayne “Dr. How” Howell paints live. Find the event on Facebook.

Così fan tutte @ SECCA (W-S), 1 p.m.

March 29 - April 4, 2018

Echo Courts, Winston-Satan, Nerve Endings and

UNCSA Symphony Orchestra Gold Medal Soloists @ UNCSA Stevens Center (W-S), 7:30 p.m. Up Front

SATURDAY

NC Beer Month kick-off party @ Wise Man Brewing

News

Hectorina @ Monstercade (W-S), 9 p.m. Greensboro’s psychedelic pop band Echo Courts plays with Winston-Satan, an experimental indie-rock group, hardcore garage-punk band Nerve Endings and rock band Hectorina out of Charlotte. Find the event on Facebook.

The Black Lillies and Tyler Nail @ the Ramkat (W-S), 9 p.m.

Opinion

The Piedmont Opera screens a live, high-definition Metropolitan Opera rendition of Mozart’s comedy about lovers who test each other’s faithfulness set in a carnivalesque environment inspired by 1950s Coney Island in the McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium. Learn more at secca.org.

Delight in an evening symphony, showcasing first-prize winners of 2017’s concerto competitions Andrew Hasher on saxophone and Jacob Wang on piano. Learn more at uncsa.edu.

Vanessa Ferguson, R’Mone Entonio, SunQueen Kelcey and Cayenne the Lion King @ Van Dyke Performance Space (GSO), 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Culture

Winston-Salem’s Tyler Nail opens the show with a new trio and roots-rockers the Black Lillies bring it home, fusing folk, soul, blues and rock. Learn more at theramkat.com. Jacqui Haggerty @ LeBauer Park (GSO), 6 p.m.

Vanessa Ferguson performs an intimate headlining set at this matinee. Her frequent collaborator R’Mone Entonio and underground hip-hop emcee and reggae dancehall singer Cayenne the Lion King are also on the bill. Greensboro’s SunQueen Kelcey opens the show with her unique blend of genres she calls “soul-folk.” Catch an evening performance at 8 p.m. Find the event on Facebook.

Puzzles

(W-S), noon Wise Man celebrates Beer Month with the release of Krankies Shapeshifter Blonde, and experimental collaboration between the two establishments that brings together Tawny Port barrel-aged green coffee beans and blonde ale brewed specially for the occasion. At 8 p.m. DJ Marley Carroll gets everyone on their feet. Find the event on Facebook.

Shot in the Triad

SUNDAY

Relax in the park or play lawn games during a live concert featuring jazz vocalist Jacqui Haggerty. Find the event on Facebook.

March 29 - April 4, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Stormy Daniels’ Twitter by Brian Clarey I have never watched one of Stormy Daniels’ films, on either side of the camera, though I am somewhat familiar with the genre. Yet I’m ready to declare the woman formerly known as Stephanie Clifford, the “porn star” who is taking a stand against a president, the greatest adult film actor in history. And that includes Ron Jeremy. I don’t know anything about her beyond what everyone who read the weekend’s newspapers or watched her on “60 Minutes” doesn’t: She’s from Louisiana, she’s married with a daughter, she likes showing horses and she doesn’t take crap from anybody. Look no further than her Twitter persona — in beCOURTESY Stormy Daniels doesn’t take crap IMAGE tween the hundreds, perhaps from anybody. thousands of subscription renewals to her “unseen and exclusive content” private channel announced dutifully in her feed over the last week, she takes on all comers with a wit and brevity worthy of Dorothy Parker, or at least sunrise at a bar on Lower Decatur Street. @The_Wirral_Com asks, bereft of punctuation: “Hi are you the American whore who wont keep your legs shut or your mouth” and she responds: “Yes I am. Nice to meet ya!” There are dozens of such exchanges in the feed, worth combing through the announcements that probably net her $10 apiece. You have to go really, really far in to get to the NSFW stuff. She is brassy. She is bold. And she doesn’t care what you think. Who better to take down a president who live and dies by the Twittersphere?

Playing March 30 - April 3

Don’t miss our 20th Anniversary SING-A-LONG screening of The Spice Girls film SPICE WORLD! 7 p.m. & 10 p.m. FRIDAY, March 30th

March 29 - April 4, 2018

Reinstating the citizenship question in the decennial Census by Jordan Green

Up Front

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee! 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •

