North State Journal — Vol. 2 , Issue 30

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 30

www.NSJONLINE.com |

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Inside Making Roman Gabriel’s HOF case Sports

PHOTO COURTESY OF the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology

Today, Condor rests in 25 shallow feet of water, roughly 700 yards off the beach in front of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

the Wednesday

News BRIEFing

NC unemployment rate hits 11-year low Raleigh N.C.’s unemployment rate decreased 0.3 percentage points to 4.2 percent in June, an 11-year low and 0.2 points below the national rate.

Seasonally adjusted “nonfarm” employment increased 12,600 in June, while total employment increased 86,185 over the year. Total unemployment dropped 14,892 over the month and fell 30,716 over the year. The number of persons unemployed fell by 14,892 (6.7 percent) in June.

The national unemployment rate increased a tenth of a percentage point.

Federal judge allows Trump elections commission

Manafort to appear before Senate Judiciary Wed. Washington, D.C. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday under supeona regarding his activities with foreign governments.

Manafort’s name was raised during two sessions earlier this week with Jared Kushner and Congressional intelligence committees staff. Kushner gave detailed accounts of his four meetings Manafort arranged with Russian officials, calling them a “waste of time” and denying any collusion with a foreign government.

20177 52016 $2.00

STATE

JOURNaL ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION

Navigating the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Crowds share views at public hearings

Washington, D.C. A federal judge rejected claims that President Donald Trump’s elections commission broke laws in asking for and storing publicly available voter data. The decision, out on Monday, clears the way for the advisory panel to continue its work studying allegations of voter fraud and making recommendations. The information will be stored on White House servers and will not contain Social Security numbers, ballots cast or birth dates.

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NORTH

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — In the coming weeks, the N.C. Division of Water Resources will make a major decision on a proposed gas line that could affect one-third of the entire state.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is proposing to install approximately 600 miles of line running through West Virginia, Virginia and the length of North Carolina. On its quest to seek the state’s approval for water quality certification, the ACP has received more backlash than support from residents across eastern North Carolina this week.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has plans to construct one compressor station and install approximately 186 miles of a 36-inch transition pipeline in

Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Wilson, Johnson, Sampson, Cumberland and Robeson counties.

The proposed project will permanently impact 766 linear feet of jurisdictional streams and 0.80 acres of jurisdictional wetlands, and temporarily impact 35,951 linear feet of jurisdictional streams and 454 acres of jurisdictional wetlands.

Officials with the N.C. Division of Water Resources spent the last week obtaining feedback from the public on the proposed pipeline. A public hearing in Fayetteville was held at the beginning of the week followed

by Thursday evening’s hearing at Nash Community College’s Brown Auditorium in Rocky Mount.

Officials were at the hearing to receive comments and answer questions regarding the pipelines application for a state water quality certification and See PIPELINE, page A2

One of the best-preserved shipwrecks is visible off the coast of Kure Beach

By Donna King North State Journal KURE BEACH, N.C. — N.C. recreational divers and snorkelers can take a deep dive into the state’s history with an up-close look at the Condor, a civil war blockade runner that ran aground and sunk more than 150 years ago. The ship has a fascinating history that includes one of the Confederacy’s most notorious spies.

The Condor ran aground on her maiden voyage to Wilmington on Oct. 1, 1864. She sank after launching out of Govan, Scotland, in June of that year, coming to rest just off the beach in Fort Fisher, located at the southern tip of Kure Beach.

Today, the Condor is in 25 shallow feet of water, roughly 700 yards off the beach in front of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The ship herself is largely intact with 218 feet of the original 220 remaining. The N.C. Office of State Archaeology has marked the site from May 1 until Nov. 1 this year, designating the Condor as the first North Carolina Heritage Dive Site.

“The bow is still attached to the wreck along with her sternpost and rudder,” said Greg Stratton, archaeological dive supervisor for the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

“In between are outer hull plating, intact I-beam frames, the water tank, ‘beehive’ boilers, both engines, paddle wheel shafts, paddle wheel hubs, keelson and too many pieces of structure to mention.”

Gov. Roy Cooper announces opposition to offshore drilling

By Jeff Moore North State Journal

Atlantic Coast Pipeline opponents hold up signs during a hearing at Nash Community College’s Brown Auditorium in Rocky Mount.

The Condor ran aground on her maiden voyage to Wilmington on Oct., 1 1864. She sank after launching out of Govan, Scotland, in June of that year, coming to rest just off the beach in Fort Fisher.

See SHIPWRECK page A3

Roy Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality plans to made arguments against drilling last Friday to the U.S. Department of Interior

LAURA ASHLEY LAMM | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

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Sunken Civil War blockade runner has a story to tell NC divers and snorkelers

ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper announced last week that his administration would be submitting documents to the U.S. Department of Interior arguing against the opening of waters off the North Carolina coast for seismic testing and drilling of oil and natural gas. Cooper gave the remarks in Atlantic Beach at Fort Macon State Park.

“I can sum it up in four words:

Not off our coast,” exclaimed Cooper.

The governor, a Democrat, said the risks of drilling to the coastal communities of the Old North State were too high and offered that there are safer and cheaper options such as renewable energy sources and natural gas.

According to the Institute for Energy Research, the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which stretches north to south offshore of the East Coast of the United States, contains approximately 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Cooper’s predecessor, Republican Pat McCrory, together with a coalition of coastal governors, lobbied the federal government See DRILLING, page A3

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A2 WednesDAY

07.26.17 #86

Mixed messages from officials on GenX in Cape Fear frustrate locals Gov. Cooper released a list of his recent actions on the crisis, but the questions about how long they’ve known remain

“Elevate the conversation” Visit North State Journal online! nsjonline.com jonesandblount.com nsjsports.com carolinabrewreview.com chickenbonealley.com

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North State Journal (USPS PP 166) (ISSN 2471-1365) Neal Robbins Publisher Donna King Managing Editor Drew Elliot Opinion Editor Will Brinson Sports Editor Published each Wednesday and Saturday by North State Media, LLC 819 W. Hargett Street, Raleigh, N.C. 27603 TO SUBSCRIBE: 866-458-7184 or online at nsjonline.com Annual Subscription Price: $100.00 Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, N.C. and at additional mailing offices.

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PIPELINE from page A1 buffer authorization as required by the federal Clean Water Act and state riparian buffer rules.

“I have a family farm that will be directly affected by the pipeline,” said Barbara Exum of Wilson County. “This is a threat to our vital water resources, it affects people of color, and the gas is simply not needed.”

Citing environmental concerns, including the possible contamination of the county’s water source, Exum said simply, “This is clearly a for-profit venture by private partners. Don’t sell N.C. residents short; reject the project.”

The public hearing focused on

WILMINGTON — Emotions ran high and residents of Wilmington had harsh words for Gov. Roy Cooper and his staff Monday regarding contamination of the Cape Fear River with the chemical GenX. Residents attending a public comment session were not just angry about drinking water safety but about communication from the state government on what they are doing to protect public health.

Cooper met privately with state and local officials before the public session, where he outlined the steps his administration has taken in the wake of the crisis.

However despite the detailed list, there are a lot of questions still circulating about whether Chemours Fayetteville Works plant in eastern N.C. notified the state government of how much GenX, a byproduct of making non-stick coatings, they were releasing into the Cape Fear and what the state did about it.

Under the Clean Water Act, touted by the Cooper administration as a critical tool in protecting public health, plants are required to present a list of the chemicals they are releasing. The state government is then required, through the permit process, to regulate any of those chemicals they consider toxic, whether there is a current EPA standard for them or not.

Cooper has said publicly that Chemours, previously owned

by DuPont, notified the state of GenX being released and offered the lack of a federal standards as the reason that it’s release was not regulated by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. Now, he’s calling on EPA to provide new standards. Cooper also said Monday that he directed NCDEQ to deny Chemours latest permit, which they had already requested when the story broke.

“There was a Federal Consent

Order that allowed them to discharge GenX as a byproduct. We are stopping that,” said Cooper.

However, Chemours’ original permit from the state did not have any restrictions on GenX, putting Chemours notification to the state in question. Whether or not Chemours actually notified the state is critical moving forward as proper paperwork could shield the company from liability. The company is currently paying out a $670 million in West Virginia to settle 3,550 lawsuits related to the release of PFOA, a toxic chemical, into the area’s ground, air and water. Legal analysts say the February settlement was good for the company as it heads off potentially decades of separate lawsuits over the contamination.

Wilmington and it’s surrounding counties watched the West Virginia crisis closely and now public outcry and fear over GenX in the Cape Fear River is coming to a head. On Monday, when Cooper, NCDEQ Secretary Michael Regan and DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen met with public officials behind closed doors before the public session, Cooper would not allow local news cameras and reporters inside. He directed police officers to remove all media from the room except the Wilmington Star News newspaper. They also denied permission to broadcast the meeting.

An exchange caught on video between Cooper and WCET reporter Chelsea Donovan as he had her removed from the room got thousands of views on social media. It locally overshadowed the press conference as residents filled social media with claims of rising cancer rates around the region.

Cooper and Cohen tried to calm fears and steer the discussion away from cancer.

“I have directed my administration to perform their work as if they and their families will be drinking this water. That is certainly how I approach it,” said Cooper once the public press conference started.

“The levels of GenX are steadily trending downward but we will keep testing to make sure those chemicals keep trending in the

the water quality permitting aspect of the proposed pipeline project. To comply with regulations, project developers must obtain a 401 certification, which is an approval from the state for any impacts the project may have on streams, riparian buffers and wetlands.

The proposed $5.1 billion, 42inch gas pipeline will run about 600 miles starting in Harrison County, W. Va., traveling southeast through Virginia and through eastern North Carolina until its final destination in Robeson County.

The pipeline is a joint venture between Dominion Resources, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural

Gas, and Southern Company Gas. Dominion Resources serves as the chief stakeholder.

Exum’s sentiments were matched by the majority of the crowds at the public hearings, with each affected county well represented.

“I’m from Northhampton County where we have been a dumping ground over and over again,” said Belinda Joyner. “The pipeline route extends through our low-income, poverty-stricken communities of color.”

Joyner said she went door-todoor to talk with residents on the route and found they were “unaware” of the pipeline and its potential impact.

By Donna King North State Journal

MADELINE GRAY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

The Cape Fear River waterfront in Wilmington.

right direction,” he said. He also has said he has contacted the Centers for Disease Control to “request a public health assessment to review any potential longterm health effects of exposure to GenX.” “The CDC has the capability to create complex exposure modeling that will give residents a better understanding of any potential of health risks over the last thirty years,” he added.

Despite Cooper’s actions to study the health consequences of GenX, his denial of Chemours permit, and many public concerns over the drinking water safety, his Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said the water is safe to drink.

“I drank the water this morning and I can continue to say as a leader and a physician that folks can continue to drink the water,” said Cohen.

According to a statement released by the N.C. DHHS, on June 12, 2017, a two-year chronic toxicity and cancer study with rats was performed and determined no toxic effect of GenX. The department released a statement that “Based upon these data, the GenX lev-

els detected in 2013-2014 would be expected to pose a low risk to human health.” However the audience in Wilmington Monday said the study is not enough.

Cohen was confronted by a woman in the audience who had suffered a miscarriage and believed that contaminated drinking water contributed to her miscarriage. She challenged Cohen to bring bottled drinking water to Wilmington and advise pregnant women not to drink the water.

“You knew GenX was in the water, and yet you did not tell us to stop drinking the water. You kept just waiting and waiting for those levels to go down,” the woman said. “Shame on each and everyone of you for waiting and not telling us.”

More studies are underway even as the departments green light ingesting the drinking water. New water samples taken by DEQ staff are being sent to a lab in Colorado and to the EPA lab in Research Triangle Park. The Colorado lab’s results are expected back later this month. In the meantime, Cooper has also asked the State Bureau of Investigation to get involved, but only to study whether there should be an investigation at all.

“The State Bureau of Investigation will work with the state Department of Environmental Quality, and the federal EPA, to determine if there is evidence of criminal violations of the permit, or of the federal consent order that allows the discharge of GenX that is in place, or of any other violations,” said Cooper.

‘Violations of the permit’ is the key phrase, bringing the question of whether Chemours notified the state or not of the discharge and if they did, why did the state not step in.

While there were plenty of signs, T-shirts and speeches mentioning the “unneeded, costly and dangerous” effects of the pipeline toward the rivers, wetlands, farmlands and overall natural environment to the eastern part of the state, there were also those present supporting the “economic growth, development and jobs” the pipeline could potentially bring.

“These are the best of times, the potential for economic growth is greater than it has ever been in my lifetime,” said Tom Batts, former chairman of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership. “We are close to a huge economic boom, and if we get the Atlantic Coast Pipeline we have a chance to provide jobs.”

Jones County Commissioner and land owner Chad Steward praised the ACP for working with those along the pipeline’s route.

“I have two family farms along the route and appropriately settled with ACP to which I was satisfied,” said Steward. “After working with Atlantic Coast, I don’t think this pipeline will affect us negatively.”

Public comments are open through Aug. 19 and may be submitted in writing via application.

More information and the application can be found at http:// edocs.deq.nc.gov/WaterResources/0/fol/261798/Row1.aspx.

The state will make a final decision on Sept. 19.

“You knew GenX was in the water, and yet you did not tell us to stop drinking the water. You kept just waiting and waiting for those levels to go down.”

— Wilmington resident

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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Candidates in Charlotte mayoral race attack Roberts’ first term Friday deadline reveals final list of candidates vying for mayor

By Mollie Young North State Journal CHARLOTTE — Friday marked the last day that individuals in Mecklenburg County could file official paperwork to run for elected office, revealing the final slate of candidates challenging incumbent Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts this fall.

While midterm elections traditionally generate low public interest, the Charlotte mayoral race could drive people to polls after controversy, including a transgender bathroom ordinance last year that resulted in the N.C. General Assembly’s House Bill 2, surrounded Roberts during her term.

Joel Ford, a state senator who is challenging Roberts in the Democratic primary, has pointed to “divisive politics” in Roberts’ first term as the leader of the Queen City as his motivation to enter the race.

“It’s time for new leadership and a bold vision for our city,” Ford said in a campaign video announcing his candidacy in April. “We need a mayor that will focus on the issues that unite our city, not divide it.”

Republican frontrunner and current city council member Kenny Smith echoed those same statements in his own campaign launch.

“In the past year and a half, Charlotte has seen controversy like it has never seen before,” Smith said

in a video on his campaign website.

“October brought social unrest that led to the shutdown of our streets uptown,” Smith said, referring to the riots that followed the police shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott, a black man family members said suffered from with a traumatic brain injury. “The mayor was more concerned with national media appearances than navigating the crisis or solving the underlying issues that plague our community. Just this past month our council meeting was shut down by protesters demanding sanctuary city status.”

But Roberts has doubled down on her support of the LGBTQ community and position as a progressive outsider fighting for change.

“She hasn’t been afraid to stand up to Republicans in the General Assembly or the Trump administration,” a petition on her website reads.

Roberts’ pursuit of a nondiscrimination ordinance in February 2016 to allow transgendered individuals to use the bathroom that corresponded with their gender identify rather than their birth gender led the General Assembly to pass H.B. 2. Conservatives said the ordinance created a public safety risk and dangerous precedent in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

The ordinance was repealed by the city council just weeks after the general election in conjunction with the General Assembly that it would overturn H.B. 2. After initially failing to override the bill, the state legislature overturned

Candidates for Charlotte Mayor In alphabetical order:

Kimberley Paige Barnette Republican (filed June 7) Joel Ford Democrat (filed June 18)

JASON E. MICZEK. | FOR THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Charlotte city Mayor Jennifer Roberts gives an interview to local media before a Charlotte City Council meeting Monday, September 19, 2016 at the Charlotte - Mecklenburg Government Center in uptown Charlotte.

www.joelfordformayor.com

Gary Mitchell Dunn Republican, (filed June 7) Constance (Connie) Partee Johnson Democrat (filed June 10) Vi Lyles Democrat (filed June 11) www.vilyles.com

Lucille Puckett Democrat (filed June 21) Jennifer Roberts (incumbent) Democrat (filed June 13) www.jenniferrobertsformayor.com

Kenny Smith Republican (filed June 12) www.electkennysmith.com

H.B. 2 in late March.

On Friday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state law, House Bill 142, that replaced H.B. 2, proving the transgender rights political

fight in North Carolina is still very much alive.

But team Roberts says her message is resonating, at least among Democrats.

A poll of 400 likely primary voters commissioned by Roberts’ campaign in June and conducted by Lake Research Partners of Washington, D.C., found Roberts leading her Democrat opponents with 35 percent of primary voter support.

The poll showed Charlotte City Councilwoman Vi Lyles, the mayor pro tem, behind Roberts with 21 percent. Ford polled at 15 percent.

