DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2016
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 29
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Congressional Black Caucus Holds National Speak Out to Address Gun - Violence in America
Washington, D.C. - Recently, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC),
Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-SC), Representative John Lewis (D-GA), and
members of the CBC joined Democrats and supporters from across the country to hold ‘Lighting
the Way,’ a National Speak Out on the path forward on gun violence.
Above Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield.
“Members of the CBC have long advocated for common sense legislation on our nation’s gun
violence epidemic,” said Chairman Butterfield. “The CBC will continue our efforts in support of
legislation that will create common sense gun laws, hold police accountable and strengthen com
munity relations with law enforcement.
“America is facing a serious problem with the issue of gun violence and tonight’s Speak Out
allows us another opportunity to bring attention to the urgent need for Congress to work toward
finding a solution to an issue that has affected each of us.”
Obama urges Americans to tamp
down inflammatory rhetoric
By Kevin Freking
WASHINGTON (AP) - Confronting another killing of police officers, President Barack Obama on
July 17 urged Americans to tamp down inflammatory words and actions as a violent summer collides with
the nation’s heated presidential campaign.
Obama said the motive behind Sunday’s killing of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was still
unknown. It was the latest in a string of deadly incidents involving law enforcement, including the police
shooting of a black man in Baton Rouge and the killing of five officers in Dallas.
“We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies attacks on law enforcement,” Obama
said in remarks from the White House briefing room.
The president spoke on the eve of the Republican Party’s national convention, where Donald Trump
will officially accept the GOP nomination. The businessman has cast the recent incidents as a sign that
the country needs new leadership, often using heated rhetoric to make his point.
Obama said that going into the political conventions, elected officials and interest groups should focus
their words and actions on uniting the country, rather than dividing it.
“We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric. We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score
political points or to advance an agenda. We need to temper our words and open our hearts ... all of us,”
Obama said.
The president also seemed intent on demonstrating again his support for law enforcement. Some or
ganizations have cast doubt on that support. The National Association of Police Organizations said after
the Dallas shooting that America was in the midst of a war on law enforcement officers. The group said
the administration needed to show political leadership by “supporting them and giving them the resources
they need to protect themselves and their communities.”
“Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible,” Obama
emphasized Sunday.
The president spoke earlier Sunday with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Baton Rouge Mayor
Kip Holden to hear the latest on the investigation into the shootings and pledge federal support.
Obama has spent most of the last week focused on defusing tensions and rebuilding trust between
police departments and the communities they serve.
On July 7, an Anny veteran opened fire on law enforcement in Dallas, killing five and wounding seven
other officers. The shooter, who was black, said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.
Obama spoke at the memorial service for the officers killed and told Americans not to despair, that the
nation is not as divided as it might seem.
In his remarks Sunday, Obama reminded people that he had also said the Dallas shooter would not be
the last person to try to make Americans turn on each other.
“Nor will today’s killer. It remains up to us to make sure that they fail. That decision is all of ours,”
Obama said.
Following the Dallas memorial, Obama held an extraordinary four-hour meeting at the White House’s
executive offices with police officers, community activists and elected leaders. He emerged from the
session saying “we’re not even close” to the point where minority communities could feel confident that
police departments were serving them with respect and equality or where police departments could feel
adequately supported at all levels. He also said the country would have to “just grind it out” in solving
the tensions.
The shooting of the police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge were preceded by police shootings of
two black men, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota,
which sparked protests around the country. Dallas police were defending protesters in that city when the
gunman opened fire on them.
AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace in Cleveland contributed to this report.
NCC
President Barack Obama
talks with Mick McHale,
President, National Asso
ciation of Police Organiza
tions, after meeting with ac
tivists, civil rights, faith, law
enforcement and elected
leaders on building commu
nity trust, in the Eisenhow
er Executive Office Building
of the White House, July 13,
2016. In the background,
Black Lives Matter activist
Mica Grimm hugs Col. Mi
chael D. Edmonson, Superin
tendent of Police, Louisiana
State Police. (Official White
House Photo by Pete Souza)
vur
Red Cross opens shelter after
flash floods in central NC
(AP) - The American Red Cross opened a shelter July 17 for people forced to evacuate their homes
after flooding caused by heavy rains that lashed across central North Carolina.
Six people quickly checked into the shelter at Hillside High School in Durham, Red Cross spokes
woman Brittany Jennings said.
Severe storms that rolled through central North Carolina late Saturday, July 16 brought some of their
biggest impact to Wake, Durham, Nash and Edgecombe counties. Raleigh officials had to use boats to
rescue people from their flooded homes and cars.
Shoppers and employees at Crabtree Valley Mall were stranded Saturday night as water rose in the
mall’s parking garage rose to the point that some cars were half submerged.
One motorcyclist was killed by lightning Saturday on Blue Ridge Parkway near Mount Mitchell State
Park, The Gaston Gazette reported. Scott Pasour of Dallas was stopped at the roadside with two other mo
torcyclists and pulling on rain gear when the lightning bolt struck him. The other men reported they did
not see lightning or hear thunder in the area before Pasour was struck in the helmet by a bolt from the sky.
In Johnston County, a motorcycle club was holding a picnic when lightning struck a nearby a tree,
knocking a handful of people off their feet and out of their chairs.
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LGBT rights trial could take
place close to Election Day
By Jonathan Drew and Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Dueling lawsuits over a North Carolina law limiting protections for LGBT people
will likely go to trial around Election Day, putting the divisive issue in the spotlight as voters prepare to
cast ballots in the closely watched governor’s race.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder issued an order onJuly 14 saying he expected to try the
cases involving a law known as House Bill 2 in late October or early November 2016, which is when
lawyers told him they would be ready.
The judge scheduled an Aug. 1 hearing on the American Civil Liberties Union’s request for an injunc
tion blocking a key provision of the law that requires transgender people to use restrooms in many public
buildings that are consistent with the sex on their birth certificate.
The judge asked lawyers to discuss ways to eliminate certain redundant parts of the cases with an eye
toward consolidating them. Two lawsuits challenging the law and two defending it are assigned to Schro
eder, who remarked that he wants to avoid “multiple, piecemeal considerations of the overlapping and
closely-related issues.” A fifth case over the law is pending before a judge in a different court.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said it appears that Schroeder and the lawyers
want a swift resolution, but there could be still be delays.
“It seems like everybody’s trying to deal in good faith and get things moving,” he said. “But you never
know. There can be bumps, and all kinds of things can happen.”
The ACLU and Lambda Legal, which challenged the law on behalf of transgender clients, issued a
statement saying they’re eager to have their day in court.
“Every day that House Bill 2 remains on the books, transgender North Carolinians suffer irreparable
harm at work, in school, and in other public places, simply because they want to use public facilities
safely just like everyone,” the groups said.
The law enacted in March also excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from antidiscrimina
tion protections related to the workplace, hotels and restaurants; and overrules local antidiscrimination
ordinances.
It has drawn high-profile supporters and critics. Nearly two dozen other states are fighting President
Barack Obama’s administration, which has issued guidelines urging schools to allow transgender stu
dents to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. A draft this week of the platform for the
Republican National Convention offers a “salute” to the states.
Meanwhile, 68 companies signed an amicus brief recently supporting challenges to the law. The NBA
has been deciding whether to remove the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, and league commissioner
Adam Silver said this week he’s disappointed with a lack of progress on changing the law.
During the legislative session that ended this month, lawmakers restored the ability of workers to use
state law to sue over employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion and other factors - but left
gender identity and sexual orientation unprotected.
Alfredo Rodriguez, a Republican political consultant in Charlotte, said he doubts GOP candidates will
be hurt in November because legislative leaders defending the law “are reflecting the sentiment of voters
across the state.”
In an interview he gave before Schroeder issued his order, Rodriguez also argued that voters care more
about other issues.
“The attention span that the public has on H.B. 2 is diminishing with every passing day,” he said.
But Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said the protracted legal fight
could help mobilize Democrats and unaffiliated voters who lean left.
“The average voter is going to think this seems messy,” he said. “The more this is in the courts, the
more it’s a question about what’s going to happen going forward, the worse people feel about their state
government in general, regardless of party. In an era where people aren’t trusting government very much,
this debate doesn’t help.”
Even before the trials were scheduled so close to the elections, H.B. 2 was expected to influence
turnout in the race between Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who supports the law, and Democratic state
Attorney General Roy Cooper, who opposes it.