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Welcome into the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. The Duke Law Journal is at the center of a controversy following recent revelations. The journal reportedly sent a confidential memo to minority applicants that offered tailored guidance on how to strengthen their personal statements. The memo suggested that if applicants discussed their membership of a, quote, unrepresented group, they would receive extra consideration for doing so.
The document reportedly was not distributed to all applicants, but only those that the administration identified as members of a so-called affinity group. The application process for the journal articles included writing a twelve page case note analysis of an appellate court decision. Additionally, those applicants are also required to submit a five hundred word personal statement. The Duke Law Journal claims to offer admissions on the basis of several components, reading directly from their website. One-third of the offers we extend, that would be admission into the law program, one-third of the offers we extend are based on grades alone.
One-third are based on the student scores in the case note competition, and one-third are based on a combination of the student's case note score, grade point average, and a 500-word personal statement equally weighted. The packet included the rubric used to grade personal statements as well as tips from a Duke Law Journal individual. The first bullet point under Tips for Personal Statements reads Discuss traditional diversity, race, gender, ethnicity, etc. The personal statement rubric said that if a student explaining how their membership in an unrepresented group could lend itself to promote diverse voices, they could earn up to 10 additional points. It also outlined that a student could earn an additional 3 to 5 points if they hold a leadership position in a so-called affinity group.
The packet includes examples of personal statements from previous students who were offered admission to the Duke Law Journal, all of which mentioned race, gender, and or national origin. Jeanette Doran, senior counsel for the John Locke Foundation, suggested that the memo could expose Duke University to potential liability under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which reads, No person in the United States on the ground of race, color, or national origin may be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. According to the law, any component of Duke University's education program must comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it receives federal funding. If the Duke Law Journal was found to have administered a racially preferenced admission process, well, then the university could face a federal investigation or even potentially a lawsuit. With Doran noting, the Supreme Court made it clear that people must be judged by their qualifications, not by immutable characteristics like race or sex, that they have no control over.
She also noted that this could in fact be a violation of the United States Constitution, saying this blatant disregard for the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act is especially egregious coming from student scholars at a premier law school. This controversy also arrives in the wake of a major United States Supreme Court decision back in 2023 known as Students for Fair Admission, SFFA versus Harvard and SFFA versus UNC. That was Chapel Hill. The case originated in 2014 when the Students for Fair Admission sued both universities. Both institutions were accused of discriminating against white and Asian students in their admission process and giving preferential treatment to black and Latino applicants.
The cases were combined in an attempt to curtail these practices in both public and private universities, with the nation's highest court deciding both cases together in a 6-3 decision. With opinions that spanned more than 237 pages, it concluded that both universities' admission programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
So now Duke University and the Duke Law Journal at the center of this controversy unfolding last week. We've got some additional details this morning, including some of the original documentation and links to these rubric packets and some of this discussion. It's over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. In some other statewide news this morning, a recent study by Coworkin Cafe highlights several North Carolina cities as top destinations for careers in science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM. Durham and Chapel Hill secured the first position among midsized metro areas, while the Raleigh and Charlotte metros ranked ninth and fourteenth among large metro areas.
This study conducted by Coworking Cafe is a management firm overseeing coworking spaces nationwide. It conducted the study using various metrics including job availability in STEM fields, cost of living, average income, and the number of doctoral degrees per 100,000 residents. Looking at the mid-size metro first, the Durham-Chapel Hill area topped the ranking for the mid-size metro areas across the United States, fueled by a 27% increase in STEM careers and a 14.5% growth in average annual salary, all of which resulted in an average salary of $102,000 plus dollars for the region. That area, of course, home to Duke University, who we were just talking about, and UNC Chapel Hill, far outpaces both Raleigh and Charlotte in doctorate density with 135 doctorate degrees per 100,000 residents. According to the study's author, growth in STEM isn't spread evenly across the United States as some metros are clearly doing more to attract and retain STEM talent, and that's where North Carolina stands out.
