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CHAPEL HILL
NC 27599-0001
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JANUARY 12. 2019
VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 1
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Diverse new Congress gavels
in, ready to confront Trump
By LISA MASCARO
AP Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - The 116th Congress gaveled into session
Thursday swathed in history, returning the first woman to the House
speaker’s office and ushering in a diverse class of Democratic fresh
men ready to confront President Donald Trump in a new era of di
vided government.
The new Congress is like none other. There are more women
than ever before, and a new generation of Muslims, Latinos, Na
tive Americans and African-Americans in the House is creating what
academics call a reflective democracy, more aligned with the popula
tion of the United States. The Republican side in the House is still
made up mostly of white men, and in the Senate Republicans bol
stered their ranks in the majority.
In a nod to the moment, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader,
was broadly pledging to make Congress work for all Americans _
addressing kitchen table issues at a time of deep economic churn _
even as her party is ready to challenge Trump with investigations and
subpoena powers that threaten the White House agenda. It’s the first
new Congress to convene amid a partial government shutdown, now
in its 13th day over Trump’s demands for money for a wall along the
U.S-Mexico border.
MAHERSHALAALI
Green Book 'A Golden
Globe Winner
Complete list of winners at 76th Golden
Globe Awards
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ Complete list of winners at the
76th annual Golden Globe Awards, presented Sunday in Beverly
Hills, California, by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association:
FILM
Drama: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Actress, Drama: Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Actor, Drama: Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Comedy or Musical: “Green Book”
Actor, Comedy or Musical: Christian Bale, “Vice”
Actress, Comedy or Musical: Glivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Actress-Supporting Role: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could
Talk”
Actor-Supporting Role: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Foreign Language Film: “Roma”
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
Screenplay: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, “Green
Book”
Animated: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
Original Score: Justin Hurwitz, “First Man”
Original Song: “Shallow,” '’A Star Is Born”
TELEVISION
Drama: “The Americans”
Actress, Drama: Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”
Actor, Drama: Richard Madden, “Bodyguard”
Musical or Comedy: “The Kominsky Method”
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous
Mrs. Maisel”
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky
Method”
Limited Series or Movie Made for Television:' ’The Assassination
of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Actress, Limited Series or Movie Made for Television: Patricia
Arquette, “Escape at Dannemora”
Actor, Limited Series or Movie Made for Television: Darren
Criss, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Actress, Supporting Role, Limited Series or Movie Made for Tele
vision: Patricia Clarkson, “Sharp Objects”
Actor, Supporting Role, Limited Series or Movie Made for Televi
sion: Ben Whishaw, “A Very English Scandal”
For complete coverage of the Golden Globes visit: www.apnews.
com/GoldenGlobeAwards
“''This House will be for the people,” Pelosi was to say in remarks
after winning the gavel, according to excerpts released ahead of time,
"to lower health costs and prescription drugs prices, and protect peo
ple with pre-existing conditions; to increase paychecks by rebuilding
America with green and modern infrastructure - from sea to shining
sea.” .
Pelosi vowed “to restore integrity to government, so that people
can have confidence that government works for the public interest,
not the special interests.”
The day was unfolding as one of both celebration and impatience.
Newly elected lawmakers arrived, often with friends and families in
tow, to take the oath of office and pose for ceremonial photos. The
Democrats planned to quickly pass legislation to re-open the govern
ment, but without the funding Trump is demanding for his promised
border wall.
■Vice President Mike Pence swore in newly-elected senators, but.
Senate Republicans under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had
no plans to consider the House bills to fund the government unless
Trump agrees to Sign them into law. That ensures the shutdown will
continue, clouding the first days of the new session.
It’s a time of stark national political division that some analysts say
is on par with the Civil War era. Battle lines are drawn not just be
tween Democrats and Republicans but within the parties themselves,
splintered by their left and right flanks.
Pelosi defied history in returning to the speaker’s office after eight
years in the minority, overcoming internal opposition from Demo
crats demanding a new generation of leaders. She will be the first to
regain the gavel since legendary Sam Rayburn of Texas in 1955.
Putting Pelosi’s name forward for nomination, Rep. Hakeem Jef
fries of New York, the incoming Democratic caucus chair, recounted
her previous -accomplishments — passing the Affordable Care Act,
helping the country out of the Great Recession - as preludes to her
next ones. He called her leadership "unparalleled in modern Ameri
can history.”
As speaker, she’ll face an early challenge from the party’s robust
wing of liberal newcomers, including 29-year-old New Yorker Alex
andria Ocasio-Cortez, who has risen to such prominence she is al
ready known around the Capitol _ and on her prolific social media
accounts _ by the nickname "AOC.” She said she’d cast a no vote on
a new package of rules to govern the House.
Ocasio-Cortez and other liberals oppose the pay-as-you-go budget
provisions in the rules package that would allow restrictive objec
tions to any legislation that would add to federal deficits. They say
such restraints would hamstring Democratic efforts to invest in health
care, education and develop a Green New Deal of renewable energy
infrastructure projects to fight climate change.
