A WE E K IN THE L IFE 1/20
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DAN FOREST, a candidate for governor, marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by telling black preachers that Planned Parenthood was founded to eradicate black people. He appears to have forgotten the time Dr. King accepted an award from Planned Parenthood in 1966.
1/21
SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE DAVID LEE ruled that the state isn’t meeting its constitutional obligation to provide students with a sound basic obligation and ordered leaders to “work expeditiously” to make changes. Pharma giant ELI LILLY announced that it will open a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in 2023, bringing more than 400 jobs to RTP—after receiving $12 million in state and local incentives. Relocated MCDOUGALD TERRACE RESIDENTS disrupted a Durham City Council meeting to complain about their increasingly lengthy stay in area hotels.
1/22
After the NCAE Organize 2020 Racial & Social Justice Caucus surveyed school employees about a possible strike to protest a lack of raises, the NORTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATORS decided not to authorize any statewide action—for now. It’s against state law for teachers to strike; they could lose their jobs and licenses or be charged with a misdemeanor. BOB HALL, the former executive director of Democracy NC, filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections seeking an investigation of the North Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its PAC, NC Heritage. Among other things, he alleges that the nonprofit SCV illegally contributed to the PAC.
1/23
THE GOVERNOR’S COMMISSION ON ACCESS TO SOUND BASIC EDUCATION, created by Governor Cooper, released a report echoing many of Judge Lee’s findings, including that the state’s education funding is insufficient. The budget standoff between the General Assembly and Cooper might delay the opening of the N.C. SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS’ western campus in Morganton, which needs $3.39 million allotted in the budget to open in August 2021. State health officials said they were investigating a possible CORONAVIRUS INFECTION of a person who arrived at RDU Airport and had recently visited Wuhan, China.
1/24
THE DHA announced that McDougald Terrace residents will have to stay in hotels through at least the first week of February while repairs continue. ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH STEIN joined a federal lawsuit filed by 20 other state attorneys general seeking to ban 3-D printed guns. The Durham-based organic energy drink company MATI—which was founded in 2012 by Duke student Tatianna Birgisson, who left the company in 2018—announced that it was shutting down.
1/25
State health officials reported that the POSSIBLE CORONAVIRUS CASE was a false alarm.
1/26
Thousands of people convened in downtown Raleigh for the fourth-annual WOMEN’S MARCH, protesting President Trump, Senator Thom Tillis, and assaults of reproductive rights.
1/27
(Here’s what’s happened since the INDY went to press last week)
The morning after revelations that former national security adviser John Bolton’s book will say that Trump told him that aid to Ukraine was linked to an investigation into the Bidens—directly undercutting the president’s defense—THOM TILLIS maintained that he saw no need for witnesses.
KeepItINDY.com
January 29, 2020
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