Both the Raleigh and Charlotte area qualify as large metro areas in the study. This is due to their populations exceeding 1 million residents. In the large metro category, Raleigh ranked fourth nationally in doctoral density with 32 doctorate holders per 100,000 residents. STEM professionals in Raleigh earned an average salary of $102 plus thousand dollars a year. That's up over almost 24% from 2019 to where this study looked at data from last year, placing the city 14th in salary growth.
In comparison, the national average salary grew by just 19% over the same period, positioning Raleigh well above that national benchmark. Raleigh also saw a 26.8% increase in STEM job opportunities from 2019 to 2024, ranking 14th nationally. And although slightly below the national average growth of 31%, Raleigh excelled in the density of STEM positions with 167 out of every 1,000 job being in the STEM fields. Charlotte also ranked high on the list, ranking 14th nationwide among large metro areas, experiencing a 28.8% increase in STEM jobs between 2019 and 2024, slightly higher than Raleigh's growth rate.
However, Charlotte's STEM job density was lower, with only 131 out of every 1,000 jobs in the field. The city also lagged in doctorial density, recording just four doctorate holders per 100,000 residents. Data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce supports Coworking Cafe's findings. In Wake County, which includes Raleigh, twenty three point eight percent of the workforce is employed in STEM careers, and the county's median household income of $103,000 closely aligns with that average STEM salary. Much of North Carolina's STEM activity centers around the Research Triangle Park area, strategically located between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
The area provides direct access to a thriving job market and serves as a key hub for science and technology in the state. With the CAFE study noting, the Raleigh-Durham area in particular has emerged as a STEM hub in its own right, which combined the strength of NC State, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill. The region supports a strong pipeline from education to high-paying employment. There are a lot more details on this co-working CAFE study. You can get those details this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
The headline on that story: North Carolina cities rank among top STEM hubs in the nation. It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Surging pharmaceutical imports and front-loaded shipments driven by tariff fears are reshaping North Carolina's trade landscape as experts and analysts warn that escalating uncertainty in global trade policy is leaving businesses too anxious to plan ahead. Mike Hubbard, who is the Director of International Trade for the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, that's EDPNC, emphasized that people are nervous and companies are nervous regarding the trade and tariff situation due to the instability and uncertainty of the trade climate.
He noted that people don't like uncertainty. It's unpredictable. They want to know at least what's going to happen, even if the outlook is a rough economy or a rough situation. You can at least plan for that. It's the uncertainty that has people nervous and they're afraid to make long-term plans until we know the direction that it is going.
So it's kind of a touch and go situation for a lot of companies right now while they try and figure it out. Data from EDPNC shows a significant rise in imports between the months of January and May of this year as compared to the same period last year. Joseph Harris, a fiscal policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, said through May 2025, North Carolina imports have surged by 40%. rising from $3.38 billion to more than $47.3 billion compared to the same period last year. Harris noted that most of the growth occurred from January to March as firms front-loaded shipments in anticipation for proposed tariffs.
Monthly year-over-year increases were striking, up 73% in January, 64% in February, and 70% in the month of March. North Carolina is the home to several large chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, including Albemarle Corporation, BASF, Dow, DuPont, and others. And this is consistent with North Carolina's economy, which is conducive to business. Just last week, North Carolina was named the number one state for business by CNBC, and that's well not the first time. The state was also the number one state for business in 2022 and 2023 and came in second place in 21 and 24.
According to Joshua Harris, he says pharmaceuticals accounted for the lion's share of this increase, with imports jumping 148% from $6.4 billion to more than $15.8 billion, comprising over 70% of the total import growth. The spike coincided with news of a proposed 200 percent increase on pharmaceutical products earlier this year. The monthly year-over-year increases were especially dramatic, 431% in January, 255% in February, and 275% in March. Mike Hubbard with EDPNC told the Carolina Journal that North Carolina drug manufacturer imports the most from Ireland, which has been the largest importer for well over a year. saying three countries, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands drove much of the pharmaceutical growth, all are top global exporters in that sector and each saw massive growth in early twenty twenty five.