336-355-7180

Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ announcement on Monday that the decennial Census will reinstate the inquiry about citizenship raises the obvious question: Why are we doing this? For context, this is the administration of a president who launched his campaign by calling Mexicans “rapists” and people “bringing drugs” and “crime,” while vowing to crack down on undocumented immigrants. Could there be a political motive? Hmmm. Ross said in a public memo that the Justice Department requested the change “to provide census block level citizenship voting age population data,” adding, “DOJ and the courts use CVAP data for determining violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and having these data at the census block level will permit more effective enforcement of the Act. Section 2 protects minority population voting rights.” Given that Attorney General Jeff Sessions shares his boss’ view on immigration enforcement, and considering his abysmal record on voting rights, I’m more prepared to believe that Martians are secretly running the US government than that the Trump Justice Department has experienced a sudden conversion on the urgency of protecting “minority voting rights.” While Sessions cheered the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision, which gutted the Voting Rights Act, most of what we know about the attorney general’s views on protecting minority voting rights comes from his 1986 confirmation hearing, when the US Senate turned him down for a federal judgeship. Writing in The Nation last year, Ari Berman encapsulates what was known about the future attorney general: “Gerry Hebert, a lawyer in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, testified that Sessions had called the NAACP and ACLU ‘communist-inspired’ and ‘un-American’ organizations that were ‘trying to force civil rights down the throats of people.’ Thomas Figures, who worked under Sessions as the first black prosecutor in Alabama, said that Sessions called him ‘boy’ and told him ‘to be careful what I said to white folks.’ Sessions called the Voting Rights Act ‘an intrusive piece of legislation.’” It seems much more likely that the reason for reinstating the citizenship question is to discourage non-citizens from participating in the 2020 decennial Census and thus to depress the population count in high-immigration areas so that the GOP can maintain an advantage in the allocation of Congressional seats. The eight states with the highest numeric growth from 2016 to 2017, as reported by the Census last December, should provide some clue as to why the Trump administration would have an interest in artificially depressing the count of non-citizens. Texas (1), Florida (2), California (3) Washington (4), North Carolina (5), Georgia (6), Arizona (7) and Colorado (8) all have either large pre-existing immigrant populations, fast-growing immigrant populations or both. With a president who believes, based on no evidence whatsoever, that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of millions of undocumented people voting, it’s more than plausible that the Justice Department would use census block level data on non-citizen population to pursue trumped-up allegations of voter fraud. At least, that’s more believable than the notion of Trump and Sessions attempting to protect minority voting rights. If it looks like a duck….

Opinion

COURTESY IMAGE

News

Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department wants census tract-level data on where non-citizens live.

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

Board Game Night 7 p.m. Friday, March 30th. More than 100 Games FREE TO PLAY Saturday Morning Cartoons and Cereal! Free admission! Bowls of cereal are $2.50 each or $5 for a BOTTOMLESS BOWL OF CEREAL! Totally Rad Trivia 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 3rd $3 Buy-In! Up to Six Player Teams! Dragonball FighterZ Tournament League 5 p.m. Sunday, April 1st $5 Venue Fee! $5 Entry Fee!

March 29 - April 4, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

NEWS

Candidate highlights opioid crisis, but donors tied to sweepstakes by Jordan Green The vast majority of reported donations to the campaign of Bobby Kimbrough, a Democratic candidate for sheriff in Forsyth County, come from four individuals tied to the internet sweepstakes industry, but the candidate’s signature issue is combating the opioid crisis. Bobby Kimbrough holds all the hallmarks of a dream candidate for a Democratic Party that’s looking to ride a blue wave in November that could unseat a popular Republican incumbent in the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. Like Bill Schatzman, the current sheriff, Kimbrough is a retired federal law enforcement agent who would take office as an outsider without ties to any of the various factions within the enlisted ranks. While Schatzman first won election in 2002 as a retired FBI agent, Kimbrough retired in 2016 after a 21-year career as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Since retiring, Kimbrough has nurtured a second career as a motivational speaker, publishing books with local author Mercedes L. Miller called Surviving the Stop: Change the Atmosphere, Change the Outcome and Beyond Midnight: Quotes and Words of Wisdom to Strengthen and Empower. Kimbrough’s public figure Facebook page is replete with inspirational sayings like, “We have a chance to shape the future today. Imagine the possibilities.” And, “Knowledge is the great emancipator. Seek it. Your freedom depends on it.” Kimbrough’s family story holds a poignant, if tragic dimension that will make him relatable to many voters in Forsyth County: His wife, Clementine, died more than 10 years ago. In an article published in Forsyth Woman on March 1 — weeks after he filed for sheriff — Kimbrough noted that his late wife’s death certificate listed the cause of death in 2005 as “methadone toxicity.” “While I was fighting the drug war, there was a war going on in my home; I had no idea the effect it was having under my own roof,” he wrote. “If I am completely honest (as with many whose families struggle the way my family has), looking back on that tragic day, all the signs were there, I just ignored them.” Kimbrough wrote that at the time of his wife’s death, “Because of my ignorance of this illness, my lack of knowledge of this addiction, I was ashamed to discuss it. So when people asked me what the cause of death was, I never told