The Democrat primary election is Sept. 12.

Jim Burton, a GOP strategist who previously worked for the N.C. House Republican caucus, said Roberts will be the focal point of the election.

“For voters in Charlotte I think there is a real perception that the city council and the mayor don’t know what they’re doing,” said Bur-

ton, who runs a consulting firm out of Chapel Hill. “This is all going to be about Jennifer Roberts, in the Democrat primary and the general election, assuming she makes it — and even if she doesn’t make it, she will still be a topic of conversation.”

Running against an incumbent or institution is a common political strategy.

Federal candidates often run “against Washington,” positioning themselves as an outsider when a current order, such as Congress, has poor approval ratings. President Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” in D.C. saw him prevail over Hillary Clinton, who has spent her adult life in politics, in the presidential election in November.

Ultimately, Roberts’ record on social issues will prove either to be a burden or a testament to the city’s interest in progressive policies — and either way, a lightning rod for her opponents.

New resource center moves soldiers from the military to the job market Entering civilian life is challenging, but a new public private partnership aims to make it easier

By Donna King North State Journal FAYETTEVILLE — As of last week soldiers on Fort Bragg can walk through these doors and into a new civilian life. Whether they are interested in health care, construction, transportation, technology or any field, they can chart their course here.

The Career Resource Center of Fort Bragg officially opened its doors last week as a model program that brings together private industry training schools and military resource specialists to help soldiers build a lucrative life outside of the service. Providing current service members, veterans and their families the skills needed to successfully transition into the civilian workforce for new employment opportunities makes all the difference for those who don’t know where to turn after they take off the uniform. William McMillan, Fort Bragg Transition Services Manager, said the two most challenging times in the military are entry and exit.

DRILLING from page A1 for permits to perform seismic testing off the coast during the administration of President Barack Obama. While Obama eventually banned offshore drilling in Atlantic and Arctic waters, President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April of this year to resume federal reviews for offshore drilling prospects.

Although the 2016 race for governor was decided by a razor-thin margin of 10,000 votes, coastal Carteret — where Cooper made the announcement — voted overwhelmingly for McCrory at nearly 70 percent.

At the center of the offshore drilling debate is the prospect of significant local job creation and economic development versus fears of potential oil spills that could damage the environment and negatively affect tourism at area beaches. Those opposed to offshore drilling also point to North Carolina’s ever-present risk of hurricanes thereby increasing the risk of spills.

Republican Rep. Richard Hudson (NC-08), co-chairman of the Atlantic Offshore Energy Caucus, responded to the news of Cooper’s announcement with criticism of

“The Fort Bragg Career Resource Center will be an employment, skills-focused facility that will provide the transitioners with employer specific education, training, certification and required information to bridge from military to a civilian career of choice,” said McMillan. “The concept of ‘Hire – Train – Employ’ will serve as a win-win for the employers, the service members, veterans, spouses and the military. The goal of the Army is to take care of ‘Soldiers for Life.’”

Fort Bragg’s Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program worked with Columbia Southern Education Group, to launch the center on base. Secretary Larry Hall, head of the NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony in Fort Bragg’s Modular Village.

Companies partnering with the training program included CVS Health, Charter Communications, Onward to Opportunity, North Carolina State University Agriculture Institute, North Carolina Truck Driving Training School, Adaptive Construction Solutions and Veteran Assembled Electronics. Charter plans to field its first training class of Spectrum Field Technicians at the Career

Cooper’s “either-or” stand.

“To put it simply, Gov. Cooper is wrong,” said Hudson. “This is not an either-or situation. We can open North Carolina to energy exploration and development while protecting our beautiful coastal waters as well as our tourism and ocean industries.”

According to the U.S. Department of Interior, offshore operators produced 7 billion barrels of oil from 1985 to 2001 with a spill rate of only .001 percent. In 2005, two hurricanes (Katrina and Rita) destroyed 115 Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and damaged 535 pipeline segments, but there were no major oil spills attributed to either storm. Better technology is credited for avoiding environmental risks.

A report prepared for the American Petroleum Institute and National Ocean Industries Association estimated N.C. could gain as many as 55,000 jobs by 2035 from offshore energy production, ranging from oil rig workers to onshore service providers. The same report forecasts North Carolina would benefit the most in oil and gas industry jobs of any state along the Eastern Seaboard with an estimated $4 billion increase in economic activity.

Secretary Larry Hall, head of the NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs joined the Fort Bragg’s Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program, in partnership with Columbia Sothern Education Group, to launch a new Career Resource Center on the base. The ribbon cutting ceremony took place in Fort Bragg’s Modular Village.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NC DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS

“You are definitely able to jump right into a team to perform and be productive and successful.”

— Jermaine Jackson, Field Technician

SHIPWRECK from page A1 One of the passengers aboard the Condor on her ill-fated maiden voyage was Rose O’Neal Greenhow, a famous Confederate spy returning to the states.

According to the Underwater Archaeological Bureau Site Assessment, because she was concerned about being captured by the Union, Greenhow wanted to be sent ashore in a small lifeboat after the Condor ran aground.

She drowned in the surf, allegedly with gold meant for the Confederacy. The rest of the crew rowed safely to shore the following day.

Greenhow was reportedly the only one to perish in the accident that night. She was given a military funeral and is buried among other war dead in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington.

If divers want to experience this piece of N.C. history, dive slates provide a self-guided tour for divers and help them interpret what they are seeing. Divers can take a charter from the Carolina Beach Inlet to Condor, or kayak to the site. There are mooring lines at the site for boats and kayaks.

The project is essentially an

Resource Center at Fort Bragg in September.

“As a veteran that successfully transitioned from activity duty, I know firsthand that finding employment is a significant issue facing transitioning service members – and Charter is doing its part to help,” said Darrel Hegar, Carolinas Region Vice President of Field Operations, who is an Air Force veteran.

Jermaine Jackson, Field Technician IV, took part in Charter’s apprenticeship program and said it gave him the confidence to move forward.

underwater museum so divers can visit and see what a blockade runner like the Condor was like and what it might have been like to live and work on the vessel.

N.C.‘s Cultural Resources Secretary Susi Hamilton officially dedicated the site last month, which was a joint project between several state agencies and private partnerships with SeaGrant and The Friends of Fort Fisher. It became the dream of several of the state’s archeologists since it was first mapped in 1994. The site will be free to visit, but preserved with donations.

“I am so delighted to help dedicate the first Heritage Dive Site in North Carolina, and one that I hope will be the first of many underwater sites celebrating and preserving our state’s rich maritime heritage,” said Hamilton.

The site is accessible even for beginning divers and snorkelers.

But if dry land is more appealing, visitors can also learn about the Condor’s history through artifacts housed at Fort Fisher State Historic Site’s Visitors Center, or see a replica of the engine room in one of the tanks at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

As an official Heritage Dive

“You have all the knowledge, all the tools that you need, and you have all the lifelines so to speak.

You have your teammates, you have the people you went to class with, you have your mentors. You are definitely able to jump right into a team to perform and be productive and successful,” said Jackson.

The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA), created in 2015, runs NC4VETS. com, which helps service members and their families with everything from family support to job training to navigating health care benefits.

Site, the Condor will be maintained by the Office of State Archaeology, with buoys marking the site and a travel line along the wreck for explorers. By designating it as North Carolina’s First Heritage Dive Site, the office hopes the Condor’s maritime heritage will be preserved and protected for years to come.

The new Heritage Dive Site was intended “to educate, to further heritage tourism and to teach divers stewardship,” said Stratton.

Divers and snorkelers are encouraged to “take only pictures, leave only bubbles” to help preserve this important piece of history.

While venturing below the sea, divers can also spot hundreds of fascinating dive sites, including historic shipwrecks and ocean ledges that house prehistoric fossils. The Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (UAB) at Fort Fisher maintains extensive records on everything from wooden dugout canoes to iron-hulled blockade runners and classic steamboats. In all, the UAB keeps track of more than 5,000 documented shipwrecks of the state’s coastline.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Nation & WORLD

ACLU files action against NC over bathroom access Interest groups who launched the HB2 fight last year have expanded the original suit to include the law’s replacement and Governor Roy Cooper

By Donna King North State Journal WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Although the controversial House Bill 2 has been repealed, another lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal last week claims that N.C. lawmakers are still discriminating against transgender people despite replacing a measure that restricted access to bathrooms in state-run buildings to those with the corresponding biological sex, rather than their gender identity.

The groups spearheaded last year’s legal action over the measure that drew national attention.

The groups’ new federal court action expands the original challenge to H.B. 2, Carcaño v. McCrory filed last year, and is now known as Carcaño v. Cooper. It also adds two more LGBT North Carolinians as plaintiffs who say they were harmed by the laws. The expanded lawsuit seeks damages for what they say was harm inflicted by both H.B. 2 and its replacement, House Bill 142.

The amended suit filed on Friday attempts to thrust the state back into the center of a national debate over government regulations, equality, privacy and religious freedom after H.B. 142, passed in March, helped bring back some business and sporting events pulled from the state in protest of H.B. 2, the so-called bathroom bill. It repealed H.B. 2 and directed that local governments could not institute their own anti-discrimination policies regarding private employment or public access to multiple occupancy facilities unless it is approved by the General Assembly. It also bans cities in the state from passing their own anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people until 2020.

It passed the legislature with the support of the N.C. Chamber of Commerce, the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association and was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper March 30, 2017.

Even with the national media attention on travel boycotts and corporate efforts to pressure North Carolina, the state Department of Commerce announced last week that N.C. enjoyed a record 2016 in tourism spendin: 50 million visitors to the state spent $22.9 billion, a 5 percent jump over previous years. The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau also announced last week that Wake County also broke records in visitors and tourism spending in 2016 despite the controversy surrounding H.B. 2.

According to the ACLU and Lambda Legal in their amended lawsuit, the replacement law still lacks clarity and while it rescinded H.B. 2, it eliminated local governments’ authority to institute their own anti-discrimination policies.

“After publicly vilifying transgender people for more than a year, legislators can’t just abandon transgender people to fend for themselves in the toxic environment of fear and animosity that the legislature itself created,” said Tara Borelli, counsel with Lambda Legal. “H.B. 142 doubles down on many of the worst harms of H.B. 2 and leaves transgender people in a legal limbo where they remain uniquely vulnerable to discrimination.”

However, according to Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, the suit undermines women and defies common sense.

“The ACLU and the transgender people they represent won’t stop until they force little girls to shower with grown men, share bathrooms and indulge their fantasy,” said Fitzgerald in a statement.

“We’ve already seen what this leads to in other states and in Target, where bathroom policies like this facilitate peeping and require women and girls to ‘just get over it’ when it comes to men in their bathrooms and showers. This is insanity.”

Cooper, a Democrat who signed the new law, is now named as a defendant in the lawsuit, replacing former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Cooper has called the replacement law imperfect but necessary to help repair North Carolina’s damaged reputation.

“The governor’s ultimate goal is statewide LGBT protections, and he is going to continue working toward that,” Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said in a statement on Friday.

Taliban suicide car bomber kills dozens in Afghan capital

U.S. senators predict veto-proof support for Russia sanctions

Kabul, Afghanistan A Taliban suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the western part of Kabul on Monday, killing up to 35 people and wounding more than 40, government officials said, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in recent weeks.

Police cordoned off the area, located near the house of the deputy government Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq in a part of the city where many of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara community live.

Washington, D.C. Two U.S. senators said on Sunday they believe that legislation that allows for new sanctions against Russia would pass with enough votes to override any potential veto by President Donald Trump. Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on legislation that allows new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea in a bill that would limit any potential effort by Trump to try to lift sanctions against Moscow.

Drunk teens at Chance the Rapper concert flood hospitals in Connecticut Hartford, Conn.

More than 90 people, including dozens of teens, were taken to local hospitals after drinking too much alcohol at a concert in Connecticut that featured Chance the Rapper, a Hartford police official said on Saturday. “Busy night for HPD at Chance the Rapper concert. 50 Underage Drinking referrals. 90+ Ambulance transports to regional hospitals,” Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said on Twitter.

Driver charged after dead discovered in stifling truck

By Jim Forsyth Reuters SAN ANTONIO — A truck driver on Monday was charged by federal officials with smuggling dozens of illegal immigrants in his tractor-trailer in sweltering heat that led to the deaths of 10 people.

James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, was charged with a single count of illegally transporting dozens of unauthorized immigrants. He was arrested Sunday after authorities found eight men dead in the back of his truck parked outside a Walmart store in San Antonio.

Two more people died later at hospitals and dozens of others

were treated for heat stroke and dehydration, officials said.

Bradley was charged under a law that makes it illegal to transport an immigrant while knowing the person is in the country illegally, according to a complaint filed in federal court in San Antonio, about 150 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. If convicted, Bradley could face the death penalty or life in prison.

Alfredo Villarreal, assistant federal public defender, is one of two lawyers that will represent Bradley, according to the court clerk. Villarreal could not be reached immediately for comment.

In addition to those who died, about 30 to 40 others were res-

RAY WHITEHOUSE | REUTERS

Police officers work on a crime scene after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer in San Antonio, Texas.

cued from the truck, which lacked air conditioning and drinking water, the complaint said.

Outside temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. San Antonio Police Chief

William McManus said the people in the truck ranged from school-age children to adults in their 30s.

Earlier the U.S. Attorney’s Office listed the defendant’s middle name as Mathew.

U.S. Senate votes to open debate on healthcare Sen. John McCain returns for the vote to a standing ovation

By Donna King North State Journal WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senate Republicans narrowly agreed on Tuesday to open debate on a bill to repeal Obamacare, but the party’s seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law still faces significant hurdles.

The Senate deadlocked 5050 on whether to move forward with the healthcare debate, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote and send the bill to the Senate floor.

The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the party’s campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

But the narrow victory on a simple procedural matter raised questions about whether Republicans can muster the votes necessary to pass any of the repeal approaches the Senate will consider.

Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were the only Republicans to oppose the measure. Democrats were united in opposition to the motion to proceed.

A loss on Tuesday could have been a death blow for Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, and also cast doubt on Trump’s prospects to achieve any of his other top legislative agenda items, including tax reform.

“We have a duty to act,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators before the vote, reminding Republicans they had promised to repeal Obamacare in four straight elections. “We can’t let this moment slip by.”

As the vote opened, more than two dozen protesters in the Senate chamber chanted “kill the bill” before they were removed.

The Senate will now launch what McConnell has promised will be a robust debate on healthcare that could include a variety of amendments.

Senators said a variety of approaches have been discussed, including a straight repeal of

reuters

A still image from video shows Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who had been recuperating in Arizona after being diagnosed with brain cancer, acknowledging applause as he arrives on the floor of the U.S. Senate after returning to Washington for a vote on healthcare reform in Washington, D.C.

“John McCain is an American hero and a fighter through and through.”

— Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)

Obamacare with no replacement plan, or repealing and replacing the law while also overhauling Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

Senate Republicans also could consider a shortened version of repeal, called a “skinny repeal,” that would end Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates and the medical device tax, a Senate aide and a lobbyist said.

“Some of us want clean repeal, some of us want the Senate leadership bill, they’re both going to get a vote early on and I think that’s a fair way to do it,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said. “If either one of them fails and another one succeeds, maybe we can find something in

between that actually succeeds.”

Senator John McCain, who has been battling brain cancer at home in Arizona, made a dramatic return to the Capitol to cast a vote to open the healthcare debate. He received an ovation from his fellow senators when he entered the chamber.

His appearance is critical and some say symbolic of the Republican’s effort to make good on their campaign promise to repeal Obamacare, the signature policy initiative of the former administration. The controversial law has increased premiums and reduced health care options for millions of Americans since it’s passage seven years ago.

Trump also ran on its repeal and has been stepping up the pressure on lawmakers behind closed doors and in social media over the past several days.

McCain, 80, a veteran senator and former Republican presidential candidate known as a strong and sometimes fiercely independent voice on defense and security issues, was found to have an aggressive form of brain tumor, glioblastoma, after surgery last week for a blood clot above his left eye. It is the same kind of cancer that claimed

the life of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.)

McCain’s doctors said he was recovering from surgery well, and praised his underlying health as excellent with no sign of neurological impairment before or during his surgery.

“John McCain is an American hero and a fighter through and through,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “Courage and fearlessness have always defined his distinguished career of public service. Susan and I join all North Carolinians in praying for Sen. McCain’s recovery and return to the United States Senate.”

McCain is also known for an independent streak and a willingness to work with Democrats. He has participated in almost every major bipartisan legislative effort in the Senate in recent years, such as the “Gang of Eight” immigration push in 2013. He called for more defense spending but also criticized what he sees as inefficiencies in U.S. weapons programs.