Imports from Germany rose by more than 149% through May. Ireland, the number was 68%, and the Netherlands, a whopping 157%, with individual months showing even more extreme jumps, such as a 796% year-over-year growth from the Netherlands in terms of imports in the month of March. Additionally, through May, organic chemical imports increased by as much as 25% compared to last year, with a 64% increase year over year in January, a 42% increase in February, and the highest increase at 108% in the month of May. We have continued keeping you up to date and walking you through the tariff situation and some of those impacts on North Carolina's economy. The latest details this morning on the pharmaceutical industry, you can get some additional details by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
In some other news this morning, farmers hit by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can now apply for a share of $16 billion in federal relief, with the supplemental disaster relief program opening to applicants on July the 9th. A press release from Brooke Rollins, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reads, American farmers are no stranger to natural disasters. Those can cause losses and leave no region or crop unscathed. Under President Trump's leadership, USDA has worked around the clock to deliver this relief directly to our farmers.
We are taking swift action to ensure farmers will have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest and most reliable and most abundant food supply in the world. seeking swift action on disaster relief, a North Carolina congressional delegation and their congressional colleague sent a letter to Rollins back on march the tenth, pressing her to accelerate the rulemaking process for federal crop loss aid. On March 27th, Senator Ted Budd sent a letter in partnership with Senator Janine Shaheen, the Democrat out of New Hampshire, urging Brooke Rollins to expedite the distribution of federal dollars that Congress allocated in December of last year to assist ranchers, farmers, and rural Americans who suffered from natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. Senator Budd said in a press release, our farmers are the lifeblood of our nation, sustaining our communities and our economy. When severe weather events like Hurricane Helene and drought struck North Carolina last year, it devastated our crops and shattered countless livelihoods.
Unfortunately, this tragic pattern repeats itself whenever major natural disasters strike. Without swift disaster relief, agricultural producers will face the stark reality of downsizing or closing their operations altogether. That is why I am deeply grateful to the Trump administration for ensuring this critical aid reaches our farmers in North Carolina and across the country. helping them recover and continue feeding America. In May, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a comprehensive plan to distribute this year thirty billion dollars appropriated by Congress to farmers and ranchers.
The SDPR is included in Rowlands' comprehensive plan. That provides financial assistance to eligible producers facing losses in revenue, crop quality, or production caused by weather-related events in the calendar years 2023 and 2024. The USDA's Farm Service Agency distributes this aid in two phases depending on the nature and timing of their losses. Producers may even qualify for payments in both phases and for either or both years. We've got some additional details on that story this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
The headline, USDA opens applications for natural disaster relief for farmers. It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Monday morning to you.
Business news was all the rage in North Carolina last week, as for the third time in four years, the state did place number one in CNBC's top state for business across the United States. There was some discussion of business at last week's Council of State meeting as well to walk us through some of those details. Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, I guess it would be important to start kind of overall, regardless of some of the minutiae and some of these smaller details. Business seems to be pretty good here in North Carolina.
Yeah, good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me. Business is definitely booming here in the Tar Hill State. I mentioned to start it all off with the big announcement from CNBC that North Carolina was America's top state for business in 2025. That's a great honor.
They've had that honor for last couple of years. I think the one year we missed the top, but it's as you say, it's always nice to be back on top. And at the Council of State meeting, you know, you said Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, she mentioned that the state Set a record for new business creations in May, over 17,000 new businesses. That's the second highest ever recorded, right behind June 2021, which was in the middle of the pandemic.
So both numbers are just, you know, Awesome news for the state. And that year in 2021, it set a record for 178,300 businesses created.
So I'll wait and see how 2025 shakes out. But she wanted to stress one thing too. It's especially great news because the first quarter of this year was really slow, and business creations, new business creations in the 30-county western region, were actually slightly better than statewide numbers.