them the truth. I would tell them my wife died from an aneurism.” Kimbrough has made addressing the opioid crisis one of four planks in his campaign platform, including creating a full-time narcotics unit in the sheriff’s office. But Kimbrough’s campaign website and social media feeds remain silent on an enforcement issue that has bedeviled North Carolina sheriffs for more than a decade: internet sweepstakes parlors. The absence of the issue from the candidate’s platform is notable because $10,000 out of $11,000 raised in total receipts in Kimbrough’s most recent campaign-finance report filed on March 6, comes from four individuals involved in the internet sweepstakes industry. For at least the past decade, the industry has operated in a legal gray area that presents challenges for local law enforcement and ample room for discretion by sheriffs. The role of sheriff’s offices in enforcement of regulations on internet sweepstakes business is illustrated by a case, Sandhill Amusements Inc. v. Sheriff of Onslow County, that reached the NC Court of Appeals. In Sandhills, the county sheriff and district attorney wrote a letter to the sweepstakes operators warning that their equipment could be seized as evidence and the owners could be charged criminally. Sandhills Amusements Inc., in turn, sued the sheriff’s office. The court of appeals affirmed a lower court ruling enjoining the sheriff’s office from taking enforcement action against the sweepstakes businesses in Onslow County. As an indication of the ambiguity surrounding the industry, a blog post on the case by the UNC School of Government has drawn two comments from police detectives in the past 12 months seeking clarification on whether establishments seeking to open in their jurisdictions are legal. Four individuals, who each put up $2,500 to finance Kimbrough’s campaign, also participated in a coordinated effort by internet sweepstakes operators to contribute to the 2012 campaigns of the three most powerful Republican politicians in the state: Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, then House Speaker Thom Tillis and future Gov. Pat McCrory. David P. Hagie of Mocksville, who is among the donors to the Kimbrough campaign, was interviewed by a State Board of Elections investigator about

efforts to coordinate contributions to the Berger, Tillis and McCrory campaigns in hopes of obtaining legislation favorable to the industry. Kimbrough could not be reached for comment for this story. His campaign manager, Cynthia E. Hagie said on Sunday that Kimbrough was traveling out of state to visit a friend who suffered a massive stroke. Cynthia Hagie, who is David Hagie’s sister, said she recruited Kimbrough to run for sheriff and solicited campaign contributions on his behalf. “Personally, I could care less about internet sweepstakes,” Cynthia Hagie said. “My family and so many friends have been impacted by opioid addiction. We recruited, begged Bobby to run for sheriff. It’s very personal for him, too. It’s very personal for me and for my brother and other people who have donated to the campaign.” David Hagie and another donor, Kim Childress, are both listed in the campaign finance report as residing at a Farmington Forsyth County Sheriff’s candidate COURTESY PHOTO Road address outside of Mocks- Bobby Kimbrough. ville, in Davie County. from David Hagie, Kim Childress and The other two donors, Richard J. Richard J. Phillips. Phillips and Mary Stone of Clemmons, Similarly, Kaplan and Payne met are identified in the report as being selfwith then-House Speaker Tillis on May employed through H&P Business. The 10. Within six days of the meeting, the company’s annual filing describes it as Tillis campaign received $60,002 from “computer intertainment.” sweepstakes donors, including $4,000 The State Board of Elections invescontributions from Hagie, Childress and tigation, which resulted in no criminal Phillips. indictments when it concluded in 2015, And on Sept. 11, Kaplan and Payne revealed the role of four prominent law met with Senate President Pro Tem firms and a massive flow of campaign Berger. Within a month, the Berger camdollars from the internet sweepstakes paign received a total of $26,000 from industry. The investigation found that sweepstakes donors, including $4,000 Harry J. Kaplan, a partner at McGuirefrom Hagie. Woods law firm, hosted a “roundtable William George, one of the donors, discussion” for clients in several induswas quoted in a 2013 Associated Press tries to meet then-candidate McCrory story as saying that Hagie collected the on Feb. 23, 2012. Among those at the checks from him and other sweepstakes meeting was Gardner Payne, an interoperators. The AP reported at the time net sweepstakes operator and former that the donors “sought a new law lobbyist at the law firm. The election that would reverse” a 2010 legislative watchdog group Democracy North ban “and legalize the games,” quoting Carolina found that within eight days, George as saying, “We didn’t give them the McCrory campaign received a total the money because we liked them. We of $32,000 from sweepstakes industry just knew they were powerful people up donors, including $4,000 contributions

