^HEWinH^
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 3
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Judge refuses to halt voter ID requirement in March election
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - A federal
judge refused Friday to block
North Carolina’s photo identi
fication requirement to vote in
person from taking effect with
the March 15 primary elections.
U.S. District Court Judge
Thomas Schroder’s ruling de
nying the preliminary injunc
tion motion of the state NAACP
and allied voters likely ensures
that voter ID will be imple
mented for the first time on
schedule. A trial on whether the
ID law is legal will be held Jan.
25 and last several days.
The Republican-led General
Assembly passed an elections
overhaul law in 2013 contain
ing the mandate but deferred
its start until the first election
in 2016 to give people time to
learn about the requirement and
to obtain one of several forms
of qualifying ID.
The law has been in the
courts ever since, including
three federal lawsuits that have
been consolidated into one case.
Last June, the legislature altered
the photo ID mandate to allow
more people who had trouble
obtaining an ID card to success
fully vote by filling out paper
work and presenting alternate
identifying information. GOP
Gov. Pat McCrory signed both
laws.
Schroeder wrote Friday that
NAACP lawyers have failed
to show their clients surely
will win at trial on allegations
the photo ID requirement is
unconstitutionally burden
some on minority groups and
intentionally discriminatory.
These allegations, he said, are
weighed against a broad effort
by elections officials to tell vot
ers about the amended ID re
quirement through letters, radio
and television ads, and election
worker training. .
The NAACP plaintiffs,
Schroeder wrote, have failed
to clearly demonstrate how the
state’s education efforts "have
failed to prepare North Caro
lina voters for the photo ID law.
Quite the opposite. Changing
course in midstream will likely
serve to confuse voters as to the
state of the law.”
Schroeder also declined an
other request from the state
NAACP to delay a Jan. 25 trial
in Winston-Salem on the legal
ity of the mandate until after the
primary. "The claims need to
be resolved,” Schroeder wrote
in a separate ruling Thursday.
Rep. David Lewis, R-Har-
nett, and Sen. Bob Rucho,
’ R-Mecklenburg, who helped
shepherd the voter ID legis
lation, said in a release that
Schroeder’s ruling against the
injunction "validates the state’s
comprehensive two-year effort
to educate all North Carolinians
about the new law.” They called
the preliminary injunction re
quest a "desperate, partisan”
attempt to block the require
ment before early voting begins
March 3.
NAACP state president
the Rev. William Barber and
group attorneys pointed out
they would still get a chance to
present their full arguments and
evidence to have the law over
turned at the trial’s close.
"While the legislature at
tempted to mask their discrimi
natory intentions behind inad
equate modifications to the law,
the impact of the law remains
the same: voters of color will
lose their right to vote at dispro
portionate rates,” Barber said in
a news release.
The U.S. Justice Department
and the League of Women Vot
ers of North Carolina also sued
over the 2013 law but didn’t
seek the preliminary injunction
or trial delay. They will partici
pate in the upcoming trial.
An Interfaith Prayer Vigil and Speak Out was held at CCB Plaza in Durham on Jan 20. Representatives from various denomi
nations came out to support Medicaid Expansion in the state. Rev. Michelle Cotton-Laws represented the N.C. NAACP. The NC
NAACP is petitioning Gov. McCrory to change his policy and accept expanded Medicaid for thousands of North Carolinians with
out health care and those who do not qualify for health care under the Affordable Health care Act. From left to right are: Rev. War
ren Hernson, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Durham, Rev. Rachel Greene, Sanctuary of Christ Holy Church; seated,
Ms. Mary Grace; and Rev. Michelle Cotton-Laws.
As primary race tightens, Democrats
brace for a messy winter
By Lisa Lerer and Ken Thomas
WASHINGTON (AP) - There was a time when Democrats fretted about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign becoming a coronation
and leaving her without the tests of a primary season to prepare for a general election matchup against the Republican nominee.
No one is worried about that anymore.
In the past two weeks, the Democratic race has gone from a relatively civil disagreement over policy to a contentious winter competition
between former Secretary of State Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Clinton’s institutional strength and her support among the minority voters who make up a large portion of the party’s base still put her in
a formidable position, even as polls show Sanders surging in Iowa and maintaining an edge in New Hampshire.
But should Sanders prevail in those first two states on the 2016 campaign calendar, Clinton’s bid to succeed President Barack Obama may
mean a much longer and messier path than her supporters once envisioned. It would plunge Democrats into the kind of primary fight they
have gleefully watched Republicans struggle to contain in the past year.
“You have to look at these numbers and say there’s a real race going on,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “It’s a race where Hill
ary Clinton has significant advantages in the long run. But it’s a real race.”
The contest intensified with the Democratic candidates gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday night for a party dinner and
the annual fish fly hosted by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. Then there’s the Sunday night debate, the final one before the Iowa caucuses on
Feb. 1. The New Hampshire primary is Feb. 9.
“I think it is a new phase of the campaign,” said Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief campaign strategist. “We talked about how close this was
going to be in (Iowa and New Hampshire). They always are historically and we’re ready to have this debate engaged.”
In the past week, Clinton has shifted course in apparent response to Sanders’ strong poll results. She has stepped up her criticism of her
rival, a self-described democratic socialist, after carefully avoiding that during the campaign.
The new approach carries risks. Sanders is popular with liberals who are part of the coalition that Clinton will need to win the White House.
Clinton and her supporters still remember her disappointing third-place finish in Iowa in 2008 against Obama. Clinton’s team has retooled
her schedule to add stops in Iowa in the week ahead. The candidate has made near-daily television appearances where she has challenged
Sanders’ stances on health care and gun control.
Clinton and Sanders were each booked on four Sunday morning news shows.
Her campaign is sending out top party representatives, starting with former President Bill Clinton, to make her case in early voting states.
Daughter Chelsea Clinton has offered critical words about Sanders, leading to a back-and-forth over his health care plan.
“They’re very afraid of a repeat in 2008 and they’re getting very aggressive,” said Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. “I expect at
any moment now they’ll go hard negative on us and we’re prepared for that. But we won’t be negative on them.”
Clinton has tried to dismiss Sanders’ proposals as unrealistic and disingenuous. She points to his 2005 vote for legislation giving gun
manufactures immunity from lawsuits as a sign that the senator wouldn’t fight forcefully enough against powerful interest groups.
Sunday’s debate is in the city where a 21 -year-old white man shot and killed nine people attending a prayer service at an African-American
church last summer. The setting may give Clinton a chance to confront Sanders on his past votes related to gun control.
But in a campaign that has seen billionaire Donald Trump rise to the top of the Republican presidential field by capitalizing on an elector
ate angry with the political establishment, Clinton may once again be embracing the mantle of experience at a time when outsider status is
in vogue.
“What she’s trying to do is cast Bernie as, I don’t want to say a protest candidate, but as a message candidate against someone who is
grounded in the reality of governance,” said former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. “The danger is that you also make yourself
an exponent of governance the way people see it today.
“In an anti-establishment time,” Axelrod said, “you’re essentially branding yourself as the establishment candidate.”
The campaign could take a much tougher turn in the weeks ahead.
Clinton’s campaign complained this past week when Sanders aired an ad that suggested Clinton wouldn’t be tough enough on Wall Street.
That could clear the way for Clinton’s team to retaliate with its own critical advertising.
After Iowa and New Hampshire, the calendar seemingly swings in Clinton’s favor. She has an edge in Nevada, the first caucus state with
a significant segment of Latino voters, and in South Carolina, where black voters make up more than half of the electorate.
From there, the campaign will play out in a series of Southern states holding contests on the March 1 “Super Tuesday” primaries, where
African-American voters are pivotal.
The question for Sanders is whether he can expand his support beyond the white voters who dominate the first two contests in Iowa and
New Hampshire.