For now, Republicans had McCain for Tuesday’s critical health care vote and, according to close allies, he is expected to remain active in the Senate and the party.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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NEWS IN IMAGES

STOYAN NENOV | REUTERS

Paratroopers of NATO armies take part in “Swift Response 2017” military drill, a part of “Saber Guardian 2017” exercise, at Bezmer airfield, Bulgaria.

CHINA DAILY VIA REUTERS

Workers lay alumina particles inside an air treatment facility at an oxygen production plant in Ma’anshan, Anhui province, China.

YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU | REUTERS

A man walks past the graves of soldiers killed in the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus at the Tymvos Macedonitissas military cemetery in Nicosia, Cyprus.

PRESENTS THE UWHARRIE

Performances at the Stanly County Agri – Civic Center Albemarle, North Carolina July 28 and 29 @ 7:30 PM July 30@ 3:00PM and August 4 and 5 @ 7:30PM August 6 @3:00 PM

AMMAR AWAD | REUTERS

Palestinian men stand inside Jerusalem’s Old City next to the Lion’s Gate.

PLAYERS IN

Tickets may be purchased prior to the show at: UWharrie Players.org Starnes Jewelers B & D Bookstore Or at the Box Office

Kids 12 and under, come dressed as your favorite Mary Poppins character.

Prizes will be awarded for winners.

This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Murphy to Manteo

Get out

Jones & Blount jonesandblount.com @JonesandBlount

NC 2018 campaigns take flight

Greensboro Hillsborough

and get fit!

Winston-Salem

By Jeff Moore North State Journal

Durham

High Point

Carrboro Chapel Hill

RALEIGH — With the launch of the ‘Break the Majority’ fundraising and election drive North Carolina Democrats, led by Gov. Roy Cooper, have officially kicked off a their campaign strategy for 2018 elections and beyond. Republicans, on the other hand, have been busy calling attention to reduced tax rolls and economic success as they look to hold on to super-majorities.

The coordinated push by Democrats is leveraging the left’s enmity to Republican policies ranging from taxes to education to “gerrymandered” districts. Even the unpopular, and since repealed, House Bill 2 is still in play as Cooper and other Democrats caution voters against Republican social policies.

“We need to restore common sense and balance in our General Assembly and elect lawmakers who will fight for the working and middle class, for public education, and for a forward-looking and inclusive state,” said Cooper in a press release last week announcing the Break the Majority push.

The fundraising and recruiting effort has already raised millions in campaign funds for Democrats promising to combat Republican policies that they say took the state backwards.

For the Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly the road to 2018 and maintaining their veto-proof majorities has commenced as an information campaign focused on touting the reduced tax and regulatory

Raleigh

Charlotte Fayetteville

With its mountains to coast beauty and plethora of trails, rivers and parks, North Carolina can’t help but promote a healthy lifestyle. But where in the state do the healthiest people live? According to health statistics from the U.S. Census and Centers for Disease Control, these are the top Healthiest Cities in North Carolina, taken from a list of the 228 healthiest cities in America. Factors in the ranking include self-reported activity levels, frequency of excessive drinking or smoking, obesity rates, access to doctors, and prevalence of recreational facilities and outdoor activities. Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington led the statewide list with eight other cities making the cut. So lace up your shoes, hop on a bike, take a dip and make a commitment to live longer while enjoying our state’s great outdoors!

west Unusual accident engulfs church vans in flames Macon County Multiple vehicles were found fully engulfed in flames by a responding deputy at a church near Highlands at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. The sheriff’s office initially investigated the fire as an arson case. But on Monday church leaders got an update from law enforcement that it was more likely a random accident. No one was hurt was hurt in the blaze.

Brazilians funneled as ‘slaves’ by WNC church, ex-members say Rutherford County Word of Faith Fellowship ex-members report being moving Brazil to a mother church in North Carolina before having their passports and money confiscated by church leaders. Trapped in a foreign land, one ex-member said he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay. Ex-members also report forced marriages and beatings.

Associated Press

WLOS

Historian writes 3 volumes about Catawba County Catawba County Gary Freeze, a history professor at Catawba College, spent a quarter century writing a definitive history of Catawba County. Over the years, Freeze has studied and chronicled the county’s geography, natural resources, ethnic makeup, genealogy, cultural heritage, politics, and economic progress and setbacks.

There were 373 emergency room visits statewide from heatrelated illness the week of July 9-15.

PIEDMONT

EAST

Southerland receives top honors

Family amusement center robbed and vandalized

Parker-Hannifin announces layoffs

Wake County Founder and former president of Carolina Savings and Loan, R.A. “Bob” Southerland, was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Roy Cooper last week. A Rocky Mount native, Southerland was recognized for his five decades of public service, serving on the N.C. Housing Cooperative, the NCSU School of Design Board of Trustees, and a number of other civil and professional groups. The Order of the Long Leaf Pine is the state’s highest civic honor.

Wake County One of the capital city’s go-to summertime businesses, Galaxy Fun Park in North Raleigh, was broken into Monday night. Several people were caught on surveillance cameras breaking the business’ front glass doors. Police reports say they caused significant damage to the locallyowned laser tag and entertainment business on Falls of Neuse Road. The thieves made off with two cash drawers that were empty but caused about $500 worth of damage.

Manhunt continues in Pisgah National Forest

Beaufort County Ohio-based filtration manufacturer Parker-Hannifin Corporation sent the state notice last week that it plans to lay off more than 200 workers from the Washington, North Carolina plant. Layoffs will begin Sept. 7 and be complete by the end of the year. The jobs are across the board, but primarily assembler positions.

WLOS

Client:

Charlotte Observer Project:

Sampson County A one-year undercover investigation into local drug activity by the Sampson County Sheriff’s Department, which started making arrests beginning July 12th, culminated in 36 total arrests recently. Charges charges vary between possession and intent to sell cocaine, marijuana and opiates, with bonds ranging from $7,000 to $200,000. jocoreport.com

Triangle Business Journal

Taylor to compete for N.C. top chef

UNCW professor wins research grant

Randolph County Post 45 takes state title

Flyers can soon nap on the go in Charlotte Mecklenburg County Charlotte travelers will soon have a chance to catch a few winks in comfort during a flight layover. Minute Suites is launching a service at Charlotte Douglas International Airport that rents suites by the hour and additional fifteen minute increments. The six suits have a shower and a daybed.

Construction is expected to start in September in the Charlotte Douglas atrium and should be available in time for holiday travel.

Drug sweep yields 36 arrests

Order of the long Leaf Pine

WTVD

Transylvania County The search for Phillip Michael Stroupe II is entering its the fourth day in Transylvania County as authorities search for a man they say is a threat to the community. Stroupe fled from police Saturday after investigators stopped him in relation to a Henderson County break-in. Authorities say Stroupe is armed and dangerous.

Hickory Record

Wilmington

Stay safe in the heat!

Pitt County The Randolph County Post 45 baseball team claimed the championship in the North Carolina American Legion State Tournament on Tuesday.

Randolph County, which was the only undefeated team in the tournament, beat Wilmington for the championship round in the tournament held at Pitt Community College. The Post 45 win in that game clinched the program’s fourth state title and first sincePublication: 2008.

New Hanover County U.S. Department of Agriculture grant has been awarded to UNCW associate professor of plant genetics Anne Stapleton through a program sponsoring research that leads to improved crop production, yield and disease control . The $490,000 federal grant will be used by Stapleton for research to help predict how specific plant varieties will react in varying environmental conditions.

Triangle Business Journal

Issue:

JUN 28, 2017

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Taxpayers benefit in second summer bond sale

By Jeff Moore North State Journal RALEIGH — State Treasurer Dale Folwell, through the State and Local Government Finance Division (SLGFD) of the N.C. State Treasurer’s office, announced Friday the sale of approximately $618 million of limited obligation refunding bonds.

“This refunding is the largest of the three,” said Folwell. “Like last week’s refunding, we were pleased to be able to secure such a favorable interest rate. In fact, the interest rate we were able to secure today was even lower than what we had anticipated.”

Last week, the SLGFD issued approximately $106 million of general obligation refunding bonds. The bonds were purchased by Citigroup Global

Markets at an interest rate of 1.39 percent, saving taxpayers $15 million in debt service costs Friday’s sale was the second of three planned for this summer. The bonds were issued and sold to take advantage of lower interest rates, thus reducing debt service costs for taxpayers. Seven bidders signed up for the July 20, 2017, sale, according to the State Treasurer’s office, with investment bank Goldman Sachs purchasing the bonds at an interest rate of 2.27 percent, saving North Carolina taxpayers $83.55 million in debt service costs..

“So far, with these two sales, we have realized almost $100 million in savings for North Carolina taxpayers,” said Folwell.

“That means more money for roads, classrooms and law enforcement; those core functions that people expect from government.”

WCTI12.com

Wilmington Star News None

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Campaign: 2017 UHG - HCWH NC

Onslow County Bud Taylor, the owner and head chef of The Bistro at Topsail in Surf City has been selected to compete against the state’s best chefs next month.

The native of eastern North Carolina will serve up competitive dishes for a chance to earn the title of North Carolina’s Best Chef.

burdens as well as the Old North State’s lauded economic performance that the majority party attributes to their leadership and reform-minded governance over the last several years in power.

“Helping hundreds of thousands of lowincome North Carolinians no longer owe any income tax is an outstanding achievement that proves Republican tax reforms are providing relief to citizens who need it most,” said House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), in a release highlighting the effects of recent Republican tax reforms of lowered personal and corporate rates as well as increasing standard deductions.

A July 17, 2017 memo from the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division’s head economist notes “of the nearly 4 million tax returns anticipated for tax year 2019, we estimate the number of returns will decrease an estimated 230,000 when compared with the expected number if the 2012 tax laws were still in effect. The increase in these no-tax-liability returns will be due primarily to the increase in the standard deduction.”

To be sure, breaking the Republican majority outright, even by 2020, will be a tough task for Democrats. The Republicans hold super-majorities in both legislative chambers, so the Democrats first step according to Cooper is to cut into that lead in order for them to sustain the governor’s vetoes.

Democrats need to gain 3 seats in the House, or six seats in the Senate, to first break the Republican super-majority.

Ship Info: Triangle Business Journal

IO #:

Courier-Tribune

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Across North Carolina, UnitedHealth Group is partnering to improve health care. By working with employers to offer better care at a lower cost. Helping rural families access affordable care through technology. Improving care for seniors by providing convenient, innovative in-home services. And, partnering with nonprofits that serve the children of our military families. To all those with a passion to improve health care, our question is: How can we help?

UnitedHealthGroup.com/NC

427547-06_NorthStateJournal_Jun28-2017_THIRD-P4C_v2.indd 1

6/13/17 12:27 PM

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017

BUSINESS

PHOTOS BY LAURA ASHLEY LAMM | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Farmville, a small town with 4,800 residents, has been diligently working to revamp its downtown and successfully bring more visitors and residents to a place with Southern charm.

n.c.

FAST FACTS Sponsored by

N.C. Broadband Infrastructure Office: Supporting Students, Educators, First Responders and Businesses Broadband is another term for bandwidth, or the amount of data that can be sent through a connection to access high-speed internet.

The more bandwidth, the more information a user can send or receive at any given time. Broadband is an integral part of building a 21st century technology infrastructure that supports students, educators, first responders and businesses.

Every K-12 school in the state has high-speed internet access, and 98% are served by dedicated fiber. Today, North Carolina is adapting to the changing demands of technology by extending WiFi to classrooms to support digital learning. To complete the recommendations of the North Carolina Digital Learning Plan, your N.C. Broadband Infrastructure Office (BIO), has developed a master plan to provide internet access to all underserved homes to facilitate student access beyond the schoolhouse.

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Helping cultivate economic upturn in the Town of Farmville

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal FARMVILLE — When it was incorporated in 1872, the Town of Farmville was an area of vast land ripe for tobacco production in the heart of Eastern North Carolina. Tobacco sales, processing and warehousing cultivated a nature of growth and stability through the 1960s.

“Seventy-five years ago, Farmville was a well-to-do town, but with the ‘90s collapse of the tobacco industry, that hit us hard,” said Bert Smith.

“The downtown is the front door to our community. You can recruit industry all day long, but if your downtown looks horrible and your town doesn’t present itself well, then they may put the factory here but choose to live somewhere else. That doesn’t improve your community beyond a certain point. We really want to focus on the whole picture, but a somewhat dilapidated downtown has been our weak link. An industry doesn’t come in and say, ‘take me to your strip mall.’ They ask to see your downtown,” added Todd Edwards.

Farmville’s weak link of a dilapidated downtown has steadily diminished. What’s left behind is a town on the rise, a community where many young professionals are moving, a vibrant downtown full of color, visitors in every business and more waiting to unfold.

How does a town rebound after a steady loss? Cue the four businessmen who helped spawn an economic upturn that has set the Town of Farmville as a go-to community in the East.

The Farmville Group, a grassroots organization of sorts, comprised of four men who meet once a week to discuss how best to motive and improve their community, are making huge changes in

By Amanda Becker Reuters WASHINGTON — U.S. Democrats unveiled an economic platform on Monday that included plans to address unfair market competition, rising pharmaceuticals costs and stagnant wages.

Democrats proposed new standards that companies must meet to complete large mergers and enhanced post-merger reviews, sin-

gling out the airline, telecommunications, beer, food and eyeglass industries as areas of concern in the proposal dubbed “A Better Deal” for working Americans.

Last year, Republicans proposed legislative goals with a similar title: “A Better Way.” The Democrats’ platform is a move to regroup ahead of the 2018 midterm congressional elections, after Hillary Clinton’s loss to Republican President Donald Trump in 2016. Republicans control both the House and the Senate.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, accused Trump of running a populist election campaign and then abandoning working people for special interests once in the White House.

STATEWIDE SPOTLIGHT Sponsored by

Though renewable energy is a current hot topic in both our state and our nation, it’s not new to public power communities in North Carolina. With just under 3,300 megawatts of solar installed, North Carolina ranks second in the country when it comes to installed solar electric capacity, according to data through the first quarter of 2017. A little over 4.5 percent (about 151 MW) is in public power communities. That’s about 16,700 of the 371,000 North Carolina homes powered by solar.

“Seventy-five years ago, Farmville was a well-to-do town, but with the ‘90s collapse of the tobacco industry, that hit us hard.”

— Bert Smith

Real Estate — began meeting four years ago to discuss ways to improve their community. From there, their labor became fruitful.

“We are four guys who got together and knew we needed to do something for economic development. In Eastern North Carolina, generally downtown areas are not part of economic development. Downtowns have been notoriously eliminated and omitted from that program,” said Walters.

To start, letters of encouragement were sent out to people in the community identifying projects and ideas. Suggestions that included painting buildings or adding awnings over doors.

By exploring the future of renewable energy through investments in solar, wind, hydro and biomass, you’ll find the power to grow in North Carolina’s public power communities.

Accompanying Schumer was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Amy Klobuchar, and Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and David Cicilline, among others.

Democrats want to create an independent government agency that would crack down on drug companies that raise prices excessively. They also want to allow Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly, to negotiate prices with manufacturers.

Additionally, drug companies would need to justify big price hikes to the government.

Policy proposals provided to reporters singled out a few companies by name, including Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. One document criticized United Continental Holdings Inc for the “brutal assault” of a United passenger who was already seated

on an overbooked flight and refused to give up his seat for a crew member.

Separately, if AT&T Inc’s purchase of Time Warner Inc succeeds, it would allow the “resulting behemoths” to “unfairly discriminate” against smaller distributors, one document stated.

When Anheuser Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, purchased SABMiller, the second-largest beer company, it put smaller brewers at a disadvantage, the documents said.

Mergers between Dow Chemical Co and DuPont, Monsanto Co with Bayer AG and Syngenta AG with ChemChina “threaten the safety of food and agriculture in America,” one document said.

Democrats will also propose doubling federal support for apprenticeship programs, a tax credit for employers that hire and train workers that make a liveable wage, and encouraging partnerships between companies and public high schools and community colleges.

the way people see Farmville.

The businessmen — Smith, former owner of the Plank Road Steakhouse; Edwards, owner of Edwards Construction; Randy Walters, owner of Farmville Furniture Co.; and Jamin Dixon, owner of Dixon and Assoc. See FARMVILLE, page A9

U.S. Democrats take aim at big companies in economic blueprint The proposed plan, “A Better Deal”, seeks to address rising drug prices, new merger standards for large companies, and wage stagnation

n.c.

“We can’t delude anyone that this Congress will begin passing our priorities tomorrow but we have to start presenting our vision for the country’s future.”

— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “We can’t delude anyone that this Congress will begin passing our priorities tomorrow but we have to start presenting our vision for the country’s future,” Schumer said at a kickoff event in the town of Berryville, Virginia.