News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

gambling operations. According to the US attorney’s motion, “Dockery stated that he and David Hagie co-owned a company called ‘DPH Vending’ that operated four internet sweepstakes parlors in various locations across North Carolina. When informed by Detective Brown that internet sweepstakes are illegal in North Carolina, Dockery replied, ‘Yeah, but they are coming back.’” The feds further alleged that the Homeland Security special agent ran a swab from the currency through a Smiths Detection Ion scanner that tested positive for cocaine. While the special agent conducted the SCREENSHOT scan, the police detective Bobby Kimbrough’s Facebook feed received a phone call from emphasizes mentoring young people. an unknown number. It was Ultimately, in a consent order finalan “irate” David Hagie claiming that the ized in June 2017, the government money belonged to him and had been agreed to return $149,150 to Hagie. wrongfully seized. The consent order doesn’t explain why Identifying himself as “an avid the full $150,000 wasn’t returned. The gambler” in response filed in Decemdocument indicates that the governber 2016, Hagie confirmed that he ment “determined that the totality of and Dockery operated four internet circumstances in the instant case warrant café businesses together. While on this a resolution of this matter regarding the particular occasion Dockery was placing one-time violation” of federal law proa bet on a Major League Baseball playoff hibiting an unlicensed money transmitgame, Hagie said on many occasions ting business. when he had traveled to various legal In his response, Hagie acknowledged gambling locations, he “had traveled it wasn’t the first time the federal govwith sums far exceeding the amount of ernment had seized money from him. monies seized on this occasion.” He said $235,000 was taken off him at Hagie said he had met Dockery at Piedmont Triad International Airport a service station off Interstate 40 in in May 2009. In another incident, local Mocksville to give him the $150,000 in and federal law enforcement officers obcash. Hagie’s response indicated that he tained a search warrant for his home and typically kept large sums of cash in his seized $210,000. In both cases, he said, house, elaborating “that the claimant all the money was returned to him. has not always deposited winnings from Hagie complained that the previous previous gambling junkets in depository seizures forced him to resort to withinstitutions and keeps on hand sufficient drawing money from a bank. cash to make future trips such as the “That during the period of time the October 7, 2015 trip.” The response also Drug Enforcement Agency held money said “that in order to have cash availseized from claimant as set out herein able to pay off claims from customers above,” the response reads, “the claimengaged in the claimant’s sweepstakes, ant had to withdraw additional money the claimant kept very large sums of from the bank to cover the potential cash in his home for that purpose,” while sweepstakes winning claims form your defending the legality of the earnings. claimant’s customers and to continue Hagie made no mention in the deposito have funds available to travel to and tion of any intention to discontinue his from Las Vegas and the Bahamas for involvement in internet sweepstakes gambling.” operations. The lawyer representing Hagie in the matter was Michael A. Grace, who had worked for Chase Burns.

Up Front

country to assist you with federal and state regulatory and compliance issues within North Carolina.” In 2013, Burns was among 57 people indicted as part of an alleged conspiracy to use operate a fraudulent veterans charity in Florida, along with numerous law-enforcement officers including the president and vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Jacksonville, Fla. The state eventually dropped 205 felony counts against Burns, including racketeering and money laundering, in exchange for his no-contest plea on two counts of assisting a lottery, according to a Florida Times-Union report. The case concluded in 2015 with only one defendant, a Jacksonville lawyer, receiving a six-year sentence. David Hagie noted in a federal court filing that from 2008 to 2012, he operated up to 100 internet cafes under a restraining order issued by a Guilford County superior court judge and upheld by the state Court of Appeals. After the state Supreme Court’s ruling in Hest Technologies LLC v. North Carolina in 2012, Hagie said numerous North Carolina sweepstakes operations maneuvered around a prohibition by not showing a banned “fun and entertaining display” in the process of revealing sweepstakes prizes in the games. Cynthia Hagie told Triad City Beat that three out of the four donors to the Kimbrough campaign, including her brother, “have not been involved in sweepstakes for about four years.” “After they made the games illegal,” Cynthia Hagie said, “pretty much everybody closed up shop…. My brother just decided: Let’s call it a day.” A motion by David Hagie to recover $150,000 seized by the Department of Homeland Security at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in October 2015 indicates otherwise. According to a forfeiture complaint filed by US Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose, Transportation Security Administration officers discovered bulk currency in a bag belonging to a Winston-Salem man named Carl Dockery who was about to board to flight to Las Vegas. Dockery told a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police detective and an Homeland Security Investigations special agent that he had a reservation to gamble at the Wynn Hotel and Casino. Based on Dockery’s statement that he had booked the flight the night before, the detective suspected that Dockery was a money courier involved in currency smuggling. The two law enforcement officers decided to hold the money for investigation into illegal

March 29 - April 4, 2018

in Raleigh and they could get done what we wanted to get done. You give them money and they’re supposed to do what they say they’re going to do.” A trust in the name of Chase Burns, an Oklahoma businessman who owns International Internet Technologies — which licensed software to the sweepstakes operators, David Hagie among them— gave $274,000 to North Carolina candidates in the 2012 election, making it the largest single donor that year, according to Democracy North Carolina. The State Board of Elections investigation found that Burns’ company paid the Winston-Salem law firm Grace, Tisdale & Clifton a total of $7.8 million from October 2009 through March 2013. The agency reported that Burns mailed campaign checks to Grace, Tisdale & Clifton, and that sweepstakes operators that contracted with Burns’ company would also deliver checks, payable to North Carolina political committees, to the law firm for distribution to the candidates. The sums of money spent to influence lawmakers and keep lawyers on retainer provides a sense of how much industry leaders were willing to spend to protect their investments and the extraordinary profits that could be yielded from operating the games. A 2009 letter from Michael A. Grace, a member of the law firm, highlights the magnitude of Burns’ investment in North Carolina, as well as the substantial overlap between industry practices and law-enforcement concerns. Noting Burns’ concern that the law firm’s bills for hourly services “were becoming quite large,” Grace proposed a monthly retainer of $195,000. “I have had to spend the majority of my time for the last year on enforcing IIT’s injunctions to the exclusion of other matters, and this has significantly impacted my ability to take on new work,” Grace complained to Burns. “The legal issues and legal knowledge required in this matter are unique. Likewise, obtaining an injunction against state law enforcement is rare and required a detailed understanding of the facts and the complex legal issues involved.” Outlining Grace, Tisdale & Clifton’s work to keep Burns’ company out of legal trouble, Grace wrote, “Those issues have included enforcements of criminal statutes, seizures of property, zoning and land use regulation, and have resulted in meetings with prosecutors, law enforcement and zoning officials. We have also worked consistently with lawyers, investigators and experts from across the

