North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 02/11/1997

The do you think that during ally the governor would outline is this state a mistake. Tonight on the west Carolina now. A pleasant Tuesday evening everyone I'm reading much right welcomes in North Carolina now on tonight's program we'll talk investment strategies with a representative of a newsletter targeting African-American investors. Also tonight Bob Garner examines the current problems plaguing the Division of Motor Vehicles.

And Mitchell Lewis will take us to the Folk Art Center near Asheville where an exquisite collection of African-American quilts is on display. But first tonight Governor Hunt outlines his vision for North Carolina. During his State of the state address the governor made sure there is no question about it. Education is the top item on his agenda for this term and Hans addressed to the General Assembly and all North Carolinians earlier today he reaffirmed his commitment to the early education initiative smart start. Hunt says it's going to take all of us to reach his goal of having the program in place in each of North Carolina's 100 counties by the year 2000. That's what we can do is get state and local governments working together churches and businesses and community groups and health care providers all working together to meet the needs of children meet the needs of children in your community and in mine.

What we can do is put more public and private resources into those critical earliest years and that's what smart Stuart Governor Hunt also introduced a new education initiative called the excellence schools act in a show of bipartisan support Republican House speaker Harold Baker and Democratic Senate leader Mark bass and I will co-sponsor that bill. The plan focuses on higher teaching and academic standards as well as workforce training and improved technology in our schools and other state government news revelations have recently surfaced indicating that North Carolina has been failing to enforce its program to reduce the amount of air pollution coming from automobiles as a result. Colonel A.L. Filton head of the enforcement section of the Division of Motor Vehicles or DMV has announced he will retire at the end of February. Felton head of the department's troubled emissions inspection program and his resignation follows the

recent appointment of a new motor vehicles commissioner Janice Faulkner. Bob Gardner has more now on the story. The DMV is accused of doing fewer than half the undercover investigations of inspection stations that had promised federal regulators it would do and ultimately stopping undercover inspections completely. What's more when the NBA is caught stations performing improper inspections it is often ended up either reducing or reversing the penalties when station owners ask for a hearing. Drivers in nine of the state's most urban counties must now have their car emissions systems inspected to make sure they meet federal air pollution standards. It's done as part of the annual safety inspection program required throughout the state. And it's an approach to reducing air pollution that some officials say could eventually be replaced with something else. The alternative to making the emissions testing program work is for motorists in the nine affected counties to have to purchase more expensive cleaner burning

gasoline. But Governor Hyatt and DMV officials say they're not going to let that happen. After learning of the problems with DMV governor Hart appointed troubleshooter Janice Faulkner who recently helped straighten out the secretary of state's office as the new motor vehicles commissioner. We have no choice except to make this thing work and to make it work. Now we've had some false starts. So we've had some lapses. I think that right now as a meeting with the emissions inspectors and the guidelines and the reinstatement of the end of cover inspection that we're well on the way to addressing those that will be in full compliance very shortly hopefully. In the past the emissions program's top two officials have not agreed on how the program ought to be run or even who's supposed to have been in charge as a result of divided leadership stations that have their licenses suspended have generally been able to have them quickly reinstated by appealing to one particular hearing officer.

But the Holton son's garage in eight packs was assigned a different hearing officer and its suspension was up held. From what I hear I don't have a ship from what I hear. You know they don't. Same thing with the same people they are. They did give us a strict family for the one violation we had which first only had 15 years which was missing a callet converter and I was the one who missed a converter. So you know but I've heard that the other stations had done the same thing got a lesser penalty which they took out six months that I was on fire. Holt says the result is uneven enforcement of a very costly penalty of a Pier 6 mostly power loss about twenty five thousand dollars in mining just from the one side inspection sale plus having to send a customer somewhere to get it. So does it get dismissed. Dietrich cotch of Raleigh is selling his business which unlike most stations was exclusively devoted to inspections such as had to license suspensions. He says he's an active environmentalist and that the state can't reduce air pollution from cars