Figures courtesy of ElectriCities of NC Inc. (www.electricities.com) and Solar Energy Industries Association (www.seia.org).

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A9

THE BRIEF Sears to sell Kenmore appliances on Amazon; shares jump

YURI GRIPAS | REUTERS

People walk out after the U.S. Supreme Court granted parts of the Trump administration’s emergency request to put his travel ban into effect immediately while the legal battle continues, in Washington D.C.

U.S. Supreme Court ruling leads to offensive trademark requests A unanimous ruling last month has opened the door to possibly racist and vulgar branding practices

By Andrew Chung Reuters NEW YORK — A small group of companies and individuals are looking to register racially charged words and symbols for their products, including the N-word and a swastika, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision on trademarks last month.

At least nine such applications have been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) since the unanimous June 19 ruling throwing out a federal law prohibiting disparaging trademarks. All are pending.

In the past, the agency generally rejected similar filings because they included material that denigrated an identifiable group.

But the court said the law violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution.

If the applicants follow through, such products as energy drinks, sweatshirts and fragrances could be branded with racial slurs. Federally registered trademarks, though not required to sell goods in the marketplace, can protect businesses against

FARMVILLE from page A8 “It’s a ‘can-do attitude’ from everyone. We are determined to make the good things better and the bad things good,” said Dixon.

“It started off positive with encouraging people to make things a little bit better than what they were already doing and then this took off from there.”

“We came up with the slogan ‘Only good things happen in Farmville,’” said Smith. “We didn’t mean to limit our work to just downtown, but downtown became such a focal point. If riding from here to the coast or here to anywhere, we didn’t want to see people riding through a downtown that was bleak with little business. We didn’t want that happening to our downtown so it was time to make good things happen however we

unauthorized uses of their brands.

Attorney David Bell, a trademark expert with the law firm Haynes and Boone, said the filings could be the tip of the iceberg if more people seek trademarks on offensive and vulgar terms.

“We’re now opening the door, chipping away at what’s acceptable under cultural norms,” he said. “I think it could be a slippery slope, where you get more people and companies thinking, ‘This is okay.’”

Since the decision, seven trademark applications for versions of the N-word, an offensive term aimed at black people, have been filed, PTO records show.

Other applications include an epithet for people of Chinese descent, as well as a swastika symbol, the emblem of the German Nazi party.

The PTO told its staff on June 26 that the federal law’s disparagement provision can no longer be used to reject a trademark, according to written guidance seen

by Reuters.

The Trump administration had urged the high court to keep the provision in place.

In a legal brief, the Department of Justice said if the Supreme Court struck it down, the PTO would be forced to trademark “the most repellent racial

could.”

And good things did happen.

There’s been the restoration of city signs and historical markers.

Murals, such as the popular renderings of a chicken and pig, are painted on the sides of buildings.

Modern houses are mixed with historic homes and both are full of charm. Shop keepers have decorated their windows, the streets are clean, the buildings are thriving and there are more businesses on the way.

Public money has not been available for these projects. Financial support, time and inkind gifts have been generously donated by the community. The town government works alongside the community to aid as they can.

“Farmville is a unique town that sits in a great geographical location. We knew we did not

slurs and white-supremacist slogans.”

The PTO and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

Bell said he did not expect hate groups to seize on the high court ruling to further their agenda.

“Might the (Ku Klux Klan) or neo-Nazi groups start doing it more? They might, but I don’t think trademark filings are high on their radar,” he said.

Steven Maynard, a Virginia consultant who helps others obtain trademarks, started Snowflake Enterprises with several investors to apply for offensive trademarks after the court ruled.

The company has submitted applications to trademark a version of the N-word to appear on clothing, hard liquor and beer, and intends to turn the slur into a brand, Maynard said in an interview. The company has a dedicated website.

Maynard, 50, said he is not racist but believes that saturating the market with such epithets can

rob them of their racist connotations. The idea is to spark discussion and turn “hate into hope,” he said in a phone interview.

“If you suppress it, you give it power,” Maynard said.

Maynard’s argument is similar to that offered by The Slants, a Portland, Oregon-based Asian-American dance rock band, which failed in 2013 to trademark its name. The band said it was trying to reclaim a term widely viewed as a derogatory reference to Asian people’s eyes.

An appeal of that rejection led to the Supreme Court ruling.

John Yang, president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice AAJC, a Washington, D.C., civil rights organization, said the Slants’ motivations for reappropriating a derogatory term were honest.

But he said it was unclear whether the same could be said of new applicants who might have purely commercial motivations or even racist ones. “We are concerned that once you start to peel the onion there might be different stories involved,” Yang said.

San Francisco entrepreneur Mike Lin, 45, whose parents are Taiwanese, submitted a trademark application for a slur against Chinese people, one he said he was called as a kid and wanted to reappropriate, or “take back.”

He intends to capitalize on it by selling T-shirts bearing the slur and using the trademark application to generate news coverage for his company 47/72 Inc, he said.

have public money to make most of these changes happen. Farmville is a uniquely generous community. We have been given real estate, a private trust and fine contributions that have made all this happen,” said Walters.

The most unique concept is the Glass Station, a partnership with East Carolina University’s College of Fine Arts, which has students and faculty working together in an old Gulf gas station that was converted into a glass blowing studio. ECU pays approximately $14,000 annually to lease the property and hold classes. The public is often invited to watch the glass blowing projects take place.

A former Chrysler dealership complete with bricked walls and wood beams is now an event center. A former farmer’s market and hardware company has been

converted into the home of an eSTEAM lab (entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, art, and math).

“We’ve had a hundred different spin offs from just a few ideas,” said Edwards.

“We’ve had businesses call us and ask for us to find them a spot in downtown,” added Dixon.

Word is getting out about Farmville and the town is waiting to welcome neighbors and visitors alike. The Farmville Group is actively looking for individuals or businesses who wish to open a ladies clothing shop, boutique hotel, hardware store, child care facility, food and beverage restaurant, and a small batch distillery or microbrewery.

“I’m proud of the town I grew up in,” said Dixon. “The work everyone is doing now will benefit the generations to come.”

“If you suppress it, you give it power.”

— Steven Maynard, a Virginia consultant who helps others obtain trademarks

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Chicago Sears Holdings Corp’s shares soared as much as 24 percent after the struggling retailer said it would sell its Kenmore home appliances on Amazon.com and integrate the brand’s smart gadgets with the online giant’s Alexa digital assistant. The deal will expand the distribution reach of Kenmore products at a time when the retailer is shutting stores following years of declining sales amid intensifying competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon. Big-ticket Kenmore appliances such as refrigerators and air-conditioners are typically sold only in its Sears, Kmart and Sears Hometown stores. The historic retail giant, which flagged doubts earlier this year about its ability to remain in business, said this month it would shut 43 stores, in addition to the 150 it announced in January.

Syncing Kenmore gadgets with Alexa, which will allow users to control the gadgets with voice commands, could provide a modest boost to Sears’ sagging sales, Retail Metrics President Ken Perkins said.

Support for Atlantic Coast Pipeline bolstered by federal environmental report W. VA/VA/NC Although organizations that oppose the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline say the three-state project is far from a done deal, business and political leaders are applauding a federal environmental review of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline released last week. Supporters see the report as a step forward in a project that they say will bring cleaner energy and economic development to West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s final environmental impact statement for the natural gas pipeline found that the project would have some negative impacts, though most could be reduced to insignificant level. EnergySure, a coalition of individuals, businesses and organization in the three states, called the project “a once-in-ageneration opportunity to revitalize our region’s manufacturing economy.” Pipeline proponents say the reliable supply of natural gas will attract heavy manufacturers that have previously passed over the Virginias and North Carolina.

U.S. home sales stumble as prices hit record high Washington, D.C. U.S. home re-sales fell more than expected in June as a dearth of properties amid strong demand pushed prices to a record high, keeping first-time buyers on the sidelines. The housing market has experienced an acute shortage of homes for sale for about two years.

As the labor market churns out more jobs and builders struggle to secure land, building materials and skilled labor, the situation could worsen. “The fact that demand is so high is actually a good sign of economic health,” said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow. “But that’s probably small comfort to buyers, especially first-time buyers that are having an especially difficult time finding entry-level homes for sale.” The National Association of Realtors said on Monday existing home sales dropped 1.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.52 million units last month. The shortage of properties has led to bidding wars, culminating in house price increases outpacing wage gains.

Housing inventory has dropped for 25 straight months on a year-onyear basis. It was the 64th straight month of year-on-year price increases.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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north STATEment Neal Robbins, publisher | Ray Nothstine, opinion editor

Visual Voices

EDITORIAL | RAY NOTHSTINE

Moving beyond the education spending trap Spending more does not equal better results.

One of Gov. Roy Cooper’s main thrusts to wrestle power back from Republicans in Raleigh is to bemoan that not enough money is being spent on education. In fact, it was a central theme in his June veto of the budget, saying that spending “comes up short for education.” Despite an increase of $700 million over two years, Cooper said the Republican investment in education was “troubling.”

Drew Elliot deftly pointed out in May the similarities on education spending between Cooper and Republicans, particularly the .4 percent difference in teacher pay raises.

However, in politics, it’s often the rhetoric and not the substance that wins out.

Many citizens, including the majority in most states, believe that more and more educational funding for public schools is the magic potion for success. In many states, it’s hard to even fathom referendums for additional education spending not sailing to victory with ease at the ballot box. As far as myths go, it’s one of the most popular and enduring beliefs in today’s public policy debates.

From a political perspective, even when Republicans keep an almost identical pace with Cooper’s calls for more spending, it’s never enough.

The good news is that North Carolina’s economic surge and fiscal responsibility has positioned our state well to spend more on education, but there is a greater requirement to move past stale calls for more spending and towards real reform.

To offer an example of how difficult that can be, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tried to flip the script on the national stage by offering up a budget that cuts $9 billion from almost $70 billion in federal education funds.

Despite a $20 trillion federal debt, irritation over any proposed reductions was loud and immediate. And not just from the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers, but from Republicans as well.

“This is a difficult budget request to defend,” Republican Sen. Roy Blunt told DeVos. “I think it’s likely that the kinds of cuts that are proposed in this budget will not occur.”

But DeVos’s lager point, while probably too controversial to come out and annunciate, was sound. Spending more

does not equal better results. DeVos instead defended the cuts to some programs by saying that they were redundant or simply deemed “ineffective.” During the campaign President Trump was more brash in his critique calling the status quo, “an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

A segment of the Department of Education, The National Center for Education Statistics, pumps out the same data as many other education studies and think tanks have been reporting for years: American students compared to other industrialized nations are below 29 other countries in testing on mathematics and below 22 other countries in science. Furthermore, the United States easily outspends almost every nation, including per student spending cost.

In “Education Myths,” University of Arkansas professor Jay Greene aptly notes in his book: “If money were the solution, the problem would already be solved… We’ve doubled the per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years, and yet the schools aren’t better.”

It’s no secret that North Carolina is not one of the top spenders on education. But Republicans, and those open to reform, would be wise to not merely brag about their similarities to Cooper’s proposals, but differentiate themselves on solutions to where the status quo is failing North Carolinians.

Competition and innovation is not a deterrent or hindrance for educational success in North Carolina, and must be seen as another solution. It’s time to fully embrace a broader range of choice for students across the state.

Engaging in endless spending debates about the needed increase for education dollars is not only a political trap for Republicans, but a trap for students, only they don’t deserve to suffer the consequences.

GUEST EDITORIAL | FRANK HILL

Is fixing healthcare easier than we think?

The key to ever making health care in America a soluble problem is to set into place the incentives and structures that help people not get sick in the first place.

The essence of politics, said 20th century Christian Realism theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, “is finding proximate solutions to basically insoluble problems.”

Niebuhr was trapped between his inherent pacifism and “turn-theother-cheekism” of the Christian faith and witnessing the horrors of World Wars I and II and came to the conclusion that men and women of faith need to act to get things done even if it is not the “perfect,” most ideal solution.

If Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has read Niebuhr, perhaps he could challenge his colleagues this way: “The essence of our collective job in the US Senate this July, 2017, is to find the best option we can to get to 50 votes in the Senate, not to make the US health care system ‘perfect,’ but better than what we think it is today under the ACA.” Many people today think that every time a bill passes Congress and is signed into law by the President, it has to solve all of our problems and set us free!

Nothing could be further from the truth. The best we can and should expect out of any piece of legislation is that it somehow addresses a need and helps as many people possible without

harming others in major ways.

Finding the “perfect” health care system is inherently insoluble.

Nothing in the ACA, AHCA or BRCA is really getting at the heart of the problem which is reducing the cost of health care in the first place.

We Americans like the fact that we have modern medical technology, medicine and regimens that allows us to live relatively healthy lives despite the fact that the majority of Americans simply do not live healthy lifestyles.

Talk about diametrically opposed forces that make a “perfect” health care system impossible. The heavier we Americans get due to fast food, lack of exercise and excessive consumption of booze and beer, the more we want and need these medical breakthroughs to stay alive.

Until Americans lose about 25 percent of BMI, stop drinking and smoking too much, and start walking at least a couple of miles every day, our health care delivery system will continue to be insoluble. All we can really do is try to manage the health care of millions of unhealthy people as best as we can.

We are stuck with the same problems today that President Obama and the Democrats tried to ‘fix’ with ACA:

How do we provide the maximum amount of health care insurance coverage to the most number of people without bankrupting the national treasury, corporations and individual pocket books?

Here’s some things to think about which will get at the core of the problem: 1. Everyone in the United States should have access to some form of catastrophic health insurance coverage to protect them against the loss of everything in the case of a catastrophic health event.

2. If you want to pay for private health insurance without the benefit of any tax deductions, you can do whatever you want with your body and health.

3. If you receive health coverage from any government source such as Medicare, Medicaid, VA, or get a tax deduction through your business, you will be enrolled in a managed health care organization, that will help you learn how to take better care of yourself.

The key to ever making health care in America a soluble problem is to set into place the incentives and structures that help people not get sick in the first place. That sounds so elemental but sometimes simple solutions are the best.

LETters Enough with the Trump-Russia distraction!

Enough is enough!

This continuing tripe in regards to President Trump and a “Russian collusion” has sunk from a pathetic attempt of the Democrats and their accomplices in the so-called mainstream media to distract Congress from real issues. The outright character assassination of decent people is shameful, too.

It has been said that no matter what the lie or how big it is, if it is repeated often enough and long enough, it is thought to be truthful.

Sadly, this absurdity does hold a grain of truth in it. The mainstream media and the endless supply of “political strategists” paraded across our TV screens certainly believe it! Most frustrating are the political hacks we have elected and reelected too many times who use this “Russian collusion” claptrap as a “photo op” and solemnly treat this farce as a serious matter “to be looked into.” The majority of people polled place this far down on the list of issues.

Enough, I say again!

Congressional Republicans remember what you said repeatedly, over and over again when you ran for office. You would repeal Obamacare. Not replace it, you would repeal it. All of you said it! For seven years you have done nothing.

Now you have no excuse! There are majorities in the House and Senate and a president who has directed you to get him the bill to sign. Sen. Rand Paul has a four-page bill that will work fine. Pass it and let Trump honor his commitment as you should honor yours!

Art Wilson Fuquay-Varina

BE IN TOUCH Letters addressed to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or 819 W. Hargett St. Raleigh, N.C. 27603. Letters must be signed; include the writer’s phone number, city and state; and be no longer than 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@nsjonline.com.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

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Guest Opinion | Luke j. Farley

Protecting parental rights in light of Charlie Gard Parents shouldn’t be treated as just one voice among many when it comes to caring for their sick child.

The case of little Charlie Gard should strike fear in the heart of every parent. You’re probably familiar with his story. Baby Charlie was born last year in the UK and suffers from a rare, debilitating condition. He can’t breathe on his own and has other serious health problems.

In March, Charlie’s doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London wanted to remove him from life support and let him die. His parents wanted to try an experimental treatment.

For months, Charlie’s parents fought a legal battle to prevent the hospital from shutting off his life support. A few weeks ago, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the hospital could shut off the life support at will and that Charlie wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital, effectively making him a prisoner of the UK public health system. Charlie’s parents continued to seek review in the courts. The hospital continued to fight them until Charlie passed the point where he could benefit from the experimental treatment.

If the hospital had yielded to his parents wishes months ago instead of standing in the way, maybe this story would have had a different outcome. This is a total victory for the hospital, which said in a court filing that it doesn’t believe in a “world where only parents decide for children.” It seems they’re getting the world they want.

The deck was stacked against Charlie’s parents from the beginning. Under British law, the state has an expansive role in acting in the best interest of the child—a role that comes at the expense of parental rights. When parents and doctors disagree on the course of treatment for a child, the dispute goes to the courts. By forcing parents to go to court when they disagree with their child’s doctors, it’s as if the doctors and parents have an equal say in these matters. They don’t.