March 29 - April 4, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

OPINION

EDITORIAL

Facebook’s great experiment For so many Americans — especially the ones

whose behavior was manipulated by the social media giant — the news that Facebook had extensive data files with incredible details on each of its users came as a shock. If you’re unaware of just how much data your favorite time-killer has amassed on you, check for yourself at facebook.com/ads/preferences, a repository for everything you’ve ever liked or shared, every stupid quiz you’ve ever taken, every Farmville request you didn’t have the inner strength to ignore. It knows what you like — or, at least, what you said you liked — and applies artificial intelligence algorithms to determine what sorts of things you might want to buy. And in the case of Cambridge Analytica, the international company charged with manipulating people’s behavior via Facebook using sophisticated tracking and targeting techniques, they tested the limits of things their subjects might do, given the proper stimulus. Digital marketers, none of If you’re unaware of just how whom were much data your favorite timesurprised in the least at killer has amassed on you, what Facecheck for yourself at facebook knows book.com/ads/preferences about us, have been using these formulas for years, ever since Google basically invented, or at least co-opted, the programmatic advertising market when it launched AdWords in 2000. By the time smartphone use reached critical mass in the United States in June 2013 — when more Americans owned one than did not — the most sophisticated surveillance network ever created was in place, with virtually all of its users opting in, and paying for the privilege. The facts: Your phone knows how old you are, how much money you make, what your house and car cost, where you went to school and what you had for lunch. It knows what you’ve bought and what you want to buy, how you’ll pay for it and the likelihood that you will buy another one. And if you don’t want an accessible record of all those things, then you don’t want a smartphone. Or a landline either — those are tracked, too. How very American to take a magnificent coalition of technology like this and use it to sell stuff. Or, you know, rig an election.

CITIZEN GREEN

The money and messaging behind Tillis’ 2014 campaign

The plot thickens with the relationship between North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Cambridge Analytica, the British firm that allegedly used unauthorized access to private Facebook information to create psychographic profiles that helped the Trump campaign target by Jordan Green voters in the 2016 campaign. Tillis downplayed the firm’s role in his campaign in an interview with Capitol Hill reporters, saying he doubted that the Facebook breach benefited his campaign. The senator admitted to meeting now suspended CEO Alexander Nix, adding, “I don’t recall it, to be honest with you, except that I think I was in the same room.” It’s unclear whether Tillis himself had any interactions with foreign nationals employed by Cambridge Analytica during his successful 2014 campaign to unseat Sen. Kay Hagan, although the reporting to date indicates that the firm’s employees worked with the NC Republican Party in Raleigh on behalf of the Tillis campaign. Whatever Tillis’ efforts to put daylight between himself and Cambridge Analytica, the money and messaging for the 2014 campaign — the most expensive Senate race that year — ran in the same direction. The reclusive hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer financed both Cambridge Analytica and a super PAC set up by former UN Ambassador John Bolton, and was recently named as President Trump’s new national security advisor. The Tillis campaign, the John Bolton’s Super PAC and the NC Republican Party all hired Cambridge Analytica during the 2014 campaign. According to a fascinating article published by Bloomberg in 2015, Cambridge Analytica dispatched employee Harris MacLeod to work for the Bolton super PAC, “which was attempting to bring more attention to national-security issues in three select Senate races,” and employee Tim Glister to “North Carolina, where he was tasked with helping the state Republican Party on behalf of Thom Tilllis’ ultimately successful campaign to defeat Senator Kay Hagan.” Paul Shumaker, a Raleigh-based political consultant, told Bloomberg that he hired Cambridge Analytica to work on Tillis’ campaign. Sasha Issenberg wrote in Bloomberg: “In North Carolina, where the company was paid $150,000 by the state party and $30,000 by Tillis’ campaign, Cambridge Analytica developed models to predict individual support, turnout likelihoods, and issues of concern that would recalibrate continuously based on interaction with voters. Shumaker says that dynamic process allowed Tillis’ campaign to identify a sizable cluster of North Carolinians who prioritized foreign affairs — which encouraged Tillis to shift the conversation from state-level debates over education policy to charges that incumbent Kay Hagan failed to take ISIS’s rise seriously.” The John Bolton Super PAC designed five different ads tailored to different personality types to support Tillis, WRAL News reported on Tuesday. The ads ran on satellite TV, which allow targeting to individual subscribers. A frightening version [link] designed for fearful people begins with ominous music and a narrator intoning, “President Obama is