without the inspection stations but he feels the state takes the wrong approach with station owners a training program that they have that the NBA provides for inspectors is so rudimentary and it leaves so many possibilities for. Poor performance after an inspector leaves the school. That and there's almost no follow up. But the inspector is expected to be perfect from the time he leaves the schooling. Koch also complains that as things now stand when a station is found to be in violation its license is suspended immediately without a hearing. Be commissioner Faulkner acknowledges that problem. There is concern about an immediate suspension that imposes closure of the business upon it as a penalty without due process for hearing and there is a provision in the bill nail that if you are found to be doing a faulty inspection that you were notified on the spot that you have the right to a hearing within three

days. There is a call here to DMV to arrange that here in and you're told when it will be and where Dietrich cotch says that is the only shortcoming he thinks the level at which cars can pass the emissions test is too low. It would be a relatively simple matter to make the test a little more demanding to make the pass fail point a little bit lower. Because as I say right now modern cars that are running normally correctly with plenty of leeway for error still pass the test by such a significant margin. Then it's pretty easy to see that by making the pass fail point lower you will just automatically nab more cars that are marginal polluters. In fact an alliance of business and environmental leaders is now urging the state to consider expanding its emissions testing program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed Richter air pollution standards. The state admits 22 of 29

counties it tested would meet the proposed higher standards of the business and environmental leaders say North Carolina ought to expand emissions testing to more counties rather than to fall behind in the battle to curb air pollution. State officials including Commissioner Faulkner and David Marocco the chairman of the state Environmental Management Commission have generally responded favorably to the expansion proposal from the private sector. They say however it may be difficult to get it approved by the General Assembly. Well still ahead on North Carolina now stock tips for African-Americans. Right now though it's time for statewide news update with Michel Louis. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Marina. Good evening everyone. The decision to delay new coastal fishing regulations tops our news this evening. In a seven to six vote the Joint Legislative Commission on seafood in aqua culture rejected a package of proposals that would have affected both commercial and recreational fisherman. Legislators voting against the package cite a report calling the Division of Marine Fisheries mismanaged. Lawmakers say they'll reconsider the new

regulations when the Fisheries Division improves. Governor Hunt today vowed to make that happen. Supporters of the proposed regulations say the state is missing an opportunity to avoid the kind of fishing industry collapse that has crippled other parts of the Eastern Seaboard. State legislators must now decide what to do next about the repealed intend to tax the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled the state does not have to refund money collected under the tax. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the tax unconstitutional last year after the legislature repealed it. But in a 4 3 decision. North Carolina's high court ruled that what makes the tax unconstitutional is an exemption granted to stockholders in North Carolina companies. Since that break is now gone. The court says the tax should be applied retroactively to all stock holdings. But the court left it up to the general assembly whether to Bill stockholders in North Carolina corporations for the same taxes collected from stockholders and out of state companies. A state audit finds North Carolina's worker's compensation system plagued with problems.

Auditors say the definition officials use to determine whether cases are behind schedule is too broad resulting in inflated reports of backlog auditors also file the commission and the commission's statistical data unreliable because of the faulty reporting. The chairman of the Commission acknowledges the problems. The Charlotte city council is authorizing plans with a city manager to begin talks with corporate leaders to build a downtown arena. Officials want to reduce the public cost of the arena. That would be primarily used by the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets say they need a new arena with more luxury seating to remain competitive in the NBA. Charlotte business leaders want the public to chip in fifty eight million dollars toward a one hundred ninety two million dollar complex. The Council has set a March 24th deadline to decide whether to build a new arena. North Carolina's historically black colleges are retaining their popularity despite efforts to recruit blacks at predominantly white schools. The Greensboro News and Record reports nearly 60 percent of black North Carolinians who attend a USC School opt for one of

the five black colleges in the system. That figure has remained steady for the past decade. Many of the students say historically black colleges and universities provide them with encouragement and attention not found at other schools. Milder temperatures are on the way tomorrow. Most of the state will range from the upper 40s to the low 50s and will stay in the upper 30s. Our mountain areas will see skies becoming mostly cloudy while the rest of the state will only have partly cloudy skies. And today's business news a new leader will pilot Midway Airlines through its financial turbulence. The former chief executive officer of Continental Airlines Robert Ferguson has been tapped as the new president and CEO of Midway the Durum based airlines also announcing the completion of a 22 million dollar deal headed by SAS Institute owner James goodnight. The investment makes goodnight and his associates the controlling shareholders of the airline Midway is the busiest airline serving Raleigh-Durham International Airport. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today.