So, you know, for everything that happened last year with Helene, that was something worth noting as well. You know, and it's obviously, Teresa, when we look at this number, 17,000 plus in the month of May, that is a very large number. But, you know, I'm sure a vast majority of these businesses are single individual sole proprietorships. They're not employing dozens, if not hundreds, of individuals. Again, not to take anything away from that number.
But as you pointed out, it was a record going back at least four years here, almost four years in North Carolina.
So, as the Secretary of State, whose office is responsible for those business licenses, that's a phenomenal number. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And you're right. I imagine a good chunk of those are sole proprietorships.
So but still, it's still the numbers still count.
So yeah, that's awesome news, and it's great news for the state. The governor also made has talked about some of the big time business deals that he says he's been able to ink. He talked about this with CNBC last week, the day that they made the announcement that the state was the number one for business. One of them that we have talked about in the past is Jet Zero. Yes, yeah.
Jet Zero, which is going to be locating or launching its first manufacturing plant at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, it's expected to have about over 14,000 jobs by 2036. That's huge. And what Jet Zero is, it's an aerospace startup pioneering the development of the Z4, which is a revolutionary blended wing body jet. Very, very high-tech stuff. It's a great announcement for the state.
And Governor Stein said this is where they thought they have their best chance. And he said, it's mainly because of our people. And he said they weren't done and announcing new jobs coming to the state. He said there were plenty more announcements, including there were two last week: Citigroup and also Asset Mark, both located in the Charlotte area. Citigroup said they would be adding an additional 510 jobs in the Area Asset Mark, which is a leading wealth management platform for financial advisors, rather, they're supposed to be adding 252 jobs for the Charlotte area.
And those jobs have really good salaries as well. And both those jobs were. Being due in part coming to the area for from a J Dick grant. And what J Day grants is a job development investment grant that the state. And also sometimes local governments like the counties or the cities give these incentives to companies locating to locate their businesses or add more jobs to their businesses in the area.
We've talked about these J Dig grants in the past and on some of that encouraging news, those major financial firms expanding in the Charlotte metro area. Another company that did receive some J Dig grant incentives known as Q2 Solutions, Teresa. Unfortunately, plans falling through on their side. Yes, yes, definitely, unfortunately.
So, we have the other side of the coin. This announcement also came last week, Q2, which is a subsidiary of IQVI. They told the state that they can't hold up their end of the bargain, that they were supposed to create 750 jobs over seven years and invest $84 million into operations. And there were separate JDID grants that they were going to be. You know.
Recipients of, and also Durham County was also providing over $950,000 over seven years. Again, this is all if the performance criteria was achieved. Should mention there is a stipulation they don't get any of this money unless they do hold up their end of the bargain, creating the jobs and investing that money. But a lot of investment goes on to the state side as well, or rather, that they're going to be bringing all this money to the state. But as you mentioned, JDIG grants don't have a good track record.
We've seen several of these agreements fall through over the last few years, you know, and it's like, well, you know, North Carolina is the top state for business. It's got it all. It's got, you know, just everything's great. We've got the corporate income tax and it's going to be zeroed out thanks to the General Assembly, the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
So why would you need such a big incentive grant? But then again, you know, Companies are getting used to them. They're kind of expecting it, but they don't have a great track record because this always seems to happen. It's like one week you have a great announcement, all these jobs are supposed to be coming. The next week, well, this company can't fulfill its agreement, so the deal's off.
Well, and I want to highlight the timeline on this, Teresa, because I think it's pretty relevant when we talk about this Q2 solutions, this clinical trial lab service company. This JDIG agreement was from 2019, and it took them all the way until last week to determine that they weren't going to be able to meet those goals.
So, obviously, this has been a long time coming for this company.
Meanwhile, the hype and the expectation was obviously that they were going to meet that threshold and meet some of those requirements to be eligible.
Now, that's not happened, but it took almost six years to figure it out. Right, right.
