DAVI7 12/01/16
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UNC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
DAVIS LIBRARY CB#
p O BOX 8B90
CHAPEL HILL
a Cimes
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 15
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
UNC president: Transgender law could hurt schools
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH (AP) - A new state
law blocking anti-discrimination
policies that would protect the
LGBT community could turn
away promising faculty and stu
dents, University of North Caro
lina President Margaret Spell
ings said April 8, a day after
issuing a memo to campus chan
cellors saying the schools would
comply with the law.
Spellings said she wanted to
address the issue again to clarify
that her memo was “in no way an
endorsement of this law.”
“That’s not my job,” she told
reporters in a conference call.
“I’m a state office holder who is
charged with upholding the laws
of this state. We are not in a po
sition to pick and choose which
laws.”
Theh April 7 memo points
out that complying with the law
means doing nothing differently
in the system’s 16 universities,
and that campus non-discrimi
nation policies protecting LGBT
people would remain intact.
It also notes there is no way to
confirm that transgender people
are using only public bathrooms
matching their biological sex,
one of the law’s requirements.
Consequently, Spellings said
April 8, there won’t be any en
forcement efforts. Universities
already have signs designating
separate public restrooms for the
sexes, and need only to notify
faculty and students about the
new law, the memo said.
That could change, however,
depending on the outcome of a
HB2
More Stories on Page 2, 3 and 8.
President Barack Obama and Page Harrington, executive director of the Sewall-
Belmont House and Museum, view artifacts from the Sewall-Belmont House and
Museum at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washing
ton, D.C., April 12. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Law on discrimination, bathrooms
aids campaign fundraising
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH. (AP) - Signed only two weeks ago, North Carolina’s new law blocking anti-discrimi
nation rules covering the LGBT community has become an issue in one of the nation’s most contested
gubernatorial elections.
The campaigns of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed the law, and challenger Democratic
Attorney General Roy Cooper, who has refused to defend it in court, have been citing the conflict over
the law as they seek donations.
Cooper and McCrory won their respective March 15 primaries the week before the General As
sembly held a special session to block a Charlotte City Council ordinance that extended protections for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people at hotels, restaurants and stores.
The two are expected to run in one of the most expensive and competitive gubernatorial races this
year, so every extra donation is important. National Democrats consider North Carolina their best
chance to knock off a Republican incumbent. The two campaigns already have raised more than $13
million, with Cooper ahead in the money chase through the end of February.
Criticism of the law and McCrory has led to a federal lawsuit and vocal protests outside the gover
nor’s mansion and on cable television news. Social conservatives are holding prayer vigils and rallies
supporting McCrory and other Republicans, who say Charlotte crossed the line when the ordinance
allowed transgender people to use the rest room aligned with their gender identity at public accom
modations.
Both candidates “are going to try to raise the money from the red-hots,” said Gary Pearce, a long-
time consultant in North Carolina Democratic politics. “That’s what anger is always a good motivator
for - contributions on both sides.”
McCrory has said he’s been unfairly treated by the national media and with an orchestrated cam
paign of misinformation about the law.
“The White House attacked us. The ACLU sued us. And Attorney General Cooper won’t try to stop
them from stripping the basic expectation of privacy and safety North Carolinians have when they or
their children use the restroom,” said a McCrory campaign email signed by campaign manager Russell
Peck while asking for $25.
The state law went further by preventing others counties and cities from enforcing similar rules and
requiring public schools and universities and government agencies to limit multistall bathrooms to
people of the same biological sex only.
Cooper has said McCrory inserted discrimination into state law and created a “national embarrass
ment” that will lose the state jobs. More than 130 corporate executives - the latest include those from
General Electric Co., Oracle and LabCorp.- have signed a letter demanding McCrory seek the law’s
repeal.
“Together, we can take a stand against this law. Together, we can make our voices heard and say we
won’t stand for bigotry and discrimination in North Carolina,” said the email fundraising plea, signed
simply, “Roy.”
The state Democratic Party and state Senate leader Phil Berger also have tapped into anger about or
defense of the ordinance with their own email and online donation pleas.
Pearce anticipates the controversy would benefit Cooper’s campaign finances more and expects he’s
targeting cash support from business leaders in Charlotte, where McCrory was mayor for 14 years.
Republican consultant Dee Stewart, who is not working in the gubernatorial race, said he expects
both candidates will benefit but the issue will motivate “low-dollar donors” more. He cautioned the
shelf life of raising money off the law is limited and gubernatorial candidates will move to the next big
thing that gets media attention.
“That’s just the nature of politics,” Stewart said.
lawsuit aimed at overturning the
law that was filed by a UNC-
Greensboro student and a UNC-
Chapel Hill employee, both of
whom were born female and
consider themselves to be male.
The new law says they must use
restrooms and locker rooms des
ignated for women. The univer
sity system is named as one of
the defendants in the suit.
The law, which was intro
duced, adopted and took ef
fect on March 23, was “hast
ily drawn, perhaps without fully
considering all of the implica
tions that were at hand,” Spell
ings said. “Those implications
include leading prized students
and faculty to think, Tf this is a
place that is unwelcoming to that
particular class of people, what
does it mean to others?’”
Other provisions of the law
exclude sexual orientation and
gender identity from the state’s
anti-discrimination policy and
also bar people from filing em
ployment discrimination law-
suits in state courts.
In response, states and major
cities have banned public em
ployees from optional travel to
North Carolina, PayPal reversed
plans to open a 400-employee
operation center in Charlotte,
and more than 100 corporate
CEOs signed a letter urging
legislators to repeal the law.
On April 8, Bruce Springsteen
canceled a show scheduled for
April 10 in Greensboro, saying
in a statement on his website that
“some things are more important
than a rock show and this fight
against prejudice and bigotry -
which is happening as I write - is
one of them.”
