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down tne Diacra jobless rate? B • See Opinion/Forum pages on A8&9# • See Sports on page B1 • Volume 44, Number 22 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, February 1, 2018 Board moving on early voting BY TODD LUCK THE CHRONICLE The Forsyth County Board of Elections (BOE) will begin considering early voting sites for the midterm primaries starting on Feb. 8, as the state awaits court orders on election boards. The primaries will be held on May 8, with early-voting taking place between April 19 to May 5. In order to give staff enough time to contact chosen sites, the board will be holding a special meeting to begin early-voting discussions on Feb. 8 at 5 p jn., followed by its regular 5 p.m. meet ing on Feb. 15. All BOE meetings are held at the Forsyth County Government Center. This comes at a time of uncertainty for BOEs across the state. Since last April, the State Board of Elections has been empty as a law attempt Tsujii ing to change its composition was debated in court. The legal battle made it so county BOEs remained with their Republican majority boards from 2016 until the matter was settled. In a 4-3 decision down partisan lines on Jan. 26, the Democratic majority of the state Supreme Court invalidated Senate Bill 68, passed by the GOP-dominated General Assembly shortly after Republican Gov. Pat’ McCrory lost to Roy Cooper in 2016. It merged the state Board of Elections with the State Ethics Commission, creating a new state agency and board in charge of North Carolina elections. SB68 also changed the composition of all BOEs in the state to be evenly split -i between the two major parties, and gave county boards four members, before it was struck down. “It’s my understanding that the N.C. Supreme Court remanded the case to the three-judge panel lower court to decide on the matter of the composition of the county boards,” said Forsyth BOE Director Tim Tsujii. That panel is expected to get the case by Feb. 15. They are expected, per the High Court decision, to order county BOEs to continue to have just three members, with the majority being Democrat, because Cooper is now governor. See Voting on A10 Photos by Tevin Stinson Desmond Howell looks through the collection of neckties following the First Impressions Seminar at Sprague Street Community Center on Saturday, Jan. 27. Community center prepares residents for career fair BY TEVIN STINSON THE CHRONICLE Ahead of the career fair today at Sprague Street Community Center, residents and others in the community had the opportunity to brush up on their interview skills during the First Impressions Seminar last weekend. The seminar, which was free, was designed to give attendees the opportunity to improve their chances of becoming the "perfect candidate" for job openings. Held on Saturday, Jan. 27, the event featured informa tive sessions on a number of topics including the general application process, resume writing and interview prepa ration. Guest speakers Marlin Wilkins, Mary Clark-Jackson and Linda Davis, director of human relations at Bradley Law Firm, gave advice on things to do before walking in for the interview. Wilkins, who is the CEO of Freedom Bail Bonding and a life coach, encouraged attendees to be confident. He told them to remember that they are interested because they were asked to come in for the interview. "Remember that you're there to get a job. They have a See Career fair on A10 Mary Clark-Jackson shares tips for preparing before an interview during the First Impressions Seminar at Sprague Street Community Center on Saturday, Jan. 27. ANALYSIS GOP designs on 2018 elections tested in courts BY CASH MICHAELS FOR THE CHRONICLE_ First there were congressional and legislative redis tricting maps by the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly that have been successfully challenged in court. Then there is the law passed last year by the legis lature eliminating judicial primaries in an attempt to * either redistrict judicial elections, or establish a legisla j tive merit selection process for judges. Prior to all of that, a voter ID taw was struck down by a federal court as a tool of voter suppression. And just last week, while Democrats were in federal court challenging the judicial redistricting law, the state Supreme Court sided with Gov. Roy Cooper, agreeing that the legislature overstepped its bounds and usurped his power, when it passed a law right after he took office last year merging the state Elections Board and the state Ethics Commission into one bipartisan governmental entity. “This was a pre-emp tive response to Cooper’s promise to roll back exist ing voter suppression measures that had passed when the Republicans had control of the whole state government,” wrote Charles P. Pierce for an article titled, “North Strach Gov. Cooper Carolina s Voter suppression is a Lesson ror me nest oi the Nation” in this week’s Esquire Magazine. “The new policies almost guaranteed a permanent partisan gridlock, which would maintain the status quo.” What the GOP is ultimately hoping for, political observers say, is for the federal courts (at least one<of the redistricting cases has now gone to the U.S. Supreme Court) to agree with them that their maps are constitu tional, and reflect the will of “most” North Carolinians because, after all, Republicans were voted, and then re elected, into the majority in both the Congress and N.C. See GOP on A10 660W5THST WINSTON SALEM. NC 27101-2755 60 Forsyth County suing drug companies over opioid crisis BY TODD LUCK THE CHRONICLE' The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners will be hiring law firms to help it sue opioid manufac turers and distributers. “It’s the board’s intention to join in the litigation that a number of counties have joined into to hold those manufacturers and distribu tors of opioids responsible for what, I think the sense is, the inaction or improper action of some those compa nies,” said County Manager Dudley Watts during last Thursday’s county commis sioners briefing on Jan. 25. Big pharmaceutical com panies’ tactics in marketing and distributing highly addictive prescription opi oids have been widely blamed for starting the cur rent nationwide crisis of opi oid addiction. Watts said that the commissioners plan to vote today to enlist law firms Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, Crueger Dickinson LLC and von Brieson and Roper, s.c in the suit. The law firms would be paid out of the damages awarded, so the suit won’t cost taxpayer money. The exact claims and tar gets of the lawsuit will be determined by the lawyers, but judging from what the state and other county gov See Crisis on A10 move in SPECIAL $25 22*ASSURED {••STORAGE of Winston-Salem, LLC ■w" - (336)924-7000 www.assuredstoragews.com Office Hours Mon-Fn 9am-5prn. Sat 9am Gate Hours: 5am-10pm 4191 Bettiama Station Road • VVinston-Sn s
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