a better strategist for aiding ISIS than eliminating it.” The ad ends with Trump’s future national security advisor declaring, “American must make clear this November that they want a Senate that puts America first. That’s why I’m supporting Thom Tillis for Senate.” A relatively moderate Republican with a cool reserve, Tillis isn’t really a comfortable fit with Trump’s flamboyant populism, and since the 2016 election the North Carolina senator has put some distance between himself and the president. On Tuesday, Tillis issued a statement with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) urging Trump to allow Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller to complete his investigation without interference. Yet, it’s eerie how the focus on fearful themes surrounding national security, down to specific language, echoed from the 2014 North Carolina Senate campaign to the 2016 presidential election. Introducing himself at his first debate with Hagan on Sept. 3, 2014, the candidate said, “As your US senator, I’ll go to Washington and I won’t be a rubber-stamp for Barack Obama or Harry Reid. I’ll go there to get things done and make America great again.” Fatefully, ISIS had beheaded its second American victim — journalist Steven Soloff — the day before. The first question from moderator Norah O’Donnell was whether the United States should strike ISIS in Syria. Tillis got the first swing, and spent two thirds of his time bashing Obama before pivoting to Hagan. “This is an example of where President Obama’s failed the people of this country and Kay Hagan has allowed it to happen, or has been silent with his inaction,” Tillis said. O’Donnell challenged Tillis’ evasion, asking him again: “Should the US strike ISIS in Syria?” And again, Tillis revealed that he had no strategy distinguishable from either Obama or Hagan. “I think the US needs to take all actions to protect American citizens and protect freedom-loving people all over the country,” Tillis said. “I think the president is to a certain extent now trying to solve a problem that his inaction created. So I think that the president, who’s responsible for our foreign policy that he’s failed on in a variety of places around the United States, needs to start acting and showing some leadership. And I think that Senator Hagan needs to demand that he do [so], particularly in a state that has the largest military presence in the United States.” While Cambridge Analytica and the election machinery financed by Robert Mercer may have given Tillis an edge, the 45,608-vote margin by which Tillis won suggests he probably didn’t need it to beat the pitifully inept Democratic incumbent. Instead of hitting back, Hagan joined Tillis in piling onto Obama. “I think one of the issues here is the president should have weaponized the moderate Syrian rebels earlier,” Hagan said. “Without doing that, that has allowed ISIS to grow…. Time is up. Action must be taken. The president needs to bring a resolution. He needs to bring a plan to Congress.” The time was up, but not for ISIS.

March 29 - April 4, 2018

CULTURE A congregation of small farmers gathers at A&T

by Lauren Barber

Up Front News Opinion

Small Farms Week at A&T gave small, local farmers a rare chance to meet, share ideas and learn new techniques.

LAUREN BARBER

Shot in the Triad Puzzles

said. “There was a report from the USDA in the 1990s that understand, too, is we all benefit [from these workers] cause outlined some of the discriminatory practices, and because they’re subsidizing our farm economy because of the wages… most of our farmers are older, they remember some of these it’s not a living wage. We feel that the history of this instituthings and there’s a lot of distrust.” tion, coming out of a segregated past, is the right kind of Access to and working knowledge of computers and the institution to take on this new challenge.” internet in order to make flyers or develop email lists to comThe agricultural landscape is changing rapidly as technology municate with buyers, let alone traverse the world of social advances and laws change. Legal and marketplace restrictions media, is the most significant to older farmers according to on antibiotic use that require North Carolina livestock farmers Parker. to acquire prescriptions from a veterinarian. Andrea Gentry, “A lot of them don’t have any social platform at all so to ask DVM outlined best practices for pasture and herd health with them to go from, ‘I’m just talking to you emphasis on healthcare prevention and face-to-face’ to social media is a huge biosecurity methods like quarantining jump without anyone there to help them new animals. Learn more at ces.ncsu.edu. navigate it,” she said. “They’re locked In a development more cultural than out of their own future because they scientific, farmers of all ages are now don’t have access to it.” considering hemp — a non-psychoactive Widening access to resources — mainly knowledge — to variety of Cannabis sativa L. — as a favorable rotation crop combat inequity is a central theme of the week. Organizations that detoxifies soil, prevents erosion and requires little water like NC AgrAbility that offered hands-on training for adaptive to thrive. A license to grow is required in North Carolina, but equipment and ergonomic tools for farmers with disabilities. the seeds, stalks and fibers can be utilized in products from A&T offered free health screenings to farmers who tend to live nutraceuticals, clothing, construction materials, paper and far away from healthcare facilities. biofuel. Susan Perry Cole and Savannah Copeland of the NC Associa“A lot of youth think farming is just sows, plows and cows,” tion of Community Development Corporations are concerned Parker said. “What I try to explain is that farming is a variety about access, too. They attended to learn more about the of things; you don’t have to be a hog farmer or a corn farmer. farming sector as they work with the university and the AssoPeople are farming fields of flowers and some folks are solar ciation of Mexicans in North Carolina to form a small farmer farmers now. There are people who’ve worked with conservatraining program for Latinx farmers. tion programs to save our land and they’re getting paid.” “We live in Edgecombe County and it has a very poor health profile,” Cole said. “The development of a sustainable local food economy has been identified as a goal. What we have to

