EDGECOMBE COUNTY N.C. (WITN) - Congressman G.K. Butterfield spoke to crowds at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church and online to address continuing struggles affecting communities in the East.
Speakers for the Edgecombe-Nash Political Caucus and Butterfield called for attention on the controversial redrawing of congressional and legislative maps for the state. “My question to each and every one of you is how will you step up to the plate?” recited Dr. Daniel Bullock, Durham Public School’s first Executive Director for Equity Affairs. Butterfield titles his address “The Struggle Continues” and he spoke to the hardships of the Reconstruction Era and Civil Rights Movement, drawing connections to struggles felt by North Carolinians today. “The Voting Rights Act has transformed the South. It has transformed Edgecombe, Nash County, Martin County, Wilson County, it has transformed the South,” said Butterfield. “What we are seeing now, in North Carolina and across the county, is not new. It is the same medicine in a different bottle.” With lawsuits in action against the new district lines, state senator Toby Fitch reminded those listening to think of what is at stake with each election. “We have a sizable part of this population,” said Fitch, “but the census today determines how much money comes into your community, how many representatives you may have. So, we need to become equal partners in this thing called the government of the United States of America.” Eyes turn now to the Wake County Superior Court where, beginning Monday, a three-judge panel will hear a case challenging the state’s legislative and congressional maps.
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GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - G.K. Butterfield has been an influential leader in North Carolina for decades.
In 2004, he joined the United States House of Representatives. And Thursday, Butterfield announced he will not be running for reelection for his seat in the House and instead, retire from his role next year. Butterfield says he made the decision in order to “allow the torch to be passed to someone that shares the values of the district.” He also took aim at congressional redistricting recently passed by the General Assembly’s Republican majority as a reason for not running. “The map recently enacted by the legislature is a partisan map. It’s racially gerrymandered,” Butterfield said in his announcement video. "It will disadvantage African-American communities, all across the 1st Congressional District. I am disappointed, terribly disappointed with the Republican-controlled legislature.” What was once a predominantly blue district encompassing the northeastern area of North Carolina (except for the coastal region) has now been redrawn to include the coast. Consequently, the area that has often leaned left is now likely to go the other way. Still, Eastern Carolina leaders shared their well wishes for the representative in the next chapter of his life. “We wish him the best of luck, thank him for all of his service,” Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly said. “He’s done a lot of things for the City of Greenville, including the G.K. Butterfield Transportation Center that we have downtown. We are extremely thankful for everything that he has done over these long years.” North Carolina Representative Kandie Smith said she looks to Butterfield as an example of strong leadership for all residents. “He’s a historian. He’s not afraid to speak up,” Smith said. “That’s the type of leader that we need and that’s the kind of leader that I try to model myself to be.” Local leaders have not been quick to throw their hat into the ring for the newly available seat, so the question of who is considering the opportunity remains. Mayor Connelly, Rep. Smith, and North Carolina Sen. Toby Finch have all confirmed that they will not be considering a run. The spotlight is now on other local leaders, like North Carolina Sen. Don Davis, who has been speculated to make an announcement to run for the position soon. Rep. Smith says whoever the replacement is needs to be willing to be a fighter for the people of Eastern North Carolina.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - As the nation learned of Gen. Colin Powell’s death from COVID-19 complications, an unexpected spotlight has shone on vaccine effectiveness.
Dr. Paul Cook, an infectious disease expert with the Brody School of Medicine, says Powell’s death is not a testament to vaccine efficacy, but rather of older age and comorbidities increasing the risk of death in compromised patients. “He had two things working against him,” said Dr. Cook. “Number one, he was 84 years old, and we know that elderly people don’t respond to the vaccine as well as younger people. Probably more important though is that he had multiple myeloma, which is a form of cancer.” Cancer attacked Powell’s plasma cells and left his body’s immune system severely compromised. He was supposed to get his booster vaccine shot last week, but fell too ill to receive it. Dr. Cook says though General Powell’s death is unfortunate, it was not unexpected. “Breakthrough cases were not unanticipated at all,” said Dr. Cook. “Any vaccine that we have on the market now is not perfect.” In comparison to other vaccines in use, like the flu vaccine, Dr. Cook says the COVID-19 vaccine is actually much more effective. He encourages anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so. This is a sentiment Congressman G.K. Butterfield echoes for his constituents. “What we see with General Powell is an example of what can happen,” said Butterfield. “So, I encourage all of my constituents to get fully vaccinated and let’s follow the guidelines so it will not happen to us as it happened to General Powell.” Butterfield knew Powell personally and referred to him as an extraordinary leader. “General Powell just devoted everything that he had to keeping America safe and keeping America great,” said Butterfield. The Powell family shared a message of gratitude to the staff of Walter Reed National Medical Center, where General Powell received treatment. They wrote, “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.” Flags have been ordered to fly at half-staff in General Powell’s honor. As the nation’s first black secretary of state and a decorated veteran, his legacy is remembered by all.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Congressman Greg Murphy brought together local government leaders and environmental science experts to hear about current threats to the east’s coastal regions and plan for possible outcomes.