UNC students also have
protested the law, staging dem
onstrations on campuses April
7 and 8. The North Carolina
NAACP said it will organize
sit-ins at the General Assembly
if the law isn’t repealed.
Supporters of the law are
also speaking out, announcing
a prayer vigil April 9 in Jack
sonville and a rally outside
the state Capitol in Raleigh on
April 11.
In Tennessee, Republican
lawmakers are advancing simi
lar legislation that would re
quire public school students to
use restrooms corresponding to
the gender listed on their birth
certificates. Nashville Mayor
Megan Barry said passage
could come with a cost to busi
nesses there.
Barry, a Democrat, said three
groups have said they will
cancel bookings for Nashville
conventions if the bill becomes
law, leading to the loss of $9
million in direct spending. An
other nine groups have said
they won’t go through with
future booking plans, causing a
loss of another $49 million in
spending.
Spelling said she will ask law
makers to change parts of the
North Carolina law when they
start their annual session April
25.
But she said she also hoped
university officials would get
guidance before then from the
U.S. Department of Education
regarding how the state law
holds up against federal rules
that bar sex discrimination.
Spelling served as education
secretary to President George
W. Bush.
UNC schools received about
$1.4 billion in federal funds in
Fiscal Year 2014-15, including
veterans’ educational benefits,
research grants and loan funds,
university system spokeswom
an Joni Worthington said.
Associated Press writer Erik
Schelzig in Nashville, Tennes
see, contributed to this report.
Voters stand by Trump
as champion of political
incorrectness
By Adam Geller and Bryna Godar
Donald Trump’s inflammatory statements about Mexican immi
grants, Muslim refugees and women who get abortions may eventu
ally be his campaign’s undoing, some analysts say. But don’t tell that
to the many supporters such as Titus Kottke, attracted to the Republi
can front-runner specifically because he shoots from the lip.
“No more political correctness,” said Kottke, 22, a cattle trucker
and construction worker from Athens, Wisconsin, who waited hours
last weekend to see the candidate in a line stretching the length of a
shopping mall.
Trump is “not scared to offend people,” Kottke said. He agrees
with some of the views Trump expresses but likes the fact that the
candidate shows the confidence to reject the dogma of political cor
rectness. That “takes away your freedom of speech, pretty much. You
can’t say anything.”
For years, conservatives have decried political correctness as a
scourge of orthodox beliefs and language, imposed by liberals, that
keeps people from voicing uncomfortable truths.
Now, some Trump supporters - many white, working-class voters
frustrated with the country’s shifting economics and demographics -
applaud him for not being afraid to make noise about the things that
anger them but that they feel discouraged from saying out loud.
“It’s a cultural backlash,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican po
litical strategist who ran Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential cam
paign. “Millions and millions of people in this country, blue-collar
people, feel that their values are under assault, that they’re looked
down upon, condescended to by the elites.”
Trump rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and retired neurosurgeon Ben
Carson, who has quit the 2016 race, are among the candidates who
also have outspoken in decrying political correctness.
But Trump has made defiance of the manners usually governing
politics a signature of his campaign.
“The big problem this country has is being politically correct,”
he said in a debate in August, when pressed on his comments about
women that brought criticism. “I’ve been challenged by so many
people and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness.
And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either.”
In doing so, Trump tapped into a frustration shared even by many
voters who disagree with him on other issues. In an October poll of
Americans by Fairleigh Dickinson University, more than two-thirds
agreed that political correctness is a “big problem” for the country.
Among Republicans, it was 81 percent.
That sentiment is clear in conversations with Trump supporters.
“Let him be a man with the guts to say what he wants,” said Polly
Day, 74, a retired nurse from Wausau, Wisconsin, who came to a
Trump rally recently in nearby Rothschild. “Should he tone down?
He’ll figure that out on his own. I like him the way he is.”
At the same rally, Kottke said Trump’s rejection of political cor
rectness is one of the main reasons he supports him, along with the
candidate’s determination to improve security, protect jobs and keep
Muslims out of the country.
Plenty of others agreed with him.
Ex-officer acquitted of
threats in traffic incident
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Jurors have acquitted a white
former Philadelphia police officer of charges of hurling
racial epithets and threatening to kill a black man during
an off-duty traffic incident.
The panel deliberated for about eight hours before re
turning the verdict on the terroristic threats charge in fa
vor of Edward Sawicki III on Friday, The Philadelphia
Inquirer reported.
Sawicki, a police officer for almost nine years who was
fired after he was charged, appeared to sag in his chair
with relief as the verdict was read. He was later hugged
by relatives and fellow officers and thanked jurors and
those "who supported me over this very long two years.”
Jurors were unable to reach agreement on charges of
simple assault and a weapons count related to allega-
tions that the 36-year-old displayed his service pistol in
a threatening manner. Prosecutors are to announce at a
June 1 hearing whether they will retry Sawicki on those
two counts.
Defense attorney William Brennan called the terroris
tic threats charge "the foundation of this entire case.”
"We’re hopeful the D.A.’s office will let this matter
end with this verdict,” Brennan said.
Investigators have said Sawicki backed into the vic
tim’s knee while parking near south Philadelphia’s famed
Pat’s King of Steaks restaurant in October 2013.
Police said the man banged his hand on Sawicki’s car
when he was struck, and he said Sawicki used racial slurs
and told him "I’ll smoke you.” Sawicki said he thought
the man was trying to stage a false-accident scam and said
the man caused a scene when he realized Sawicki was a
police officer.
A Pat’s employee testified that he saw the heated argu
ment and heard the officer make threatening remarks, but
under questioning said he could no longer be sure who
used racial slurs.