JoCo commissioner convicted of grooming child | "Disparate Impact" in Durham | UNC police foil terrorism celebrators
No. 93 — Oct. 6-Oct. 12, 2024
Helene
Need for donations and volunteers still strong two weeks after Helene - ABC11
Police from Triangle help with Hurricane Helene relief at Biltmore Village - WRAL
Wake Forest firefighter rescues, adopts dog found wandering after Helene - ABC11
Johnston County seeking applications to replace commissioner convicted of sex crime
Johnston County commissioner sentenced to prison for sex crimes - WRAL
Guilty: Johnston County Commissioner Sentenced To Prison - JoCo Report
From the Ballot Box to the Courthouse, A Season of Challenges for the Johnston County Republican Party - Brightleaf Bulletin
On Monday, a jury convicted Johnston County Commissioner Richard D. Braswell of taking indecent liberties with a child over a 13-year-old girl he was caught grooming in 2022; Braswell was then sentence to 20-33 months in prison as well as 30 years on the sex offender registry.
The Johnston County Board of Commissioners is now seeking a replacement for Braswell on the board; applicants must be residents of County Commissioner District 3, and members of the same political party (Braswell was elected as a Republican unopposed in 2022 just months after his arrest).
Another Johnston County Republican, School Board Member Ronald Johnson, is scheduled to go to trial in December on charges of extorting another Republican, Devan Barbour.
ICYMI: Durham to Lower Standards for Black Firefighters After DOJ Finds "Disparate Impact"
Settlement reached ‘to end discriminatory hiring practices’ at Durham Fire Department, USDOJ says - CBS17
Durham will pay $1M to firefighter applicants rejected by unintentionally racist test - N&O
Durham Fire to pay thousands to applicants after DOJ says test used was discriminatory - [ABC11](# Durham Fire to pay thousands to applicants after DOJ says test used was discriminatory)
Durham Fire Department’s writing test unintentionally disqualified some Black applicants, DOJ claims - WRAL
Reporting on stories like this, I am reminded of why I started publishing journalism independently; the mainstream media and I both have the same set of facts, yet the stories we publish could not be more different.
The TV outlets and the News & Observer are more than happy to take the Department of Justice's line without question and accept that the written exam used by the Durham Fire Department is "racist" merely because black applicants were more likely to pass.
I, on the other hand, am passingly familiar with the history of the theory of "Disparate Impact" as well some statistics and demographic facts.
Any test which correlates with cognitive ability, whether it's an IQ test or the 4th-grade-level reading and math questions in the Durham Fire Department's exam, will generally find that black Americans, on average, score lower than white Americans, who in turn tend to score lower than Asian-Americans.
The fact that the courts and the federal government consider a disparity in average scores to be "discrimination" or "racism" in practice means that any measure of cognitive ability in any hiring or promotion process is banned. Beyond that, the DOJ is even currently arguing that physical standards for police officers in South Bend, IN are illegal, as female applicants are less likely to pass.
Unlike the City of South Bend, who is fighting back against the DOJ's accusation of discrimination, the City of Durham rolled over and is performing the appropriate mea culpa and reparations by paying ~$1,000,000 to black applicants who failed the firefighter exam, and making 16 "priority hires" from this group with retroactive seniority and hiring bonuses.
For more details:
Pro-Palestine leftists celebrate anniversary of October 7th attacks with "Week of Resistance"
The UNC Students for Justice in Palestine is not happy that the UNC Police deployed in preparation for the the organization's planned "Week of Resistance" for the anniversary of the October 7th attacks one year ago, as if their activists are not responsible for numerous acts of vandalism and criminal activity over the past year:
However, in light of the police readiness, their activism this week was limited to acts like staging a silent walkout during UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts' inauguration, and building a box fort on the lawn: