WILSON V NcU DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 3930 P 0 BOX BS90 CHAPEL HILL DAVI7 12/01/17 UNU--CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT NC 27599-0001 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019 TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 22 PRICE 50 CENTS LONNIE BUNCH - Credit Michael Barnes, Smithsonian Institution Archives Lonnie Bunch to become new Smithsonian After hours of testimony before the House Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance, witnesses raise their hands in response to a question on whether homeowner ship discrimination against Blacks continues today. Seated left to right are: Alanna McCargo, vice president for Housing Finance Policy, Urban Institute; Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president, Center for Responsible Lending; Joseph Nery, president, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; Jeff Hicks, presi- dent/CEO; National Association of Black Real Estate Brokers (NAREB); Carmen Castro, managing housing counselor, Housing Initiative Partnership; Joanne Poole, liaison for the National Association of Realtors; and Joel Griffith, research fellow, Financial Regulations, The Heritage Foundation. See dtory on page 9. PHOTO: Hazel Trice Edney Institution leader By Jesse J. Holland WASHINGTON (AP) - When Lonnie Bunch started working on the Smithsonian’s first black museum, he had no collection, no building and one employee. The Smithsonian Institution rewarded the founding director of the wildly popular museum on May 28 by putting him in charge of all 19 of its museums, making Bunch the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Bunch, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his time leading the Smithsonian National Museum of Af rican American History and Culture will serve him well. “The Smithsonian is the most amazing place, and some times it forgets to act like it. I want it to act like the best institution in the world,” he said. Bunch replaces David Skorton, who will become presi dent and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Bunch will be the first African American to be Smithsonian secretary. His success with the Smithsonian’s black museum helped his candidacy. Ground for the $540 million museum was broken in 2012 on a 5-acre (2-hectare) tract near the Washington Monument. Construction was completed in 2016. Mil lions of donors contributed $315 million in private funds ahead of the opening. People still wait in line to get into the museum during peak vacation days. More than 3.5 million have visited it to see exhibits ranging from the glass-topped casket used to bury lynching victim Emmett Till to the “Mothership” used by Parliament Funkadelic and a slave cabin from Edisto Island, South Carolina. “What I’ve learned is about the power of inspiration, the power of a good idea, the power of getting people ex cited about a story, so I hope to share that and bring that to the other museums,” he said. Chief Justice John Roberts, who is also the Smithson ian chancellor, said Bunch guided “the premier museum celebrating African American achievements.” “I look forward to working with him as we approach the Smithsonian’s 175th anniversary, to increase its rel evance and role as a beloved American institution and public trust,” Roberts said. Letting go of the Smithsonian’s black museum will be difficult, Bunch said. “This has been the job of my career, the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said. As Smithsonian secretary, he will hire his eventual replacement. Spencer Crew will serve as interim director until then, Bunch said. Bunch doesn't plan to meddle, but there are some things he won’t let be watered down in his former museum. The museum “should never lose the fact that it’s using African American culture as a lens to understanding what it means to be an American,” he said. “That notion of reveling in your African Amer- icanness but then celebrating your Americanness is really special. That, I don’t want it to lose.” Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, with 19 museums and the National Zoological Park. Bunch expects to lead a more active Smithsonian that gets in volved in weighty, issues outside ofjust history. “My whole career has been about expanding the canon, making sure that African American issues, that Latino issues, that issues of gender are at the forefront,” Bunch said. “And what I’m proudest of is that the Smithsonian will take the lead in grappling with these is sues. ... No matter what happens, the Smithsonian will always be that place to help us understand a diverse America.” amendment restoring three legal support positions as signed to new Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley that Senate budget- writers planned to abolish. The state’s judicial branch, which Beasley leads, said the move would have cut in half Beasley’s six-person staff. She’s a Democrat and the first African American woman at the post. That raised suspicions of Democrats that elimi nating the positions was politically motivated. Coo per appointed Beasley as chief justice and not the most veteran justice on the court, who is a Republican. A Democratic amendment offered on May 30 to re store the positions had been blocked. Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Repub lican who offered Fri day’s (May 31) successful amendment, said budget- writers had been told re cently the positions were vacant, so $267,000 asso ciated with them could be used elsewhere. But the court system has now told Republicans they are filled. “This absolutely had nothing to do with party or anything else,” Britt said before his amendment re ceived unanimous support. Some bad feelings from Thursday’s (May 30) de bate extended into May 31. Democratic Sen. Don Davis of Greene County kept blasting a budget provision that would es sentially reduce Medicaid payments by $35 million to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, which is in a governance fight with the University of North Senate budget gets final approval, negotiations with House next By Gary D. Robertson RALEIGH (AP) - Ne gotiations between Repub lican legislative budget- writers will now begin in earnest after the Senate completed voting May 31 for its version of a two-year spending plan for North Carolina government. The chamber voted 30-16 for the legislation, which would spend $23.9 billion in the next fiscal year starting July 1 - just like a version written by House Republicans and approved four weeks ago. But the two chambers must settle dozens of details on where to spend and how, such as teachers and state employee raises, construc tion projects and savings reserves. The two chambers will now fashion a consensus plan to present to Demo cratic Gov. Roy Cooper: What role Cooper will have in the ultimate out come is uncertain. He’s now equipped with a more potent veto stamp given his party’s recent legislative gains. The governor already has criticized both plans, particularly for another round of corporate tax cuts when he says education needs remain great. Neither proposal would expand Medicaid under the 2010 federal health overhaul law. Still, three Democrats joined all the GOP sena tors present in voting for the proposal May 31 after less than an hour of debate. Senators held four hours of debate May 30 before giv ing preliminary approval. The Senate did agree May 31 to a Republican Carolina Board of Governors. He also jumped on the word that Republicans are considering whether it makes sense to build a new hospital to serve as East Carolina University’s teaching hospital, replacing Vidant. “I said yesterday that this was petty politics,” Davis told colleagues May 31, adding, “I believe that this is ac tually downright evil.” Senate Republicans told Davis in debate that they are involved in making peace with Vi dant. On May 30, Berger cut off Sen. Terry Van Duyn’s' microphone. Republicans said the Democrat from Bun combe County was cut off because Berger hadn’t formal ly recognized her to speak, which Senate rules require, but she continued to interrupt. Van Duyn, who is running for lieutenant governor, told supporters in a fundraising email it happened because GOP members didn’t want to debate her amendment to expand Medicaid, which ultimately was ruled out of or der. Judge, killer in tears during hearing for teen’s death GREENSBORO (AP) - A sentencing hearing for a North Carolina man who pleaded guilty in the death of a 16-year-old girl made both the judge and the killer cry. The News & Record of Greensboro reports Superior Court Judge Lora Cubbage grew teary eyed as she sen tenced 21-year-old Hajji DeQuan Johnson to at least 16 years in prison for second-degree murder. Cubbage referred to both Johnson and his victim, Sate- ria Zoe Fleming, as “our babies.” She said one is buried and one she must “put in a cage.” Both Cubbage and Johnson are black. A defense attorney said a woman told Johnson to shoot two teens who tried to steal marijuana. Fleming was killed in March 2018. Johnson promised he would be a better man when he left prison. His tears drowned out the rest of his words. Register to Vote

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