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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2016
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Bills addressing college costs, HBCUs could be hurt
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina lawmakers offered
bills before a self-imposed deadline May 10 addressing
the cost of college education, penalties for “sanctuary cit
ies,” economic incentives and worker pay.
House and Senate members filed close to 120 pieces
of legislation before this year’s cutoff for bills that would
affect next year’s budget or that study commissions rec
ommended.
Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, filed legislation
that would prevent in-state tuition at University of North
Carolina campuses from rising for a student seeking a
bachelor’s degree, either for eight or 10 semesters. Sen
ate Democrats filed a separate “fixed tuition” bill.
But Apodaca’s bill also would drastically reduce tuition
starting in fall 2018 to no more than $500 per semester for
in-state students and $2,500 for out-of-state students at
five UNC campuses: the historically black Elizabeth City
State University, Fayetteville State and Winston-Salem
State, along with UNC-Pembroke and Western Carolina.
The change would be designed to attract new students
to some campuses with lower enrollment or to stimulate
regional economies. University leaders also would be
directed in fall 2018 to reduce student fees at nearly all
campuses by 10 percent to 25 percent compared with this
fall. Apodaca also wants to create a scholarship program
giving full rides to students attending the historically
black North Carolina A&T and N.C. Central.
Another bill by Sens. Norman Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and Buck
Newton, R-Wilson, would deny local governments money for public
school capital or city street improvements if they don’t comply with
federal and state immigration laws. The legislature told cities and
counties last fall they could not enforce their own policies preventing
a person from being asked their immigration status.
The bill also creates a process whereby the public could file com
plaints alleging local governments weren’t complying with immigra
tion laws with the attorney general. Newton is the Republican nomi
nee for attorney general this year.
“Hopefully this bill will provide some extra incentive for local of
ficials to do the right thing,” Newton and Sanderson said in a release.
Several House Republicans, including Majority Leader Mike
Hager of Rutherford County, filed legislation May 10 that would al
low local governments to request a moratorium on resettling refugees
in their area that would ultimately be sent to the U.S. Department of
State. Local government bodies also would be required to hold pub
lic hearings before notifying North Carolina officials they wanted to
resettle refugees.
Refugee issues received attention late last year after the Paris at
tacks, based on worries that terrorists would pose as refugees to gain
access to the U.S.
House and Senate GOP lawmakers filed 28-page bills offering or
extending a host of tax breaks and credits to those investing in North
Carolina business, as well as using certain funds held by the state
treasurer for venture capital targeting businesses with North Carolina
connections.
House Democrats filed their own bills May 10, two of which
would repeal or replace the law approved in March limiting anti
discrimination protections for LGBT people and the use of public
restrooms by transgender people to the one aligned with their bio
logical sex.
Democrats also filed several bills to raise the minimum wage to
$12 or $15 per hour and mandate equal pay for men and women per
forming the same work.
Sweet Honey in the Rock
protesting during NC shows
By Derrik J. Lang
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The a cappella group Sweet
Honey in the Rock is protesting North Carolina’s law ad
dressing LGBT rights and bathroom use by transgender
people during its concerts in the state this weekend.
The group performed as scheduled but protested in
song at the Paramount Theatre in Goldsboro, North Car
olina, on May 13, and plans to again at the High Point
Theatre in High Point, North Carolina, on Saturday night.
“We gave a shout-out to everyone and performed a
civil rights medley,” said group member Carol Maillard
on Saturday morning. “As I always say, you never know
when you’ll need a good, strong protest song to bring
your community together so they can raise their voices.”
The long-running African-American female perfor
mance group was founded in 1973 and has been nomi
nated for several Grammy Awards.
Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Blue Man Group, Cirque
du Soleil, Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato have all cancelled
performances in North Carolina since the law was passed
in March. Maillard said the group never considered can
celing the shows in North Carolina.
“We realized it would be to our advantage and the com
munity’s advantage to come together and let them know
we give our spiritual and emotional support for what
they’re fighting for here,” Maillard said. “I’m sure it’ll
all work out.”
Online:
http ://www. sweethoneyintherock.org
Former NCCU Board of Trustees member, Dr. Dwight D. Perry was honored for
his dedicated service to the university. He was awarded the designation of Trustee
Emeriti. Here he receives the plaque from Chancellor Debra Saunders-white at
NCCU undergraduate ceremony on May 14. NCCU Photo..
Kingstree honors
MLK voting rights
speech’s 50th
anniversary
KINGSTREE, S.C. (AP) -
The South Carolina commu
nity of Kingstree is celebrat
ing the 50th anniversary of
the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s historic speech urging
black voters to cast their bal
lots without fear.
Sunday’s celebrations be
gan and included a reenact
ment of King’s “March on the
Ballot Boxes” address. King’s
visit came several months af
ter President Lyndon Johnson
signed the Voting Rights Act
into law. It was part of King’s
crusade to help black citizens
exercise their right to vote.
U.S. Rep. James Cly
burn was present at the 1966
speech and is speaking at the
event.