So again, they were supposed to create seven hundred fifty jobs over seven years.
So so far, Q two only added one hundred and seventy nine jobs and retained two hundred and seventy three employees through the first grant.
So yeah, it took them that long.
So You know, no, no, no, like you just said, they just don't have a great track record at all. Teresa, we've got details on all of the announcements that we talked about this morning, Jet Zero, some of the financial investments in Charlotte and, of course, this Q two solutions and some backstory on J Dig. Where can folks get those details? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. Teresa Opeka joins us this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Good morning again. It's 5:51. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Recapping one of our stories this morning. At the end of the finals period, each May, the Duke Law Journal hosts a two-week-long competition to select its next crop of editors.
Applicants write a 12-page memo analyzing an appellate court decision, as well as a 500-word essay about why they would and how they would, in fact, contribute to the journal. Students are chosen based on their grades, case note analysis, and personal statements, with less than 20% of the class making it in to the law review, which is overseen by the Duke Law School. To help students prepare for the competition, the journal circulates a guide on how to write the case notes. Last year, however, it decided to give some students an additional document. In a packet prepared for the law school's affinity groups, the journal instructed minority students to highlight their race and gender as part of their personal statements and revealed that they could earn extra points for doing so.
The packet included a rubric used to evaluate personal statements. Applicants could earn up to 10 points for explaining how their membership in an unrepresented group will lend itself to promoting diverse voices, with an additional three to five points if they held some sort of leadership position in one of those affinity groups. To drive home the point, the packet included four examples of personal statements that had gotten students on the law on the Duke Law Review. Three of those statements referenced race in the first sentence, with one student boasting, as an Asian American woman and a daughter of immigrants, I am afforded with different perspectives, experiences, and privileges. A fourth student waiting until the last paragraph to disclose that she was a quote Middle Eastern Jewish woman with an intersectional identity that she said would help prove useful.
in a collaborative environment. What is drawing some controversy this morning is that the packet was only distributed to those affinity groups according to those familiar with the matter, which meant that minority students had access to inside information about the scoring process. The journal explicitly told those groups not to share the packets with other students according to multiple messages that were reviewed. And it indicated on the first page that it had been made for those various affinity groups. When the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in 2023, it said that colleges and universities could not use essays as a Trojan horse for racial preferences.
However, the documents from Duke illustrate how a top law review has skirted the directive, creating a points-based system that foregrounds race and could put the law school in legal jeopardy. According to Details that we have got over on our website this morning, a CarolinaJournal.com. Jeanette Doran, the senior counsel for the John Locke Foundation, suggested that the memo could expose Duke University to potential liability under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which reads: No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. According to the law, any component of Duke University's educational programs must comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it receives federal funding. If the Duke Law Journal was found to have administered a racially preferenced admission process, the university could face a federal investigation.
or potentially a lawsuit, with Jeanette Doran noting that the Supreme Court made it clear that people must be judged on their qualifications, not by immutable characteristics like race or sex that they have absolutely no control over. noting that this blacant uh blatant disregard for the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act is especially egregious coming from student scholars at a premier law school. This controversy, again, going back to the 2023 landmark Supreme Court decision, students for fair admission, SFFA versus Harvard and UNC. The case originated in 2014 when the students for fair admission sued both Harvard and UNC. Those institutions were accused of discriminating against white and Asian students in their admission process and giving preferential treatment to black and Latino applicants.
The cases were combined in an attempt to curtail these practices in both public and private universities, with the nation's highest court deciding both cases together in a six to three decision. With opinions that span more than 237 pages, it concluded that both universities' admission programs violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
So, as we look at some of these details out of the Duke Law Journal this morning, drawing some pretty heavy controversy online, obviously, one of the schools in that major United States Supreme Court decision back a couple of years ago did span here in the state of North Carolina with the students for fair admission taking some of that legal action against UNC Chapel Hill. We've got some additional details this morning on that story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it. It for a Monday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.