There should be a strong presumption in the law that the people who brought a child into the world and have loved and cared for that child from birth are acting in the child’s best interest with all other opinions being a distant second.

Parents shouldn’t be treated as just one voice among many when it comes to caring for their sick child.

British law runs roughshod over the natural right of parents to care for their children. In deciding these cases, the British courts consider whether a child is suffering and how much benefit a proposed treatment might produce.

These are legitimate concerns, to be sure. But shouldn’t the child’s parents answer these questions, not judges? Judges may know the law, but parents know their children.

My wife and I just had our first baby, a little boy, about a month ago. It’s hard to think of Charlie Gard without thinking of our son. I can hardly imagine my wife and I in a situation where our rights as parents mean so little and our son’s very life depends on the benevolence of the state. For Charlie’s parents, it must be their worst fears become reality.

Could something like this happen in North Carolina? As things stand now, it’s highly unlikely. North Carolina law recognizes that children are under their parents’ supervision and control when it comes to medical treatment. Parents have the right to seek whatever treatment they want for their child unless the treatment constitutes child abuse.

Thankfully, life-prolonging treatment is never considered child abuse—at least for now.

Parents have to remain vigilant. Our healthcare system looks a lot more like a European model than it used to. We need to be sure we don’t also import European ideas about parental rights. We also need to support judicial candidates for our trial and appellate courts who will be faithful to the letter of the law and not interpret child abuse statutes as applying to parents seeking treatment for a sick child.

The land of Magna Carta is now a place where the rights of parents are trampled by medical experts, hospital bureaucrats, and government officials. It’s a place where the state has the power to reach into your life and take away the most precious thing you have. It’s nothing short of terrifying.

When I lay my son down tonight, I’ll take a moment to thank God I’m an American.

Luke Farley is an attorney and lives in Durham with his wife and son.

Charlie Gard’s parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard read a statement at the High Court after a hearing on their baby’s future, in London.

In defense of a robust federalism rom its conception, federalism has been a central F American feature. Our Founders

wanted a system of decentralization and were careful to disperse power, not only between the three branches of the federal government, but also between the states and central government. The phrase “checks and balances” does not only refer to the checks the legislative, executive, and judicial branches have on one another, it also refers to the relationship the states have with the central government. The greatest guardian of liberty should be the state’s check on federal overreach. If the central government were to act outside their innumerate functions, it was the state’s job to call foul. To ignore a state’s right to nullify or defy federal overreach is to ignore our federalist system altogether.

Federalism is also reflected in the construction of our bicameral legislature. The House was designed to reflect the will of the people with representation based on population, while the Senate was to reflect the will of the state. It wasn’t until the passage of the 17th Amendment that Senators were chosen by direct popular vote.

The 17th Amendment undermined the original purpose of the Senate.

Senators were originally held accountable by their state legislatures.

If they did not defend states’ rights, they were replaced.

The greatest guardian of liberty should be the state’s check on federal overreach.

government-run health insurance system.

A June poll by Pew Research Center found that a 60 percent majority of Americans now say it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. Also, 33 percent of the public now favors such a “singlepayer” approach to health insurance, according to Pew. That’s a 5 percentage point rise since January and 12 points since 2014.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) unsuccessful presidential bid appears to have had great success in reversing the widespread demonization of single-payer health plans. I’m sure the jaw-dropping cruelty of the Grand Old Party’s alternatives has helped too.

That’s probably not enough for us to expect single-payer to be enacted anytime soon, but there are more moderate alternatives, such as the “public option” that Congress removed during the original ACA debate. A public option would offer governmentrun insurance as an alternative to private-sector plans.

Conservatives deplore the idea, saying a government plan could afford to run the private plans out of the market. Yet, I would ask, even if that’s true, why is competition a bad idea only when it offers more choices to lowwage earners?

Politics is supposed to be the art of the possible. Here’s a great opportunity for Americans to figure out what’s possible and benefit from it — before the zombies take over.

On April 11, 2017, State Representatives Pittman, Speciale, and Ford introduced the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act” (HB 780), which states, “An act to affirm that Section 6 of Article XIV of the North Carolina Constitution is the law of the state. Whereas, the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution states that ‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people’; and Whereas, the enumerated powers of the federal government, as outlined in the United States Constitution, do not include the authority or power to establish laws concerning marriage.”

The purpose of HB 780 was to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, and articulate the supremacy of the State over an issue not in Article I Sec. 8 of the US Constitution. Furthermore, this bill would recognize the state, not the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of the Constitution. Throughout history, SCOTUS has played the antagonist in the usurpation of rights the states and the people have reserved for themselves.

The history surrounding federalism is an important part of not only our past but present and future. H.B. 780 reveals two things about the Republicans in the General Assembly.

First, a lack of courage. House Speaker Tim Moore said the bill would be dead on arrival because of the bill’s “strong constitutional concerns.” As a Representative of the state and people of North Carolina, his job is to engage in “strong constitutional concerns.”

And when the federal government tramples on the rights reserved to the state, his job is to say “no.” Rep. Pittman’s legislation is the exact remedy our Founders had in mind in the event of federal overreach.

Second, the proposal of H.B. 780 exposes the hypocrisy of the conservative delegation at the state level. How many other functions have the federal government usurped from the states? H.B. 780 could be used as a template for so many other issues. Issues which according to the Constitution, fall under the preview of the state. Abortion, healthcare, education, EPA, the list goes on and on.

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined.

Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. Did James Madison, “The Father of the Constitution” get it wrong? Or have we become complacent in protecting the rights reserved to the states and the people?

Clarence Page is a syndicated columnist and member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board.

Aimee Mulligan is the executive producer at Red Wolf Broadcasting in Raleigh.

PETER NICHOLLS | REUTERS

column | CLARENCE PAGE

Trumpcare makes single-payer sound great again A public option would offer governmentrun insurance as an alternative to privatesector plans.

Aimee MULLIGAN

Now the Senate has a zombie Trumpcare bill, too.

Back in March, you may recall, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) called off a showdown vote on its effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

Good riddance, said many Americans. The bill would have cause 23 million people to lose their health care, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and cut Medicaid spending by more than $800 billion.

Yet, in a visual display of cluelessness about what this draconian legislation could do to human lives, Ryan and other GOP leaders celebrated how much money the legislation would save.

Not completely heartless, of course, Ryan argued that the bill would provide more “access” to health care.

But critics — like me — argued back that “access” to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, to name one pricey example, would not do me much good if I can’t afford the fees.

Yet, Ryan resurrected the bill like a zombie and House Republicans passed it in May with no Democratic votes.

President Trump staged a photo-op celebration in the Rose Garden, even as Senate Republicans declared the zombie to be DOA at their doorstep.

The senators wanted to pass their own version even before the president, in one of his bizarre flip-flops, described the House bill as too “mean.”

But, alas, Senate Republicans came up with their own clunker of a bill that the CBO estimated would grow the uninsured by 22 million and cut Medicaid by $772 billion. That’s not much improvement.

As it became apparent that it would not get enough votes to pass, even among Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled that bill before a vote could be taken. But later returned with a desperation move: repeal and delay —repeal the ACA now, but with a two-year delay in implementation, during which Congress — through some miracle perhaps — could come up with a replacement.

Trump seemed to flip-flop a couple of times between repeal-and-delay and “Let Obamacare die,” while he declared, “I’m not going to own it.”

But, of course, he does, along with other Republicans who, I remind, control all three branches of government. Perhaps Trump is learning it is not nearly as easy for a president to pass blame for failures on to the minions below as it is for private sector CEOs. Meanwhile, the unexpected has happened. Now that Republicans don’t have President Obama to kick around, the popularity of Obamacare has risen to new heights. An April Gallup poll, for example, found for the first time that more than half of the Americans surveyed (55 percent) approved of Obamacare.

A June Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found Obamacare to be more popular at 41 percent than the House repeal-and-replace alternative at 16 percent. Only 12 percent liked the Senate version in a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

Also rising: Support for a progressive alternative known as “single-payer,” a system like Canada’s in which government provides health coverage to all through a single

Great Value.

Greater Good.

North Carolinians who earn their medical degrees at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine graduate, on average, with far less debt than students at other U.S. medical schools. A recent report featured by USA Today College on a study from Student Loan Hero recognized Brody as the most affordable medical school in the United States.

That accolade is one of many examples of how ECU is committed to making high-quality medical education more accessible to future physicians.

The tremendous value we provide for our students serves an even greater good for our state—making high-quality health care more accessible to all of North Carolina.

ECU doctors are transforming health care in North Carolina.

90%+

No. 1

Brody consistently ranks better than 90% of U.S. medical schools for graduating primary care physicians who practice in their home state and who work in rural and underserved areas.

Brody leads North Carolina and is among the top 5 in the nation for the percentage of graduates who choose careers in family medicine.

80%+ Brody graduates practice in more than 80 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

$54,480 less

Brody students graduate with an average of 33% less debt than the national average.

High-quality, nationally ranked programs. Lower-than-average tuition.

Opportunities that prepare professionals who have real connections to the people they serve. These are hallmarks of a great university.

These are hallmarks of ECU.

www.ecu.edu C.S. 18-52

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017

Deacs Double Down On QB Wake Forest Demon Deacons football coach Dave Clawson speaks to the media during the Atlantic Coast Conference’s annual Football Kickoff event in Charlotte, N.C.

the Wednesday SIDELINE REPORT

SPORTS

NASCAR

Earnhard to join NASCAR NBC booth in 2018 NASCAR Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will move to the television booth after retiring this season, signing a multi-year contract with NBC that will take effect in 2018. NASCAR’s 14-time Most Popular Driver will be part of the NBC broadcast team that includes his former crew chief, Steve Letarte, who entered the booth in 2015. “It is a tremendous honor not only to join NBC Sports next year but to begin a new career alongside people who love NASCAR as much as I do,” Earnhardt said in a statement Monday.

NFL

Olsen reports to training camp on time despite deal Even though he has not yet received the new contract he wants from the Panthers, tight end Greg Olsen reported on time for training camp at Wofford on Tuesday.

Negotiations with Olsen and linebacker Thomas Davis were cited as one of the reasons why owner Jerry Richardson parted ways with ex-GM Dave Gettleman. Olsen said he did not want to “add fuel to that fire” by holding out or to “add any more distraction or controversy to our team.” Olsen is currently set to make $6.5 million in both 2017 and 2018.

COLLEGE

NCAA sets UNC’s Infractions hearing The University of North Carolina released on its Commitment to Carolina website the NCAA’s “enforcement reply” to the school’s response to the second amended Notice of Allegations from the NCAA. In the documents released by UNC are a request from the NCAA for both Roy Williams and Larry Fedora, along with Sylvia Hatchell, to appear before the Committee on Infractions during an Aug. 16 hearing in Nashville. The NCAA added “the issues at the heart of this case are clearly the NCAA’s business.”

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTS

Wake Forest QB plan requires Dave Clawson to do some serious seeing double

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTS

North Carolina State Wolfpack all purpose player Jaylen Samuels speaks to the media during the ACC Kickoff at the Westin Charlotte on July 13.

Using preseason watch lists to predict win-loss records for N.C. teams NC State has the toughest schedule in the state

By Shawn Krest North State Journal THE COLLEGE football award watch list season ended with the release of the preseason list for the Walter Camp Award. In just over a month, watch lists for 17 different awards were released. Everything from best player to best punter will be honored at the end of the season, and the various awards committees have made their first cut before fall practice even started.

No team in the country had a player included on every watch list. Locally, Duke and NC State appeared on the most lists, getting someone named for 10 of the 17 awards.

Since multiple players could be included on each watch list, NC State edged out Duke for the most players honored.

Charlotte was one of just six FBS teams not to have a player named to any of the preseason watch lists. Florida International, UNLV, UAB, Georgia Southern and Louisiana Monroe were the others.

The lists aren’t perfect. Players that were missed in the preseason get added as the year goes on, and some watch listed players won’t live up to the hype. But it gives a good early read at who’s expected to be good this season. In short, the more watch-listed players a team has, the better it should be.

With that in mind, it’s possible to come up with a measure of a team’s strength of schedule, based on how many watch-listed players it will go up against this season.

It’s not a perfect metric. All watch listers aren’t created equal.

For instance, going up against Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, included on lists for the Camp, O’Brien and Maxwell Awards, will be a tougher task than facing UNC punter Tom Sheldon, who made the list for the Ray Guy Award.

Still, a tally of the watch list players for each local school’s opponents shows that NC State has the toughest slate this year.

Taking it a step further, it’s possible to look at individual games, based on the watch lists. For example, Duke faces Baylor in week three. The Bears seemed like a See NC STATE, page B5

WAKE FOREST is anything but unique in that it enters the 2017 football season with a question at quarterback. Literally half of the ACC finds itself in the same boat.

The difference is instead of looking to replace a departed starter as seven of their conference rivals are, the Deacons must figure out which of their veteran returners will be under center when they open the season against Presbyterian on Thursday, Aug. 31.

Coach Dave Clawson is planning to prepare both senior John Wolford and redshirt sophomore Kendall Hinton for the starting position — not because he’s a proponent of the two quarterback system, but because history suggests that he’ll eventually need both to be ready.

Sooner than later.

“Those two hate it when I say this to them, but they have yet to show they can stay healthy for three or four games in a row,” Clawson said recently as the ACC’s Football Kickoff event in Charlotte. “I’ve met with both and we’ve talked to them about the competition (and they say) ‘Coach, I think there should be one quarterback.’ I do too.

“It’s not philosophically if we want to do it

History says Dave Clawson will need both John Wolford and Kendall Hinton at some point this season.

See WAKE FOREST, page B5

INSIDE

PHOTO COURTESY OF NC STATE ATHLETICS

There has yet to be a former NC State player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, despite several viable candidates. One of those candidates, Roman Gabriel, is a former two-time ACC Player of the Year, a former No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, a former NFL MVP and one of the best quarterbacks in league history at a time when Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath suited up.

Vinny Sheehan makes the case for Gabriel’s induction. B3

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

B2 WEDNESDAY

07.26.17

TRENDING

Lucky Whitehead: Cowboys receiver and special teams ace was technically released by the team after charges of missing a court date resulted in a warrant for his arrest. However, police initially arrested the wrong person (resulting in the court date) and Whitehead was exonerated of all charges.

It remains to be seen if the Cowboys, who did not file paperwork to release him, will actually cut him.

Jose Altuve: Astros second baseman is putting together a historic stretch in July and throwing himself squarely in the MVP discussion. Altuve is batting .507 in July and if he holds above .500 for the month he will be just the eighth player in MLB history to record a month with at least 80 plate appearances and a .500 batting average.

Gary Kubiak: Former Broncos Super Bowl winning coach returned to the team’s front office to assist GM John Elway as a senior personnel advisor the team announced.

Yu Darvish: Texas Rangers star pitcher could be on the move in an MLB deadline deal, with GM Jon Daniels talking to teams about putting together a package for the strikeout artist according to a report from ESPN. Daniels would reportedly need the “right deal” to make the move so it may be more smoke than fire.

Mark Murphy: Packers president spoke at a shareholders’ meeting for fans before training camp and said he would love to see fans driving into Minneapolis for the Super Bowl, essentially turning the home of the hated Vikings green as the Packers played for a title.

beyond the box score POTENT QUOTABLES

NFL

When Jordan Spieth elected to walk back several hundred yards and take a drop on the 13th hole of the Open Championship, Titleist was going to get free advertising, good or bad. It turned out to be epic: Spieth would make an impressive bogey from the driving range, then reel off a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch to rip the Claret Jug from Matt Kuchar.

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“We’ve got a high bar here.”

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones addressing reporters at the start of the team’s training camp when asked about whether or not the Cowboys were worried about the culture within their locker room. The Cowboys are awaiting Zeke Elliott’s fate from an NFL investigation into domestic violence allegations.

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NFL

MLB

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“GO GET THAT.” Jordan Spieth was seen enthusiastically mouthing those words to caddie Michael Greller after burying a long eagle putt on No. 15 at the Open Championship to take back the lead. Spieth described the situation as “kind of like an old-school move, when the caddies used to get it out of the hole when guys holed a chip.”

NFL

99 Percent of former NFL players brains that were diagnosed with CTE in a study conducted by the Boston University School of Medicine and VA Boston Healthcare and initially reported by the New York Times. The schools studied 111 brains of former NFL players and found CTE present in 110 of those brains. The study found 87 percent of 202 brains had CTE as well.

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The Chicago Cubs are not standing pat in defense of their World Series title last year. After trading for Jose Quintana before the All-Star Break, the Cubs surged into the NL Central lead and are now pursuing Justin Verlander and Alex Avila from the Tigers.

In one of the more adorable things you will ever see at training camp, Panthers rookie Curtis Samuel was dropped off at the team’s training camp in Spartanburg, S.C. by his mother, who stood in the background and watched him walk into camp.

NBA

The NBA’s insane offseason continued at breakneck speed this week as Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving reportedly demanded a trade from the team. According to a report from ESPN, Kyrie is basically sick of playing second fiddle to LeBron James and was non-plussed when his name surfaced in trade rumors following the dismissal of GM David Griffin. Irving reportedly wants to play for the Spurs, Knicks, Timberwolves or Heat.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

B3

Why Roman Gabriel deserves a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame ROMAN GABRIEL was ahead of his time, glamorizing professional football in Los Angeles before the NFL was desperate to do so, evolving into one of the biggest names in the NFL during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The L.A. Rams starting quarterback played in the City of Angels during its purest and toughest era, a time when players didn’t just play for money, but for love of the game.

Gabriel played in the league with a group of elite quarterbacks, including Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr, at a time when the NFL sported some of the most feared tacklers in the history of the game.

Week in and week out featured matchups against the likes of Dick Butkus, Ray Nitsckhe and Bob Lilly from the Doomsday Defense in Dallas. Roman took his lumps and hits, but proved he was tough as nails, starting 89 consecutive games for the Rams despite knee and shoulder injuries.

He was a Cam Newton before his time, the first large quarterback in NFL history at 6-foot-4, 235 pounds. He could slice up defenses with his pinpoint passes, heave the ball 70 yards and shake off tacklers unlike few others.

“Nobody in the history of the game is as strong as Gabe,” said former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.

Vince Lombardi once described Roman’s body as a “big telephone poll.” They say Roman once threw a ball 90 yards, almost the entire length of the football field, but it was ruled an incomplete pass. He won the NFL MVP and was voted First Team All-Pro in 1969, played in 4 Pro Bowls (1967, 1968, 1969, and 1973) and won NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award in 1973.

When he retired, he ranked as the Rams’ all-time passing leader with 22,223 yards, 154 touchdowns and 1,705 passes completed.

From 1967 to 1970, the Rams were one of the best teams in football, with a record of 41-11-4. Gabriel led the Rams to either a first or second-place division finish in that stretch. The Rams weren’t just known for their offense, though, as they had one of the greatest defensive lines in the Fearsome Foursome (Merlin Olson, Deacon Jones, Rosey Greer and Lamar Lundy).

Butkus once called them “the most dominant line in football history.”

During the 1967 and 1969 seasons, the Rams lost in the divisional round to the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings, both of whom went on to play in the Super Bowl.

L.A.’s best season came in 1969, a first-place division finish highlighted by Gabriel’s MVP campaign.

Somehow Gabriel became an overlooked figure in NFL historical lore: a former No. 2 pick (No. 1 in the AFL too) with an MVP award on his resume and a lengthy run of success in the NFL, Gabriel never garnered the votes necessary to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No gold jacket, no induction speech.

That needs to change.

Roman, a Wilmington, N.C. native who attended New Hanover High, was a three-sport athlete who played football, baseball and basketball. He was voted the best amateur baseball player in the Carolinas and was offered a contract by the New York Yankees. He passed on the opportunity to star at NC State, where during his freshman year he was also a three-sport athlete. It was on the football field he

The former NC State star and No. 1 overall pick has a better case for the HOF than you think

By Vinny Sheehan | Special to the North State Journal

PHOTO COURTESY OF NC STATE ATHLETICS

“Gabe had a terrific impact on the football team. He sent us in a new direction and much of it he had to do on his own because we didn’t have the kind of supporting cast he deserved. He started us in the new direction and others followed.”

— Earle Edwards, NC State’s legendary head football coach at the time, in a 1987 interview became a superstar, tearing up the Wolfpack record books en route to becoming a two-time All-American and back-to-back ACC Player of the Year in 1960 and 1961.

Gabriel set 22 NC State records, nine conference records, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989. On January 20, 1962, Gabriel’s No. 18 jersey was officially retired and presented to him by then-Governor Terry Sanford.

“Gabe had a terrific impact on the football team,” said Earle Edwards, NC State’s legendary head football coach at the time, in a 1987 interview. “He sent us in a new direction and much of it he had to do on his own because we didn’t have the kind of supporting cast he deserved. He started us in the new direction and others followed.”

Gabriel was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 AFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders, but signed with the L.A. Rams after being selected with the No. 2 selection in the 1962 NFL Draft Roman got off to a slow start with the Rams after not seeing playing time for the first few seasons.

But after a change in leadership, head coach George Allen made Roman his new field general. In his second season as the Rams starting quarterback in 1967, Roman led his team to 11 wins and was handed his first Pro Bowl berth.

He put together great seasons — notably in 1969 when he led the

league in passing touchdowns (24), was honored as an All-Pro and was named MVP — but Gabriel’s best performances were on the biggest stages. The most memorable one probably came on December 17, 1967 against Unitas and the Baltimore Colts. The Colts were 11-0-2 and the Rams were 10-1-2 with the winner moving on to the playoffs.

Gabriel put on a clinic, passing 18of-22 for 257 yards and three touchdowns. The Fearsome Foursome also chimed in, punishing Unitas in the pocket, sacking him a total of seven times. The Rams beat the Colts 34-10.

“You would have thought Gabriel was Unitas,” Allen said. “He sure held his poise out there. Roman has greatly matured over the past two years.”

Unfortunately, injuries took their toll on Gabriel later in this career — a torn tendon in the elbow of his throwing arm caused his stats to suffer and the Rams brought in another QB in John Hadl from the San Diego Chargers after the 1972 season. Roman then demanded a trade and was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 1973, in typical Roman form with his back against the wall, he led the league with 3,219 yards and 23 touchdown passes winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award and earn another trip to the Pro Bowl. His total yards and passing completion percentage (58.7) were the best of his pro career.

Chargers believe new home brings new direction

quarterback as keen as Rivers, the Chargers have missed the playoffs in six of the past seven seasons.

Someone might yell “rewrite” this close to Hollywood, and Rivers is all for that.

“We’re coming off two tough years,” Rivers said. “But it’s a team that fully expects to win a lot of football games. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Some around the NFL project the Chargers as a sleeper of sorts.

While the Broncos, Chiefs and Raiders get first billing in the division, L.A. could shake things up.

Like fresh head coach Anthony Lynn, that fan base is new to the Chargers. But there seems to be a sense of optimism throughout the organization that the Chargers and L.A. could be a meeting that gets off on the right, and winning, foot.

By Jay Paris The Sports XChange COSTA MESA, Calif. — The Chargers have shed San Diego for Los Angeles. Now if they can just ditch their recent run of mediocre — at best — football.

After winning a disappointing nine games in the last two seasons, the Chargers are upbeat about a new direction in a new location.

With an offense that could wound rivals in various ways, a defense that features admirable pass-rushers and a head coach with a motivational edge, the Chargers are pumped.

“I think anything that is new is exciting,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “What’s the atmosphere going to be like at the first home preseason game? What’s the training camp site [like]. All those things.

Anything new is always exciting.

The unknown.”

The Chargers know what they will get from Rivers and that’s always something to lean on: he threw for at least 4,000 yards in eight of his last nine seasons. Entering his 14th year, Rivers seems rejuvenated as well, after the slow digestion of leaving San Diego — the only place he’s played — for Los Angeles.

“We will find that new normal moving up the road,” Rivers said.

Rivers has to hope it comes with a different ending when the curtain draws on the regular season; it’s been two straight years the Chargers finished in the bottom of the AFC West.

Among the other black marks the team loaded into the moving van was this gem: despite having a

Top three training camp goals • Stabilize the offensive line.

The Chargers have been trying to fix this shortcoming for seemingly ever. This year they will likely be introducing three new starters from the previous season’s opening day.

While with the Eagles (1973-77), he threw for 7,221 total yards and recorded 45 touchdown passes.

Roman ranks among the NFL’s all-time leaders with 29,444 yards passing. That is more yards passing than Hall of Famers Len Dawson, Terry Bradshaw, Ken Stabler, Joe Namath, George Blanda, Bobby Layne, Bob Griese, Bart Starr, Norm Van Brocklin, Otto Graham, Roger Staubach and Sammy Baugh.

Roman also passed for 201 touchdown passes which is more than Hall of Famers’ Bobby Layne, Ken Stabler, Bob Griese, Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin, Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Sid Luckman. Gabriel also has a better Touchdown to Interception Ratio (1.34) than Hall of Famers’ Frank Tarkenton (1.28), Johnny Unitas (1.14) and Bart Starr (1.10).

Gabe was not your typical pocket passer either, as he rushed for 1,304 yards and 30 touchdowns.

That is only six fewer TDs than Michael Vick, five less than Randall Cunningham and one more than Donovan McNabb.

The debate on Gabriel found its way into pop culture lexicon, with Peter and Bobby of “Brady Bunch” vigorously arguing on a Season 4 episode (1972-73) about who had the better passing average: Joe Namath or Gabriel? Roman had the better career passing completion average at 52.0 percent to Joe Willie’s 50.1 percent. In fact, Gabriel threw more touchdown passes (201-173) and passed for more yards (29,444-27,663) than Namath.

The obvious differentiator is Super Bowl III, in which the Jets defeated the Colts 16-7 after Namath famously guaranteed victory prior to the game. Gabriel’s best chance at a Super Bowl came during his 1969 MVP campaign as the Rams started the season at 10-0 and win their second division title in three seasons. However, L.A. lost to the

Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the playoffs.

The Hall of Fame does not consider off-field work but it is worth noting that Gabriel always gave back; having raised over $10 million in his lifetime for various types of charities such as multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, leukemia, the blind, Special Olympics and Salvation Army.

So why is Roman Gabriel, the first Asian-American ever to play quarterback in the NFL, not in the Hall of Fame?

It could be the competition in the league at the time, as Roman and others were often overshadowed by myriad Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Unitas, Starr and Namath. The lack of a title does not help: all three of those quarterbacks won at least one Super Bowl. Some might say that Roman could never win the big game or that his playoff record was nothing to write home about?

Could it be because the Rams might have lost some of their historical significance and tradition when having moved from Los Angeles to St Louis in 1995 and then back to Los Angeles in 2016?

The style of the modern game does not help Gabriel either. Modern rules are catered towards quarterbacks, which has resulted in an explosion of passing statistics.

Quarterbacks from the 60’s and 70’s are having their numbers dwarfed by average passers in the 2000’s.

Dan Marino became the first quarterback to join the 5K club when he threw for 5,084 yards in 1984. Since then, there have been four different quarterbacks to topple the number, and they have done it eight times over the last eight seasons.

Could these quarterbacks have survived in a more violent, hard-hitting and demolition style of play that Gabriel had played in?

Could Drew Brees take a monstrous hit from former Blitzer Mike Curtis of the Colts that is pictured in the famous photograph of him tackling Roman’s head? Did Roman suffering eight concussions during his career and having withstood 13 surgeries — including a collapsed lung in 1972 — hinder him in any way?

Gabriel played the game how it should have been played, hard and tough. He played hurt, he grinded out seasons, he did whatever it took to give his team a chance to win the game. Roman had a ton of success on the football field and the record books do most of the talking.

He has better numbers than quite a few of the quarterbacks that are already in the Hall of Fame, no disrespect to those fine athletes. Time should not erode away his production, nor should the ease with which modern quarterbacks put up statistics cripple his chances at receiving what he and his family deserve, a gold jacket.

A walk into Carter-Finley Stadium is impossible without seeing the homage to Gabriel and all he did in Raleigh as a collegiate star.

His name is retired there, it’s on banners and it’s outside on a plague located at Earle Edwards Walk of Champions. Gabriel was inducted into the 2012 Inaugural NC State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Gabriel was a big fish in the smaller pond of Raleigh and remained that way when he leapt to the large lake of the NFL. He deserves a similar honor, and should be the first Wolfpack alum inducted into Canton, at the larger level as well.

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (17) passes during a drill in mini camp at Charger Park in San Diego on June 13.

JAKE ROTH | USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES

Just where the big bodies will land – rookies Dan Feeney and Forrest Lamp will be in the mix – on a line that is far from settled will be interesting. Matt Slauson, last year’s center, could end up at guard.

• Find a nickel defensive back.

The Chargers seem to be pretty solid with their starting cornerbacks in Casey Hayward and Jason Verrett, both with Pro Bowls on their resumes. But with the opposing offenses going to multiple wideouts the majority of the time, which Bolt will fill the void in the slot? Among those to vie for the position will be

Trovon Reed and Trevor Williams from last year’s team. But keep an eye on Desmond King, a fifthround pick, too.

• Finding a kicker. Some teams bring a summer kicker in just to be a camp leg. That’s not the case with the Chargers as they want to push Josh Lambo to another level.

Or be impressed enough by free agent Younghoe Koo to go a different direction. Lambo has the leg strength, but his wobbly accuracy is a concern for a squad that was dreadful with special teams last year.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

B4

Canadians eager to end nation’s drought at the Canadian Open

SPLITTER TO SPOILER

The myriad northerners on the PGA Tour would love to win in their home country

By Tom LaMarre The Sports XChange

BRIAN SPURLOCK | USA TODAY SPORTS

Kasey Kahne and car owner Rick Hendrick kiss the bricks after winning the Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 23.

Kahne seizes opportunity to win Brickyard 400 ASEY KAHNE has heard it all. He can’t drive anymore.

K He didn’t deserve a contract

extension from Hendrick Motorsports. He’s going to be out of a ride next year. None of this, of course, is true, but it’s spewed on an almost weekly basis from fans and those who follow NASCAR. Kahne proved everyone wrong on Sunday at the Brickyard.

With a chance to spoil his shot at his first win in 102 races — dating back to Aug. 31, 2014 — on three separate restarts in the closing laps, Kahne never faltered. The lone restart where Brad Keselowski beat him was actually because Kahne was waiting until the end of the restart zone and Kes jumped the start.

It may have been a late pit stop that was performed flawlessly by his pit crew that got him in the top spot, but Kahne earned it. The caution may have been delayed due to no lights at Indianapolis — we’ll discuss that later — but Kahne earned it.

And to do it all in the Brickyard 400 made it even more special.

“To win at this track is unreal,” Kahne said. “We used to always be really close. Today’s strategy got us here. This Farmers Insurance Chevrolet was great once I got out front. I just had to get there. I’m exhausted. But, an unbelievable win. The team just kept working. ... To win at Indy is unbelievable.”

The win also couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for Kahne.

In the last week, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Alex Bowman would be taking over for Dale Earnhardt Jr. next season in the No. 88 ride. That may not seem too damning for Kahne, but it leaves William Byron — Hendrick’s golden boy who won Saturday in the Xfinity Series — still knocking on the door for one of Hendrick’s Cup programs in the future.

Having won three of the last five races and averaging a finish of 2.5 over the last six starts, Byron is a clear threat in the coming years for a spot at the next level. And with a seven-time champion in Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott sealed up until 2022 and Bowman taking over the 88, Kahne desperately needed to prove himself.

Whether it’s for Hendrick or another team remains to be seen.

“This shows that I gave it all that I can to get a win. It shows that I’m passionate about driving stock cars, that I can still win races, too,” Kahne said. “I have a deal through 2018 with Hendrick Motorsports. Hear a lot of things, but tough to say exactly what’s going to happen because I don’t know at this point this time.”

NASCAR got it all wrong Rather than starting the Brickyard 400 at 1 p.m. like most races, NASCAR ran Sunday’s race in Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m. despite the threat of rain and no lights at the track. Fourteen cautions, three red flags and one overtime restart later, NASCAR was forced to make a decision on a late caution that tarnished an exciting race.

None of it makes any sense.

At other tracks without lights like Dover and Talladega, NASCAR doesn’t start the races any later than 2 p.m. In fact, Dover’s first race started at 1 p.m. and the second race in the playoffs will start at 2 p.m., two races prior to Talladega at 2 p.m.

In a race that saw four crucial restarts in the closing laps

R. CORY SMITH

with Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski battling for the lead, having the sun setting outside of the track certainly didn’t help matters.

“Over-aggression is an understatement,” Matt DiBenedetto said of the end of the race. “I don’t know if it just got dark and nobody could see out their windshields or what, but the thing is restarts are so important. That’s where you make up all your spots, and once it gets single filed out, it’s really hard to pass.”

Then there was the final yellow flag decision. While NASCAR might never actually admit it, most fans will agree that the last caution was clearly held as drivers were wrecking behind Kahne.

The argument for the decision from fans on social media? Well, NASCAR would have been forced to call the race because the sun was going down. First of all, it would have never been that close if the race was started at 1 p.m. Second of all, that would have been more forthcoming than deliberately holding a caution so the race ended in official fashion.