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hrough an obscured sky, the early spring sun hung high as two dozen or so predominantly black farmers gathered around the strawberries Sanjun Gu, his colleagues and graduate students tend to on Tuesday afternoon, a day of learning that ended on fertile soil, just the way they like it. NC A&T University hosted its 32nd Small Farms Week beginning on Monday, an annual program sponsored by the NC Cooperative Extension that provides educational programs devised to promote sustainability and foster the economic viability of small-scale agriculture. Small farmers from across North Carolina learn contemporary best practices through farm tours, workshops, hands-on activities and farming demonstrations. The week also presents students with opportunities to talk about their education and discuss their farming futures. “I came to meet other farmers because I’m interested in learning more about the marketing and how I can sell [differently],” Alice W. Wilson of Duplin County said. S. Janine Parker led a marketing strategy session Tuesday afternoon. Parker, who joined the Extension last July, earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at A&T before working alongside coffee farmers in Guatemala with the Peace Corps. “I fell in love with making sure small farmers get what they actually need… and making sure they are sustainable,” Parker said. “What I saw I realized could be applied at home because our small farms are continuously left behind.” According to Parker, small farmers perform about 80 percent of farm labor in North Carolina. Almost 20 percent are black, and racial minorities comprise 25 percent overall. The state’s average age for farmers is 59, lower than the average for minority farmers. “There are many who are aging out and we don’t have enough who are coming in to fill that gap,” Parker said. “More than any other segment, our minority farmers are losing their land in the process because they don’t have anybody to take [the farm] over and don’t know what to do. The land gets taken by the state.” “There is a history of discrimination against minority farmers, too,” Parker

March 29 - April 4, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

CULTURE Bizarro gameshow sets stage for Philly psych onslaught

by Spencer KM Brown

hink “Jeopardy,” only with bizarro questions and your host clad in a vintage corduroy suit. March 22 marked the first ever Elevated Weirdo gameshow at Monstercade. It was the opening act before Philadelphia punk/garage rockers Dark Web took the stage. Hosted by popular vintage-goods seller Toby Hilliard, owner of the store Elevated Weirdo, any notions of what was to happen vanished almost instantly, and for the better. With a random selection of contestants taken from the crowd the gameshow began, complete with cheesy bumper music and perfect sound effects. The format and questions mirrored Hilliard’s popular vintage store, praising the more bizarre and weird side of pop culture. Instead of highbrow trivia questions about ancient royalty or the depth of the Finger Lakes, contestants were charged with impersonating Mr. T or Melissa Etheridge, describing pro wrestler’s catchphrases and naming the origins of psychedelic drugs. The show captivated both crowd and contestants alike, pulling the entire room into a spiral of nostalgia. All ques-

Part punk, part surf, part droning-psych, Philadelphia’s Dark Web cast a wide net and brought back the marrow of SPENCER BROWN its constituent genres during its March 22 performance at Monstercade.

tions pertained to the decades before the 2000s and back to gameshow seemed to offer a commentary on the broader culthe ’70s, and the contestants played for prizes, such as wresture. The performance made glancing references to once-intling trading cards, a-life-time chances at piles of cash, brand-new cars and other vinyl records, action tokens of disposable consumption. Knowingly or not, Hilliard figures and vintage managed to take a mere gameshow and turn it into something clothing. One could even more weird than the items for sale at his store. exchange a prize for The gameshow offered a refreshing break from the nightlife a mystery bag, inside ritual of a live band or DJ and set a proper mood for headliner of which were found Dark Web. old cigaThe four-piece, Philly rette butts, outfit elevated the classic VHS night with a sound For more information on Dark movies and that bends genres and Web and Elevated Weirdo, visit various tweaks convention. darkweb2.bandcamp.com or elother items. Part punk, part surf, Monsterpart droning-psych, evatedweirdo.com cade has Dark Web’s vibe casts a been picking wide net and brought up the back the marrow of its pieces of music and constituent genres. A lifeblood of drums and driving rhythms performance art in flow under each hypnotic, droning guitar lead and lifted the Winston-Salem since solos — one trope the band still honors. the closing of the GaMonstercade was the first stop on Dark Web’s tour up and rage and Test Pattern. down the East Coast and across the Midwest to support its The venue has opened debut album Clone Age, due for release on April 30. its doors to more Though at first glance it might seem like an odd pairing, the eclectic and artistic first-ever Elevated Weirdo gameshow and Dark Web matched performances, filling perfectly together; it was the exact sort of show that tears up the calendar and down the walls of what “normal” shows are becoming and providing a platform creates something entirely new. for shows as offbeat as Hilliard’s. But beyond the simply weird, the

Up Front News

Artist Paul Travis Phillips wields positive and negative space as a dialectal tool, mirroring the space between puzzlement and understanding. The masking tape is actually painted on the canvas, a neat trompe l’oeil.