“If - and it’s a very big if - Bernie Sanders wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, there will be a lot of heartburn. There will be a lot of
handwringing,” Mellman said. “But for him to win the nomination over the long term, he’s got to get beyond that base.”
Fayetteville considers changing city seal with slave market
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) - Fayetteville held public hearings on Tuesday and will again later this month as the city decides whether a build
ing where slaves were once sold should stay on its official seal.
The Market House was placed on the city seal more than 20 years ago. The building has a long history. Along with a slave market, North
Carolina’s capitol once stood on the site, and it is where the state ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
But the site’s role in slavery has the four black members of the nine-person Fayetteville City Council calling to change the seal.
“A city’s symbol should be inclusive of all its citizens and should not be offensive to a significant number of the citizenry,” lawyer Allen
Rogers told The Fayetteville Observer (http://bit.ly/lUZuc8W).
Rogers, who is black, wrote a letter to City Council last summer that raised the issue. About 41 percent of Fayetteville’s 208,000 people
are black.
Councilman Ted Mohn has already thought of some alternative seals that include the dogwood flower, the Lafayette statue in Cross Creek
Park and the statue of the Fayetteville State University bronco.
Fayetteville has used the seal with the Market House for more than 20 years, although the police and fire department don’t use it because
of its divisiveness.
Asheville bans
criminal record
questions on job
applications
By Joel Burgess
ASHEVILLE (AP) - Ashe
ville, one of the region’s biggest
employers, is eliminating any
question about criminal convic
tions from most job applications,
a change planned for some time
in January.
When the change is made,
applicants will still go through a
criminal background check, just
later in the hiring process. The
change will help cut unemploy
ment and recidivism among a
growing population with crimi
nal records, a number for which
no local count exists but that
totals 1.6 million in North Caro
lina. That is according to em
ployment law experts and “ban
the box” advocates, a slogan re
ferring to the box job applicants
are asked to check for criminal
convictions.
Advocates say striking the
question will serve as a coun
terbalance to an overzealous
criminal justice system that dis
proportionately convicted Af
rican-American men, often for
nonviolent drug offenses. For
many that first conviction was
followed by economic troubles
and more serious crimes, said
Keith Young, the only African-
American on City Council.
“It becomes a hindrance,”
said Young, a proponent of re
inforcing the city’s planned new
employment policy with a reso
lution and possibly a city ordi
nance.
Twenty-three years ago Rob
ert Robbs, ofAsheville, got con
victed of selling cocaine. Social
scientists would say he fit the de
mographic of those most likely
to go into the drug trade.
Robbs, a then-17-year-old
African-American, watched his
mother struggle to raise four
boys.
“It was fast. Fast money,” he
said of selling drugs.
Six years and several misde
meanor convictions later, Robbs
was facing a second-degree mur
der charge in the 1999 shooting
of 23-year-old Bryant Dobbs. He
was the one convicted, he said,
because he didn’t agree to be
come a police witness like oth
ers.
That meant well over a decade
in prison. It was time enough to
Robbs to think and realize he
needed to make serious changes
if he ever wanted a chance when
he got out. Though his poverty
had made selling drugs tempt
ing, he didn’t let himself off the
hook, saying some people he
grew up with become lawyers
and doctors.
“I was a victim of my choic
es,” he said.
While incarcerated, he went
to school, racking up degrees
and diplomas in computer repair,
business management, religious
education, culinary arts, mason
ry, and heating and air condition
ing repair.
But when he got out in 2014,
no one would hire him. Not even
temp agencies.
In the end, he did find work,
but had to go 60 miles away to
Forest City. In July, he was hired
by a maker of industrial air con
ditioners whose clients include
universities, the U.S. Open ten
nis tournament and NASA. In
the fall, he was promoted to a
team leader on the assembly
floor.
If employers had not imme
diately disqualified him with a
criminal history check, he said
“it would have given me a chance
to talk to them and for them to
get to know me and the person
I am now,” the now 40-year-old
Robbs said. “Yeah, I made a mis
take, but look at what I am doing
to correct my mistake.”