The conference was the first meeting of what will become an annual convergence on the topic. “The fact that we have all of the representation... county commissioners, our legislatures at the state, our congressional representatives... in one room, listening, and hopefully acting on what we’re doing, it doesn’t happen very often,” Dr. Reide Corbett, dean and professor of ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs said. “I’m thrilled to be a part of it.” Corbett presented to the summit attendees on rising sea level threats and how active legislation needs to be custom-fit to the needs of each area. “We need to look at it spatially and across different time scales,” said Corbett. The event was hosted by Congressman Murphy. He said there is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to tackling coastal conservation, but there is a need to act soon to save our waterways from further damage. “We brought together, really, a brain trust of people to identify the problem and deal with it and then implement plans to take care of things in the future that deal with flooding and waterway management.” Congressman Greg MurphyNext, Murphy says there will need to be policy sessions, meetings with environmental agencies, and hard decisions made in the best interests of our coastal areas. “This is about learning and learning from each other and learning from a lot of smart people in the room, but it can’t end today,” said Murphy. “It has to end up with legislation. It has to end up with policies. It has to end up actually affecting the way that we live in Eastern North Carolina.” With an emphasis on human intervention to climate-driven disasters, the summit hopes to spark changes from which the communities along the Eastern shore of North Carolina can benefit.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The city of Greenville has proposed a plan to spend the $24.7 million it is receiving from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.
The largest portion of allocated funds sits at $22.6 million with the intended use of enhancing entertainment and recreation activities in the city. This will include improvements to Guy Smith Stadium, the 2016 Town Common Master Plan, the expansion of Thomas Foreman Park, and a trail connection between Town Common and Wildwood. Some in the community have taken to Facebook to share their opinions on the spending plan. Pam Etheridge is a Greenville resident and moderator of the Greenville, NC/Pitt County Moms Facebook group. Yesterday she shared the city’s post about its allocation plans and scheduled a Zoom session across a few platforms to get people talking. “Our voices needed to be heard because it kind of felt like we were an afterthought, that a proposal was already made by the city,” said Etheridge. In her opinion, these “pet projects” can wait and the funds would be better served directly supporting the communities hit hardest by COVID-19. “That’s not bringing any help to our impoverished community, the people most affected by COVID,” said Etheridge. “Most of those are people of color and women. We need more money because we need more jobs here.” Etheridge has personal experience working hard to make ends meet for her family. She says she’s had to stretch $40 a week for food and gas for her and her 5-year-old and that struggle is difficult to manage. “Do I think some of the money should be going to these things? Yes,” she explains. “But we need to be doing common sense spending.” Greenville Assistant City Manager Michael Cowin presented the allocation plan to the council earlier this month. He said there are additional dollars being spent that will directly impact marginalized communities in the area. “There’s a lot of funding for the community that may not have been clarified in the post that was on Facebook,” said Cowin. “That will be explained as part of the public input sessions tomorrow night.” Cowin said that explanation comes with a budget of $2 million for home funding from the federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. “Those dollars will be going directly towards an affordable housing project for those that are either at risk of homeless[ness] or are homeless,” said Cowin. “We also have dollars that are going to street improvements.” The Zoom public input session will be the first in a series of community engagement activities to gain support and input on the funding. “The first one is on Zoom tomorrow evening and then we’ll be holding two live input sessions in the month of October so that we can start to prep for providing more input to council at its October workshop,” explained Cowin. “Hopefully the council will be in a position in November to actually consider the adoption of the plan.” The event will be held virtually on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, from 5-7 p.m. Those interested can register at this link.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The North Carolina General Assembly is over ten weeks late on producing a fiscal year budget.
For community health providers like Trillium Health Resources in Greenville, this delay does not instill confidence of an abundance of state-funded services. In fact, Trillium leaders are dealing with a potential budget cut of over $5 million for this year. They will need to dial back expenditures by October 1st, which is less than 3 weeks away. Trillium provides mental health, developmental disability, and substance abuse services for several counties across Eastern North Carolina. Many of its patients rely on state funding to receive their therapies, medications, and other services. Trillium has floated the offset of funding for over two years now. It tapped into more than $13 million of its savings between July 2019 and June 2020. This past year, Trillium spent $4 million more than it was given. The service can no longer operate off of its savings. “This is about taking care of North Carolinians, right?” asked Trillium executive Cindy Ehlers. “It’s about taking care of people and without that expansion, we’re not taking care of our people. If we’re focused on people, Medicaid expansion is a no-brainer. But we’re not focused on people, we’re focused on politics and the people are the ones that suffer.” She says that these politically-fueled budget decisions will have serious effects on actual lives in the community. In her 25 years of providing service, she has never seen a worse time to sustain another budget cut without any kind of expansion. Ehlers said the COVID-19 pandemic has left so many with feelings of anxiety, depression, and isolation which fuels a rise in mental health crises and substance abuse. “We have the highest rates of suicide we’ve ever had right now. This pandemic has caused more people to have anxiety and depression than we’ve ever seen and a lot more substance use, whether it’s alcohol or opioids. I have zero confidence that this will turn around.” For Jaac and Jill Afterschool Program Owner Christie Leary, the effects of budget cuts will be felt firsthand. “If those kids are not able to get services, then they come to us not knowing how to handle the depression because they didn’t get to see their therapist today,” said Leary. When asked what she would say to the North Carolina General Assembly that is deciding on this budget, Leary responded, “Step out of your position and into normalcy as a regular parent with children who need these services and decide from that standpoint.” Trillium Health Resources has reached out to its stakeholders for guidance on how to manage this funding cut. Trillium and its leaders want the community to know that they hear their frustrations and wish there was something else they could do. Anyone experiencing a crisis should call 911 immediately to receive the help they deserve. |
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