A historical marker is be
ing unveiled at the site of the
original speech at Tomlinson
High School’s athletic field. ,
North Carolina’s transgender law
creates tangle of lawsuits
By Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The dueling lawsuits over North Carolina’s law on bathroom use by transgender people have landed in the hands
of three federal judges appointed by Republican presidents, with both sides trying to maneuver into the most favorable courtroom possible.
Legal experts expect some or all of the five cases to be combined. But it remains to be seen whether they will be decided in the court picked
by the law’s opponents for its moderate reputation, or in the more conservative court chosen by the measure’s GOP supporters.
“This is definitely a strategic decision by the plaintiffs to file in the district they like best,” said Tom Metzloff, a Duke University law
professor and expert on civil procedure.
Either way, the dispute could ultimately be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling once and for all on whether federal laws includ
ing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protect transgender people from discrimination.
At issue is a state law that says transgender people must use public bathrooms, showers and changing rooms that correspond to the sex on
their birth certificate. Supporters say the law is needed to safeguard people’s privacy and protect women and children from molesters. Op
ponents, including the Obama administration, say the danger is imaginary and the law discriminatory.
With economic pressure on the state mounting, the U.S. Justice Department and North Carolina’s governor sued each other over the
measure Monday. Lawsuits for and against the law have also been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, leaders of the Republican-
controlled state Legislature, and a conservative legal organization.
As for possible clues to how the judges might rule, one of them has already decided in favor of a transgender plaintiff in a separate case.
Another sided with state GOP leaders in a high-profile case on voter ID laws, while the third riled environmentalists with a ruling on a bridge
project in the ecologically fragile Outer Banks.
Still, whatever the judges’ backgrounds, opponents have a strong hand because of a recent federal appeals court ruling in favor of a trans-
gender teen who was seeking to use the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school. The ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which
oversees North Carolina, interpreted the federal discrimination law Title IX in a way that directly affects a key aspect of the North Carolina
case.
“It’s going to be hard for the judge not to follow the 4th Circuit precedent. And if he does that, the language of Title VII - the ‘64 Civil
Rights Act - is basically the same as the Title IX language. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex,” said William Yeomans, a legal
scholar who spent 26 years at the Justice Department during Democratic and Republican administrations.
The five cases are split between two districts - one in the eastern part of the state that is considered more conservative, the other in the
middle section.
Legal scholars agree that opponents of the law chose the middle district because of the more moderate overall reputation of its six judges.
That strategy only goes so far, however, because cases are initially assigned at random, Metzloff said.
The two cases challenging the North Carolina law - one filed by the ACLU, the other by the Justice Department - wound up before U.S.
District Judge Thomas Schroeder.
In April, Schroeder rejected arguments by the Justice Department and the NAACP in a ruling upholding a voter ID law passed by the
Legislature. He wrote that “some segment of the state’s African Americans endure socioeconomic disparities that can be linked to state dis
crimination,” but the plaintiffs “failed to show that such disparities will have materially adverse effects on the ability of minority voters to
cast a ballot.”
He was nominated to the federal bench in 2007 by President George W. Bush.
While perceived as more moderate than some of his colleagues, “he is certainly not known for being liberal,” said Maxine Eichner, a law
professor at the University ofNorth Carolina.
To the east, the case filed by the governor in defense of the law wound up before U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, a former aide to
archconservative Sen. Jesse Helms who was denied a seat on the 4th Circuit by the Democrats after a 16-year standoff. He was first appointed
to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Still, observers say his conservative reputation may be overstated. In 2015, he gave a favorable ruling to a transgender job applicant who
alleged gender discrimination when she applied for a job as a nurse in High Point.
“In this case, Judge Boyle doesn’t exactly decide that transgender is protected by Title VII, but he comes pretty close,” said Katharine
Bartlett, a Duke University law professor and expert on gender and law.
Two other cases filed this week in support of the law are also in the eastern district, before Judge Louise Wood Flanagan, who was nomi
nated by Bush in 2003 and served as the district’s chief judge for seven years. In 2013 she sided with the state transportation department in a
lawsuit filed by environmental groups over a bridge on the Outer Banks.
While it’s difficult to predict how the North Carolina judges will unknot the tangle of cases, Bartlett said: “Because of the division now
among federal courts, ultimately the Supreme Court is going to have to decide if transgender discrimination is sex discrimination. I don’t
know how soon, or under which of these laws.”
Associated Press writers Emery P. Dalesio and Martha Waggoner in Raleigh contributed to this report.
Poll: Millennials more open to idea of slavery reparations
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - A majority of Americans say there should not be reparations for African-American descendants of slaves, but time
may bring about a shift in those numbers. A new poll shows more than half of millennials are willing to at least consider the idea.
The Exclusive Point Taken-Marist Poll was released May 11 in conjunction with the PBS debate series “Point Taken.”
Overall, 68 percent of Americans think that reparations should not be paid to descendants of slaves. But when millennials are asked, 49
percent are opposed, 40 percent are in favor and 11 percent are unsure.
Researchers say the increasing diversity of millennials may be one of the factors that explain the difference.