Sticking now with the topic of stock markets our guest tonight is here to talk about Wall Street Wise a financial publication which specifically targets the African-American investor

Robert Lancaster is the director of marketing and research for Wall Street Weiss. Mr. Lancaster Welcome to North Carolina now. Thank you. Tell me about your publication what's its focus. While she wires is actually an investment organization whose mission is to educate minorities and women about the benefits of investing in the stock market. I'm interested in this focus on the African-American investor isn't a good stock tip but a good stock tip regardless of whether it's big it being given to an African-American person or a white person. Well fundamental investment advice that is sound is good for everyone. And our readers come from all walks of life. But historically women and minorities have been under represented as individual investors in the stock market. So we tend to focus a portion of our articles and recommendations toward areas that may be of particular interest to them. For example the cover story on our current issue is in title racism and the lack thereof and equity

investing and what we're getting at there is that when it comes to the stock market there truly is no racism or discrimination. If you buy a stock in a publicly traded company and it goes up it goes up for all the owners of that stock. And likewise if it goes down it goes down for all the owners of their stock so there is no racism in our opinion the only color that the stock market recognizes is green. I read that article that you were talking about I really liked that quote. Give me some. Maybe a specific example of why the stock market is a place that is void of racism and possibly some other avenues of investment that African Americans maybe in the past or currently have problems with because of the racism factor. Well I give you a good example would be real estate. If you heard of redlining where an minority may go to a certain area trying to purchase a piece of real estate either as a primary residence or as an investor and he's not able to get the financing for that or a relative or may not take

him due to that particular rule of hers small minor prejudices to a particular area that may be quite good for an investment. OK so therefore he's not really able to take advantage of the real estate market from a level playing field point of view whereas with the stock market you can just call up any broker and buy any stock that publicly traded. There is a lot of stigma attached to it and that possibly people who are not normally used to investing in the stock market might be a little bit frightened of it particularly people that I include myself in this category that maybe have the more moderate income where there's not a lot of extra money left over to invest is the stock market a good place for that or probably something a little bit more conservative would be better. I think the stock market is a good place for that. There are conservative stocks their growth stocks and their aggressive stocks. So depending on what your investment personality is you'd have to find a stock that fits your situation best. There is a myth that

the stock market is for the rich or for people that have a lot of credentials after their name. But nothing could be further from the truth. The stock. Mark it is not rocket science. It's just you have to be disciplined and diligent in doing your studies and your research and all in all it's one of the fairest games in town. Do you address that hesitancy that people may have in investing in the stock market in your newsletter. We address it from the education point of view we stress education and we stress that being a part of an investment club learning together. We support investment clubs very strongly and the reason is that typically they meet monthly which gives you a forum for learning and research. And you may know what a p e is and I may know what the term data represents. And we can share that information and transfer it to all the members and I group and we all learn that much quicker. It also most of you have to invest money on a monthly basis. The average investments about $35 per month and some clubs even go down as low as $10 a month.

So you would be surprised that what a little some over time over a long period of time will amount to. For example two hundred twenty five dollars invested and with dividends reinvested in 1965 at McDonald's in 1995 was worth nearly $100000. It's hard to find those McDonald's stock tips somewhere. That's true but what you can do is think about instead of buying a little Audrey a toy buy her some stock and she may not thank you today but 30 years from now she may think you $96000. Wow. We're not only talking though about direct investment in the stock market though you're talking possibly about other avenues as far as mutual funds and whatnot that also invest in the stock market. Yes we are proponents of individual equities but we do realize where other investments that should play a part in your portfolio and mutual funds are one of them. And for example the last still last two years two out of three mutual fund managers have not beat the S&P which is

the S&P 500 which is the benchmark for successful investing. And so we feel as though if you're going to pay a management fee and a load for a mutual fund then you should be getting a return for that money. And if they cannot beat the benchmark then really what kind of what are you paying for what kind of service are you truly receiving. So we think that by owning and doing your own research and owning individual equities that portion of your portfolio. If if you do your homework correctly you know will probably go up I mean the market goes up and down but it goes up and down in a northeasterly direction. So over time you you're bound to make money. You need to stay in it for the long. You have to stay in it for the long haul. I think that investors think that the stock market is a get rich quick scheme. But that's truly not what it's about it's about buying quality companies that provide a quality service for products that have strong management that have a history of growing earnings and sales and that you can buy inexpensive relative to the future earnings and sales you think they're going to have. And then holding on to them.

All right well Mr. Lancaster we're out of time but I want to thank you very much for being here tonight. Well thank you so much for having me. But. In celebration of Black History Month the folk art center near Asheville is displaying an exhibit of quilts created by African-American artists. We take you there and this piece produced by Bill Hannah and narrated by Michel Louis art center celebrates the art of African-American quilters with an exhibit of 20 quilts and artifacts traces the quilt designs back to their many influences. The

boldness of African textile designs a strong tradition of storytelling and the technical ideas borrowed from Euro-American quilting tradition. This is a traditional West African strip waving that you're looking at and a small worm that would have been used by a man to make this weaving. Behind me is a quilt made made by woman from Alabama who uses the strip motif that was passed on from her ancestors. The exhibit was curated by a woman named Ma Guam and she lives in Florida and she's an expert in the field of African-American quilting and she arrived at that field because she began her studies at Yale back in the 70s in African textiles. And one of her professors challenge her to see if there was a link between African textiles and African-American quilting. And that began this big adventure where she went south and traveled around and finally wrote a book about it. So the exhibit has evolved out of that book the nation's strongest tradition of

African-American quilting survives today in the southern United States. These quilts are from Georgia Alabama and Mississippi. In the gallery which I'm in charge of we have the mission of educating in general about crafts and particularly Southern crafts so it certainly fits into that realm. And also we certainly have a reputation for showing quilts in a lot of visitors come to see quilts so that's a nice link also. But but the whole Southern tradition is actually our area too. And we have a nine state region which includes those states. Now this quilt is by Susie Ponce and she's from Alabama. And it's called green snake quilt and of course you can pick out the green flag. It's also a drunkard's path pattern again just like with in the other quilt. And it's an interpretation of that same pattern that also uses improvisation. It uses bright colors which are typical of African-American quilts. And

Susie learned a quote from her mother like many of the cultures in the show. And it has become an outlet for her an artistic outlet that has really developed and she's now collected by people and she's sort of famous in her own realm. She also did the quilt next to it. That is also a drunkard's path pattern. And so you see how she has varied the pattern again and the drunkards path is this weaving diagonal pattern and she has done this time she has put frames around it and repeated the pattern. But you can still see that she's put her own interpretation on it as compared to a lot of the quilts that were more familiar with that are very symmetrical and very patterned. The stories of the makers are is interesting to me as the quilts there are visually stimulating but the stories themselves of how these are made through the hardships of various And they're all made by women.

It's just a really fascinating thing to read about. So you get both hands if you enjoy art and you want to come see them for that reason or if you're a you enjoy reading and enjoy stories biographies. There's also that aspect of it in this exhibition honors the living quilt artist and promotes an act of art. African-American quilting is being recognized and celebrated through this exhibit partly to help in its preservation and its continued future. The African-American quilt exhibit is on display in the main gallery of the Folk Art Center through March 30th. The folk art center is located at milepost three eighty two of the Blue Ridge Parkway just north of the highway 70 entrance in East Asheville moving now from Asheville to Greensboro. Today the University of North Carolina at Greensboro celebrated the official opening of the Joseph M. Brian archives. Brian's legacy of philanthropy in our state continues even after his death on this 100 first anniversary of

his birth. He left a collection of personal and business papers along with other artifacts and memorabilia to U.N. S.G. that the university has put on display at the Walter Clinton Jackson library. Former Greensboro Mayor Jim Melvin says the gifts are indicative of Bryant's love for the city was so significant about Joe Bryant as of all of the all of the city's his community. In that time you can visit the Brian archives via the Internet you can see the Internet address there on your screen. And of course you can visit in person from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday at the Walter Clinton Jackson library on the campus of U.N. S.G.. Well that just wraps about up this Tuesday edition of North Carolina now. If you are interested in obtaining information regarding the Wall Street Wise newsletter featured in our interview segment you can

call 9 1 9 4 1 9 1 3 1 8. Tomorrow night we'll profile the long held tradition of sea chanties and the old time fishermen who sing them. Also tomorrow Shanon Vicary introduces us to a Winston-Salem artist who is capturing the nation's attention. Have a great evening we'll see you tomorrow night at it.