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VOLUME 99 - NUMBER 12
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2020
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50 CENTS
North Carolina A&T investigates
use of force by officers
GREENSBORO (AP) - Two police officers at a North Carolina university were placed on administrative leave after video emerged of them
grabbing a student’s neck, forcing him to the ground and threatening to spray him with Mace during an arrest inside a university dorm.
North Carolina A&T State University said in a statement that it was investigating the confrontation, which happened in the early morning
hours of Wednesday, and that officials had met with the student and the Student Government Association leadership to hear their concerns.
Some students gathered in front of the university police building March 18 to protest what they said was an example of campus authorities
using excessive force on students, a Greensboro newaspaper reported. In September, a university security guard was captured on video hitting
a student inside a campus building, the newspaper said.
In video of the latest confrontation posted to Twitter, the university officers can be seen trying to handcuff a student, while one of the of
ficers orders him not to resist, repeatedly saying: "If you resist, I’m going to Mace you.”
One of the officers later grasps the back of the student’s neck and another grabs the front. The two officers press him against a wall, bring
him to the ground and hold his head to the tile floor, the video shows.
The confrontation happened about 1:30 a.m. March 18 inside a residence hall on campus, The News & Record quoted school spokesman
Todd Simmons as saying. An online petition identified the student being taken into custody as Verdant Julius.
Julius was charged with trespassing and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer, University Police Chief Charles Wilson told the
newspaper. The officers weren’t identified.
Some students have signed a petition calling for the charges to be dropped. The petition says the encounter between Julius and the officers
happened as a group of students were packing up and moving out of their residence hall after the university canceled in-person classes and
told students they had until March 22 to vacate the dorms to protect against the coronavirus.
Julius and two friends were trying to return to their residence hall when a security guard turned away one of the students, saying she didn’t
live there, according to the petition’s account. Police became involved and the confrontation escalated, the petition said.
North Carolina A&T is a historically black research university in Greensboro.
WENDELL TABB
Hillside High School Names Theater after NCCU
Alumnus and longtime Drama Director Wendell Tabb
(See Story On Page 2)
Trump Virus Makes State
school closings extended,
gathering size tighter
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on March 23
announced the extended shuttering of K-12 schools until mid-May as
well as tighter assembly and business restrictions to attempt to dull
the spread of the new coronavirus.
Cooper said he would issue a new executive order that, starting
late March 18, would make it a misdemeanor for there to be assem
blies of more than 50 people, compared to the current prohibition of
over 100. The 50-person limit is in keeping with the guidance from
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cooper’s order also will direct that by 5 p.m. March 25 all hair sa
lons, barbershops, gyms, fitness clubs and movie theaters must close,
as well as similar businesses offering activities that run counter to
social distancing. Across North Carolina, restaurants and bars can
continue to remain open only for delivery or take-out meals.
Public schools statewide will now remain closed for in-person in
struction until May 15, Cooper said. He had already ordered closings
of at least two weeks beginning March 16.
‘I know that these actions cause hardship and heartache for a lot
of people, but they’re necessary to save lives,’ Cooper said at a news
conference. Cooper said he wasn’t giving up yet on returning to class
to complete the public school year. State education officials and law
makers are working on plans to expand online instructional assis
tance beyond virtual efforts already underway. Universities already
have shifted to online instruction.
‘We can’t treat this as a long break,” Superintendent of Public
Instruction Mark Johnson said, adding that his daughter’s first-grade
class had a video call with their teacher on March 23. He urged par
ents to keep their children on a schedule that includes a few hours
of daily instructional time. His department has assembled distance-
leaning options. Johnson said high school seniors will still be on
track to graduate in June. Cooper said plans also include ensuring
school employees keep getting paid during this suspension.
As of Monday, March 23 morning, state health officials count
ed nearly 300 positive COVID-19 cases, an increase of more than
40 compared to March 22. No deaths have been reported, although
about a dozen people are hospitalized. Mecklenburg, Wake and Dur
ham cases account for over half of the total.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symp
toms. But for older adults and people with existing health problems,
it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
In the effort to ensure children in low-income families have
enough to eat during the school closures, the state’s 115 school dis
tricts, helped by food banks, churches and volunteers, had served 1.2
million meals and 6,500 snacks through Sunday, Cooper’s office said.
The State Board of Education agreed earlier Monday to seek an
exception to federal K-12 testing and accountability requirements
this year. Board Chairman Eric Davis said he was talking with state
legislative leaders about how to eliminate public school accountabil
ity mandates specific to North Carolina. The legislature convenes in
late April, and Cooper said broader requests for state lawmakers -
potentially in a special session - would flow based on gaps in any
upcoming congressional funding deal.
Limits on commerce, including the prohibition on dining-in at eat
eries and bars, has led to a massive number of unemployment claims
in North Carolina. The Division of Employment Security said Mon
day it had processed 113,000 claims between March 16 and Monday
morning, compared to 3,500 on a usual week in recent months. Seven
out of every eight claims have been related to COVID-19 displace
ment. People could file claims for layoffs or reductions in hours due
to the virus.
While state and local movement restrictions haven’t halted out
door exercising for individuals, access to dedicated places for recre
ation continue to diminish.
M&F Bank Grand Re-Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony - Executive Team. M&F Photo See story and photos
on page 13.
Senators sold stock before
steep market losses from virus
By Mary Clare Jalonick
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Intelligence Commit
tee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., sold as much as $1.7
million in stocks just before the market dropped in Febru
ary amid fears about the coronavirus epidemic.
Senate records show that Burr and his wife sold be
tween roughly $600,000 and $1.7 million in more than 30
separate transactions in late January and mid-February,
just before the market began to fall and as government
health officials began to issue stark warnings about the ef
fects of the virus. Several of the stocks were in companies
that own hotels.
The stock sales were first reported by ProPublica and
The Center for Responsive Politics. Most of them came
on Feb. 13, just before Burr made a speech in North Caro
lina in which he predicted severe consequences from the
virus, including closed schools and cutbacks in company
travel, according to audio obtained by National Public
Radio and released March 19.
Burr told the small North Carolina audience that the
virus was “much more aggressive in its transmission than
anything that we have seen in recent history” and “prob
ably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
Burr’s remarks were much more dire than remarks he
had made publicly, and came as President Donald Trump
was still downplaying the severity of the virus.
There is no indication that Burr had any inside infor
mation as he sold the stocks and issued the private warn
ings. The intelligence panel did not have any briefings
on the pandemic the week when most of the stocks were
sold, according to a person familiar with the matter. The
person declined to be identified to discuss confidential
committee activity.
Burr said on Twitter March 19 that Americans were al
ready being warned about the effects of the virus when he
made the speech to the North Carolina State Society.
“The message I shared with my constituents is the one
public health officials urged all of us to heed as coronavi
rus spread increased,” Burr wrote. “Be prepared.”
Burr sent out the tweets before reports of his stock
sales. A spokesperson for the senator said in a statement
that Burr “has been deeply concerned by the steep and
sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy” and
supports congressional efforts to help the economy. The
spokesperson declined to be identified in order to share
the senator’s thinking.
The North Carolina senator was not the only lawmaker
to sell of stocks just before the steep decline due to the
global pandemic. Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a new sen
ator who is up for re-election this year, sold off hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of stock in late January, as
senators began to get briefings on the virus, also accord
ing to Senate records.
In the weeks that followed, Loeffler urged her constitu
ents to have faith in the Trump administration’s efforts to
prepare the nation.
“(at)realDonaldTrump & his administration are doing
a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe,”
Loeffler tweeted Feb. 27.
The Daily Beast first reported that Loeffler dropped the
stock in late January. The senator is married to Jeffrey
Sprecher, the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental
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