Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Sept. 21, 2019, edition 1 / Page 1
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D ^I7 UNC-CH ^' 01/1 ^ a«PE? X n^ 3936 ""ilhnlj to IP®^® VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 37 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, /, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50 CENTS GOP holds N Carolina House seat but shows frailty in suburbs By Alan Fram RALEIGH (AP) - Conservative Republican Dan Bishop won a special election for an open House seat in North Carolina, averting a demoralizing Democratic capture of a district the GOP has held for nearly six decades. But his narrow victory didn’t erase questions about whether President Donald Trump and his party’s congressional candidates face troubling headwinds approaching 2020. Bishop, a state senator best known for a North Carolina law dic tating which public bathrooms transgender people can use, defeated centrist Democrat Dan McCready on Aug. 10. Bishop tied himself tightly to Trump, who staged an election eve rally for him in the dis trict, and Tuesday’s voting seemed no less than a referendum on the Republican president, who quickly took credit for the triumph. “Dan Bishop was down 17 points 3 weeks ago. He then asked me for help, we changed his strategy together, and he ran a great race. Big Rally last night,” Trump tweeted. No polling has emerged pub licly that showed Bishop with a deficit of that magnitude. Operatives from both parties and analysts had long said the race was too close to call. The results in the district underscored the rural-urban split be tween the parties, with Bishop, 55, running up substantial numbers in outlying areas and McCready eroding GOP advantages in suburban areas. McCready’s moderate profile resembled that of many Demo crats who won in Republican-leaning districts in the 2018 midterms and, even with the loss on Tuesday, showed the durability of that approach. Bishop’s margin - a little more than 2 percentage points - was far less than the 11 percentage points by which Trump captured the district in 2016. And it was only slightly greater than when then-GOP candidate Mark Harris seemed to win the seat over McCready, 36, last year - before those results were annulled after evidence of vote tampering surfaced and a new election was ordered. Republicans have held the seat since 1963, and its loss would have been a worrisome preface to the party’s presidential and congressio nal campaigns next year. “I think it means Trump is going to get a second term, and Re publicans will retake the majority,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press. Many analysts think a GOP takeover will be difficult. Special elections generally attract such low turnout that their re sults aren’t predictive of future general elections. Even so, the nar row margin in the GOP-tilted district suggested that Democrats’ 2018 string of victories in suburban districts in red states including Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas could persist next year. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who runs House Democrats’ po litical committee, said the close race showed her party is “pushing further into Republican strongholds” and was in a “commanding po sition” to do well next year. Michael Bitzer, a politics professor at Catawba College in North Carolina, said the narrow margin suggests that the country’s other closely divided swing districts “could be still up for grabs.” There is almost no pathway to Republicans regaining House con trol next year unless they avoid losing more suburban districts and win back some they lost last year. The district stretches from Charlotte, one of the nation’s financial nerve centers, through its flourishing eastern suburbs and into less prosperous rural counties along the South Carolina line. More than half its voters were expected to come from the suburbs. Since Trump became president, voters in such communities - particularly women- and college-educated voters - have abandoned Trump in droves over his conservative social policies and vitriolic rhetoric on immigration and race. NCCI Involves Rural Students in STEM Program - NCCU Photo NCCU Examines STEM NAACP Monthly Meeting The Durham Branch ofthe NAACP will host its monthly General body meeting on Sun day, September 22, 4 p.m., at Kyles Temple AME Zion Church, 409 Dunstan St., Please come out and support your local NAACP Branch. For more informa tion call 919-452-0798 Influences for Rural Students Multidisciplinary team to investigate classroom experiences along with social factors Researchers at North Carolina Central University received a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the STEM-skills gap that exists between rural high school students and their more urban counterparts. Residents of rural communities, especially students of color, are less likely than students on average to seek out STEM-based coursework and degrees, contributing to a lack of diversity in STEM fields, said Cherise Harrington, PhD, MPH, who is an associate professor of Health Education at NCCU. Harrington is the principal investigator on a multidisciplinary team of researchers working on the three-year proj ect, including representatives from the departments of Psychology, Computer Science, Business and Social Work. “To better understand the lower STEM-based recruitment and retention in this group, we are, one, investigating the exposure to and quality of STEM-based education during the secondary education years; two, examining facilitators and barriers impacting student recruitment in STEM subjects; and three, assessing relevant social determinants,” Har rington said. “The results will help us gain an understanding of the factors behind the lower recruitment and attainment and identify areas to leverage to improve outcomes.” A community-based research approach will help investigators identify the key factors influencing persistence and success in STEM education, said Donna M. Grant, PhD, who is chair ofthe Computer Science and Business program in the School of Business and a co-principal investigator on the project. “Our team has 70-plus combined years of addressing health and social disparities,” Grant added. The two-phase project will start with interviews, focus groups, and surveys with key stakeholders, including our target group to gather information about the facilitators and barriers to STEM advancement, Harrington said. A second phase will involve a pilot study to gauge the effectiveness of GO STEM (Gaining Opportunities in STEM), a program designed to recruit more minority students onto STEM-based degree tracks. North Carolina has approximately 5 70,000 students attending schools in rural communities - about 40% of the state’s school-age population, according a 2019 report by the Public School Forum of N.C. Nationwide, about 20% students live and attend school in rural areas. Building Trust between Law Enforcement & Community Sheriff Birkhead Launches CAB Durham County Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead trecently anounced the creation of the “Sheriffs Community Advisory Board” (CAB) and encouraged local residents to participate in this new initiative to better connect the local community with law enforcement. “During my campaign to become Sheriff, I promised our office would follow a model of transparency, engagement and accountabil ity,” said Sheriff Birkhead. “The mechanism to truly fulfill this prom ise is the Sheriff?s Community Advisory Board. Applications are now open for all Durham County residents to participate and serve. I look forward building upon the good working relationships our office has established with all segments of the Durham community. This initia tive will build trust between law enforcement and the community we serve.” At a press conference recently, Sheriff Birkhead stressed CAB will not follow the model of citizen review panels which are common- place at other law enforcement agencies across the United States, whereby those Boards review appeals by citizens who file complaints on dispositions imposed by the Chief of Police or his/her designee. What makes this initiative unique to Durham County is that CAB will become the forum to discuss concerns, needs and offer solutions in order to create safer communities. “No one knows better what?s going on than the people we serve,” Sheriff Birkhead said. “CAB will build enduring partnerships by building trust between law enforce ment and the community. Meeting Structure The Board will convene once a quarter before the end of the calendar year. There may be times when the Sheriff will call an additional meeting should important matters arise. Terms/Dismissal Com munity members will be appointed to serve for two (2) years at the pleasure ofthe Sheriff. They will be subject to dismissal for breaching confidentiality or behavior that could potentially damage the Office of the Sheriff, including but not limited to social media comments/ posts. Board Authority The Board will serve as the voice of the community by presenting issues, suggesting ideas and offering advice. The intention of the board is to build trust and create a positive working relationship between DCSO and the larger Durham County community. SHERIFF CLARENCE BIRKHEAD s an elected official. Sheriff Birkhead is bound by State of North Caro lina Constitutional statutes which guide the Office of the Sheriff. He may not transfer his administrative duties to an individual or an ad visory board. Consequently, the Board may suggest or recommend; but the final authority/decision or any action will rest solely with the Sheriff. Board Responsibilities * Inform the Sheriff of community issues or concerns *Offer ideas and suggestions to address and resolve community concerns * Advise the Sheriff on how to improve community trust between law enforcement and their respective communi ties *Uncover blind spots that are evident to the community but not necessarily specific to law enforcement * Inform the community of important initiatives and bring feedback to the Sheriff * Attend all quarterly meetings of the Board *Maintain confidentiality of all closed meetings and information acquired as a board member Demonstrators line up over Confederate monument in Pittsboro PITTSBORO (AP) - Police officers and barricades were in place as people for and against the removal of a Confederate monument in a North Carolina county stood on opposite sides of the street. Media outlets report there were demonstrations on Saturday near the Chatham County Courthouse, where the monument has stood for over a century. Chatham’s commissioners voted 4-1 in August to ask a United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter to have a plan by Oct. 1 to remove the statute. The county let the UDC install the statute in 1907. Without a plan, the county will declare it a public trespass by Nov. 1, making it eligible for removal. Monument supporter Barry Isenhour said the statue respects American veterans, but opponent Robert Finch said it was installed to intimidate the black community.
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Sept. 21, 2019, edition 1
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