Again, this takes nothing away from Kahne, who clearly had the advantage and clean air on his side during several restarts at the end. Essentially, NASCAR tried to save its own butt with the caution and failed miserably.

And after nearly the exact same incident happened earlier in the month in an Xfinity Series race, the overtime line needs to be dealt with immediately.

Playoff spots dwindling for NASCAR’s biggest stars If NASCAR fans were told a Hendrick driver won in a controversial finish to earn a playoff spot, most would’ve likely been OK with it being Dale Earnhardt Jr. Instead, Kahne is in the postseason and Earnhardt gets knocked further down the totem pole after wrecking in Indy.

Earnhardt isn’t the only driver who was put in a worse position

by Kahne’s win. Clint Bowyer, who looked like a solid bet to make the playoffs weeks ago, is now in the 17th spot. Joey Logano is now 51 points behind Matt Kenseth for the 16th and final position while Erik Jones’ wreck left him firmly outside and needing to make up 126 points.

Of course, any of these drivers can turn their fortunes around with a win like Kahne.

Hell, Logano has a win this season at Richmond, but it was encumbered due to failing inspection and doesn’t count toward his playoff eligibility.

There are still six races before the cutoff, but only four spots up for grabs for winless drivers.

Another name to watch moving forward is Chase Elliott.

Despite being a full 205 points ahead of his teammate Kahne, Elliott is now just 55 points ahead of the cutoff point. With two finishes outside the top 20 in the last four races, Elliott is trending in the wrong direction and new winners are slowly pushing him toward the brink of missing out on the playoffs after making it as a rookie.

THE RBC CANADIAN Open is one of the pillars of the PGA Tour schedule, having first been played in 1904 and continuing every year since, except 1943 and 1944 during World War II. The latest edition comes this week on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, and the Canadian faithful will turn out in droves again hoping to see a homegrown champion.

Pat Fletcher was the last Canadian winner of the tournament in 1954, but he actually was born in England. Karl Keffer is the only Canadian-born champion, winning in 1909 and 1914. English-born Canadian brothers Charlie Murray (1906) and Albert Murray (1908 and 1913) also captured the title.

“There is that added feel and pressure, no question,” said Mike Weir, who became Canada’s only major champion when he captured the 2003 Masters. “It can be a good thing, though, to get the crowd behind you. Get some momentum going, and you can feed off the crowd.”

Weir, 47, came close in the 2004 Canadian Open, when he held a three-stroke lead with eight holes remaining but wound up losing in a playoff to Vijay Singh of Fiji.

Last year, then-21-year-old Canadian amateur Jared du Toit thrilled the fans when he was one stroke behind leader Brandt Snedeker after three rounds. Du Toit eventually finished in a tie for ninth.

“This will be an exciting year for Canadian golf fans for sure,”

tournament director Brent McLaughlin said. “We’ve come close in recent years with David Hearn finishing third in 2015 and du Toit’s terrific run last year. This may be the year the drought finally comes to an end.”

Hearn, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, heads the Canadian contingent this week along with Adam Hadwin, who won the Valspar Championship in March; Weir, Du Toit, Graham DeLaet, Mackenzie Hughes and Brad Fritsch.

It would be a career moment for any of them to lift the trophy and raise the Maple Leaf flag on Sunday.

“I truly believe that if I play good golf, I can be in the hunt, and that’s kind of just the main thing,” DeLaet said. “You never know if you’re going to win or not, but I’d love to put four good rounds of golf together because I’ve never done that at the Canadian Open.”

Even though it comes a week after the Open Championship in England, meaning players must rush back from the United Kingdom, the Canadian Open field also will include top-ranked Dustin Johnson, Open Championship runner-up Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter of England, Si Woo Kim of South Korea, Ernie Els of South Africa, Jim Furyk, Charley Hoffman, J.B. Holmes, Danny Lee of New Zealand, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, Kyle Stanley, Hunter Mahan, Stewart Cink, Keegan Bradley, Gary Woodland, Chad Campbell, Harris English, Retief Goosen of South Africa and defending champion Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela.

“Our field is (strong) and we’re thrilled to welcome some of the best players in the world, a good mix of top international talent and a solid list of Canadians,” McLaughlin said.

The winner will join a list of champions that is the envy of many a tournament.

Those who have lifted the trophy include Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, Singh, Greg Norman of Australia, Curtis Strange, Tom Weiskopf, Billy Casper, Gene Littler, Nick Price of Zimbabwe, John Cook, Mark O’Meara, Bobby Nichols, David Frost of South Africa, Bob Charles of New Zealand, Bobby Locke of South Africa, Hal Sutton, Bob Tway, Gay Brewer, Doug Sanders, George Bayer, Art Wall Jr., Doug Ford, Kel Nagle of Australia, Jug McSpaden, Tommy Armour, Bruce Lietzke, Peter Oosterhuis of England, Craig Wood, Leo Diegel, Walter Hagen, “Lighthorse” Harry Cooper, Lawson Little, Macdonald Smith of Scotland, Jason Day of Australia, Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Verplank, Billy Andrade, Tim Clark of South Africa and Snedeker.

In 1971, Trevino became the first golfer to win the U.S. Open, the Open Championship and the Canadian Open in the same season, and Woods matched the feat in 2000.

Noticeably missing from that list of champions is Nicklaus, who finished second in the Canadian Open an incredible seven times.

“Well, that’s about what my memory is, second in the Canadian Open way too many times,” Nicklaus said. “I always enjoyed the Canadian Open and always seemed to play pretty well there and never seemed to quite ... I was always the bridesmaid and never quite the bride on that one. "(His wife) Barbara said, ‘I’m going to keep sending you back until you do it right,’ and I never quite did it right.”

We know the Golden Bear won’t win this week, but maybe it will be a Canadian.

PETER CASEY | USA TODAY SPORTS

Graham DeLaet tees off on the 17th hole during the second round of the Quicken Loans National golf tournament at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, Md. on June 30.

Kershaw back injury could put Dodgers title hopes at risk

By The Sports XChange The Los Angeles Dodgers are expecting ace left-hander Clayton Kershaw to be sidelined at least a month after leaving Sunday’s game due to back pain.

The Dodgers placed Kershaw on the 10-day disabled list Monday.

In other roster moves, righthander Brandon McCarthy was put (blister) on the 10-day DL, outfielder Trayce Thompson was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City, left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu was reinstated from the DL, the contract of left-hander Edward Paredes was selected from Oklahoma City and right-hander Josh Ravin was recalled from OKC. The initial prognosis on Kershaw by the team, first reported

by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and confirmed by the Los Angeles Times, is that the Dodgers’ ace will miss four to six weeks.

A final determination of Kershaw’s condition and timetable for his absence will be made following an examination by specialist Dr. Robert Watkins.

Kershaw was on his way to a runaway Cy Young season when he encountered tightness in his back Sunday.

Kershaw was 15-2 with a 2.07 ERA before Sunday’s game and even had a case for Most Valuable Player for the National League West-leading Dodgers. He threw 21 pitches and struck out two and walked one before manager Dave Roberts visited the mound.

“Obviously, I’m not optimistic because I got taken out of the game,” said Kershaw, who spent more than two months on the disabled list in 2016 with a back injury. “At the same time, some of the symptoms aren’t as bad as they could be.”

Watkins diagnosed the herniated disk in Kershaw’s back in June 2016, an injury that sidelined him for 10 weeks. Kershaw received a painkilling epidural as part of his treatment.

Roberts said Sunday’s issue with Kershaw’s back was not the same as a year ago, describing it as more “muscular” and mentioning that there was no shooting pain down the star lefty’s legs this time.

“I don’t want to compare, just because there’s so many variables,” Kershaw told the Los Angeles Times after Sunday’s game. “I don’t even know how to compare it, honestly.”

Ryu (3-6, 4.21 ERA), who

missed 17 games with a left foot contusion, was to start Monday night against the Minnesota Twins.

He last pitched June 28 against the Angels.

The Dodgers led the NL West by 10 1/2 games entering Monday.

Roberts would not comment on the team’s interest in other starting pitchers. The Dodgers have been rumored to be interested in Texas Rangers right-hander Yu Darvish and have one week before the trade deadline.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

B5

Tar Heels pinning hopes on veteran free agents Coach Larry Fedora has brought in four graduate transfers to add experience to a young team that got even younger with the unexpected departure of underclassmen Mitch Trubisky, Elijah Hood and Nazair Jones

By Brett Friedlander North State Journal CHARLOTTE — A North Carolina football team that was already going to be young this season got even younger when juniors Mitch Trubisky, Elijah Hood and Nazair Jones all left early for the NFL draft.

Faced with more holes to fill than originally expected, Larry Fedora did what any resourceful coach would do under the circumstances.

He took to the free agent market in search of veteran replacements, or at least the college version of it.

Fedora brought in four graduate transfers, all on the offensive side of the ball, in an effort to add experience and avoid taking a step back from the progress his Tar Heels have made over the past two seasons.

“This is the first time I’ve ever done it, so the jury is still out on how this is going to work,” Fedora said Friday at the ACC’s Football Kickoff media event. “I believe chemistry is so important to your football team and how quickly can you get these guys integrated into your team.”

Although the official start of preseason camp isn’t for another two weeks — August 2, to be exact — the veteran newcomers have already begun to the process of assimilation.

Offensive linemen Cam Dillard and Khaliel Rodgers, along with running back Stanton Truitt arrived on campus for the start of summer school and have been working out regularly with their new teammates.

They were joined recently by quarterback Brandon Harris, who officially graduated from LSU on July 10.

Although the bonding process can’t become complete until the quartet actually begins playing in games, starting on Sept. 2 against California, their work in organized offseason training activities has given them a solid head

JEREMY BREVARD | USA TODAY SPORTSL

North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora speaks to the media during the ACC Kickoff at the Westin Charlotte on July 14.

start.

“We’ve welcomed them with open arms and we’re glad to have them,” holdover offensive tackle Bentley Spain said. “They add depth and experience to our team and that’s exciting. Those guys have all gelled with the culture of our team, which has been great. Everyone wants us to be the best we can be.”

Dillard and Rodgers figure to provide an immediate upgrade to an offensive line that lost three starters from a year ago.

A 6-foot-4, 310-pound center who played his first three college seasons at Florida, Dillard is projected to step right into the void left by the graduation of Lucas Crowley and become the anchor of the Tar Heels’ blocking unit.

Rodgers is a 6-3, 315 guard who started 11 games in three seasons at Southern Cal and has the capability of playing multiple positions.

“I think they’re going to fit in just

fine,” Spain said.

As important as the two linemen are to the development of UNC’s retooled offense, Auburn transfer Truitt may be an even more important addition.

Hood’s unexpected departure and the graduation of T.J. Logan left Fedora with only one back on the roster who’d carried the ball in a college game. And even then, Jordon Brown’s experience was limited to just 20 carries and 45 yards.

In Truitt, the Tar Heels get a proven back who is equally as talented as a receiver as he is a runner.

The 5-9, 185-pound Atlanta native, who has two years of eligibility remaining, was passed by on the Tigers’ depth chart because of two injuries early in his career.

But he showed what he can do in a backup role last year by scoring three touchdowns while rushing for 87 yards

and catching a 45-yard scoring pass in a win against Arkansas.

While Truitt, Dillard and Rodgers have all but been penciled into prominent roles for the Tar Heels this season, Harris is the wild card in the deck because of his lack of familiarity with Fedora’s uptempo, no-huddle attack and the perceived abundance of talent among the three youngsters ready to battle him for the starting job.

Harris played in 25 games with 15 starts for LSU, throwing for 2,756 yards and 20 touchdowns with 10 interceptions.

Despite his late arrival, he’s already begun working to make up for lost time.

“Our drops are different from LSU because we run a different offense and he knew coming in that he had to get better at that,” said cornerback M.J. Stewart, who has been working out with Harris since his arrival. “I see him every day after OTAs working at his craft, getting better at it and I like that in any kind of player — that competitiveness and willingness to get better.”

Even if Harris doesn’t win the job to start the season, he can still make a valuable contribution as a mentor to his younger teammates or an insurance policy in case sophomore Nathan Elliott or redshirt freshmen Logan Byrd and Chazz Surratt aren’t ready to handle the speed and pressure of game competition.

“We knew we wanted to bring in someone with experience, because we didn’t have any experience right now,” Fedora said. “Whether he’s just in the room, is on the practice field or is actually playing, we need to have some experience in that room.

“The way it was planned out is that Mitch (Trubisky) would be back, those guys would gain experience as we go and the transition would be smooth. It didn’t work out that way, so you’ve got to adjust.

“That was the adjustment we made.

We brought in a graduate transfer, enter him into the mix and we’ll see how it turns out.”

COWBOYS CAMP

Jones puts NFL on notice, Whitehead's strange saga Jerry Jones says he sees ‘nothing’ in terms of evidence against Ezekiel Elliott to suggest domestic violence

By The Sports XChange OXNARD, Calif. — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones opened training camp by declaring war on the NFL in the ongoing investigation into domestic violence allegations against star running back Ezekiel Elliott.

The NFL has ended its yearlong investigation into the accusations brought against Elliott by a former girlfriend.

The Columbus (Ohio) attorney’s office dropped the case because of “conflicting and inconsistent” information. Elliott has maintained his innocence all along.

ESPN has reported that Elliott should brace for a one- or twogame suspension.

But Jones let it be known at the start of training camp that Elliott did nothing wrong and he should not be punished.

It was a clear-and-present message to the NFL that Jones is ready

to fight if he is indeed suspended.

“There’s nothing ... I have reviewed everything as you know.

There is absolutely nothing, not one thing, that I’ve seen that has anything to do with domestic violence,” Jones said. “I don’t want to answer any more. But I’ve seen nothing.”

Jones was absolute in his comments, just as he was a year ago.

He has long maintained that the NFL had no cause and no case.

The only thing that has changed recently is the NFL has completed its report. Elliott and the NFL Players Association have submitted “a final response” to the league.

Jones claims he has seen the report. Nothing has changed his mind.

“I found nothing since we were standing here this time last year,” Jones said. “And I knew everything in that report, I knew that this time last year. Those are their concerns because you need to get this stuff behind you.”

Jones not only claims that nothing happened, but that there is not a discrepancy among the participants.

“My opinion is there is not even an issue of ‘he said, she said,’”

NC STATE from page B1 challenging opponent when first added to the Blue Devils’ schedule, but now that the watch lists are out, the game looks far more winnable for Duke. After all, the Blue Devils have 11 watch list players to Baylor’s five.

Going game-by-game, here’s a look at the expected win-loss records for local teams, based on which team has more watch list appearances:

School

Watch-listers on opponents' rosters

NC State

121

Wake Forest

119

UNC

115

Duke

101

ECU

80

Charlotte

58

App State

37

School

Record

Note

App State

10-1 (1 toss up)

App & Umass both have 7 watch-listers

Duke

9-3

Losses to Miami, FSU, Pitt

NC State

7-4 (1 toss up)

State & Pitt both have 12 watch listers

Wake Forest

4-8

Presbyterian, Utah State, Ga Tech, Syracuse the only wins

UNC

2-8 (2 toss ups)

Virginia Tech & Old Dominion also have seven watch listers

ECU

1-9 (2 toss ups) Tulane & Cincinnati also have two watch listers

Charlotte

0-9 (3 toss ups)

NC A&T, FIU and UAB were also shut out on the lists

Jones said. “There is not even an issue there.”

The NFL doesn’t need a court conviction or even a court case to levy discipline against a player for conduct detrimental to the league.

The league has taken a long time investigating this case to make sure it gets it right after so many past mistakes.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league “wants to pin something” on Elliott as a lesson for his repeated mistakes in judgement.

But Jones is not going to let it happen without a fight.

And he is seemingly not going to let his upcoming induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame get in the way of his battle with the NFL over Elliott.

He brought up the New England Patriots as an example of a team that overcame the distraction of quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension last season and went on to win the Super Bowl.

Seemingly, the bigger lesson for Jones comes from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who admittedly regretted not fighting the NFL sanctions and penalties from the Deflategate controversy.

“I don’t want to in any way speculate,” Jones said. “I don’t know that there’s anything I could say that might influence, but I don’t want anything I’ve said over the last week to be interpreted as a feeling or a speculation about his

WAKE FOREST from page B1 or not. We’ve got to invest in both because neither is 6-5, 240 pounds and has people bounce off (them) when they blitz. We’re not doing this to appease both.

We’ve got to get both ready and we’ve got to get (redshirt freshman) Jamie Newman ready, too.”

Hinton, a 6-foot, 195-pound Durham native, was named the Deacons’ starter in Week 3 last year, only to have his season ended that very same week because of a knee injury suffered in a win against Delaware.