LAUREN BARBER

Culture Shot in the Triad

brush — either obscures words or seems to hold disparate shot of the artist’s hand as he scrolls through a word docusegments together. However inscrutable upon first encounter, ment on a tablet, enlarging some words and phrases. Some “a-ha” moments abound. lines of text are theoretical notes, a Phillips’ tongue-in-cheek mesrunning meta-analysis of his own exsages like “it would be good if you hibit; others are nonsense, although Learn more at secca.org, paultrawould die,” “you know i’m like a to some the whole of it may read as visphillips.com or visit SECCA at smart person” and “cheap symbolgobbledygook. ism” may elicit a giggle, an eye roll, or It’s worth noting that because 750 Marguerite Drive (W-S). like “american carnage,” a moment’s pronunciation can vary drastically reflection. Here, Phillips explores across dialects, Phillips’ work caplanguage as a potential tool of war. tures a considerably specific subsect If you relax your eyes, the “masking of English speakers in the amber of tape” might begin to look like a bandage. the moment. What does his work mean to someone learning The works in his collection are entirely monochromatic, save English? Someone born with an auditory disability? Someone the artist’s skin tone in a video projected on the gallery’s floor who never learned to read? entitled “babble in babble.” It features a steady, close-range How do we think about “redacted” then?

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aul Travis Phillips’ newest exhibit at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art is entitled /səCH/ən/səCH/ən/ səCH/, a phonetic spelling of “such and such,” an idiom generally used to reference a person, thing or idea that cannot be specified. The Winston-Salem-based painter and multimedia artist is the third artist in SECCA’s new curated sale series, Southern Idiom. He combines oil-based paint and graphite on rough-edged canvases — typically, these are paintings of paper with line after line of obscured writing, looking like heavily redacted lines from government documents before they get to the newsroom. This is an early indication to onlookers that Phillips is interested in the systematic obfuscation of what could be shared knowledge, thus stymying the production of new knowledge. Phillips deconstructs books, articles, notes and language itself, simultaneously sources of information and cultural artifacts. His work is abstruse — it’s no surprise he’s an academic, professor of fine art at Rowan Cabarrus Community College in Salisbury, but the deconstructed nature of the pieces allows the viewers to venture as far down a philosophical rabbit hole as they’d like in their search for meaning. Surrounding the gallery’s fireplace — a remnant of the building’s residential history — a constellation of wooden panels hangs; without an up-close look, the phonetic symbols appear to be burned into the wood. It’s graphite on paper affixed to the wooden blocks, though, and not the only instance in which Phillips successfully executes the trompe l’oeil. Throughout the gallery, masking tape — that’s actually a masterful use of a paint

March 29 - April 4, 2018

CULTURE Artist manipulates language for giggles, eye rolls, reflection

by Lauren Barber

Puzzles

March 29 - April 4, 2018

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Christmas tree type Curl of hair Smoked salmon on a bagel CPR specialist, maybe Change two fives into a ten? The night before Kimono sash “The Crying Game” star Stephen “That’s right” “Hang on just a ___!” Pay stub amount Answers from previous publication.

Rowing machines, casually “Chariots of Fire” actor Sir Ian Take care of the bill Auction bid Like 2 or 3, but not 1 or 4 The body’s largest artery Poacher’s need? Tennis star Monica Main character of Minecraft Coyolxauhqui worshiper Serving platter Keep from view Loaf heels, really Brain segment Way out

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39 44 45 48 ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 49 50 28 Puerto ___ 51 29 Board game of world conquest 52 30 90 degrees from norte 53 31 Stub ___ 54 33 Chris Hemsworth superhero role 56 34 Schlep 57 35 DIY crafter’s site 36 Dennis’s sister, on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” 58 60 37 Place for filing and polishing 38 Wrestler John with an “unexpected” internet meme 61

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Down 1 Mixed-breed dog 2 About 30% of the world’s land mass 3 Stuck together 4 17th-century philosopher John 5 “Git ___, little dogie” 6 “The Jungle Book” bear 7 Leave 8 Swearing-in formality 9 Author Eggers 10 Lowest point 11 Triatomic oxygen molecule 12 “The Muppet Show” daredevil 19 Have a title to 23 1970 hit for the Kinks 25 Makeshift windshield cleaner 27 “Master of None” star Ansari

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Across 1 Apple variety 4 Researcher’s room 7 Pea’s place 10 December drink 13 Bob Hope’s WWII gp. 14 Gran finale? 15 Map-providing org. 16 Dye containing a nitrogen compound 17 Can, to a Londoner 18 Motel room perk, as promoted years ago 20 Novelist DeLillo 21 ___ Mahal (Indian beer brand) 22 Be familiar with a Danube-based Austrian town? 24 Bend’s state 26 Cookie crumbled in a fro-yo toppings bar 27 “This is prophetic,” from the opera “Nixon in China,” e.g. 29 Existent 32 Make barbs about trip data? 40 Blocks in the freezer 41 Would rather not 42 ___ Lingus (Irish airline) 43 Chores for Superman’s general nemesis? 46 Paris-area airport 47 Theatrical sigh 48 Milky gemstone 51 Some Oscar Wilde works 55 Recorded by jazz saxophonist Stan? 59 Happy hour order

March 29 - April 4, 2018

CROSSWORD “Go to Sleep!”--beware of snoring.

SODUKO Culture Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Answers from previous publication.