Republicans face their own internal battles beyond just the con
servative House Freedom Caucus, but as they decide how closely to
tie their political fortunes to Trump. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s
name was put into nomination by his party’s caucus chair, Rep. Liz
Cheney of Wyoming, the daughter of the former vice president. She
said McCarthy knows "our rights come from God” and "government
is not the source of our liberty.”
Many GOP senators are up for re-election in 2020 in states, includ
ing Colorado and Maine, where voters have mixed views of Trump’s
performance in the White House.
Trump, whose own bid for 2020 already is underway, faces po
tential challenges from the ranks of Senate Democrats under Chuck
Schumer. Trump had little to say early Thursday as the new Congress
was convening, but he did tweet an attack on one of his likely presi
dential challengers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, mock
ing her claim to Native American ancestry.
The halls of the Capitol were bustling with arrivals, children in
the arms of many new lawmakers. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.,
opened the House prayer asking at "a time fraught with tribalism at
home and turbulence abroad” that lawmakers "become the architects
of a kindlier nation.”
Overnight, Democratic Rep-elect Ilhan Omar of Minnesota tweet
ed a picture with her family at the airport. She wrote, "23 years ago,
from a refugee camp in Kenya, my father and I arrived at an airport in
Washington DC. Today, we return to that same airport on the eve of
my swearing in as the first Somali-American in Congress.”
Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Laurie Kellman in Wash
ington contributed to this report.
Follow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lisamascaro
Former Republican Rep. Mia
Love joining CNN as
commentator
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)-_ The first black Republi
can woman in Congress is joining CNN as a commen
tator after being unseated by a Democratic challenger
in November.
Former U.S. Rep. Mia Love of Utah tweeted Monday
that she’ll offer a “different, principled and unleashed
perspective’” on the cable news network.
The announcement references her fiery concession
speech, where she blasted Republicans for failing to
truly embrace minority voters.
She also pushed back on President Donald Trump’s
quip that "She gave me no love, and she lost.”
CNN tweeted that it was "thrilled” to welcome Love
and newly retired Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of
Illinois to the network.
Love was first elected in 2014 and served two terms
in a suburban Salt Lake City district before her narrow
loss.
JUSTICE ANITA EARLS
Anita Earls sworn in on North
Carolina Supreme Court
RALEIGH (AP) - A civil rights attorney elected to North Caro
lina’s highest court is taking office.
Anita Earls esd sworn into office as a state Supreme Court associ
ate justice on Jan. 3. The Democrat defeated Republican incumbent
Justice Barbara Jackson in November.
Earls founded and led the Durham-based Southern Coalition for
Social Justice. She was a deputy assistant attorney general for civil
rights at the U.S. Justice Department during the Clinton administra
tion. Earls: also served tire state-elections board and taught at Duke
University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the
University of Maryland.
She earned her law degree from Yale
Durham Civil Rights
Works Reunion Set for
Jan. 21 at St. Joseph
SAVE THE DATE -
The Durham Civil Rights Workers’ Reunion Committee
will host its 32nd annual MLK, Jr. celebration on Monday
January 21, 2019 at 1:00pm at the St. Joseph’s AME
Church, 2521 Fayetteville Street. The theme for this
Occasion is “Shifting the Atmosphere: Promoting Safety
in our schools, homes and world. Taking it to the next
level - Making all Lives Matter”. The guest Speaker will
be Brother Marshall Thompson, a native of the Durham
Community. Brother Thompson is a graduate of Hillside
High School, the former Durham Technical Institute, and
North Carolina Central University. He served four Years
in the United States Marine Corps. Marshall is a longtime
member of the St. Joseph’s AME Church of Durham,
and served on the Durham Police Department for twenty
years. Music will be rendered by the Anointed Hillside
High School Alumni Choir of Durham, North Carolina,
Sister Mary H. Scott, founder and Sister Valerie H.
Murphy, pianist. This will be an enlightening, educational
and a spiritual event.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Sylvia Knuckles-Rebenson, chair
Durham Civil Rights Workers’ Reunion Committee
919-641-5758
Sheriff: Vandals targeted
teen for interracial
relationship
GOLDSBORO (AP) - A North Carolina sheriff says the
vandalism oftwo vehicles is being investigated as a hate crime
stemming from an interracial relationship between two teens.
A release from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says that
on Dec. 27 a white family’s minivan was found spray-painted
with a swastika and several racial slurs, while another vehicle
was set on fire.
The sheriff’s office believes the family was targeted because
their 14-year-old daughter was in a relationship with a black
teen.
The girl’s mother, Amanda Miller, tells news outlets the
couple met in church. She says they’ve since amicably broken
up, and the boy’s parents have been supportive following the
vandalism.
Miller says her daughter previously dated a black student
in middle school, and has received threatening messages on
social media.