It’s a position he’ll keep heading into preseason camp, Clawson said.

How long it stays that way will depend on both him and Wolford … and their ability to stay out of the training room.

At 6-1, 200 pounds, Wolford is only slightly bigger than Hinton. But he has managed to make 33 starts in his three seasons at Wake while playing around a series of bumps, bruises and a shoulder injury that forced him to the sideline for last year’s game against eventual national champion Clemson.

Much of Wolford’s physical woes can be traced to the fact

status, relative to a suspension.

It shouldn’t be. It should be just reflective as what I am here and what I know.”

Whitehead cleared wrongdoing

of

all

All charges have been dropped against former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Lucky Whitehead, and the Prince William County Police Department said Tuesday it regretted the impact its errors had bestowed upon Whitehead and his family.

Whitehead, a native of Manassas, Va. whose full name is Rodney Darnell Whitehead Jr., was released by the Cowboys Monday after reports surfaced of his arrest last Saturday morning for shoplifting and his failure to show up for a court date earlier this month.

However, Whitehead denied he was in the state of Virginia at the time of the arrest and claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, which Prince William County Police Sergeant Jonathan L. Perok confirmed Tuesday in a statement.

“Upon reviewing the June 22, 2017 arrest of an individual named “Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr.”, the police department is confident that the man charged with petit larceny, and who is subsequently being sought on an active warrant for failure to appear in court, is not Lucky Whitehead of the Dallas Cowboys,” Perok’s statement read in part.

that he’s been sacked 101 times during his college career.

That’s why tight end Cam Serigne said protecting the quarterback — whichever one it turns out to be — will be among the Deacons’ highest priorities as they look to improve on last year’s encouraging 7-6 performance.

“We play in a league with some great defensive lines, especially on our side of the ACC,” Serigne said of the conference’s Atlantic Division. “For us, it’s important to give John and Kendall time back there.”

While acknowledging the need for strong line play, Clawson said that Wolford and Hinton can also help in cutting down the number of times they’re hit.

“Two years ago the majority of our sacks were because we got beat up front,” Clawson said. “But there’s other reasons. Sometimes those guys just have to get rid of the football. Sometimes fourth and four and a punt is better than turning around, going backwards and taking those extra hits when the play is dead. To their credit, both are competitors. They just have to take smart chances.”

When healthy and given time to operate, both Wake quarterbacks have shown an ability to be

The department went on to say that the man did not have identification on him at the time of his June 22 arrest, but verbally provided his information to police officers.

Officers then checked his information through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles database and used the DMV photo on file to compare to the man they had in custody. "... Officers acted in good faith that, at the time, the man in custody was the same man matching the information provided. At this point, the police department is also confident in confirming that Mr. Whitehead’s identity was falsely provided to police during the investigation. The police department is currently seeking the identity of the man involved in the incident.”

Whitehead was in Dallas at the time of the arrest, according to his ticket for a United flight that departed at 7:18 a.m. and landed in Washington, DC at 11:30 a.m., 10 hours after the crime allegedly took place.

“To be honest, I just couldn’t believe it,” Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant told reporters after the Cowboys released Whitehead. “I pray it’s not true, and I understand he got cut. I wish the best for him.”

Whitehead, 24, spent the first two seasons of his NFL career with the Cowboys and played primarily as a kick/punt returner.

playmakers.

Hinton is a strong runner, who during a win at Army as a true freshman in 2015, became the first Deacon quarterback in nine years to rush for 100 yards in a game. He finished that season with eight rushing touchdowns.

He also led a second half surge that beat Duke before his injury last season.

Wolford enters his senior year ranked sixth on Wake’s all-time list with 5,602 passing yards. He’s also in the top 10 with 899 passing attempts, 522 completions and 30 passing touchdowns.

Although he is perceived to be the better passer and Hinton the stronger runner, Serigne believes that their styles are more similar than different.

“Most people say Kendall is really an athletic, run guy and John is this smart, pocket passer, but they both can do the other thing pretty well,” Serigne said.

“I throw with both of them every day. They throw half a field and the receivers switch so that everyone gets to work with both.”

That’s a smart strategy, considering that history suggests both quarterbacks will end up starting at some point or another this season.

WEDNESDAY

07.26.17

NORTH Tomato-or vinegar-

STATE

based? Take your pick JOURNaL of sauces, Page 7

play list

July 27-30 10th Annual Art & Antiques Show Blowing Rock Enjoy two floors filled with furnishings, porcelain, jewelry, silver, art and more on display from antique dealers along the east coast. Tickets to the threeday event are $10 and may be purchased in advance online or at the door. The show kicks off with a Preview Party on July 27.

the good life IN A NORTH STATE OF MIND

go! | North Carolina’s adventure

July 27-29 Ducks Unlimited “Band the Billfish” Tournament Morehead City The 29th Annual NC Ducks Unlimited Band the Billfish Tournament kicks off at Big Rock Landing, Morehead City Waterfront. More than $1 million has been generated to create and maintain numerous Ducks Unlimited habitat projects within North Carolina and in the northern breeding grounds.

July 28-29 Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival Cary This one-day event boasts more than 60 microbrews on tap, 40 barrel-aged bourbons and succulent, mouth-watering barbecue. Additional attractions include live bluegrass, blues and rock music, a cigar tent and tasting seminars led by pitmasters, head distillers and brewmasters.

Hikers make their way down the Looking Glass Trail in the Pisgah National Forest as they complete up to 6.5 miles roundtrip with about 3,400 feet of elevation change on Jan. 14.

Old Time Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention Jefferson This bluegrass and old-time music competition is typical of many fiddlers conventions.

Musicians are often jamming and socializing‚ and visitors are welcome to listen. There will also be an Appalachian Barn Dance Friday night. This event is sponsored by the Ashe County Arts Council.

July 28-30 Nantahala Racing Club US Whitewater Junior Olympics Bryson City Family-friendly and fun for beginner through advanced paddlers, the Whitewater Junior Olympics are a great opportunity to meet young paddlers and families from around the country and get inspired about whitewater.

did you know?

Pitt County and Chatham County are both named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. Pitt was Prime Minister of Great Britain and lead the House of Commons twice.

Granville County and Carteret County share a common family heritage if not a common singular namesake. John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville is the namesake of Granville County. Most historians say Carteret County was named for Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors of the Province of Carolina and great-grandfather of John.

EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Adventure aids in healthy living: Meet NC’s cities with a thrill

By Laura Ashley Lamm North State Journal KINSTON — The rush of adrenaline, the thrill of suspense, the art of active living, the call of the outdoors; whatever your reason, thrill-seekers love an adventure. From whitewater rafting and ziplining to hiking and jet skiing, North Carolinians know there is plenty to do from the mountains to the coast. It’s our wild and adventurous cities that are gaining global recognition.

Men’s Health magazine — the go-to source for men seeking the latest and most credible information on health, fitness, style, nutrition, relationships, travel, gear, tech and finance — knows outdoor exercise and activity contributes to one’s health and well-being.

“Besides getting a thrill and adrenaline rush out of adventurous activities, people have a variety of reasons for pursuing them,” said Paul Kita, senior editor of Men’s Health magazine. “We recently covered the Tuck Fest, three days of adventure games at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C. We asked some of the competitors what adventure means to them. One said being outdoors is about getting dirty and having fun, while another told us that getting lost in the woods helps him feel more alive. Another shared that to pursue adventure is to pursue transformation, because with risk

comes growth.”

Men’s Health’s team of researchers analyzed and ranked the 100 most populous cities in the United State to uncover the top places to experience the outdoors and partake in activities ranging from logrolling to snowboarding to motorcross to fishing. Men’s Health announced the results of its Metrogrades ranking of the Most Adventurous Cities in America and four cities in North Carolina made the list.

The state capital of Raleigh made the top 10, pulling in at No. 6, followed by Charlotte at No. 33, Greensboro at No. 81 and Winston-Salem at No. 89.

“Exercise is the most powerful healthy living tool you have in your fight against old age and disease,” said Kita. “It reduces stress, provides an overall sense of competence and accomplishment, and increases motivation to improve other behaviors. Regular physical activity cuts your risk of diabetes by a whopping 50 to 80 percent, too.”

Whatever your reason for an adventure, whether it’s for engaging with nature, subduing the aging process, building self-confidence or more, you are sure to find a spot in the Old North State that’s a perfect fit for you.

Taking a look at the capital city, Men’s Health has this to say about Raleigh’s ranking: “Residents of Raleigh have some of the more remarkable opportunities for adven-

ture of any city on this list. Capital City BMX is a bicycle motocross track with multiple courses, ranging from 900 to 1,300 feet. If pedaling isn’t your thing, and you’d rather get around the old-fashioned way, Dead Broke Farm offers horseback riding on more than 10 miles of trails on its 110-acre farm.

“Or, keep your feet on the ground on the Neuse River Trail, a 27.5mile paved pathway that winds along the scenic banks of the Neuse River. In all, Raleigh offers a system of trails that offers up more than 100 miles for running, walking and biking. The water isn’t just for show, either. Head to Lake Johnson for some canoeing or paddleboarding.”

As noted, Raleigh’s sister city of Charlotte is home to the U.S. National Whitewater Center where whitewater rafting gives the ultimate thrill. In addition, the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department is home to 210 parks on 17,600 acres of parkland.

The Triad brings us Greensboro and Winston-Salem. All wheels are welcome in the heart of Greensboro where Latham Skate Park and Glenwood Skate Spot are popular destinations. There’s plenty of waterways for flat water paddling, and trails for hiking and running. Winston-Salem brings golf enthusiasts an array of courses to play, and the city is also home to Triad ECO Adventures which helps visitors with Segway rides and stand-up paddleboard lessons and tours.

To determine the rankings, Men’s Health studied the following criteria: percentage of people participating in various sports in the past 12 months; percentage of people meeting activity guidelines; percentage of people who engage in vigorous activity five or more days a week; ratio of parkland to city size; recreational business counts percentage; recreational household expenditure percentage; and recreational consumer price index.

Anchorage, Alaska debuted No. 1 on the list with resident bears, almost a million acres of parkland and a very high ratio of recreational businesses to total businesses. Austin, Texas, ranked No. 2, with 227 miles of trails and 20,714 acres of green space across 300 different parks. Madison, Wis., took the No. 3 spot — its residents’ overall activity levels rank high and the city touts the 3,359-acre Lake Monoma, surrounded by pristine biking and running trails.

Since its launch in 1988, Men’s Health has become the voice of health and wellness with a global audience topping 57 million. More information on the top 10 adventure listings can be found in the July/August issue of the magazine and at menshealth.com/adventurecities.

In the meantime, it’s summer in North Carolina and the perfect time to head outdoors for exercise and discovery of the state from east to west.

North State Journal for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

B7

NeCessities! history marked July 25, 1729 North Carolina becomes a royal colony

July 25, 1780 Horatio Gates takes command in Randolph County

July 25, 1960 Greensboro lunch counters open to all races

North Carolina became a royal colony when the Lords Proprietors sold the colony to King George II. South Carolina had become a royal colony 10 years prior, setting the stage for North Carolina to follow suit. The English crown, long dissatisfied with proprietary and corporate colonies, had begun the process of converting those colonies to royal control in the 1680s. North Carolina’s sale was the culmination of legal proceedings initiated in 1706

by Queen Anne. Having never made a profit from the colony, most of the proprietors sold their shares back to the crown. Only Sir George Carteret, Earl of Granville, refused to sell his shares, creating the Granville District across the entire top portion of the colony.

On this day, Major General Horatio Gates assumed direct command of the American forces in the Southern Military Department at their campsite on the Deep River in Randolph County.

He volunteered for the Continental Army and served as a staff officer before receiving field command. After leading the Americans to victory against British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, Gates was propelled to the forefront of American military heroes. However, his Southern foray was short-lived as he was influenced by faulty intelligence when he embarked on a campaign in South Carolina along a route lacking in food to support his army. On Aug. 16, his exhausted and underfed army was routed by the British at Camden, South Carolina. Nathaniel Greene was soon selected to replace Gates. Gates never received another field command and retired from the army in 1784 and died in New York City in 1806.

Greensboro lunch counters opened to sitting customers of all races for the first time. The event was the culmination of a brief and intense desegregation campaign by black activists that sparked similar actions throughout the country. In February 1960. four students from N.C. A&T College began a sit-in at the lunch counter of the downtown Woolworth’s demanding equal service with white customers.

The original demonstrators were joined on succeeding days by more and more protestors, and their campaign began spread to other stores. After rounds of negotiations, it was agreed that blacks could eat at Greensboro lunch counters.

The successful outcome of the campaign marked an important state and national milestone in the on-going civil rights struggle.

SOURCE: NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES

July 26, 1863 Civil war skirmish in Hertford County A skirmish took place between local Confederate forces and a Union expedition led

by Major General John G. Foster at Potecasi Creek in Hertford County. The Union troops were ordered to destroy the Confederate rail junction at Weldon. Union raiders had destroyed railroad bridges at Rocky Mount, Tarboro and Greenville.

Local Confederates erected minor entrenchments near Potecasi Creek between Winton and Murfreesboro to protect Hill’s Bridge. On their way to Weldon, Foster’s troops were ambushed by Maj. Samuel J. Wheeler’s troops. Wheeler’s force of about 150 or 200 Confederates opened fire from wooded areas along the main road before retreating to the entrenchments and later retreating all together due to the size of the Union force. The remains of the Confederate entrenchments are located in a wooded area just south of U.S. Highway 158 on the Murfreesboro side of the Potecasi Creek Bridge.

General Horatio Gates stands in the center as British General Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNITED STATE ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

stir it up

Sauce up your summer From the grill to the plate, N.C. has more than just the meat for summertime meals

Mac’s Carolina BBQ Sauce Charlotte

Carolina Treet Louisburg

George’s Nashville

Scott’s Barbecue Sauce Goldsboro

Mac’s took home the top “tomato sauce” at the 2013 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest with their Red BBQ Sauce. But their Carolina BBQ Sauce has a great tangy flavor and is truly a sauce that you can dip hunks of pork or chicken in.

Carolina Treet Barbecue Sauce was created in Wilmington in 1953 as a sauce for barbecue chickens cooked and sold at a grocery store. After patrons began asking for the sauce independent of the chicken, the sauce was bottled for sale. This pungent sauce is not ideal for dipping, but is best when used on pork and chicken in the oven or on the grill.

Created by George Stallings of Rocky Mount in 1975, George’s barbecue sauce comes in three varieties: original, hot and special.

The original (blue label) captures the classic eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce flavor. This vinegar-based sauce, with just a hint or tomato for color, is ideal for pulled pork and can be used to baste or as a tableside condiment.

Dating back to 1917, this sauce was served at a barbecue restaurant in Wayne County before it was commercialized in the 1940s.

This tangy sauce — whose exact ingredients where allegedly revealed to its creator in a dream — lives up its “RED HOT” label with lots of red pepper. It’s another classic eastern North Carolina sauce.

Smithfield’s Bar-B-Q Sauce Smithfield

Jim’s Own Sauce Cary

Cackalacky Cheerwine Sweet Sauce Siler City

Thomas Sauce Greensboro

PHOTOS BY EAMON QUEENEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Boar and Castle Greensboro Born at its namesake restaurant in Greensboro in 1932, this sauce does not fall into the the category of barbecue sauce. Like Heinz’s famous “57” sauce, this concoction is an everything sauce. Pour this sauce on burgers, pork chops, fries, onion rings and chicken both on the grill and at the table. The restaurant is gone, but the flavor lives on.

A traditional recipe that features plenty of red pepper flakes and vinegar. This sauce is ideal on whole hog barbecue and has enough thickness that it won’t ruin your bun if you put it on a sandwich.

A sweet sauce that stays true to the North Carolina tomato-based tradition that exists west of Raleigh. This sauce has been around since 1997 and has won awards and been featured in Southern Living as one of the South’s best barbecue sauces.

A thick sauce that defies a more ancient barbecue tradition, this sauce is an extension of the Cackalacky brand in combination with Cheerwine in Salisbury. This Siler City brand has also partnered with Greensboro-based Biscuitville on a special sandwich and Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery on a beer. This sauce is best mopped on ribs or chops on the grill.

An all-purpose sauce that leans more Lexington than Edenton, this sauce was created in the 1930s as a family recipe.

The Thomas Sauce flavor has been extended to seafood, pasta and salad dressings. They even improve brunch with their own Bloody Mary mix.

North State Journal for Wednesday, June 26, 2017

C8

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SOLUTIONS FROM 7.19.17

DISCOVER

SUMMER

Discover exciting things to do across all 100 North Carolina counties!

ncdcr.gov/discoversummernc

NC DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES