STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 11-19-20

BRUNSWICK COURTHOUSE NAMED AFTER JUDGE LEWIS

[BOLIVIA] The Brunswick County Board of Commissioners has voted 4-1 recently to rename their county courthouse in memory of the late African-American Judge Ola Lewis, who died almost one year ago after suffering with liver cancer. Her husband, Reginald Holley, issued a statement afterwards saying, “As the youngest appointed judge in the state’s history, who served the longest of any female judge in North Carolina, her life was committed to serving the people of Brunswick County. My family and I are humbled by the decision of the Brunswick County Commissioners. We will never cease to remember her ability to recognize the potential and humanity of each person, and how that ability changed so many lives.”

NC ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH STEIN WINS REELECTION

[RALEIGH] Two weeks after the Nov. 3rd election, NC Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, was unofficially declared the winner over Republican challenger Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill by The Associated Press. Stein defeated O’Neill by over 13,000 votes, putting the results beyond any recount requirement. This will be Stein’s second term.

STATE ROLLS OUT NEW COVID-19 SYSTEM TO INSTANTLY SHOW HOTSPOTS

[GREENSBORO] In hopes that counties will do an even better job of enforcing COVID-19 rich mandates, Gov. Roy Cooper and state health authorities this week unveil a new system of determining  where the virus is spreading rapidly. The alert system is necessary because in recent weeks, the state has been setting new records for spread of infection, hospitalizations and deaths. The counties with the highest amount of infection on a monthly basis will be color-coded red (or critical), second highest orange, and the least critical are colored yellow.

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                                                      BEASLEY.                     NEWBY

[UPDATED]

STATEWIDE RECOUNT CALLED

IN BEASLEY-NEWBY CHIEF JUSTICE RACE

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Tuesday morning, NC Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court Cheri Beasley officially asked for a statewide recount against challenger Justice Paul Newby in their neck-and-neck election battle.

By noon Tuesday, Beasley was trailing by 366 out of 5.4 million votes cast.   The recount must begin by today and b completed by Nov. 25th.

Beasley campaign manager Benjamin Woods issued a statement Tuesday saying, ““The race for Chief Justice will not be over until every single vote has been counted. Our team has officially requested a statewide recount and will be filing protest petitions across the state to ensure over 2,000 absentee and provisional ballots that were wrongfully rejected are included in the final tally. This race is far from decided, and we look forward to ensuring the counting process continues so that every voice is heard.”

All votes cast in all contests are finalized and certified by Nov. 26th.

It was last Friday when it became clear that the Beasley-Newby race would not be ending anytime soon because of the lead continuously flip-flopping back and forth, that Woods issued a statement saying that the chief justice “… is honored and grateful for the trust voters across North Carolina have placed in her. While there is likely a longer process ahead of us, one that requires patience and faith in our election process, we are confident Chief Justice Beasley will remain the Chief Justice of North Carolina Supreme Court in January.”

Prior to that statement, Justice Newby came out of Election Night leading by some 4,000 votes. By the time of Woods’ statement, Beasley had not only eaten away at Newby’s considerable lead, by had taken the lead by just 35 votes. But all of the counties had not reported in.

Indeed, two counties had problem with their final counts.

Washington County counted its mail-in ballots twice, while Robeson County neglected to count ballots from one of it’s early voting sites. Both problems amounted to roughly 1900 ballots outstanding that needed to be corrected before final counts could be assigned to the tight Beasley-Newby contest.

Beasley, a Democrat,  is the first Black woman ever to serve as Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court. She was appointed to the post by Gov. Roy Cooper on February 2019 after having been appointed to the High Court in 2012 by former Gov. Beverly Perdue. Beasley began her career in 1999 in District Court.

Newby, a Republican, has served on the State Supreme Court since 2004, the longest serving. He was angry when Gov. Cooper chose Beasley to serve in the Chief Justice’s seat, feeling that he had the appropriate seniority for the post.

Prior to this election, Newby was the only Republican on the seven-member state Supreme Court.

Now he may be one of three Republicans on the court, given the victories by justices-elect Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr.

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ASHEVILLE POSTPONES 

REPARATIONS FUNDING VOTE

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

It made headlines last summer when the City Council of Asheville voted to adopt a resolution to provide $1 million in reparations funding to it’s African-American residents in various nondirect forms to address indignities and economic inequalities, past and present.

Now the western North Carolina city of 93,000  - 12% of which is black - has made headlines again, as that same City Council recently decided to postpone a vote on how best to implement that funding resolution.

According to Mayor Esther  Manheimer, the council is still committed to the reparations resolution and it’s intent, and this isn’t a stall, but rather a move “…to schedule a council work session with the new council to develop a road map for how to proceed with the implementation of the already adopted reparations resolutions.”

Mayor Manheimer maintained that the council “…remains unanimously supportive” of the reparations resolution, and that “funding would be taken up soon.”

One of the outgoing members of the Asheville City Council who won’t be part of those ongoing discussions is Councilman Keith Young, the original primary sponsor of the resolution. 

It was his vision, and the council agreed, that city investment was needed to help African-Americans who were descendants of slaves who settled in Asheville, to  foster generational wealth and other economic advancements, who previously faced funding disparities, and thus, were denied housing because of redlining and denial of mortgages. 

The state and federal governments would also serve as partners.

No direct cash settlements or deposits would be involved in the reparations program.

The only requirements to qualify for grants were bing a resident of Asheville for at least five years; be a registered voter and have a high school diploma or GED.

The new City Council is expected to take up the reparations resolution at it’s coming work session.

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